Swatchfest: My Colourpop Lippie Stix Collection

When I went to the States in October, I picked up a whole load of Colourpop makeup. I reeeeeaaally wish they would start shipping to the UK, because I enjoy almost all the makeup I purchased from them. I don't have any of their liquid lipsticks at the moment, but I have just asked a friend to order me two of the Ultra Satins. For now, here's a quick swatch of all the Lippie Stix I currently own.

The top picture in each of these was taken on the same day with flash.

Tootsie

Colourpop Tootsie

I am not a wearer of neutral lipstick as a general rule, but Tootsie is probably my favourite Colourpop shade so far. I like that it's sort of a grey-beige. If I'm in a hurry and don't have time to select a shade, it goes with basically everything. I will be very sad when I run out.

Colourpop Tootsie

Wifey

Colourpop Wifey

I bought Wifey because it looked like a bright purple on the website, and perhaps it would lean more purple on someone who isn't the colour of milk. On me, it's a blinding pink. I think I've worn this twice on its own, because I am so not a pink lipstick person. However, the formula is really nice, and I like using this with really dark purples to make a nice ombre lip.

Colourpop Wifey

Leather

Colourpop Leather

I bought Leather because purple, and it is a really lovely colour. However, the formula for this specific colour is not so great. It goes on fairly patchy and seems to slide around on my lips. I can make it work with lip liner and a bit of finagling, but I feel that shouldn't need to be the case.

Brills

Colourpop Brills

Brills is a very light pinky-lavender. On me, it's mostly lavender. This is another one where the formula seems too slippery. However, since it's such a light colour, it doesn't show up patchy. It's very comfortable on the lips and is another colour that I often use for making ombre lips.

Fern

Colourpop Fern

Oh look, another purple. I can't help it. I just love purple lipstick. Fern is the only Lippie Stix that I also bought the matching lip liner for, but I never use the liner with it because it doesn't need it. I do use the liner with Leather or Brills, because it works really well with both of those. Fern is probably the colour I wear most often after Tootsie. It's just the perfect, easy purple for me. It's a little more glossy than I would prefer, but I still wear it at least once a week.

Colourpop Fern

Grind

Colourpop Grind

Grind is the perfect warm-toned purple. No issues with the formula and it isn't drying. I wear this one frequently and love it.


Flawless

Colourpop Flawless

Flawless is a very nice, deep berry shade. The formula is great and it dries almost matte after a few minutes on the lips.

Colourpop Flawless

Wet

Colourpop Wet

Wet is pewter grey with sort of an olive undertone. This one has issues with formula as it likes to slide around. It tends to go on patchy, so I generally have to put it on, blot well, and then do another layer. However, the colour is so great that I don't mind having to finesse it a bit. It is very glossy leaning toward metallic.

Bossy

Colourpop Bossy

Bossy is an absolutely lovely warm-toned red. The formula is great and the look is classic.

Colourpop Bossy

Blood

Colourpop Blood

As beautiful as Bossy is, it doesn't hold a candle to Colourpop Blood, at least for me. This is the perfect blue-based red. This is vampire lipstick and I wear it aaaalll the time. 

Feminist

Colourpop Feminist

This is a purple so deep it's almost black. The formula is fabulous, not patchy or too slippery. I can put this on and reliably get at least 4 hours of wear before I need to retouch. One of my absolute favourites. 

Colourpop Feminist

Corset

Colourpop Corset

And lastly, Corset is another colour that looked more purple on the website than it tends to on my face. This is a fairly light purple/pink that can go either way depending on the the rest of my makeup. The picture above, with really neutral eyes, looks purple, but the picture below, with warm red eye makeup, looks very light pink. Either way, this is a very nice colour, and one of the few "pinks" that I don't mind on myself. 

Colourpop Corset

So, that's the entirety of my Colourpop Lippie Stix collection. Even with the few...disappointing shades, I still really like these. And at $5 US, they are definitely worth checking out. Now if only they would ship to where I live!

