Tag: Velvet

Review – Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipsticks

Hello everyone! I’m so sorry I’ve been away for so long. It’s currently exam season and with it being my final year of law school, the stress levels are pretty damn high. But I have a bit of a break until my next exam so I thought I’d sit down and write a blog post.

So recently Superdrug was having a 3 for 2 sale on all Bourjois Paris products and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to pick up a few of their liquid lipsticks. The Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks are NOT new releases. They’ve actually been around for a while and have a serious cult following in the UK bloggersphere (yes apparently this IS an actual term). The reason why I haven’t picked them up until recently was because none of the colours in the original release caught my fancy. Although there were like 8 shades in the initial release, they were mostly pinks and reds. Pink has never been a colour I reach for and the reds were just a tad too bright. However, the good news is that Bourjois have been extending the shade ranges and there is much larger variety of tones to pick from.

In the end I picked the colours: 12 Beau Brun, 14 Plum Plum Girl and 17 Cool Brown. Let me tell you now: NONE of the colours are what I expected them to be. I expected Beau Brun to be a neutral, dusky rose colour but it turned out to be a WAY more warm and pink. I expected Plum Plum Girl to be a deep violet colour but it’s actually quite a bit lighter – like a mid-toned berry shade. Cool Brown is the biggest deceiver of them all though. I expected this to be a light neutral brown-toned nude. It’s not. It’s EXTREMELY light (light enough that on it’s own it looks like concealer lips *shudders*) and not brown-toned in the slightest. It’s more of a neutral pink. But n top of a brown liner, this shade becomes a perfect nude shade on me. Despite the extremely misleading names, I ended up quite liking the shades. Everyone loves pleasant surprises. It has a simple doe-foot applicator.

Now on to the actual formula. First thing that I noticed was that these have the most awful smell. I’m NOT particularly sensitive to smells, so for me to say that the smell is bad is pretty incriminating. The closest thing I can compare it to is the scent of stale play-dough. Like stuff that’s been left on a windowsill and has dried to point where it’s rock solid and it gives off that weird smell of burnt plastic. So although you might not be able to relate to this SPECIFIC scent, what I’m essentially saying is that it’s pretty bad. It’s not the best when you’re applying it on your lips RIGHT UNDER your nose, but the good news is that once it sets you no longer smell it. Upon application, the formula is very very thick – almost moussey in texture. It’s very comfortable to wear throughout the day. It feels very smooth on the lips when you apply it and it sets to a nice matte finish. It doesn’t feel moisturising per-se, but it’s not drying on the lips AT ALL. It’s very comfortable to wear and it does seem to last quite well. I can wear this for about 5 hours before it starts to crack and fade on my lips, providing I don’t do any serious eating.

Here are swatches of the lipsticks when applied and when dried:

However there are a few more downsides to these liquid lipsticks. One of these is that it takes FOREVER to dry. Like, literally forever. I had to wait around 45 minutes for Plum Plum Girl to dry on me before I felt like it was safe to put my mouth anywhere near anything. But this may relate to the fact that I had on two layers of Plum Plum Girl on. This relates to another downside. The level of pigmentation REALLY varies between the shades. Beau Brun is absolutely fine and the pigmentation is great and only requires one layer for full opacity. Cool Brown wasn’t AS pigmented but this may be to do with the fact that it is an extremely pale nude shade and the fact that my lips are already quite naturally pigmented. Plum Plum Girl is the WORST out of the three when it comes to pigmentation. One layer goes on quite patchy and still shows your natural lip colour, so another layer is needed to make the colour more opaque.

So overall, these are OKAY products. I personally do NOT believe that the hype about these liquid lipsticks is justified, but they’re not awful. I ended up liking the colours that I got so I’ll probably use them again. However, it’s unlikely that I will purchase any more shades.

Here’s a picture of me wearing Beau Brun:

Until next time my loves,

Cephy xx

Review – Primark PS Velvet Matte Lipstick Crayons

Hello darlings! So a few weeks ago I was browsing the ‘gram and I came across a post on @ummbaby’s page of two lipliners and two lipstick crayons from Primark. It genuinely took a minute for that information to sink into my head…

I haven’t actually been into the beauty section of Primark in years and from what I remember they had some decent brushes and lashes, but their actual makeup was pretty non-descript and cheap looking. It looked more like the “play makeup” sets you can buy in toy shops for little girls. You know, the ones which consist of glittery petroleum jelly and coloured talcum powder in heart and flower shapes. So I never bought anything from the Primark beauty range then because none of it looked like it would be amazing (plus everything was always opened anyway). BUT after seeing this post, I did some research and HOLY CRAP – Primark have upped their makeup game. They now have a proper beauty range called P.S. Love and the collection of products they have to offer is quite extensive. And it looks SO much better. The packaging is quite sturdy and the general aesthetic is very reminiscent to brands you would find in the drugstore. And it’s ridiculously good value, as is expected by Primark. But anyway onto the actual review:

Now there’s a very specific reason as to why I wanted to get the Velvet Matte Lipstick Crayons so badly. Basically, it was because I REALLY liked the MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils – but I just couldn’t justify spending £17.50 for one. I just couldn’t do it. So I made it my personal mission to find a cheap alternative so I wouldn’t feel like I had totally missed out. So of COURSE I had to pick these up. I mean at £2 a pop, even if they ended up being absolutely awful, at least I hadn’t spent/wasted a huge amount of money. But you know what?

