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Lips

I Bet Lancôme’s Rouge in Love Lipsticks Would Even Look Bold in Black and White

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lancome rouge in love lipstick 181 Rouge Saint Honore
Wearing Lancôme Rouge in Love Lipstick in 181 Rouge Saint Honore on my lips

If one were to poke a nose into my refrigerator right now, they would see a sorry sight. Except for three sad jalapeño peppers and a package of spinach ravioli, the shelves are mostly bare, and that’s because El Hub and I blew off grocery shopping last night to go and see The Artist instead. 🙂

What a great film! I loved every minute, but I went into it with some doubts — not because it’s black and white, but because it’s a kind of silent movie and very light on dialogue.

Glued to my seat! I can totally see why it won Best Picture.

And the lips. THE LIPS! Good thing there were only a few other people in the theater because I kept ooh-ing and ah-ing at the screen. Peppy Miller — she’s the leading lady — was rockin’ the bold, crisp lipstick, and you could clearly tell even in black and white.

So what did this particular beauty junkie do when she got home later that night? Put on a layer of the most pigmented lipstick she could find, of course, in this case the $25 Lancôme Rouge in Love, which, I might add, she wore with her black and pink pajamas.

I’ve been wearing 278 Divine Seduction (a warm raisin) and 181 Rouge Saint Honore (a bold red) a lot lately, whenever I’ve been in the mood for a bold lip.

Both of these beauties tap danced onto Lancôme counters last month, along with the rest of the 21 lipsticks in the new Rouge in Love Lipstick line and the 17 nail polishes in Vernis in Love.

lancome rouge in love lipstick
278 Divine Seduction on the left and 181 Rouge Saint Honore on the right

lancome rouge in love lipstick 278 Divine Seduction
Wearing 278 Divine Seduction
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Light Shimmies on Lips Wearing Estèe Lauder Pure Color Gloss in Shimmering Mirage

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estee lauder shimmering mirage

Estèe Lauder’s Pure Color Gloss in Shimmering Mirage ($22.50) might not be the flashiest piece in the new Bronze Goddes Capri collection for summer (have ya seen the Bronze Sands palette yet?), but I still think this lemony golden beige, with its bodacious silver shimmer, deserves a serious shout-out.

I’m a sucker for shining nude lips like these, especially on weekends (when my laziness kicks into overdrive). This limited edition shade actually reminds me of a slightly cooler version of my current go-to nude lip gloss, Burberry Nude Gold, except with a side of silver glitter.

I think it’s a great gloss for lazy day makeup looks. I’ll just fill in my brows, pat a little concealer under my eyes, curl my lashes, sweep some blush on my cheeks and top things off with Shimmering Mirage.

estee lauder bronze goddess capri shimmering mirage gloss eye duo in white sands molten lava
Pure Color Gloss in Shimmering Mirage (top) and Pure Color Intense Kajal Eye Crayon Duo in White Sands/Molten Lava (bottom)

estee lauder bronze goddess capri swatches
From the left: Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelée in Shimmering Sands, Pure Color Intense Kajal Eye Crayon Duo in White Sands/Molten Lava and Pure Color Gloss in Shimmering Mirage
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Hot Pink Lips and a MAC Chenman Face of the Day

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mac chenman collection fotd

Okay…I went buck wild today with makeup.

So much MAC. So many swatches. I totally lost track of time while snapping pics and didn’t even think about my actual makeup look for today until I put down the camera for a few minutes this afternoon, and then I saw my raison d’être for hump day: a Force of Love.

Nothin’ like a hot pink lip to jolt you wide awake. 🙂

mac chenman collection fotd

For this look, which I’m calling “getaway car driver with hot pink lips,” I mostly used products from the new MAC Chenman collection, which hits stores tomorrow (that’s just a few hours from now!).

EYES

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L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Glosses Make One Heck of a Claim

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L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Gloss in Glistening Berry

Now, when a gloss makes a Herculean claim and says that it lasts eight hours, that’s gonna attract some attention, and the first question many people are probably going to have is, “Does it actually last eight hours?”

Let’s find out. 🙂 The new L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Glosses (about $10 each) are so confident in their stamina that they advertise it right on the tube.

Overlooking the possibility for a moment, however remote, that L’Oreal had something other than wear time in mind when they emblazoned these tubes (like eight home runs, eight happy remoras, or eight hungry rabbits), I tried two of the 20 shades available now at drugstores.

The first thing I noticed about Glistening Berry and Pink Topaz was how the texture changed on my lips over time. Both glosses started out feeling thin and smooth but thickened within the first few minutes into a thick, sticky film.

I took that as a positive sign, since sticky glosses tend to last longer for me than glosses with thin textures and consistencies.

And texture wasn’t the only change I noticed. These glosses also start out with a lot of pigment and high shine, but they settle down to a soft, sheer sheen over the first 15 minutes. Long term, I think it makes them more wearable and less intimidating, which I like.

As for the way I think they taste and smell, it’s a little strange… Like minty grape juice — or a magic, wear-time enhancing potion, perhaps? — but it dissipates after about 10 minutes.

Then there’s the million-dollar question: how long do these actually last on lips?


Glistening Berry on the left and Pink Topaz on the right
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It’s a Sheer Thing With the Jouer SPF 15 Lip Sheers

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jouer lip sheer (3)
Wearing Positano on my lips

Next on the itinerary: Capri, St. Tropez, St. Barths and Positano. But these aren’t our upcoming destinations (I wish!). They’re the four smooth and moisturizing SPF 15 Lip Sheers from Jouer ($22 each).

