Rimmel London Apocalips - review and swatches

I almost missed these suckers on the way out of Superdrug, and what a tragedy that would be!

I believe these aren't out in the states yet, but lucky for me, I was able to snag them while abroad in the UK! And trust me, I am definitely glad that I did. These are described as "lip lacquers" by Rimmel and combine the pigment of a lipstick with the shine of a lip gloss - or at least, that's what Rimmel claims.

Do they live up to the hype?

The swatches say yes! The two shades that I picked up are Luna, a bright pinky-peach shade, and Stellar, a neon red-pink that's much brighter than it appears in the swatch! I only need a little dab to cover my whole lips, similar to the OCC Lip Tars. They're actually so pigmented that it can be hard to apply them using the wand - I normally dab a little onto my lips and then use my fingers or a lip brush to fill in my lips. Because these stay glossy instead of drying down like a matte lip product would, they don't feel drying on my lips, and the color lasts for several hours on me before I have to reapply. And they smell amazing - like watermelon Jolly Ranchers!

Here's a swatch of Stellar on my lips - it's gonna be a fabulous color for summer! The one negative that I've found about these products is that they may settle into your lip lines, so be sure to moisturize with lip balm before applying!

Rating: 4.5/5 - these are a fantastic product and I'm already itching to go back out and buy more colors!

XOXO,

Ally

Wet 'n' Wild Shimmer the Night Away (Holiday Limited Edition) - Review & Swatches

Wet 'n' Wild has stolen my heart with their incredible eyeshadows and super low prices, and they're always at the top of my list when I'm checking out drugstores. So of course, I was going out of my way to search for these limited edition holiday palettes when I first heard about them online. The collection is called Where's the Party? and features three palettes: Drinking a Glass of Shine, which is a re-release of the I <3 Matte palette, Sparkle 'til Morning, which is mostly neutral shades with a pop of blue, and Shimmer the Night Away, the one that I picked up, which is blacks and silvers along with purple and blue shades. Shimmer the Night Away seems similar to Petal Pusher, but the two are definitely not identical. Shimmer the Night Away had more black, silver, and blue shades, while Petal Pusher has more light purples and pinks in it.

Each shade in this palette is marked with the area of the eye that it should be used in - each side contains a browbone, lid, crease, and definer color. Of course, this doesn't mean that you have to use these colors in the way that they specify, but if you're just starting out with makeup it may help you learn where to apply certain shades.

The left side of the palette contains a shimmery white highlight shade, a silver lid shade, a shimmery black color for the crease, and a black shadow with glitter for the definer shade. All four of these colors swatched really vibrantly on bare skin, and were super pigmented. The two blacks were rather similar so I don't quite understand why they both needed to be included in here; the crease shade is a little lighter and more shimmery than the definer shade, but I would have liked to see a gray or another type of color instead of two blacks.

On the right side, the highlighter shade is a light dusty pink color, the lid shade is a gorgeous magenta with purple shimmer, the crease color is a lilac shade with a slight shimmer, and the definer shade is a really pretty rich blue shade. The highlighter shade seemed to be the least pigmented, although that might not be a problem if you're looking for a light browbone application. I really liked the bright pink/purple lid shade - it reminded me of MAC's Stars 'n' Rockets or Urban Decay's Fishnet.

I used a few of the shadows to do a smokey purple and blue eye look - the colors blend really well and last a long time, and were super smooth as well. I honestly didn't have an issue with any of the shades, and for only a few bucks at the drugstore, this palette (like most of the other Wet 'n' Wild eyeshadow palettes) is definitely worth a shot. Makeup beginners in particular may appreciate this palette because you're getting nice quality shadows for a bargain price.

If you like purples, blues, and smokey eye looks, this is a must-have! You can create an endless amount of looks from this one palette, or you could use the pigmented black shade to darken up any eye look, or the bright blue to add a pop of color to a more neutral look. This one was definitely a hit for Wet 'n' Wild!

Rating: 5/5

XOXO, Ally

MAC Viva Glam Nicki Minaj - Review & Swatches

I'm not even gonna try and build up the suspense here guys - I am IN LOVE with this lipstick! If I were designing a shade of lipstick it would be exactly this color, and as soon as I saw pictures online I knew I had to have it. And there's also the fact that I love Nicki Minaj...

This lipstick is $14.50 from MAC, and 100% of the proceeds go to the company's AIDS fund - so you can buy makeup and feel good about raising HIV/AIDS awareness, too! Plus, how awesome is it that MAC actually donates 100% of the sales to charity - so often you see brands donating 5% or 10% from the sale of a certain item to charity, and while a donation is always good, no matter the amount, it's nice to see brands donating more...I mean, they definitely can afford it!

