Rimmel London Apocalips are here...?

So a while back I reviewed the Rimmel London Apocalips lip lacquer that I picked up while I was studying in England - well just the other day, I spotted these babies in CVS, except something seemed a little different...

Looks like these have been renamed from Apocalips to Show Off for the US market! The shades are all the same and I'm sure the formula is exactly the same as well, but I think it's interesting that the changed the name...I personally loved 'Apocalips' as the name! Regardless, the product is seriously awesome, so if you find these at a drugstore near you, they'll make a great stocking-stuffer!

XOXO, Ally

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

(Yet Another) Superdrug Haul!

I stopped by Superdrug this afternoon for some retail therapy, and I definitely got what I was looking for!

First off, something that I have been DYING to purchase - Sleek eyeshadow palettes! The two that I have here are in Oh So Special, which has some gorgeous neutral shades as well as some peachy, coral pink shades, and Au Naturel, which is obviously a neutral palette. I haven't played with them yet, but I can't wait to swatch them for you guys!

I also got two Sleek blushes, in Rose Gold and Life's a Peach. I plan on reviewing these two once I test them out so I'll put up some swatches and close-up shots of the shades when I do that!

Really excited about this too - I had heard about the new Rimmel Apocalips lip products, and I was pumped to see that they had them in! I got the shades Stellar and Luna, and I plan on reviewing these ASAP! I also got the Rimmel Scandleyes Mascara for FREE since I spent over £10 on Rimmel products....score!

Superdrug was also doing a buy one, get one 1/2 off on their makeup brushes, and the Barry M brushes just looked too cute and colorful not to try out! I've never tried the Barry M brushes before, so I'm excited to see if they work as well as they look! I picked out an eyeshadow brush and a concealer brush, although I may just use the concealer brush for eyeshadow as well, since it looks like it would pack color on quite nicely.

That's all for now - next up, a review of those Apocalips! I'm wearing one right now, and I can't wait to let you guys know my thoughts on it!

XOXO,

Ally

Walgreens Haul!

I snagged a few cool things from Walgreens today and I wanted to share them with you guys before I actually reviewed them!

First is the new Wet n Wild Color Icon Bronzer in 743A Reserve Your Cabana. I had heard that this was the same shade as the discontinued Acapulco Glow over at Nouveau Cheap (which is one of my favorite blogs, by the way!) and though I've never used Acapulco Glow, I figured that if it was so beloved, I might as well give it a try! You get .46 oz of product for $3.99 (in comparison, a MAC beauty powder is .35 oz and a NARS blush is .16 oz), so the value is pretty great, and the shade looks absolutely gorgeous!

I picked up another shade (40 Purple Pizzazz) of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polish, since some of these polishes were on clearance for about 80 cents. I've really been loving this galaxy nail tutorial, and I thought this dark, glittery purple would be a perfect shade to use for that!

Also from Wet n Wild, I got a Megalast lipstick in 901B Think Pink (you'll see why later!) and one of the Juicy Lip Balms in Raspberry. I've been loving the Maybelline Baby Lips tinted balm, so I wanted to see if this Wet n Wild one would give similar pigmentation. Fingers crossed!

Finally, I got one of the new Kate Moss Lasting Finish lipsticks in 08 from Rimmel. I'm absolutely in love with the packaging on these, and the little signature reminds me a lot of the signatures on the celebrity Viva Glam lipsticks from MAC. I really wanted to try the nude shade but Walgreens only had one left, and it had been used, so I went for a different color instead (08 is more pink than nude, almost in the mauve family). And the last thing that I picked up was the Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in 063 Eastend Snob. I got the Wet n Wild lipstick in Think Pink because it looked like it would pair well with this lip liner, and I really wanted to try out a light pinky-nude lip.

So that's all I got during this haul, but I'm really excited about everything. Hopefully all these products live up to my expectations...I guess we'll have to wait and see!

XOXO, Ally