Swatches and review of Makeup Geek eyeshadows: Fairytale, Time Travel, Typhoon, and Ritzy

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Top to bottom: Makeup Geek Fairytale, Time Travel, Typhoon, and Ritzy

I originally ordered these four shadows from Makeup Geek after looking for a dupe for the terrible Maybelline Color Tattoo in Vintage Plum (reviewed here). From swatches I found online, Mac's Dove Feather looked similar, but it's been discontinued. But Makeup Geek's Fairytale is apparently a dupe for Dove Feather, and I couldn't order just one and holy shit duochromes and here we are. I bought individual pans of four shades ($6 each + $2 shipping): Ritzy, Typhoon, Fairytale, and Time Travel, which came in little cardboard sleeves, and I eventually put them all into this magnetic palette I picked up with my Choix points. I ordered the eyeshadow on March 18, got a shipping notice March 24, and the package was delivered March 28--just to give you an idea of how long things took, since indie cosmetics can be slow. Not bad at all. (I know that there has been some drama involving Makeup Geek, as there tends to be with all personality-driven makeup brands. You can google if you are so inclined. So far as I can tell, there have been no instances of hate speech, so I'm going to stick to reviewing the products themselves here.)

I'm going to show arm swatches of all four shadows, as well as photos of how they look on my eyelids. I swatched them on my arm with a good brush and without primer. The photos of the eyeshadows on my eyelid are over primer, because I have such oily lids that I never wear eyeshadow without primer. For each shade, I packed it on to my lid with a brush and then blended it up and out, into the crease and above. This is not necessarily how I would normally wear all of these shades, but it provides a consistent comparison. I also used a highlight shade on my browbone.

(I'll give you a cut here so you don't have to load a bunch of giant photos of my eyeballs if you don't want to.)

What's in a dupe? Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry vs. Maybelline Creamy Matte Lipstick in Touch of Spice

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During last fall and early this winter, I kept reading recommendations for Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry from reliable sources and seeing Instagram posts of people wearing it and looking stunning. I became convinced that I needed it, despite my previously less-than-stellar experiences with two of the lipsticks in that line: Elusive (reviewed here) and Striking (reviewed here). Surely if so many sensible people liked Sultry, there must be something to it. And indeed, the performance of Sultry is vastly better than the other two matte balms, both in terms of application (not streaky) and wear (not patchy).

But when I got it home and put it on, something seemed eerily familiar. Oh shit, I bought a dupe! Why did I want this when I already had the very similar Maybelline Creamy Matte Lipstick in Touch of Spice? You can see from the swatches below that they are quite close.

They're not identical, but they fit into the same basic category. Touch of Spice (left) is a more brown/neutral with a little grey, while Sultry has some more plummy-red in it.

On my face, the difference is subtle, but one lipstick is noticeably more flattering on me than the other. The second time I wore Sultry, I had also been playing around with some subtle contouring. When I looked at my face in the bathroom mirror, it looked kind of dirty, and I thought I had messed up the contouring. But then I got to thinking about how similar my new lipstick was to Touch of Spice and decided to remove Sultry and replace it with the Maybelline lipstick to compare. All of the sudden, my contouring looked fine. I looked healthier. As it turns out, the subtle difference in the two lipsticks makes a real difference when I wear them.

Vampy Winter Lips for Beginners

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The beginner I'm mainly referring to here is me. I know that some of you are seasoned vampy veterans, but I haven't historically been a huge lipstick wearer in general. I've even declared in writing that I was giving up on lipstick because it was too high maintenance. Instead, I wore every other type of lip product: stain, balm, tint, gloss, etc. But somehow, in the last year or so, I've got a lot more into lipstick. I don't know what happened. Bored with other types of makeup? Getting old and no longer as self conscious? At any rate, probably 80% or more of the makeup I've bought in the last 6-9 months (which hasn't been a lot) has been lipstick, and when I'm browsing it's usually the most appealing category to me lately.

Left to right: Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry/Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.

