Beautifying Lip Smoother in Blackberry Muffin by Catrice

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

I dipped my toe into the Catrice product pool recently, and I've got to say I'm impressed so far. Today I'll be showing you the Beautifying Lip Smoother in Blackberry Muffin ($4.99), which is actually a lovely coral gloss with gold shimmer. Not sure how it got the name 'blackberry muffin', as there is nothing blackberry like about it, but it's all good regardless.

What intrigued me about this gloss was an Ulta reviewer's comparison of the Beautifying Lip Smoothers to Clarin's Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors, which I've always wanted to try but balked at paying their $26 price. Both are supposed to be nourishing and provide soft washes of color. A comparison of the ingredient lists tells me both also contain shea butter and mineral oil, with Catrice also listing jojoba oil, while Clarin's has mango butter.

What I know is that Blackberry Muffin does feel quite moisturizing and comfortable, with a light, non-sticky texture. It wears a short 2-3 hours, which is about normal for me with this kind of non-sticky/light gloss. I like it!

Blackberry Muffin

I only see 3 shades listed on Ulta's site and I chose Blackberry Muffin because it looked the most vibrant, and I lucked out with it being the kind of coral pink I like. The gold shimmer is not super obvious unless it catches the light, and then it pops.

 

I wouldn't call the Beautifying Lip Smoother super smoothing, as my lip lines are still obvious, but it does have a nice shine and gives lips that plump and juicy look. I quite like it, and with Ulta's frequent sales, think it's definitely an inexpensive treat to check out if you are a gloss fan like I am.

Countdown to Gorgeous Days 22 and 23: Lola, the Girl Next Door FOTD

Days 22 (Be Nice) and 23 (Be Family) of the Countdown to Marvelous advent calendar from bareMinerals bring the Marvelous Moxie lip gloss in Girl Next Door and the blush Lola. When I opened Lola I thought "is this a blush or an eyeshadow?"

Well, I imagine you could use it for either, depending on your skin color. Since I'm fair and thought it wouldn't look right on me as a blush, I used it as an eyeshadow. It's quite pretty!

Girl Next Door is a sheer peach with fine gold shimmer. It reminded me of an earlier gloss from the calendar called Crowd Pleaser, so I pulled it to compare.

Crowd Pleaser is definitely more pink, so they are not as similar as I thought.

For this FOTD, I'm wearing Lola up to the crease, with the matte shadows Peachy Keen from Le Metier de Beaute and Fringe from the MetalMatte Kat von D palette as transition shades.

Blush and highlighter are from Makeup Revolution's Golden Sugar 2 Rose Gold palette. The individual pans don't have names, but here is a picture of the vanilla gold highlighter and mauve bronze blush. This is a really nice palette, I need to get around to posting a full review soon.

This blush makes me look tanned, and while I am using the Clarin's Radiance Plus self-tanner on my face and neck, the blush definitely adds that 'day in the sun' vibe. Which considering today is partly sunny and 75 degrees, I could actually have.

I spend Christmas Eve at my mom's house, where the dogs will be wearing their jingle bell collars and opening presents. As soon as I get those collars out they know it's a special day, and I hope yours will be as well :-)

Countdown to Gorgeous Day 21: Be Naughty with Daredevil

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

Day 21 of the Countdown to Gorgeous advent calendar by bareMinerals is telling me to be naughty with Daredevil, a Marvelous Moxie sheer plum shimmer lip gloss.

I've enjoyed trying all of the Marvelous Moxie glosses, as these remind me of my favorite Buxom glosses. They have a similar cooling sensation on the lips and I find the formula to be comfortable and hydrating. These are more sticky than the Buxom glosses, but they also last a good 3-4 hours sans eating, which is pretty impressive.

I'm more of a gloss than lipstick girl so the sheerness of the colors is something I can live with. Plus, I can always use them as a lipstick topper for an added bit of shine and shimmer.

If the forecast is right, we are in for a warm Christmas eve day at 75 degrees. Not complaining, but a bit more balmy than I would like for this time of year. OTOH, it does make taking the dogs for a walk quite pleasant:-)

Countdown to Gorgeous Days 18 and 19: Be Natural and Colorful

Disclaimer: I purchased these.