Sans a scent or flavor, these radiant lipsticks do more for lips than meets the eye. Not only do they impart sheer color and a light touch of shine, they also soften lips and lock in moisture, thanks to vitamin E and aloe vera.

I’m always struggling with dry lips and fighting flakes, so I appreciate the fancy formula.

Would have been even cooler if I didn’t have to reapply it every couple of hours…but things could be worse. After all, it could be drying. 🙂

jouer lip sheer (2)
Capri, St. Tropez, Positano and St. Barths

jouer lip sheer (1)
From the left: St. Tropez, Capri, Positano and St. Barths

jouer lip sheer (4)
Capri
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When You’re as Slick and Slippery as a MAC Cremesheen, You Should Work It and Flaunt: The New JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Glosses for Spring 2012

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jk jemma kidd work it
Wearing JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Gloss in Work It on my lips

ME: OHMIGOD, sweetie! I’m freaking out.

EL HUB: Why?

ME: I’m having a Cremesheen emergency!

EL HUB: A what…?

ME: A Cremesheen emergency! I can’t find my favorite tube of MAC Cremesheen. I’m freakin’ out!

EL HUB: Why don’t you just use one of the 20 other tubes of lipstick in your purse?

TABS: Oh, boy. Here we go again…

ME: Hahaha. So not funny! It’s a gloss.

EL HUB: Okay.

ME: Can you take me to Target?

EL HUB: What? Really? It’s the middle of the night, babe. And they don’t even sell MAC at Target.

Wait — how do I know that? I know way too much about makeup…

ME: And that’s why I heart you. I HEART YOU! I heart you so much that you’re going to drive me to Target to look at the JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Glosses.

EL HUB: I am?

ME: You are. 🙂 They have two new colors for spring, a coral called Work It and a sheer pink called Flaunt, $16 each, and they’re slippery and slick like the MAC Cremesheens.

jk jemma kidd work it flaunt
Work It on the left and Flaunt on the right

jk jemma kidd gloss swatches
Swatches of Flaunt (left) and Work It (right)
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$5.49 for a MAC Lipglass? Almost (But Not Quite), With Milani Crystal Gloss

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Milani Crystal Gloss raspberry
Wearing Milani Crystal Gloss in Raspberry Icing

I was having dinner with friends a few weeks ago when one of the gals asked to see a picture of Tabs, and since that’s a request I’m always happy and quick to oblige, I grabbed my purse and reached in to fish out my phone, which at any given time contains at least 700 pictures of Tabs on the camera roll.

As I fished and fished, rooting around inside the purse, I kept coming up phone-less, with fistful after fistful of gloss.

“Um…” said one of the girls, “just how many lipglosses do you actually have in your purse?”

You know, I wondered, feeling my cheeks flush, that’s a good question… “A lot?”

And now, thanks to Milani’s five latest $5.49 Crystal Glosses, I don’t see myself scaling back any time soon. 🙂

Glittery fuchsia Raspberry Icing, hot pink Fruit Punch, the succinctly named Clear, pinkish coral Pucker Up and berry Sheer Dark Honey, all new for spring, have set up shop inside my current handbag.

Sometimes referred to as drugstore MAC Lipglasses, Milani’s line of Crystal Glosses have a similarly thick texture, slick when applied and slightly sticky on the lips, and come in a wide range of colors. They range in coverage from sheer to almost fully opaque.

Beyond that, they’re not big on bells and whistles, and that’s fine by me. A good price, a convenient doe-foot applicator, lots of colors to choose from, and I think they work really well.

I also like the shiny finish and how the pigments don’t seem to separate or do any other funky stuff as the day wears on. I get about three hours of wear time out of them, and all the while they feel comfy on my lips.

Milani Crystal Gloss
From the left: Clear, Sheer Dark Honey, Fruit Punch, Pucker Up and Raspberry Icing

Milani Crystal Gloss swatches
Swatches from the left: Clear, Pucker Up, Fruit Punch and Sheer Dark Honey

Milani Crystal Gloss swatches
Raspberry Icing
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Oh, These Are Haute! The New Milani Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipglosses

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milani in a flash
Wearing Milani Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipgloss in In a Flash on my lips

A hella pigmented, high-shine glittery gloss for less than eight bucks? Hook it up, Milani! 🙂

The new Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipglosses cost a mere $7.49 each, and yet they deliver flashy, full-coverage color the likes of pricier department store fare (I’m talkin’ to you, MAC, YSL and Chanel).

Like distant, disco-crazed cousins of the MAC Kissable Lipcolours ($19), these six Haute shades are loaded with pigment, so a little of each goes a long way, and have super skinny tubes and sponge tip applicators, but unlike their Kissable kin, they also glisten with glitter.

Both the Haute Flashes and Kissables start off feeling slick and smooth on my lips, but the Haute shades aren’t content with that. They seem to thicken and get much stickier after the first 15 minutes or so, and just generally, I think they like being babied.

Because they tend to catch on dry flakes and settle into every lip line, if my lips are anything less than perfectly smooth and moisturized, the Haute Flashes can look pretty janky. Exfoliating and prepping my lips with a lip balm beforehand definitely helps them look their best.

And have I mentioned how pigmented these are? I only need to use a minuscule amount, which is neat. Of course, if I happen to apply a tad too much, the Haute Flashes make me pay for it by looking thick and messy.

milani haute flash
From the left: Quick Flash, Star Flash, Golden Flash, Flashy, Hot Flash and In A Flash

milani quick flash
Quick Flash

milani flashy
Flashy
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