One new change that I've really only embraced this winter is dark or bold "vampy" lipstick. Now I am talking about vaguely vampy shades, nothing extreme. I'm still a beginner, and my coloring makes things look more dramatic than they might otherwise. There's nothing black (or blackish) in my lineup. The few lipsticks I have that could be categorized as vampy are mostly very pigmented berries or wines. Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy (a supposed dupe for MAC Rebel) is sort of my baseline for comparison here. If you consider Sugar Plum Fairy or Rebel to be a "wearable berry" then you're probably going to roll your eyes at my whole weak foray into bold lipsticks. If, on the other hand, you find it slightly intimidatingly bold, I'll assume you're with me on this one. I'm not saying Rebel is vampy, but for me, anything darker than that is edging into vampy territory. It's my vampy watershed. Or something.

Here is my small collection of debatably vampy lip colors, with Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy also swatched for comparison:

Why do they all look bright pink? Shitty winter light!

Left to right: Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy, Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry, Bite Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.

Sheer, matte . . . gloss? Review of Maybelline ColorSensational Vivid Matte Liquid in Berry Boost

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Don't forget to enter my lipstick giveaway here! Ends tonight at midnight.

I got this Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid in Berry Boost as compensation for doing L'Oreal consumer testing (more on that here). When I first saw it, I wasn't particularly excited, because I tend to hate liquid matte lipsticks. Most of the ones I've tried have been horrendously drying. I find them difficult to apply neatly and they tend to wear off in an ugly way--flaky and patchy and impossible to touch up without removing them completely. I really think that the popularity of Instagram beauty accounts is one of the main reasons those products have become ubiquitous recently. I know some people (apparently) wear them successfully in real life, but they seem mainly designed to be worn for about 20 minutes while creating a beautiful Instagram photo and then to be removed. But I thought, hey, I haven't written a post about how much I hated something recently, so maybe this Maybelline Matte Liquid will at least be useful for grumpy ranting purposes.

No such luck(?). It's actually not bad. And it's different from any lip product I've tried before. It's not really a lipstick or a lip gloss or a lip stain. It's sort of between a gloss and a stain. Let me explain.

It's not an opaque, paint-like liquid lipstick like most of the other liquid mattes I've seen. Of all the things I've used in the past, it's most similar to the Wet N Wild Fergie High Shine lip stain (now discontinued, I believe) that I reviewed here, except matte, rather than shiny. (That WNW stuff started to smell funky after about 6 months and I threw it out, so I hope this Maybelline doesn't do the same.) It's similar in texture and feel, the applicator is similar, the opacity and pigmentation is similar--but the Maybelline stuff turns matte after a few minutes rather than staying glossy.

Here it is immediately after I applied it. A little shine:

What this seems to be is a semi-sheer gloss stain, except "gloss" would suggest, you know, glossy, and this isn't. It's not super matte, but it gets more and more matte the longer you wear it. And it feels soft and slippery on your lips like a gloss. Not sticky and definitely not transfer-proof, though I haven't had any trouble with it smearing.

Here it is about an hour after application. A little more matte. Can you tell the difference in the photo? I think it looks a bit shinier here than it does in person.

Even if you apply multiple layers, it won't become completely opaque. Because it's not opaque, it's easier to apply than a liquid that is--except that the long, stiff wand is kind of a pain in the ass to use. You can see in the lip photos that the edges aren't perfect. If absolute precision is important to you, it would be best to use a lip brush to apply it, but I can't be bothered. Since the long doe foot picks up a lot of product, if you're going to apply it directly, I recommend wiping some off and starting in the middle of your lips, so that when you outline the edges you don't make a mess.

I also like to apply just a light wash with my finger tip to create a nice stain. It's quite pretty that way. And it does stain the lips, so you can apply balm over it and retain some good color. I've been wearing it this way for family holiday events during the last week, and it lasts well through turkey and wine.

I find this stuff slightly drying, but it's not terrible. It's not so bad that I want to avoid it. The worst part is probably the fragrance, which I can not only smell but even taste. It's a bit fruity but also floral, and not particularly pleasant. I'm not sure what fruit it's supposed to be. It's hard to describe.

I haven't tried any of the other colors, so I can't promise that they all perform the same way--and there aren't many reviews out there yet, since this is a pretty new release. As for Berry Boost itself, I don't see much berry in it. In the tube and a heavy swatch, it's kind of berry, or maybe fuchsia, I suppose, depending on the lighting. There's not much, if any, purple in it, which I'd expect in a berry shade. On my lips, it really just becomes bright pink. The color in the tube and the color on my lips aren't too close. And like I said, since it doesn't build up to opacity, I think you would have a hard time recreating the color in the tube, though it's possible that the natural pink color of my lips is doing something here. Here are some comparison swatches: Revlon Balm Stain in Smitten (left), Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid in Berry Boost (middle), and Wet N Wild MegaLast lipstick in Sugar Plum Fairy.