THEY’RE AMAZING.

Seriously guys, I fell in love with these lipsticks faster than I did with my boyfriend.

Firstly, they had a fairly good shade range. I saw about six different colours in store, but I’m not sure if there are more online. I ended up getting two shades in: ‘Brown’ (because I’m physically incapable of passing up a brown lipstick) and ‘Purple’. Brown is quite dark and actually has a strong red undertone, so it looks like a deep, warm red on MY skin tone. Purple is a simple, bright berry purple – but it packs a punch on the lips. It’s actually the first lipstick I’ve ever had of this colour and I actually quite like how it looks on me. Both shades are VERY pigmented. One layer of this lipstick is enough to give you full opacity.

The finish is not a flat matte like you would get with a liquid lipstick. These have a gorgeous velvet matte finish (as the name suggests) which is a similar finish to the MAC matte lipsticks. Of course these won’t be the EXACT same formula as the MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils. It’s like a 6th of the price, so naturally the ingredients won’t be the same quality. Indeed, the latter has a creamier texture which is indicative of the more expensive silicones whereas the Primark dupes have a waxier kind of formula. That does mean that the application of the MAC ones IS smoother, but that’s NOT to say that the Primark lipsticks are difficult to apply. Because they’re not. They go on very easily. However I would recommend that your lips be exfoliated and moisturised beforehand because this lipstick can sometimes emphasise really dry areas.

Because I didn’t get the MAC Velvetease Pencil I can’t speak for its longevity and comfort of wear, but I CAN speak for the Primark crayons. These babies last a LONG time. Providing I don’t eat anything too greasy, the colour can last on my lips up to FIVE hours before it starts to fade. That’s pretty darn good for a £2 lipstick. These are also very easy to re-apply – you can just put a new layer on top of an old one without it looking weird – which makes it perfect to chuck in the bag so that you can touch-up your lip colour as the day goes on. It’s quite comfortable to wear for the first few hours or so, but these CAN be slightly drying if you’ve been wearing them for a long time. I noticed dryness on my bottom lip after wearing this for 7+ hours. But that, at least to me, is a minor con in comparison to all the pros and good points that this lipstick brings to the table.

I honestly hope Primark extend the shade range because I want to buy them ALL. No joke. And for £2 each, it won’t break my bank even if I did. So if you’re looking for a dupe for the MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils or even the NARS Matte Lip Pencils, then you should definitely try these out.

Here’s two pictures of me using the both shades (Top: Purple – Bottom: Brown) =

Until next time my loves,

Cephy xx

Shop the Primark beauty range here

Review and Swatches – I Heart Makeup Black Velvet Palette

Makeup Revolution is slowly becoming one of my favourite drugstore brands EVER. Yes, I really said that.

I’m also falling in love with their sister brands (brands that MUR own and produce products for) which are I Heart Makeup and Freedom Makeup. I think the marketing difference between these three brands is that I Heart Makeup is targeted more towards a younger demographic with lots of cute and quirky packaging, whilst Freedom Makeup is targeted more towards makeup artists another professional cosmeticians and Makeup Revolution is the general, all-rounder brand. However, the high quality and the affordability of the products run right across the board.

One of the products I love the MOST from the MUR empire are the eyeshadow palettes. They’re very affordable and I love that they do dupe palettes for some well-known and more expensive palettes (Like the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palettes, Urban Decay Naked palettes and the Lorac Pro palettes).

The one that I am reviewing today is the Black Velvet palette which is from the I Heart Makeup line.

As far as I know, this isn’t supposed to be a dupe for any high end palettes but when I look at it, I see a few colours similar to the ones in theBalm Meet Matt(e) Nude eyeshadow palette. This costs £7.99 and you get 16 shades. I have to admit I’m not a HUGE fan of the packaging. The top is covered in layer of synthetic black ‘velvet’ and in the middle there’s this black, 3D heart made from plastic. In my personal opinion, the plastic heart makes it look a bit childish. I would have much preferred it if they had just left it covered in the velvet material which would have been more chic. But like they say, it’s what is on the INSIDE that matters. The palette comes with a great sized mirror on the inside of the lid, a double-ended sponge applicator and a plastic sheet which lists all the names of the shadows.

I would say that overall, there is a neutral colour scheme, BUT I would say that the left half of the palette has slightly warmer tones whilst the right half houses cooler shades. There are 13 matte eyeshadows and 3 shimmer eyeshadows. The formulation of these are VERY good. I was seriously impressed. The eyeshadows are smooth and blendable. They aren’t chalky (even the lighter shades) and they have GREAT pigmentation (especially the shimmers in this palette – I couldn’t believe how pigmented they were and how well they translated in the swatch). The only problem I had was with one of the darkest shades in the palette (Velvet). It wasn’t as pigmented as the others and came across as a grey rather than a deep grey (verging on black). It’s the only colour I found myself having to build up to make it look like it’s colour in the pan. Apart from that, all the eyeshadows swatched VERY well.

Overall, I’m more than happy with this purchase. It’s such good value for your money. I can definitely see myself doing quite a few different eye looks with this palette alone, so it’s definitely one I would bring on holiday with me.

Here are the swatches of the eyeshadows in this palette:

(Top Row L-R: True, Want, Long (shimmer), Feel (shimmer), Black)