Viva Glam Nicki

Viva Glam Nicki

Anyway, Nicki's lipstick shade is a bright pink with a slight yellow undertone - it's definitely a warmer-toned pink, which is part of the reason I love it. It's a satin finish and feels really smooth and creamy on the lips; the only issue I can think of with this lipstick is that you made need several layers if you have very pigmented lips, but that's probably the case with most lipsticks (I have pretty pigmented natural lips, so I always have to be careful with my lipstick application)!

Viva Glam Nicki

This shade is definitely a hit for me, and the fact that I'm contributing to a good cause by buying it basically makes it irresistible!


Rating: 10/10 - yup, I adore this lipstick!

XOXO, Ally

Review & Swatches - New CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 4 Kit Shadows

Hello hello again! Have you guys seen these new quads from CoverGirl? The packaging has been totally revamped, and I think the new gray packaging looks so much sleeker than the old blue packaging. I only have one CoverGirl quad in the old packaging, and I've had it for ages - I bought it back in high school when I first started wearing makeup and as obsessed with bright shadows. I like it, but I never felt like the pigmentation or texture was anything impressive.

Super old and super dirty!

 CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 4 Kit Shadows in Tropical Fusion - old packaging

Shiny and new!

CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 4 Kit Shadows in Sugar Coated - cool new packaging!

I saw this quad in Sugar Coated and the deep, peacocky colors just called to me! I like the combination of neutral and more colorful shades, and I like that you get a quad that consists of mostly darker shades - it seems that palettes these days seem to lean towards the "full eye look," where you get a lid, crease, and brow shade, but I actually like palettes with shades that don't always work together. I feel like it forces me to be more creative with my makeup. Anyway...

Shiny and new!

CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 4 Kit Shadows in Prima Donna

This quad has some gorgeous neutral colors in it, and I think you could definitely use all four shades to do a complete look. Prima Donna is probably a little more "wearable," if you will, than Sugar Coated, although personally I'd use both these quads in an everyday look.

Sugar Coated

Prima Donna

I swatched these shadows on bare skin without primer, and I wasn't necessarily blown away. I never actually wear shadows without primer but in order for me to consider an eye shadow outstanding, I think it does need to be able to perform spectacularly on its own, and these just don't. They're not bad shadows by any means, especially in terms of pigmentation, and considering the fact that they're at a drugstore price, there's no reason not to pick up one or two if you happen to fall in love with certain shades. But I wouldn't say that the gold is the best gold I've ever used, or that the blue is the best blue I've ever used.

I think these shadows would work best as a wash of color over the whole lid - some of the shades are actually pretty shimmery and mulch-dimensional, so they give you a nice look without needing to use a ton of different colors. When I blended these shadows out with other shades they lost a little bit of their pigmentation and became a little too blended, to the point where it was hard to distinguish individual shades. So keep in mind that you'll need to pack on a lot of color with these, or you'll risk blending them away completely.

My consensus on these is that they're nice, but nothing spectacular. The new packaging is probably the most exciting part of these new CoverGirl quads, the rest of the quality is just average.

Rating: 7/10 - pretty average all around.

Until next time!

XOXO, Ally

Revlon Lip Butters - Review and Swatches!

Hey everyone! So for the past week or so I've been slowly but surely collecting an array of different shades of Revlon's new Lip Butters. It seems like every store I went to was almost totally cleaned out, so I had to drive all over my town just to find the shades I wanted, and there are still a few more that I'd love to own (like Gumball - lilac? Yes please!) Anyway, I wanted to review and swatch the shades that I do have at the moment, especially because a couple of these belong to my mom and my sister, and I didn't think they'd appreciate them being exiled to my "waiting to be reviewed" pile.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger!

So the shades that I have are (from left to right):

• 025 Peach Parfait - a shimmery peachy shade
• 001 Pink Truffle - a light brown-ish pink
• 050 Berry Smoothie - a lighter raspberry color
• 075 Lollipop - a really bright fuchsia shade
• 035 Candy Apple - a bright red
• 040 Red Velvet - a dark red

As you can see, the shades are really pigmented, like a cross between a tinted lip balm and an actual lipstick. These have a lot of shine to them, and feel nice and moisturizing on the lips. On me, they don't wear as long as a regular lipstick, but I still get a few solid hours and they definitely wear longer than a lip balm would. I like that you can get sheer color as well as really opaque color when using these, depending on how much you apply.

The packaging on these is really nice, and I like how you can easily tell the shades apart, in case you have a big collection of them and are trying to grab the right one. And something about the metal packaging on the inside feels really sleek and high-end.

(I know these lip swatches are a little sloppy - I was a bit under the weather when I swatched them, and you can definitely see that I wasn't really feeling it. But seeing the shades is the most important part, right?)

