Lipstick Roulette v. 8: What I'm Keeping and What I'm Tossing

Volume 8 of my Lipstick Roulette series was a winner, in that I liked every item enough to keep all of them. The part of me that is using this series as a way to weed through and toss some items is a bit disappointed, but I just can't justify tossing any of these at this point. If you are not familiar with a lipstick roulette, I learned about it from YouTuber Elle S, and it's where you randomly select items from your collection to wear with the goal of keeping what you love and tossing those you don't.

Forbidden Kiss Infallible Pro Matte Gloss by L'Oreal ($10.99) is not the kind of color I gravitate towards, and was one I initially assumed I would declutter. However, I liked the way it looked on, which is not always the case with this intense of a color. The downside is that this will transfer as it is a gloss and not a matte liquid lipstick and I did experience a bit of smudging, so it's one that requires a bit of care. The upside is that it's comfortable to wear and the the pigmentation/color is so smooth on the lips. I like it.

Forbidden Kiss

Topanga Lippie Stix by ColourPop ($5) is flat out gorgeous, both in color and formula. I had forgotten how nice this is, and I really need to wear it more often. It's still available from ColourPop, and considering how often they bring out and discontinue items, that's saying something. It's described as a dusty coral and is a satin finish, although it looks glossy on to me.

Topanga

Gorgeous Peach Ultra Vinyl lip pencil by Sephora is discontinued, sadly, as it's a color and formula that I think is quite good. I found myself reaching for it several times during the last few weeks.

Gorgeous Peach

I really like the ColourPop Satin Liquid Lipsticks as they are comfortable to wear and look good on the lips, and Echo Park ($6) is a great peachy nude shade for me. I've heard that ColourPop's liquid lipsticks can go bad relatively quickly, but considering their reasonable prices I tend to think of them as "disposable" makeup, in the sense that you can acquire new colors with relatively low investment. I wouldn't buy a bunch of them all at once though, since their shelf life is not very long. I do like that ColourPop occasionally has sample sized liquid lipstick sets for sale, and I recently picked up one to try more shades :-)

Echo Park

Dolly by Buxom is discontinued, and like many Buxom glosses, it provides high shine with sheer color. I love the Buxom gloss formula personally, and this one does not disappoint.

Out of all of these, Stepping Out by Smashbox ($24) was my least favorite. I've heard so many good things about the Smashbox matte liquid lipstick formula, so maybe my expectations were too high. I wasn't wowed, but neither is it bad.  The terracotta color is wearable and since it was a travel sized freebie, I want to give it some more wear. I can say I wouldn't spend full price to pick up another color though.

Stepping Out

The Revolution Lipstick in Fiend by Urban Decay is another discontinued item, as it was not carried over into the new Vice product line. Too bad, I think it's a really lovely and wearable muted pink.

Fiend

Okay, time for the 7 new lip items I picked for v. 9 of my Lipstick Roulette series. Many of these are limited edition and/or discontinued, although I see some available via Amazon/ebay/other online retailers.

1. Cassis Lip Creme by Le Metier de Beaute (limited edition)
2. Vibrant Mandarin by Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids
3. Key Red Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick by PUR (limited edition)
4. Beige Pink Cherry Lip Gloss by Korres (I see sets with Beige Pink in them on HSN, but cannot find them sold individually)
5. Swank Lipsurgence Natural Lip Tint by Tarte (discontinued)
6. Smooth Berry Stay Matt Lip Cream by Essence (discontinued)
7. Secret Crush Lip Gloss by Sula Beauty (discontinued)

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)

Lipstick Roulette v. 6: What I'm Keeping and What I'm Tossing

Time to review the 7 lip items I randomly selected for v. 6 of my Lipstick Roulette series and see what I'm keeping and what I'm tossing! If you are not familiar with this concept, I learned about it from Elle S on YouTube, and it's where you rotate through your collection with the ultimate goal of decluttering the items that are no longer working for you. I'm finding it quite useful, as I'm revisiting lots of items that have been languishing untouched for quite a while.

