Swatch: NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in Burgundy

I'm a huge fan of NYX Round Lipsticks. They are creamy, moisturising and pigmented. I do need to touch up every now and then, but that doesn't bother me at the cheap price! (roughly about SGD5 each).
I heard good things about the jumbo lip pencils too and decided to give one a go. I picked up one in the shade Burgundy (I've got a great fondness for the berry shades!)

Application was a breeze! The pencil was really very creamy and pigmented. I have quite dry lips and I'm very glad that it doesn't apply patchy, unlike some other lippies that I've got. Texturewise, I think it's almost identical to the round lipsticks.

That being said, I don't think I'm going to be buying anymore of the jumbo lip pencils. This is only a personal preference of mine, not that there's anything bad about the product. The round lippies are virtually the same texture and are cheaper. They are also smaller and hence easier to slip into a small pouch to carry around. Yes, the pencil would be more accurate in terms of application because of the tip, but I carry around a small lip brush for such purposes.

All in all, it's an awesome pencil. But it won't work as a lip liner as it's too creamy and soft and personally I would rather carry around a lipstick than a pencil. I'm going to be using this one a lot while it lasts though!
Pic of the lip pencil in action :)

I so need to tame that bit of stray hair!!!!!

Haul + Swatch: NYX Retractable Eyeliners!

In my last post, I talked about being on an eyeliner spree, and these are part of my combined haul of eyeliners. I didn't buy all these at one shot, these are from 3 different purchases combined.

These are the retractable eye liner pencils. Much cheaper than the slide-ons that I talked about in my last post, but with a wider range of colours. With the cheaper price, these cannot match up to the slide-ons, which is to be expected. The formulation is slightly harder. While still creamy, putting too much pressure could result in a little dragging over the eyelid. This doesn't seem to be something I experienced with all the colours though, mainly with the purple, so I suspect it could just be that I've gotten a faulty one.

I love the pigmentation of these babies and the ease with which they are applied and the convenience of not having to sharpen. As mentioned, the colour range is slightly bigger than the slide-ons. What kills this for me is the fact that these are not as budgeproof as the slide-ons. Granted, you need to rub hard to get these to smudge, but one vigorous eye-rubbing session and the effects are going to show if using the retractable eyeliners.

I don't think I'm going to be adding on to this particular collection of mine. If I need more eyeliner colours, I'm going to be looking at the slide-ons :) I would pay the extra couple of bucks for peace of mind that my eyeliner is not going to budge!

That said, gypsy blue, golden olive and silky cashmere are going to be making regular appearances alongside with the ubiquitous black and white.

Which colour grabs your attention the most?

Haul + Swatch + Vanity Pic: NYX Slide On Eye Liner Pencils

I go through phases in which I crave different things to add to my makeup collection and at the moment, that seems to be eyeliners. Before I hauled this lot, I actually only had a grand total of 2 eyeliners. 1 black pencil eyeliner from Bourjois and 1 brown retractable eyeliner from Silkygirl. I kinda have a love hate relationship with the Bourjois Kohl pencil as I love how black, soft and creamy it is, but I hate that if I don't set it properly either with eyeshadow or by smudging, I'm definately panda-eyed 2 hours later.

So anyway, browsing around for eyeliners to play with, I came across this new product from NYX. The swatches floating around the internet were gorgeous and I was immediately SOLD on the colours alone. Sealing the deal were the reviews saying that these babies are comparable to Urban Decay eyeliners and I knew I just had to get some!

Here are swatches of my current collection of the eyeliners:

I initally purchased the glitzy gold, jewel and tropical green to try from EBay just to test them out. Once I tried them, I fell in love immediately and had to strongly resist the urge to immediately order the other 15 colours just so I could own the complete collection! Luckily I could exercise some discipline on myself and ordered just two more from Cherry Culture when they had their Christmas sale.

The eyeliners themselves are called Slide On, Glide On, Stay On & Definately a Turn On Waterproof Extreme Shine Eye Liner, usually shortened to Slide On. I did a test with my first batch of eyeliners to see how budge-proof they were and these are the results:

I ran water over the back of my hand and rubbed at the swatches REALLY HARD, and they wouldn't budge!! Even with a little soap, I had to scrub quite a bit before they came off. To remove cleanly, I had to use my DHC Cleansing Oil.

I'm definitely really sold on these liners. They are very smooth and creamy to apply so it was no problem at all getting an even straight line on my eyelids when I use them. I think these are definitely going to become my HG eyeliners!

Here's a pic of me today wearing tropical green on my upper lids and brown perfection on my lower waterline:

Vanity Pic: Featuring NYX Round Lipstick in Chic Red

Very minimal makeup today. Just plain ol' moisturiser followed by my trusty powder concealer, a dusting of silk powder. Blush used is the Autumn limited edition blush from Body Shop in Berry.
What I really want to show off today are the red lips! I don't naturally gravitate to reds. I'm more of a berry/wine/burgundy kind of girl and red to me kinda screams for attention. But today, I was in a more daring mood and went for the red lips, since I didn't really feel like putting on the eyemakeup too.

I like this colour a lot! I thought that red would wash me out or be too aunty but amazingly this didn't do that to me (of course, only in my own opinion. Others around me might think differently!)

Wearing this colour got a lot of comments from my students though. Mostly "Ma'am, why your mouth so red today!" To which I just retorted something along the lines of drinking student's blood hahah. I love teaching my students. I get to joke this way with them, we have a good laugh, then we get down to the business of study.

So anyway that's my lip for today :)

Just for reference, I've put the pic for the swatch I did in my last post here for more comparison.

Vanity Pic: 4 Jan 2012

Vanity pic up today to show off a new haircut!

My resolution for the year is to love myself. And one of the steps I'm taking in loving myself is to go through a makeover. I'm kinda tired of being frumpy and mumsy and feeling like I'm not pretty in my own right, so here's a step for me in that direction.

I have super fine and dry hair and it's evidenced from the frizziness that is still visible in the pic, but the treatment I did when at the salon yesterday has helped tame it down somewhat. My hairdresser also gave me a lot of tips to take care of it on a daily basis and hopefully I will see an improvement on it soon!

I got it cut at REDS Salon at Parkway Parade by stylist Christine. The photo doesn't really do my hair justice. She did a great job and I love how it turned out! Makes me feel very feminine and finally I have some sort of fringe to cover my high forehead so that I don't look quite so bald!

Colour on my lips is NYX Peach Bellini by the way, which I swatched in my previous haul post :) Other than that it's pretty minimal makeup for the day :)

Mini Haul and Swatches: NYX Round Lipsticks in Shiva, Chic Red and Peach Bellini

Hi all! It's been a long while since I last posted, but you will be hearing more from me now that I'm back at work and can steal time over lunch or break to blog! Chasing around two kids at home means I'm barely on my computer and the only way I was keeping up with anything was with my wonderful, awesome, gorgeous Samsung S2 on twitter, email and facebook!
So anyway, a couple of months back I got these round lippies when I saw the NYX Summer collection. Me being me, I wanted to get all of them just because I love colours, but I restricted myself to these three which are colours that I can see myself wearing and are at least a little bit different from what I already own.

As always, I love the creamy consistency of the NYX round lipsticks. I find them to be quite moisturising for my lips and quite pigmented. They don't last that long, usually after about 2 to 3 hours I will need to touch-up but I'm not going to complain as these babies are quite cheap at about SGD4.50-5.00 each.

Lip swatches to follow in the next few days as I give these babies a long-awaited test run! So far, Peach Bellini is the only one that has gotten any wear as I find it such a grab and go colour :)

Catchya soon, loves!