A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You can’t eat cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without getting porky.  You can’t put in zero effort and reap all the rewards (unless you’re a cow).  And you can’t wear a kickass, uber-matte lipstick without it all going wrong… eventually.

This is how I feel about the Lime Crime Velvetines in Red Velvet.  I’d held off buying for ages, I’m not a fan of the way the brand has conducted itself in the past and to be honest, I haven’t been a fan of the products that they’ve released either.  But the swatches have been amazing.  Screw the fact that I’m in the 30+ category and “really” shouldn’t be wearing uber matte lipsticks, seriously… screw that!  Red Velvet has been on my radar as a must-have for a long while.  I had to try it, I just had to, didn’t I?

The packaging is rather nice actually, less unicorny and more sophisticated girlie… I do like the frosted glass container but there’s one irritation that bothers me each time I use it.  Why is there no inner ridge in the tube where I can scrape off the excess product?  Peering inside, it’s like looking into the Black Hole of Calcutta and when something is this frighteningly pigmented, you need absolute control over the amount of product on the wand.

Without smearing this around the opening, I don’t have that control and it balls up pretty quickly at the top, threatening to make a holy mess.

But the one thing you can’t deny is that once applied, Red Velvet is in a league of its own.  Richly pigmented, deeply opaque, and velvet-textured… it’s a cracker.  I’ve found it best to apply in two thin layers… once to get perfect outline and once to fill in for complete coverage.  The formula is very wet to begin with and I inevitably end up with some of it on my front teeth.  However, within 60-seconds it dries to an almost powdery finish.

The texture is lightweight but you can “feel” it on your lips because of the apparent dryness it imparts.  It’s not actually that drying in terms of what it does to the condition of your lips but it will happily settle into all of your lip furrows and stick like the proverbial to the outer lip-line.  It’s colour-depth and downright vampiness makes this the perfect choice for a night out… except, you might not want to choose it…

Let me explain…

On me, it wears U-G-L-Y.  I have a large bottom lip and the first place that this disappears is toward the inside of my lip, leaving a horribly apparent ridge of colour.  This colour-ridge narrows as the colour slowly disappears from the centre of my mouth, eventually leaving me with a rather impressive ring around the lower lip-line.  And this is without eating, only drinking.

Compared to some red lipsticks, I actually found this to be relatively transfer-proof, there’s a little left on my glass after drinking but nowhere near as much as most lipsticks.  It also resists transferring to my teeth once it has set on the lip, so it’s a real shame that I experience such horrible overall wear.  You can see the kind of wear I get in this photo on my Tumblr.  You should note, however, that this may be a peculiarity on me… many other bloggers report great wear from this product.

Ultimately, it’s a gorgeous red but I probably won’t wear it without a serious case of paranoia, and when you’re braving a lip this ka-pow, that’s not a great combination.

Lime Crime Velvetines in Red Velvet is priced at £11.50 and available to buy online from love-makeup.co.uk and cutecosmetics.co.uk

Do you own one of the Velvetines?  What are your thoughts on them?

Just a quickie post to give you a heads up (if you didn’t already see my tweet) about the Love Makeup sale that’s currently ongoing.  There are some real bargains to be had… not those faux 10% off rubbish ones but proper, bonafide, hide-your-purse-before-you-spend-next-month’s-rent extravaganzas.  I was pretty good about it tbh, grabbing a couple of things that I’d wanted for a long time and dipping my toe into waters unknown with a stonking red eyeshadow (I have a weird little “thing” for red eyeshadow).

Anyway, here’s what ended up in my basket, with a couple of swatches thrown in for good measure.  What can I say?  I’m a horrible enabler.

