Lipstick Roulette v.7: What I'm Keeping and What I'm Tossing

Disclaimer: I purchased these.

It's taken me a sweet minute to get v. 7 of my Lipstick Roulette series posted, but I'm finally at the point where I know what I want to keep and what I want to toss from this group of 7 items.  If you are not familiar with what a lipstick roulette is, I learned about it from Youtuber Elle S, and it's a great way to cycle through your collection of lip items with the goal of only keeping those you love and will use. So, let's see what those are for me!

First up are two sheer glosses in travel sizes: Buxom's discontinued Blanche and bareMineral's Crowd Pleaser.  Blanche is clear with silver micro shimmer and Crowd Pleaser is sheer with gold shimmer, and both work best as lip toppers over more pigmented lipsticks.  Buxom glosses are my all time favorite formula wise, but the bareMineral Marvelous Moxie glosses are pretty good as well.

Neither of these are particularly glittery or bold, and mostly provide high shine with a touch of shimmer. I'm halfway through Blanche and have 2/3 of Crowd Pleaser left, so I'm going to keep both but put them in my purse so that I will use them up quicker.

Blanche over Lancome's Scarlet Blaze lipstick

Crowd Pleaser

Next is Chantecaille's Passionfruit Luminous gloss ($36) and the nude Hydra-Creme lipstick Sahara from Le Metier de Beaute ($25).  Both are luxury brands with corresponding prices, and I believe Passionfruit may have been discontinued as I'm not seeing it in the current lineup. It's a nice gloss with a good formula, but there is no way I'd pay $36 for it (I received it as a part of a bundled set of products from Birchbox).  Sahara is about as nude as I can go with a lip color without looking dead, and I do like the formula. I'll be keeping both.

Passionfruit by Chantecaille

Sahara by Le Metier de Beaute

The next three are all bold colors that are gorgeous when swatched, but two gave me problems when wearing and I don't wear the other, so all are getting tossed. The vibrant coral pink Palm Beach by Cargo ($22) tends to settle into lip lines and just did not look good close up, and the Copenhagen soft matte lip cream by Nyx ($6.49) was on the patchy side. 

Copenhagen

I wore Copenhagen twice and could not get it to look like I wanted without sheering it out to almost nothing, which tells me it's not for me. It was part of the soft matte lip cream vault from last year's holiday collection, and while it pains me to start paring down the complete set, it's the right thing to do.

Palm Beach by Cargo

The Lip Maestro 400 by Giorgio Armani is not really a color I am going to wear often (and I did not wear it during this testing period), so I'm tossing it as well. Below is a picture from 2015 when I first tested it out, and as I have not worn it since....

Lip Maestro 400 by Giorgio Armani

So that makes 3 items tossed and 4 kept, which pares down the collection one tiny step at a time :-) I've actually tossed 13 items since the beginning of this series, so that is progress. Now let's see what items I randomly selected for v. 8 of Lipstick Roulette.

1. Infallible Pro Matte Gloss in Forbidden Kiss by L'oreal
2. Topanga Satin Lippie Stix by Colourpop
3. Sephora Ultra Vinyl lip pencil in Gorgeous Peach (discontinued)
4. Echo Park Ultra Satin Lip by Colourpop
5. Betty Buxom lip gloss (discontinued)
6. Stepping Out Always On Matte Liquid Lipstick by Smashbox
7. Fiend Revolution Lipstick by Urban Decay (discontinued)

Melissa Michelle Palette by Ulta Beauty

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

Today I have an inexpensive palette to show you that I've quite fallen in love with - the Melissa Michelle xoxo palette from Ulta Beauty ($20). Melissa Michelle is a YouTube Beauty vlogger, although I was not familiar with her prior to seeing some reviews for her palette. What drew me in were the colors, which just scream "fall" to me.  

The palette is a sturdy cardboard and you do get a nice sized mirror, which came in handy when I took the palette with me to New Orleans recently for a short work trip. I can get multiple looks from this palette and think the shade selection is fantastic for those who love warm/neutral colors.  My coloring is nothing like Melissa Michelle's but there is not a single color in the palette that does not work for me.

You get four shimmer eyeshadows and five matte shades, and all of them perform really well. The mattes are smooth and easy to blend, and the range of shades make this a complete palette for me - hence why I took it with me to New Orleans.

The first eyeshadow Teresita is a chunkier metallic shimmer, but I had no problems with shimmer migration when I used my finger to pat it on my lids. The rust colored Bing Bing has fantastic pigmentation, and I'm loving the clay colored Rosemary and the soft tan Tobo as a crease shades. All swatches are over primer, as that is how I wear them :-)

From top to bottom: Teresita, Kades, Alana, Lola

Bing Bing, Harley, Weezy, Rosemary, Tobo

The highlighter Hollerrr has three different sections and each of them can work as eyeshadows as well.  The sections are large enough that you could just use a single shade as a highlighter with a smaller brush, although I'm sure most will swirl the colors together. The blush swatched a bit patchy on my arm but it looks great on my face, and is a lovely everyday kind of color that works well with a variety of looks. I really like it!

I was assuming I would not like the formula of the matte liquid lipstick Scandy, as it has a tack to it and does not completely dry down. I was wrong, as I love the color and find it comfortable to wear, and my lips did not feel dry the next day.