You can really see the shine in these lip swatches - it's not as much as you would get with a gloss, but these are definitely nowhere near matte!

Rating: 5/5
These are just as good as a regular lipstick, but are super moisturizing and creamy. I really don't have any complaints!

XOXO, Ally

Almay Intense i-Color Trio For Browns - Review & Swatches

Normally I don't pay much attention to makeup that's designated for certain eye colors. After all, if everyone only wore shades that were pre-approved for their eye color, the world of makeup would be a very boring one indeed.

That being said, when I spot an eye trio for 75% off that promises to enhance brown eyes, what do I really have to lose?

The Almay Intense i-Color Trio For Browns contains three absolutely beautiful shades that promise to enhance the appearance of brown eyes. It also explains how to apply the shades on the back (top shade on lid, middle shade in crease, bottom shade to highlight - pretty basic, but definitely useful if you're a beginner). I don't really understand why the highlight shade is twice as large as the other two; I don't think I used more of the highlighter than the other two when I applied this shadow, but maybe most people do?

The three shadows included in this trio are a pinky-brown with gold shimmer, a dark brown that looks almost plum-y, and a shimmery cream with a bit of light lilac shimmer. They have decent pigmentation, nothing spectacular, and I definitely would recommend a primer to get the most out of these shadows. The colors all look amazing when applied, and while I honestly can't tell if they make my brown eyes pop any more than normal, I do think the colors look really nice on me.

The problem is that after wearing these all day, the colors tend to fade and blend together and just look muddy. So while they look beautiful right after application, they don't stay beautiful. It's a shame, because I really liked the shadows in this trio and they look fantastic together. Maybe this will work better for you, but for me it was just average. This trio isn't a complete waste, and I've found that using shadows from other brands along with using shadows from this trio together helps the Almay shadows to wear a little longer. But it's no holy grail product for us brown-eyed ladies, that's for sure.

Rating: 2.5/5
This palette has beautiful colors, but the formula is lacking and the shadows don't wear as well as they should.

Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Review (and...swatches?)

Maybelline Great Lash was probably one of the first mascaras that I used, back in 7th or 8th grade when I started wearing makeup. But even though the pink and green packaging is the cutest thing ever, I eventually realized that I really was not a fan of the actual product. The formula was always kinda wet and clumpy for me, and it just made my lashes look spidery. So when Maybelline came out with the new Great Lashes Lots of Lashes mascara, I wasn't sure if I wanted to give the product a second chance.

Eventually I was tempted with a $1 off coupon that kept popping up in my Facebook ads, and I picked up the Maybelline Great Lash mascara in Blackest Black. The packaging is as cute as ever, and I really liked the heart-shape theme that was carried throughout this product (there are hearts on the packaging and the brush is described as "heart-shaped"). Also, the fact that the acronym for the product name is "LOL"...my inner geek thinks that's hilarious and actually really adorable.

Bare lashes without mascara

Lashes with one coat of Maybelline Great Lash Lots of Lashes Mascara

The actual product is...ok. I like to build my mascara gradually but if you apply more than a few coats of this it can get pretty clumpy. I also prefer thicker, drier mascara formulas, and Great Lash can be rather watery. I like how it looks on my bottom lashes, but it didn't impress me on the top lashes. I actually do like the brush, although you have to turn your hand around to do your other eye in order to get the same effect, which is something I don't normally do. I'm currently carrying this mascara in my makeup bag for touch-ups during the day and I do use it, but it won't be replacing CoverGirl's LashBlast as my favorite mascara. It's not bad, but I wasn't blown away by it, either.

Rating: 3/5
I like it better than the original Great Lash mascara, but I didn't like the original very much in the first place, so that's not saying much. The brush is pretty neat and if you prefer wetter formulas, maybe give this a try!

Maybelline Baby Lips in Pink Punch - Review & Swatches

For the past couple of months I've been hearing a ton about the Maybelline Baby Lips lip balm, and I finally decided to pick one up. These retail for $3.99 at Walgreens, but I got mine for $1.99 since Walgreens is having a buy one, get one 50% off sale on Maybelline products. I chose the shade Pink Punch because it seemed like it'd be pretty pigmented and I've been really into pink lips recently.

Pink Punch has a fruity punch scent which I really like, and a little bit of a flavor. For a lip balm, it definitely has nice pigmentation, which I really appreciate because my lips are pretty pigmented in the first place. The balm just gives my lips a pretty pink tint, and it's really quite gorgeous. I also like the fact that it's something that I can reapply quickly without needing a mirror like I would with a gloss or lipstick (aka it's perfect for class!) It's really smooth and moisturizing, although I can't say it's necessarily the best lip balm I've ever used. Obviously some of the product stays on top of the lips to give it the color, but it doesn't feel waxy or heavy. And it does have SPF 20, which of course is important in a lip product.