I haven't used a product quite like this before. From reviews I've read, it sounds like this might be similar to the L'Oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Glosses, though I haven't personally tried any of those. I wouldn't be surprised to find similarities, since L'Oreal owns Maybelline too. If you like sheer, cushiony stains, but not shiny or sticky glosses, the Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid might be worth checking out. Anyone else tried these yet? Or something similar? What do you think?

Matte lipstick for people who are afraid of matte lipstick: Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Mattes in Lust for Blush, Touch of Spice, and Divine Wine

Even though I am trying not to buy more shit (and I've been doing pretty good), I somehow ended up with these three lipsticks. A bit of a gamble for someone who isn't a huge lipstick wearer, and who has found almost every matte lipstick I've ever tried to be hideously fucking uncomfortable, but I'd seen such good reviews that they seemed worth a shot. I also had some CVS coupons to use, and I wanted some more neutral lip colors for work. I ended up being way, way more impressed with these things than I'd hoped, so I don't regret them a bit.

Swatches of Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Mattes in Lust for Blush, Touch of Spice, and Divine Wine

My lip swatch photos aren't particularly impressive, and I'm not sure if the camera, the lighting, or my lips themselves are to blame. (Blogger is also doing that annoying fucking thing where it washes out the color of my photos when I upload them, even though I have photo enhancing turned off and I saved them as PNGs, etc., etc.) Let me direct you to other photos Touch of Spice and Divine Wine, so you can get a fuller sense of how they might look on you. I've included my mediocre photos below so you can see the contrast between these shades and my pasty skin, in case you are similarly pale. For example, Touch of Spice looks like the medium neutral on many people, but on me it is really quite dark and warm. It doesn't look vampy, but it's definitely a bit intense. Flattering though! Divine Wine is very vampy on me, and I haven't actually worn it out yet, because drama. But I will! The nice thing about it is that it isn't completely purple. Purple lipsticks tend to draw out the purple in my face and require a lot of other makeup to make sure I don't look like a corpse. This one has enough brown in it that it doesn't do that, while still looking like a true wine color. Lust for Blush is close to my natural lip color, but pinker. It looks pretty subtle when I wear it.

Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipstick in Lust for Blush

Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipstick in Touch of Spice

Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipstick in Divine Wine

The formula of these is delightful in every way. They texture is just perfect, so I can apply Touch of Spice and Lust for Blush directly from the bullet and get a neat enough line without having to fuck around with a lip liner. I think they look a little sloppy in the close up, but from a normal distance, they look perfectly neat. I used a Jordana lip liner (in Cabernet Wine) to clean up the edges of Divine Wine, because it is so dark that any unevenness is more obvious.

They're not drying at all - and I'm really picky about products drying out my lips. I just won't even bother with anything that dries out my lips, because they get chapped easily enough already. And these lipsticks wear fantastically well, despite not being uncomfortable like more long-wearing products. They last for hours. You can snack and have a drink and your face will still look great. They go on opaque in one swipe and aren't patchy (despite the somewhat misleading photo of Divine Wine above). If your lips aren't perfectly smooth, they won't look like shit. This lipstick doesn't exactly camouflage roughness, but it also doesn't highlight it or settle into lines. It has no real scent or taste. I honestly have no complaints about this shit. It's some of the easiest, best lipstick I've ever tried. I'm thinking 2015 might be the year I finally embrace lipstick, though ideally without buying a bunch more of them. Because look: dupes. Well, sort of.

Swatches/dupes of Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte in Lust for Blush vs ULTA Lip Crayon in Fashionista, and Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte in Touch of Spice vs. Lord & Berry 20100 Lipstick Pencil in Intimacy.

The ULTA pencil is a little cooler and a bit more drying. It also has a slightly gross lipsticky smell. The Lord & Berry pencil is much nicer than the ULTA one, though it smells a bit too. The color is almost identical to Touch of Spice, but it's creamy rather than matte. I'm a big fan of the L&B, but the formula isn't as long wearing or foolproof as the Maybelline.

No dupes for Divine Wine! That one is a whole new adventure for me.