I already own a couple of products from Beaute in the form of one of their Weightless Lip Cremes in Masochist (don’t bother searching, to my shame it’s not been blogged yet) and also the Beauté Liqui-Gel Lip and Cheek Stain in Fluoron which HAS been blogged, and you can read about it here.  To add to my Beaute collection, I picked up the Weightless Lip Creme in Girlina… ever since I saw Bubblegarm modelling it a billion years ago, it’s been on my wishlist.  The other item that has found its way into my lipstick drawer is the Beaute Liqui-Gel Lip and Cheek Stain in Harlot… a rich, blood-red.

I’ve since spoken to Cami on Instagram, who is shamelessly trying to tempt me into going back for the Beaute Liqui-Gel Lip and Cheek Stain in Fever.  I can’t take the pressure!

Going somewhat against my principles, I bought one of the much-lauded Lime Crime Velvetines in Red Velvet… there were too many beautiful swatches on the interne that made me think this could be my ultimate Snow White red… I coudn’t resist the temptation.

And finally, to re-balance the good/evil in this world (you know I’m being overly dramatic again right?), I picked up a stunning, limited edition, sparkly red eyeshadow from Sugarpill.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  Swatches below…

How nice do they all look lined up like that?  I’m in makeup heaven right now.

Anyway, I shall try and do proper reviews in due course… give me a slap if there’s something from the above that you’d really like to see and I’ll keep it out near my PC… if it goes in one of my drawers, chances are… it’s gone FOREVER.  Well, in terms of reviewing promptly!

Have you been tempted into indulging in the Love Makeup sale?  Gotta love a “new makeup buzz”!

My posts on the launch have been a touch hiccoughy – so here’s a little recap ‘cos I know there’s a lot of interest out there.

~ Launch Announcment & Thoughts

~ Review and lip swatches of Countessa Fluorescent, No She Didn’t & My Beautiful Rocket

Fully launched now, you should be able to find the Lime Crime lipsticks in your local store…. if you do go and have a play with some of the colours, please come back and share your thoughts with me (and everyone else!).

It would be great to get lots of varied feedback because judging by some emails I’ve received… I’m beginning to get the impression that some of you are really interested and excited by the lipsticks but hesitant to display your excitement for fear of ‘going against the tide of opinion’.

That saddens me.

Getting excited about super-bright lipsticks is your prerogative and we should all be excited about beautiful colours and new launches!

The majority of you who come here aren’t beauty bloggers and don’t leave me comments and are infact interested in one thing and one thing only:  “…are they any good ‘cos I don’t wanna waste £14 on a crappy lipstick”.

I say… read my review and then go and try a few shades!  While you’re at it, please come back and let me know what Airborne Unicorn is like ‘cos my nearest Space NK is a shocking 25 miles away.  Yep… feel for me.

And that (you’ll be pleased to hear) is probably my last word on it.

Further to my post last week discussing the launch of Lime Crime at SpaceNK stores this month, I want to share with you my thoughts on the lipsticks that I was sent by SpaceNK.

I wrote the initial post because whilst not wanting to ignore the contentious issues surrounding the brand, I want to keep that separate to my review of the products.

If you’re interested in purchasing the lipsticks from SpaceNK, please have a read and check out my thoughts on how they worked for me.

First of all… the packaging.

A lot has been said about the packaging.  It generally tends to polarise opinion between two camps.  I have to say…. I like it a lot.  Admittedly, so would my 11 month old given another couple of years.

I like the holographic unicorns…. no, I LOVE the unicorns.  I don’t however like the overall colour choice, but only because I think those unicorns would have looked stunning against a shiny black background.

The packaging up to this point feels sturdy and I’m impressed by the quality.

I was sent three which you can see above.

Lime Crime have based the credibility of their entire range on the phrase: “So bright, it’s illegal.”  And I have no qualms about the brightness of the shades I received.

Are they brighter than lipsticks that you can purchase from brands such as MAC, BarryM or even clubber’s fav Stargazer?  Possibly not… Infact, I’ve already found a fair colour dupe of Countessa Fluorescent in my BarryM 146.  But you would have to be a fairly brand-savvy makeup shopper to find these dupes, and this collection just makes it easier.