The combination of the great scent, nice pigmentation, and adorable packing are what make this product a winner in my opinion. And it's a pretty good value for $3.99, even better if you can find it on sale. I probably would repurchase this if I were to run out or if I wanted to try another shade. What can I say ... I'm a huge sucker for the packaging! It's beyond cute and if you're looking to try a new lip balm, I'd recommend giving this one a try!

Rating: 4.5/5

Wet n Wild Silk Finish Lipstick in 525D and 552A - Review & Swatches

Yesterday I popped into Walmart because I needed contact lens solution, and I came out with two new lipsticks, a set of nail files, and one of those mirror/brush travel compacts so I can touch up my makeup at my desk. I've never tried the Silk Finish lipsticks from Wet n Wild, but they were $.98, so I kept my expectations low and grabbed two.

(Picture taken with flash.)

I chose 552A (Just Garnet), which is a berry red, and 525D (Retro Pink) which is a cool-toned medium pink. Both lipsticks applied a little sheer at first, but you can build the color intensity up as you apply. They actually felt very moisturizing, and they didn't seem to sit on top of my lip like some other lipsticks do. 552A is a little brighter than it appears in the tube, but it's a really nice berry color for fall without being too dark. I love the vampy look, and this shade gives a bit of the vampy effect without making me feel too conspicuous. 525D is a little too cool for me, but if you generally like cooler pinks, then I'd definitely check it out. I do like that it's bright but not too light. The best part about these lipsticks is that they're less than a dollar, and you can experiment with tons of different colors without worrying about wasting your money if you don't like a shade.

Rating: 4/5They're not perfect, but the price range more than makes up for it, especially if you find a shade you love.

XOXO, Ally

(PS: I tried to take lip swatches of these but my lips are so chapped that they just looked disgusting, so I'll get the lip swatches up sometime in the next few days!) 

Wet n Wild Enter a New Realm Palette - Review & Swatches (& Comparison!)

When I saw the Wet n Wild Dream Weavers collection online, I knew that I'd have to go drugstore hunting until I found it. Luckily I stopped into a Rite Aid while I was vacationing in Maine, and they had a new display with these little palettes all set up.

Enter a New Realm was one of my biggest must-haves from this collection, mostly because of the red shade. Red eyeshadow is pretty hard to find in drugstores, so to be able to get a palette with a red shade for $2.99 is pretty crazy. And I love the quality of Wet n Wild products, so I was all over this new collection.

The palette has three shades in it - an eyelid, crease, and browbone shade. You obviously don't have to just wear the colors like the palette says, but you definitely could! I swatched the three shades over Too Faced Shadow Insurance and they all seemed vibrant and really pigmented. The browbone color is a metallic, shimmery silver color, the crease color is a matte black (with a tiny bit of shimmer if you squint and look really hard) and the eyelid color is a shimmery red. The colors stayed on really well (I had to scrub hard to get the swatches off my hand) and they blend nicely, as most Wet n Wild shadows do.

When I saw this palette, it instantly reminded me of another Wet n Wild trio that I own - Spoiled Brat. When I swatched them next to each other they definitely have the same concept, although the actual formulas seem different. The silver in Spoiled Brat seemed brighter, the black contains some glitter, and the pink ... is pink instead of red. But without a doubt, they share some similarities. I think they're both great to have in your collection - for only $2.99, you can definitely afford to pick up both.
Rating: 5/5
The quality is great for the price, and finding such a unique color in a drugstore is pretty exceptional!

XOXO, Ally

Stila One Step PrimeColor - Review & Swatches

Stila One Step PrimeColor is described as a "primer, eye shadow, highlighter, lip color, cheek color, and bronzer," and while I suppose you could use the product for all of those things, I personally found that it only worked well for me on my face. The texture is very thick and creamy, so it felt too heavy for my lips and was hard to work with on my eyes. But as a blush or bronzer (or a highlighter, with the appropriate shades), I actually liked this product a lot. I wore it on my cheeks and set it with powder, and it lasted longer than my blush normally does on its own. It does take a little bit of work to blend, but it lasts a long time and I like the soft texture a lot. Both the shades that I received samples of with my order were very natural, but they could be made more exciting by layering a brighter blush over them.

The problem I have with these is that they're marketed as a lip color, eye shadow, blush...and they're really only useful as a face product. So while I really do like them on my cheeks and face, the fact of the matter is that they don't really work as promised. They're not a bad product if you want to spend the money on a nice, long-lasting cream blush, but don't expect them to do anything more.

 Rating: 3/5
The product isn't bad, but it doesn't live up to half of the claims that it makes.


XOXO, Ally