30 Days of Lipstick Wrap Up

I did it. I managed to finish 30 (almost) consecutive days of makeup and photos. They were almost consecutive instead of actually consecutive because the final day went up two days after it should have due to the worst migraine I've had in several years. BUT, I'm counting it anyway. I'll be posting a mini review of each lipstick, as well as links to where you can find them so if you'd like to see that, please follow me through the jump!

30 Day Lipstick Challenge: Days 2-4

I almost didn't make it to day two of this challenge because I woke up on the second day feeling absolutely rubbish. In fact, I think I slept from two a.m. Thursday to six p.m. Friday. Sometimes I just can't wake up, which is no good because I had a lot of things I wanted to do and couldn't do any of them by the time I woke up. But, I did manage to at least put some lipstick on and take a picture. It's not a great picture and I am clearly only wearing lipstick, but technically it counts.

I really like the way this looks right after I put it on, but it has a weird thickness and if you rub your lips together or anything, it moves the product around and looks patchy. However, this does leave a stain that is really pretty, so usually I put it on and leave it to set for a few minutes, then wipe it off and wear it as a stain all day. The fragrance is really strongly minty, which I like. I just wish I could wear it like it looks in the picture here all day. The stain is a few shades lighter.

Day 3, I actually felt capable of human being status, so I did a full face and wore my OCC Pagan. This might be my absolute favourite purple, which is saying something because I collect purple lipstick like a magpie hordes shiny things.

I know a lot of people find Lip Tars difficult to use, but I love them. I've ordered some empty doe-foot gloss containers that I'm going to decant all of my Lip Tars into so they can be easier to use when I'm out of the house. Usually though, I put one layer of Lip Tar on with clear liner (I use the Rimmel Moisture Renew Universal Transparent Lip Liner because it does what it's supposed to and doesn't cost the world), blot, and do one more layer which lasts me at least until I eat something. Most of the time, I don't even need to reapply after eating, but with a colour this dark I do. 

Day 4 and what do you know? ANOTHER PURPLE LIPSTICK. I know, I know. I promise, at least one of these times, I will wear a different colour. OR maybe I should see if I can do the entire 30 days only wearing purples. I probably do have enough to do that with no repeats. Clearly, I've used my time on this earth wisely. This day is Milani Violet Volt, which I only picked up last month because it was £3.94 as an Amazon add-on item. 

This is the only Milani product that I currently own, but after trying it I am really looking forward to purchasing some more lipsticks. The formula of this is really creamy and goes on perfectly in one swipe. I find it lasts a really long time before I need to reapply, at least 5 hours. What doesn't seem to show up in the pictures is that the finish has that opalescent, oil puddle sort of gleam to it. It's not shiny but it looks like the inside of an abolone, all mother of pearl. This colour is really similar to Kat von D's Wonderchilde, which I also have. The only downside I can see to this might be the smell, which is very strong watermelon. I really like the scent, but I know some people don't like their lip products to be scented. It does seem to fade away after about 20 minutes or so. 

Now that I'm thinking about it, my next post I will do a side-by-side comparison of Wonderchilde and Violet Volt, so please check back for that!

30 Days of Lipstick Challenge

Since I'm rubbish at posting, apparently, I've decided to take on the 30 Days of Lipstick challenge. I figure it's good to have goals and taking at least one picture of my lipstick for 30 days is something I can probably do.

I'm sorry about the lack of posting recently. This year has been really difficult mental-health-wise. I haven't managed to get my bipolar disorder under control since coming off the medicine I was taking before and during recovery for my back surgery. It also doesn't help that it's at least a 6 month wait to see a psychiatrist, and that's after you manage to get your GP to refer you. Anyway, enough of that.

Day 1: NYX Matte Lip Creme in Prague

This is the first Nyx Matte Lip Creme I've purchased and I really like the formula. I don't find it as uncomfortable of some of my other matte lip products and the colour is lovely. I really want Transylvania and Sydney, but I'm trying not to buy so much makeup. The fact that I have enough lipstick to do the 30 day challenge with no repeats should tell me that I have enough. BUT NO.

Also, please excuse my face in these pictures. I am wearing about a kilo of concealer because I had a massive panic attack yesterday and all the blood vessels in the right side of my face from the nose up burst. So, that was fun.