Is it possible to be both natural and colorful when it comes to makeup? I'm not so sure, but I'll roll with it for now.  Day 18 of the Countdown to Gorgeous advent calendar by bareMinerals brings another Marvelous Moxie lip gloss, this time in the sweet pink shimmer Smooth Talker.

Smooth Talker has a fine gold shimmer in the mix, which makes it slightly warmer in tone and something I will happily wear.

Day 19 brings the Plumberry Pop of Passion Lip Oil Balm, which is indeed quite colorful. Plumberry is the most vibrant of the Pop of Passion balms I've received thus far, but still within my comfort zone.

The oil rich formula of these make them especially nice now that the weather has turned colder and my already dry lips need even more moisture.

Hmm, I need to layer Smooth Talker over Plumberry and see what that looks like. Maybe tomorrow, which will be the beginning of my Christmas break!

I have an exciting trip to the pet store planned to wash my Westie Lulu in their DIY Pet Washing station. It's only $5 on Wet Dog Wednesday (usually $10), which is a steal considering they provide shampoo, towels, and everything else you could need to bath and groom your dog. I think Lulu actually likes it, and I love it :-)

Culling My Collection: 2016 Lip Gloss and Lip Crayon Declutter Part II

On to part two of the great lip gloss/lip crayon declutter (part 1 is here). First up today are some items in the peachy/melon color family. Not making the cut are the first two - a sample from Chantecaille and a shimmer gloss from Le Metier de Beaute's (LMdB) VIP subscription program. Both are sheer and the LMdB has a rather chemically smell.

Tally: 42 items culled and 70 items kept. Next are 3 peachy rose glosses, all of which I like and kept.

Tally: 42 items tossed and 73 kept. Now for some coral and red glosses and liquid lipsticks. I like all of these as well and nothing is getting tossed, which makes the tally now 42 items culled and 82 items kept.

Next up are some lip crayons/balm stains. A couple of the Revlon Just Bitten balm stains were starting to go bad and I did not care for the color of Precious and Julep's Flamingo, so they did not make the cut.  Tally: 46 items tossed and 90 items kept.

Ah, my favorite glosses ever - Buxom. I find the formula very comfortable to wear and like the slightly cooling/tingling sensation. Most are definitely on the sheer side, and even with that I only managed to get rid of 3.

Here are the ones I tossed, which brings my tally to 49 items tossed and 110 items kept. I also kept all of the Bite Beauty glosses from 15 Shades of Sephora set, which brings my final tally to: 49 items tossed and 127 items kept. That's about 38%, which is okay.

Here are all the items I tossed:

I think in 6 months I should probably revisit what I kept and do another cull, as my collection is still excessive. I did organize most of what I kept by color family, which helps with decision making in the mornings now.

Lip glosses and lip crayons post cull

Culling My Collection: 2016 Lip Gloss and Lip Crayon Declutter

The number of lip glosses/lip crayons I have is certainly excessive and a declutter is in order. I find it hard to locate items and my Westie Lulu has gotten into the bad habit of nose bumping the containers within her reach until they are all on the floor.  This happens when I'm at work and is apparently something she enjoys. I'm taking it as a further reminder that it is time to cull my collection!

Let's start with these L'Oreal Infallible le glosses.  I'm not much of a hot pink lip person, so I'll keep 125 and 805 but toss 140, pretty as it is.  Tally: 1 tossed, 2 kept.  Next are some discontinued Buxom matte lipsticks, which had a pretty darn good formula.  A few have turned and a couple are not colors I wear, so...

I'm tossing five and keeping Tokyo and Miami. I'm off to a pretty good start here, with 6 items tossed and 3 kept.

Next are four Ultra lip pencils, Tangelo, Charmer, Muse and Bewitched. Charmer had gone bad - you can see where it's bunching up in the swatch, so it got tossed. I also tossed Muse and Bewitched as I do not reach for them. However, I do like this particular Ulta lip crayon formula and think they are a good inexpensive lip crayon. Tally: 9 items tossed, 4 kept.

