Better Off Red

Hello friends! I have so many pictures (and even swatches!) waiting to be published, I need to stop being such a bum! But I wanted to throw up a post with some of my fave red lip products, in response to this post on Jezebel. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a lovely lipstick, BUT I cannot wear Revlon lip products. I was reminded of this the hard way a few months ago when I wore Colorburst Lipstick in Candy Pink and Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry together for a few days. I got THE WORST case of blisterlips, aka had an allergic reaction. Not pleasant.

SO. The reds in my collection. For skin tone notes: I am ~NC20ish, fair f2 in smashbox high definition foundation, and I use Urban Decay's Halo tinted moisturizer. I would say I am pasty with beige/golden undertones, and while I have fairly pigmented lips, all the products swatched show up at least a little bit. Note the second: I left out anything I own that was LE and no longer available. In the title picture there's a MUFE gloss in red that doesn't appear to be available anymore, unless the Moulin Rouge Glossy Full Couleur is the same. Now, onto the makeup!


So this is (top to bottom) MAC Brave Red lipstick, Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain in 440, and Nars Shanghai Express. SE was my first RED lipstick but I actually never wear it because it's too dark, muddy and kind of chalky. The Outlast lipstain is hit or miss for me, but Brave Red is my go-to NUMBAH ONE red lipstick. It's cremesheen, so it's smooth, applies nice and opaque (but not heavy) and has a lovely sheen.


T-B: Cover Girl Natureluxe Gloss Balm in Anemone, Tarte Natural Lip Stain Pencil in Lust and Lipfusion gloss in Sexy. I bought the CG balm because I needed an spf lip product (it's only 15 but better than nothing) that wouldn't wash me out. It is a nice, light texture but I'm mostly indifferent to it. Now the Tart and the Lipfusion? LOVE. Tarte really gives your lips a shiny gloss and a "just ate a popsicle tint" and Lipfusion WORKS and is very shiny and the red shimmer makes your lips look cushy and so fine.


Top to bottom: Lipfusion again, Urban Decay 5150 lipstick and Lip Junkie in Red Light.
I wanted the 5150 to rep some red shimmer, it's a pinkish corally red with tons of white/pink microshimmer and is also fairly sheer. It's very pretty, and nice if you want something not so intense. But if intense is your game, you need some Red Light in your life friends. It is a crazy deep pink-toned red (but not too pink, it's supah red!) and oh so shiny and minty. I just love it, and it gets beaucoup compliments.

So my top recs:
Lipfusion gloss in Sexy
Tarte lip stain pencil in Lust
Urban Decay Lip Junkie in Red Light
MAC Brave Red Lipstick

What reds do you love? Do let me know in the comments!

love and cupcakes,
Ms Meghan

Urban Decay 24/7 Swatches

So right now, beauty mavens are in a shopping tizzy, thanks to Sephora’s Friends and Family sale: through November 2nd use code FF2009 for 20% off. Which is pretty freaking sweet (unless you have no money), but then Urban Decay dropped this little bombshell on twitter:



UD Friends and Family sale? Oh hell yes sign me up for THAT, especially since traditionally it is 30% off.

To prepare you all for this wondrous occasion, I decided to swatch the hell out of my UD 24/7 liners. I’ve accumulated quite a few of the liners since their launch and they are the bee’s knees. They are creamy and smooooooth upon application, making them perfect for lining. However, since they have such a wide range of shades with incredible color payoff, I have used them to make complete eye looks. Even better, once they set, they stay put even without the inclusion of the cult favorite Primer Potion. Now onto the swatches!

First and foremost the new super-stash gift set is crazy awesome and was the motivation behind this post. It contains nine 24/7 liners, with four shades exclusive to the set: Oil Slick (sparkly black), Corrupt (rich brown shimmer), Binge (navy shimmer), El Dorado (bright gold). It also contains five shades from the current line: Zero (black), Rockstar (deep eggplant shimmer), Stash (dark olive green shimmer), Ransom (bright purple shimmer w/ slight blue flash), Graffiti (bright grass green w/ silver sparkles).



1st row: Ransom, Rockstar, Binge, 2nd row: Corrupt, Zero, Oil Slick, 3rd row: Graffiti, Stash, El Dorado

My two complaints: the pencils are bite-sized, they are two thirds the size of the other gift set liners. I have already fallen in love with Oil Slick and El Dorado, and I expect to love Binge and Corrupt and this set is the only way they are available. This brings me to my second point: UD has given no indication that the exclusive shades will become part of the permanent line. However if the exclusive shades from the Book(s) of Shadows are any indication, they won’t be made permanent and that’s a shame.

With that out of the way, here are the rest of my 24/7 swatches, including comparison swatches of various shades.


Top row: Gunmetal (great for a fast smoky eye), Ransom
Bottom row: Yeyo, 1999 (looks so amazing with brown eyes)


Top row: Lucky (bright, brilliant copper, so perfect!), Covet
Bottom row: Baked, Electric (out of this world bright, the swatch is a little washed out)

Comparisons:


Oil Slick above Zero, Ransom (looking more blue than it actually is) above Lust, Rockstar above 1999


Graffiti above Covet, Corrupt above Bourbon, El Dorado above Baked.
Corrupt has a gold shimmer and is darker, while Bourbon is warmer and has a gold sparkle. Baked is bronze and El Dorado is gold, but I don’t have Honey to make a comparison.

So, there you have a rather exhaustive bit of swatching. I have quite a few UD eyeshadows (including a number of pallets and both Books of Shadows) so I suppose I could do that next if anyone is interested.

Love and cupcakes,
Ms Meghan