1. True Love Lipsurgence Lip Gloss by Tarte
2. All Gold E'rything Be Legendary Lip Gloss by Smashbox (LE, discontinued)
3. Bold Blush 420 Pop Balm by L'Oreal
4. 523 Flash Lacquer by Giorgio Armani Beauty
5. Venezia Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick by stila
6. Miami Lipstick by Buxom (discontinued)
7. Julie Lip Gloss by Buxom 

True Love

I acquired True Love ($19) by Tarte in a FabFitFun box if I remember correctly, and it's a sheer but nicely pigmented watermelon gloss with shimmer. I like the formula, as it's glossy without being too sticky, and wears comfortably for a good 2-3 hours. True Love is similar to the Armani 523 Lip Lacquer - perhaps not as a glossy. The shimmer is not super obvious but does make it slightly different than 523, and it's a keeper.

All Gold E'rything

All Gold E'rything over Toujours Heureux by Paul & Joe Beaute

All Gold E'rything is a gold shimmer gloss from the Santigolden Age collection from Smashbox, circa 2014. It works best as a topper over lipstick, as on it's own it does not supply much color. I don't have many gold shimmer lip toppers and I like it, so I will be keeping this one.

Bold Blush

Bold Blush with Julie by Buxom

The L'Oreal Pop Balm in Bold Blush (~$6) is a product that looks only so so on it's own, so I typically top it with a gloss. That seems to smooth out the color better, which has a tendency to gather in my lip lines otherwise. Once it's smoothed out with a gloss it's quite pretty, so it gets to stay :-)

523 Flash Lacquer

I think the Giorgio Armani Lip Lacquer in 523 ($32) is stunning with it's juicy watermelon pink glossiness. It has enough color to wear on it's own, although I imagine it could take lipsticks to another level as well. Definitely a keeper.

Venezia

Venezia Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick by Stila ($22) is a neon bright orange red that definitely makes a statement. I quite like it, although I wasn't crazy about it with the darker eye above. I think a natural eye look with Venezia would be a great hot weather look, and I will be keeping it. The formula was relatively comfortable for a matte liquid lipstick and my lips were none the worse for the wear.

Miami

Miami is a discontinued matte lipstick by Buxom, and it's my kind of color. I loved how it looked when freshly applied, but after only a few hours of wear it was a hot mess of patchy, blotchy, faded color. Perhaps it's past it's prime, as it is several years old, and it's getting tossed.

Julie

Julie over Nudite lip pencil (Le Metier de Beaute)

Julie by Buxom is a sheer peachy gloss, and I think the one I have is an older version as the current Julie gloss is described as a juicy watermelon and is a vibrant pink.  My version is rather nondescript and works best over lipsticks, and I've paired it with the Nudite lip pencil from Le Metier de Beaute above. I do love the Buxom gloss formula so will be hanging on to Julie, as it is still good despite its age. So, out of these seven items I'm only tossing one!

Now, here are the seven new items I randomly selected for v. 7 of Lipstick Roulette.

1. Blanche by Buxom (discontinued)
2. Crowd Pleaser Marvelous Moxie Lip Gloss by bareMinerals
3. Passion Fruit Luminous Gloss by Chantecaille
4. Glazed Berry Different Lipstick by Clinique (field casualty)
5. Scarlet Blaze Color Design Lipstick by Lancome (field casualty)
6. Sahara Hydra Creme Lipstick by Le Metier de Beaute
7. Palm Beach by Cargo Cosmetics
8. Copenhagen Soft Matte Lip Cream by nyx
9. 400 Lip Maestro by Giorgio Armani

I accidently knocked the table while taking pictures, and Glazed Berry and Scarlet Blaze fell into the dirt. I'm pretty sure I would have tossed both anyhow, although I wore Scarlet Blaze yesterday topped with Blanche and it looked quite pretty, so that one might have made the cut. Sadly, it's now a casualty of my clumsiness. C'est la vie, between the mosquitoes, high humidity that fogs my camera as soon as I step outside, and now this, it's always something :-)

Scarlet Blaze topped with Blanche