Swatchery Version 2.0!

Baby Lips! Here we go again!

I've been challenging myself to wear red lips this week, so I thought I'd go back to "Cherry Me", a color from the Baby Lips standing line.

Now, my husband and son have both said this was clearly red. I offered my son some once when he said his lips were dry, and he turned me down, because he didn't want red lips. I don't think it's all that. Check it out:

...that's not clearly, obviously red, right? Am I crazy?! I mean, it's redder then my natural lip, but not by a lot.

I've been known to recommend this particular color to people who wanted to learn to wear red lip color though. Red, without being RED, right? If you're a cherry chapstick sort, this is a nice way to ease in the direction of red.

I'm a bit of a packaging junkie, but I also appreciate that this is a bright, colorful package - orange with red letters - so it will stand out, wherever you are.

It doesn't break the proverbial mold as far as formula, or longevity is concerned, so just to give you the short strokes on that - nice formula, terrible longevity. Sometimes these come a little scented, this one wasn't. The scents are never overbearing. They're almost kind of fun - I routinely make the comparison that these are like lip smackers for adults, so they take you back a little bit. :)

Stay beautiful, everybody!

I literally can not stop purchasing Baby Lips. It's a real problem! But at least you get to see them on someone before you buy, right? Everybody wins!

Almay Knows Their Blues!

A few product beauty shots for your Thursday, since we've been out of touch for so long! :) It's not been that long, but it feels long. I love you guys!

Last week, I talked a little about Almay Shadow Softies. I counted it up, and realized I had eight of them. I don't have four posts worth of unique things to say about them, but I did want to show them all off. Especially these, because I think the colors are really unique. Almay does some great work with blue eye shadows in particular (someone on their color development team must be a fan!), they're always really unique.

These shadows are soft and gentle. If you want a nice, soft wash of color, you will get along nicely with these. They're an interesting texture - they're not as hard as a typical powder shadow, but they're not as soft as a cream? See what I mean? It's interesting. Don't let it scare you away though. Think of these as the special snowflakes in your makeup bag. ;)

Midnight Sky, a royal blue with a slight shimmer running through it, and Seafoam, a powder blue with a little shimmer of its own. Don't let the depth of that blue intimidate you, it's not nearly as pigmented as it looks like it would be - in fact, of all the colors I've tried in the line, it's one of my personal favorites!

Just for the sake of curiosity, I swatched both with primer and without, to see if it'd make any real difference. This is Midnight sky, the bottom streak is no primer, the top streak is with primer. Fergie for Wet N Wild's "Take On The Day" primer, which if you've been reading a while, you know I'm a big fan of. In this case, it made a little bit of difference, not a lot. This is in natural light, standing by the big window in my living room. I got a little excited yesterday - Michigan got its first sunshine in a while, and I thought I could go outside bare armed. I pretty quickly learned the error of my ways! 

This is Seafoam, and this is also where the benefit of primer becomes a little more obvious. Bottom is primer free, top is with primer. You kind of have to look a little to even tell that there's a bottom swatch, right? And while the top is still awfully delicate, it's much more easily defined.

With fair skin, blonde hair, and blue/green eyes, I'm probably the poster child for "Ooh, child, you should NOT be wearing blue eyeshadow!", but I can totally pull these off, and I love them a lot. You should give them a try!

See you later, beautiful!

Go, go, Electro!

(From left: Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, Oh! Orange!)

Maybelline Baby Lips and I have a weird relationship. Like, I don't want to admit that I like them...but I also own like 10 of them. So we've apparently got a better than average relationship with each other.

A friend noticed me carrying in my pocket, and asked what they were like, and if she could swatch it on her hand. I said she could, and I made a comparison that was probably more apt than I realized at the time, even. Without thinking, I went "They're like Lip Smackers, for grown ups!"

Think about it - I'm right! Tinted, but not overly so. Flavored, but not overly so. Mostly just a nice, low maintenance gloss, that looks flashy coming out of your pocket, and has completely worn off in about an hour.

Now to be fair, that makes it sounds like I don't like these at all. And I do. Gives a quick, easy, glossy lip. Little color - the color varies a little. Like, in this electro set, the pink and orange have more pigment to them than the green color does. Which might not be what everyone is after, some people would happily rock a neon green gloss all day long. It's not my scene though. :D

I wore this pink a lot over the summer. Bright and kicky, looked nice with a tan.

If you're looking for a low maintence, glossy little kick, that's easy to carry in any pocket or bag that you've got, you'll like these. The biggest critique I see of these is that they're not long lasting - if you're looking for long lasting...keep looking, you haven't found it.

A few swatches;

On the inside of my arm:

Each color, of course, is next to it's respective swatch on my arm, of course. Little bit of pigment - some, not a lot.

Swatches of me in each respective balm. In a moment of girlish insecurity, I had planned to crop these pictures - apparently, new face wash, new primer, new foundation and new makeup brushes make your makeup get weird. Who knew, amirite? But turns out, crops...magnify things. And far away bad things are less awful than close up bad things, as a general rule. See what I mean? Learning new things about blogging every week!

A collage, so I'm not boring you with piles of pictures I've already confessed to not liking. And I'm sure they're just fine, we all know full well we're our own worst critics, but just the same.

At any rate, that's me, from left to right, in Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, and Oh! Orange! Each tinted, glossy, nice. Wears well, but not for a long time - which most of their critics are quick to point out. You know what I think I might like most about these? Coming it at an average price point of $3, they're great for when you need that "new makeup" fix, or your look needs a little pick me up, but don't have a lot of money to spend. Maybe that's part of the friendship we've developed. 

Some stores are closing out their Electro colors, so if you're intrigued enough to try any of these for yourself, you might want to act fast!

The eyeshadow, by the by, is from the Wet N Wild "Comfort Zone" 8 pan shadow kit, which is so awesome, it practically deserves a blog of it's very own.

Like Maybelline? Me too! I talk about it all the time!