Before I move on to swatches, wear etc… I do have one quality issue.  My Countessa Flourescent arrived ‘wonky’.  When I wind it up and down, it ‘drags’ on the inside of the tube leaving not only a streak of pink behind, but a groove dug out of the lipstick.  I wouldn’t expect nor accept this from a £14 product.

As you can see, on the back of my hand… they swatch beautifully and true to tube colour.  They achieve full opacity very quickly and are just as vibrant as they promise.

I’m going back to front from the hand swatches… but I’ll start with…

My Beautiful Rocket.

It applied well and I found it fairly creamy.  It’s no YSL Rouge Volupte, but I will happily reach for it whenever the situation demands an orange!  And what a shade it is!  Vibrant in colour and packing a nice sheen.  I would recommend this as a great summer shade.

No She Didn’t.

A horrible chalky lipstick.  It drags across my lips and the colour it deposits sinks instantly into the furrows meaning that I have to go over a number of times to achieve any real opacity.  The result of having to apply it so heavily is bleeding around the edges and a caked-on feeling.  I’ve read reports of staining, but I couldn’t bear to keep this on my lips for long enough to test that theory out.

I wouldn’t recommend this lipstick at all, and think the formula needs adjusting to make it work.

Countessa Fluorescent.

Colour-wise for me, this was my favourite.  I love this bright dolly pink which achieves a fabulous opacity without too much effort on my part.  It’s more drying than My Beautiful Rocket and it left a stain around the contour of my lips which I wasn’t delighted about.

I can’t decide whether to forgive it for those niggles.  Perhaps if the price were lower… but at £14, I want a damn good lipstick.  And this doesn’t qualify.

I wouldn’t describe any of these lipsticks as moisturising, but of the three… My Beautiful Rocket came the closest to leaving my lips in the same condition as before I had applied the product.  To be fair, I’ve just spent 3 hours in a Chanel Rouge Coco…. and that’s left my lips feeling pretty dehydrated too.

I’m no chemist, but the main problems I see with these lipsticks is the thickness of the formula.  They’re just so heavy.  I guess the whole “I’m so bright, I’m illegal” ethos demands this heavy pigmentation and perhaps this is the flipside to trying to achieve such an opaque range of products.

.

I think that at £14 each, the price is too high for the quality of the product.  The shades are awesome and the staying power is pretty darn effective.  I think they’re a fabulous idea and I would love to see some adjustments to the formula that would make them kinder to the wearer’s lips.

Would I buy them?  I would buy My Beautiful Rocket. I would bin No She Didn’t.

Still…

Cult US eccentric brand Lime Crime are currently enjoying a boost in credbility thanks to UK based apothecary Space NK.  In an unlikely but ultimately interesting pairing, Space NK will be bringing the full range of Lime Crime CandyFuture lipsticks to the store’s shelves later this month.

The collection of 10 lipsticks which range in colour from an opaque black right through to palest lavender will hit UK shores with a price tag of £14 each compared to US equivalent pricing of $16.  The price hike is pretty much expected, and perhaps slightly less than anticipated when you consider Space NK’s ill-fated launch of excessively priced Sonia Kashuk brushes last year.

The reputation of Lime Crime… with self-proclaimed “Unicorn Queen” owner/operator Doe Deere at the helm, has recently endured the internet equivalent of a “beat-down”.

The company may initially struggle to gain trust and loyalty from cosmetic connosieurs in the UK with the recent allegations raised against the brand, but I don’t doubt for one moment that the playful, fantastical nature of the brand will appeal to many high-street shoppers.

The launch has the potential to bring a fresh, younger audience to Space NK… which may ultimately validate this unusual synergy between conservatively styled Space NK and the whimsical Lime Crime.

As an interested observer (but ultimate fence-sitter) with regards to the recent Lime Crime dramas, this has the potential to be one hell of a launch.  I just hope that Space NK have ordered in enough glitter and life-size unicorns.