 All three of these lovely ladies are staying, as I really like the L'Oreal La Laque and Le Matte crayons with their intense pigment.  Nice.  Tally 9 items tossed and 7 kept.

Now for one of my favorite color families - corals and oranges. Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the ones I kept vs. tossed, but I believe I tossed 4 and kept 4. Tally 13 tossed and 11 kept.

Ah, Tarte LipSurgence lip tints.  I like them, but honestly think they are overpriced at $24 and I hate how easily the caps crack. Most of these I got as part of sets, and after swatching decided to part with five and keep five.

I kept Sweet, Achiote, Glitzy, Swank, and Moody.

Getting tossed are Perky, Enchanted, Stunning, Peaceful, and Dazzling. Tally: 18 tossed and 16 kept.

I've got 3 ColourPop lipsticks: Topanga, Toucan and Tipsy.  Tipsy didn't really work for me, so it's going.  I'm keeping Topanga and Toucan, for a tally of 19 tossed and 18 kept.

I'm keeping the two at the end: Palladio's Sangria and fresh Sugar Rose, making that 22 tossed and 19 kept.

Here are some similar shades of red lip crayons (Urban Decay's Theodora and Mirenesse Flirty Kiss)  and two somewhat close mauves (Buxom's and Urban Decay's Glinda), so I swatched to see who would win out.  And the winners are....Flirty Kiss and Glinda - the two in the middle. The tally is now 24 tossed and 21 kept.

Now for some pink and dusty rose colors.  I'm keeping 3 and tossing 3, and once you see the pictures it will be clear that I prefer certain colors over others.

I'm keeping the more dusty rose colors and tossing the pinks. In case you didn't know, Sula was the precursor to Bite Beauty, or at least they have the same creator. Sula was available at Ulta and I bought several of their glosses when they were being discontinued, and they are nice.

The tally is now 27 tossed and 24 kept. Now for some tube glosses, including a few discontinued Urban Decays.

I've got 2 of the Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy glosses, so I tossed the one that was used and kept the other.  I also kept the Tarina Tarantino Sparklicity Gloss and Benefit's Sugarbomb.

Tally: 30 tossed and 27 kept. Next are a variety of lip crayons from different brands.

I liked the majority of these, so only 3 are getting tossed: 2 Ulta crayons and the Burt's Bees.  That makes 33 items tossed and 34 kept.

Ah, there is something just so visually pleasing about these cameo pinks and nudes.  All but two made the cut, with Le Metier de Beaute (LMdB) and Rimmel's Show Off Lip Lacquer in Luna getting tossed (first and last glosses in pictures).  The LMdB gloss was from the VIP program and the consistency had changed, and Luna just didn't work well for me. Tally: 35 tossed and 41 kept. My numbers are reversing, and I think that trend continues from here on out :-(

Only two of these are getting tossed - the two at the very bottom:

The tally is now 37 tossed and 49 kept. Now for another color category I really like - my beige and brown hued glosses.

Three of these are getting tossed: the discontinued Mermaid from Too Faced and the two Estee Lauder glosses on the right - Wired Copper and Praline Paradise.  I wore the heck out of Praline Paradise for a while, but it's time to move on.

The tally is now 40 tossed and 56 kept. Now for some favorites, my coral pink glosses.

No great surprise here, but I'm keeping all of them.  Tally=37 tossed and 55 kept. Next are my cooler toned pink glosses.

I'm tossing two of these:  Birchbox Pink from Jouer and Cargo's Venice.  Venice looks sooo pretty in the tube but is basically a clear gloss, which is disappointing.

Total tossed is now 39 and items kept are 59. Another favorite color category are my pinky coral red glosses.

Gah, just so pretty. The only one I'm tossing is the 5th one, a glitter gloss in Fuschia Fantasy from Estee Lauder. That makes 40 items tossed and 64 items kept. I'd like to say we are close to the end, but there is actually enough left to get through that I'm going to save it for Wednesday's post.  So, stay tuned as I continue to make my way through a ridiculous number of glosses. Ridiculous.