Two $3 Essence lip thingies

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Wow, two actual reviews in a row, rather than just posts ruminating on my weird behavior. Don't worry, it's not in me to stop ruminating, but maybe you'd like to hear about some makeup that you could pick up as a cheap treat. One is good, and the other is potentially good for people who aren't me.

Essence Stay With Me Longlasting Lipgloss in Choose Me! and Essence Stay Matt Lip Cream in Smooth Berry

The first of the two products is Essence Stay With Me Longlasting Lipgloss in Choose Me! The color of this gloss is difficult to categorize. In the tube, it looks like a sort of plummy or burgundy shade with pinkish shimmer. On the lips, the shimmer is pretty much invisible other than to add a bit to the shine, and it's sheer enough that it just sort of deepens my natural lip color and adds some warmth and sheen. It makes my lips more rosy, but not at all vampy, like you might expect from looking at the tube. It doesn't settle into lines as much as it might appear from the photo - that's just the nature of closeups of sheer things, in my experience. It's a very wearable, everyday color. Flattering, too, at least on me. (I hope I've never claimed that something is "universally" flattering, because I've been disappointed by recommendations that made the promise before.)

Essence Stay With Me Longlasting Lipgloss in Choose Me!

A matte lip crayon I like much better than Revlon's (Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn)

I'd say that 90% of the blog reviews of the Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm crayon that I've read have been raves. A couple have found some shades patchy, but were cool with it, but most of them are just big fans. Obviously that's not how I felt, and it kind of makes me feel like I was being unreasonable or doing something wrong.

But I recently got a matte jumbo lip crayon in my Ipsy bag that I prefer a whole fucking lot. It's the Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn. They describe it as "glossy," but it's definitely not. It's matte. It seems to have a few specks of shimmer (?) in it, but they don't show up at all on the lips. You can sort of see them in the macro shot, but they are completely invisible from a normal distance. Even in the swatch photo below, you can't really see the shimmer. (Judging from swatches, some of the other shades seem to have more shimmer.)

Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn

How it compares to the Revlon matte balm: The Be a Bombshell crayon has a thicker, stiffer texture. The Revlon feels almost buttery - actually kind of like frosting. For me, the Be a Bombshell texture works much better, because you can go back and forth over your lips to build up the color without it getting patchy. It stays in place really well, unlike the Revlon matte balm, which had a tendency to smear and wear off in an ugly way. After I put enough on my lips to make it really opaque, and then blotted, very little came off on the tissue. I tend to worry about wearing bright/opaque lip colors, because they always smear and look messy on me eventually. I think this one has solved that problem. It's going to be my go-to red. It wears very evenly and leaves a nice stain. It doesn't emphasize dryness and lines like the Revlon one does. It also doesn't have a minty scent or tingle, which was something I didn't like about the Revlon. I don't find it drying, either - no more so than not wearing anything on my lips. Basically, this is everything I was hoping the Revlon matte balm would be but wasn't.

DIY matte top coat for your nails (from The Daily Varnish)

Is there anything cornstarch can't do? Check out the instructions here.

More lipstick options for twodoxiesandtoomanyshoes.

I have been thinking and looking!

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Amsterdam (I'm going to review this in another shade soon, but it definitely matte and long-wearing).

Maybelline SuperStay 10HR Stain Gloss in Ruby Indulgence (I have this in another shade, and it's not especially glossy. It would be easy to mattify, and it is very, very opaque. Almost like paint. And it lasts.)

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Can anybody help?

I have a lipstick question: I'm getting married in a few weeks (commence hyperventilation) and I've yet to find a nice lipstick that won't transfer all over my fiancé's face. I'm looking for a deep velvety red that's matte (gloss+flash photography=nope). Help?

 twodoxiesandtoomanyshoes

Oh god. That’s a tough one. Have you tried the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains? Adore is a nice red. It has a bit of sheen, but maybe you could put some matte translucent powder over it to get rid of that (like the one made by Makeup Forever, which is not cheap). Because I freaked my boyfriend out by kissing him on the cheek when I was wearing that, and nothing transfered. Or test out this method: http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/07/lipstick-longevity/

I’m not really the right person to ask, because since I like my lips to feel moisturized and slick all the time, I don’t have a lot of experience with matte/longwearing lipstick. So I’ll throw this one out to the crowd. Other suggestions anybody? (Crossposted from Tumblr.)