See you tomorrow!

Swatch and Review: Sleek Lip4 Mardi Gras

Because I have a deep and abiding need to have all the purple cosmetics in the world, I picked up the Sleek 4 lipstick palette in Mardi Gras. This is a limited edition, online only palette that can be purchased from Sleek's shop for £8.99. I mainly wanted it for the really stunning-looking electric purple shade.

Swatches and a review after the jump!

Swatch and Review: Sugarpill Cold Chemistry Palette

Speaking of chemistry, I've been binge watching The L Word on Netflix. It's not even good, really, but I can put it on while I'm doing things that require thinking as I don't find it too distracting. Except for all the Shane. Oh my glob, SHANE. I know, so predictable as everyone in the entire world has had a crush on Shane. Half the time I don't know whether I want to be her or well, you know, be with her. And Alice, too, at least for the first two series.


Buuut that's not what we're here to discuss, because Sugarpill's Cold Chemistry palette is the star of this show (holy balls that was cheesy). 

Review and swatches behind the jump!

Look: Killing Joke

As I mentioned in a previous post, I haven't been into makeup for too awfully long. Don't get me wrong, I've been wearing makeup for years, but just so I didn't look like the Beast What Came From Beneath! And not as a thing that was fun to do. I had my 3-4 eyeshadows(and I was damn good with those specific shades), my one eyeliner, and maybe some tinted moisturiser and powder. But it wasn't something I really used as a thing I liked to do. It was a chore. As in, have to put my face on or else the villagers will be after me with torches again. I had my slighlty gothy/slightly punk look down and that was it. I didn't need anything else, I thought. Why fix what wasn't broken? But that was before my back issues all but immobilised me.

I wasn't raised around makeup. My mum never, ever wore it, not even for special occasions. I don't think she owns a lipstick or a tube of concealer to this day. And that's fine, she's happy that way. But, it means that when I started poking at makeup in my first year of uni, I had had no one to teach me the basics. So, I had a brief but torrid affair with spidery eyelashes, super-thick and poorly done black eyeliner, and black eyeshadow that was never blended out. I didn't realise how awful I looked until I saw end of term photos of myself about four years too late. After that, I didn't bother with my face past skin care and the occasional dress-up-for-photos event for an embarrassingly long time. I picked it up again when a friend dragged me to the Mac shop and I realised I could actually do the goth thing and not look awful, for which I bought the above mentioned complimentary set of shadows.

Anyway, that's all one loooong run-up to explain that in the past five months, I've had time to in spades. Since I often have difficulty moving, most of my old pastimes like sewing and running, are out of the question. I have plenty of time, however, to watch ALL THE YOUTUBE. Seriously, Youtube beauty videos have been my personal crash course in the wonderful and versatile art of slap, and there are videos for everything. I've watched them all. Twice.

Even with my own private tutors, I still manage to bollock everything up frequently. It's rare that I put together a look that I like 100%. So before I get into posting all the real horrorshow things I've done on my face, here is what I think is probably my current personal best:

Of course it would be Joker themed.

I know this looks super simple to all you beauty gurus out there, but it's amazing how often I manage to screw up at least one component of my face.

Eyes:

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Too Faced Pin-Up on brow bone 

Sugarpill Absinthe from just above crease to just below

Sugarpill Midore all over lid
Too Faced Lucky Charms on outer v, blended out
Urban Decay Psychedelic Sister 24/7 Glide On liner under eye
Yaby Purple Iris smudge over Psychedelic Sister
Avon SuperShock Gel Liner in Black on lid and waterline, smudged down
Sugarpill Lumi as inner corner highlight

Face:
Bourjois Mineral Matte Mousse in Tendre Ivoire
Too Faced Papa Don't Peach blush
BeautyUk Baked Blush in Halo as highlight
MakeUpAcademy Mosaic Bronzer as contour colour

Eyebrows:
MakeUpAcademy Undress Me palette shade 08

So, that's a look I'm completely happy with for once. Now take a deep breath because that probably won't happen again for a while.

*Disclaimer: All items mentioned in this post were purchased by me with my own money. I have not been compensated in anyway for this post.