Scandy

I have no idea how long Ulta will be carrying this palette, but if the colors speak to you I think it's well worth checking out. The quality is there (4.6 rating on Ulta's site) and the price is uber reasonable for everything you are getting. Plus, Ulta always has sales or GWP's that further sweeten the deal.

Teresita over Alana with Rosemary and Tobo in the crease

Wearing Mahal blush and Scandy matte liquid lipstick

I stayed at a really cool boutique hotel in New Orleans called the Q&C HotelBar New Orleans, Autograph Collection®.  Weird name, but I loved the look and feel of the place and thought my room was lovely.

My room was smaller than I'm used to with chain hotels and reminded me size wise of a hotel I stayed in in Paris, plus it was pet friendly! Or at least I saw a couple leaving with their dogs, so I assume it was. Having cement floors probably contributes to pet friendliness.

The check-in area is small, just two stations, and there is a bar and small eating area right there, hence the HotelBar name, I guess. Anyhow, I'd stay there again so thought I would give it a mini-review as well.  I'm always curious to see what toiletries are carried  by different hotels, and Moulton Brown was the choice here :-)

Bronzed 'n' Sculpted by Benefit and an Ulta 21 Days of Beauty Pick

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

I recently finished a mini of the Hoola Quickie Contour Stick and liked it so much that I was wavering between buying the full sized or getting another mini, as the full size is a bit pricey at $28. Then I saw this Bronze 'n' Sculpted kit ($17) and since I've never tried the powder version of Hoola, my decision was made.

The set contains mini's of the Hoola Quickie Contour Stick, the Hoola powder bronzer, and the highlight Watt's Up!.  I had a mini of Watt's Up! in the past and did not remember being overly impressed with it, but now I think it must have been dried out, as I really like this one! I'm finding it super creamy and easy to use and it does not disturb my foundation when blending it out.

You get more of Watt's Up! (.08 oz.) than you do the Hoola Quickie Contour Stick (.05 oz), and I can see the highlighter lasting me quite a while. I do burn through the Hoola Quickie Contour Stick pretty quickly, however, which made Ulta's sale during the 21 Days of Beauty appealing. But more on that later.

The powder Hoola is a good color match for my fair skin, and I do like layering the stick Hoola with the powder Hoola. The box size is just big enough (.14 oz.) for me to get my Julep bronzer brush in it, plus you do get a cute brush with the box, although I find it scratchy and will not use it.

The powder Hoola is the first swatch and the stick Hoola is the last swatch.  I like using the stick Hoola to contour with and find it remarkably easy to blend out with my Beauty Blender sponge. Just to be careful to not over blend, as you can blend it completely away. The downside of the stick is that I use it up quickly - probably about 3 weeks of daily use for the mini sized.

Ulta is offering the full size of the Hoola Quickie Contour Stick as a hot buy ($21) during the 21 Days of Beauty sale, so I decided to pick one up. If you are a Platinum member you get free shipping on all hot buys and beauty steals, which is a nice perk.

You do get 6 times the amount (.3 oz) in the full sized Hoola Quickie stick, so hopefully it will last me a while. The bullet did come loose during shipping and it flew out when I opened the container, but fortunately I caught it so did not have any damage. Pressing it gently back into the container fixed the problem, but just be aware that it can come loose.

I can't imagine this would work for those with medium to dark complexions, but it's definitely a good match for my fair complexion. It's warm but does not go orange on me and I think looks very natural on the skin.

Julep Maven Box for September: Flawless Without the Fuss

Disclaimer: I purchased these.

My selections from Julep's September Maven collection were the polishes August and Sammy, plus the new Blank Canvas Illuminating Treatment Primer. Let's look at the polishes first and then I'll give you my initial impressions on the primer.

Every year around this time I'm attracted to deep crimsons to wear on my nails. It must have something to do with Indian summer and the change of seasons, which happens a bit later on the Gulf Coast than it does in other areas.  The polish August is described as a "chocolate cherry ghost shimmer" but reminds me of blackberries, as it looks almost black on the nail, with just a hint of its crimson undertone. The ghost shimmer doesn't really translate to the nail, as August looks decidedly like a cream finish to me.

Sammy is described as a sand dune creme, but I see a bit more lavender grey in the mix. I've got a work trip to New Orleans coming up, and I think I'll be sporting Sammy then.

I've only worn the Illuminating Treatment Primer ($28) twice thus far, so will wait for a true review until I have a better idea of how it performs. I initially saw the "illuminating" and thought there would be a shimmer finish to the primer, but there is not.  It does contain 18 plant extracts for long-term nourishing and brightening benefits and light diffusing pearls for a natural luminous finish. I don't really see a luminosity beyond what you would experience with any cream, but again, I may just need more time with it.

I can say the primer played nicely with my foundation the two times I tried it, which is promising.  I'm a fan of the Blank Canvas Mattifying primer, and the Illuminating primer may be a good choice for colder weather wear.

The extra this month was a sheet of stickers. I'm not really a sticker person, so will probably toss these. The value of my box this month was $56, for which I payed $19.99. Julep continues to impress me with their new products and polishes, making them the only beauty subscription box that I still receive :-)