1 Year Blog-iversary Giveaway

To celebrate my blog turning 1 year old on the 2nd of Feb, I'm going to give away 3 of my "Red Lip Essentials"; A Lush Lip Scrub, tube of my beloved Carmex and a tube of red lipstick, which I'm leaving as a surprise. Enter below using Rafflecopter, and I will announce the winner on Sunday February 2nd! That gives you 3 weeks to enter. 

I love you guys, time to show the appreciation.

Amy,
xxx

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Red Lips for Every Budget

Red Lips are timeless and classic. They can lift a woman's confidence to dizzying heights, bump up her sex appeal and embolden her to boot!

These days I feel I'm pretty qualified to give my opinion on rocking a red lip for every budget! 

Low Budget: 

I have no shame in saying that I find myself drawn to the low budget brands or "bargain" brands, because not only are you getting value for money, but these days you are getting brilliant quality too. 

Brands like Essence and Catrice have taken the beauty market by storm with their pocket-friendly offerings.

Essence Stay Matte Lip Cream in Silky Red is a fantastic red lip color for very little, retailing for €2.49 a tube. If you feel like treating yourself a little more, for €1.89 you can pick up the lipliner to match in the shade Femme Fatale, meaning for under €5, you can rock a beautiful, cool red lip, which wears beautifully and doesn't dry out your lips.

If Essence doesn't take your fancy, why not try some of the other budget offerings by the likes of Catrice, Collection or Natural Collection? I can verify that the Natural Collection lipstick in Crimson is a beautiful, well made lip product and is only 50c more expensive than Essence.

Mid-Range Budget:


The Mid-Range budget, by my reckoning would include the likes of Revlon and Maybelline.
One offering I particularly like is Revlon ColourStay Ultimate Suede in 095 "Finale".

One thing I will say about this lipstick is that upon first application it looks glossy, but as it dries it locks in, beautifully matte and pigmented.

This product is wonderful, I can attest to that. I wore this to lunch during the height of summer, with my mum and it never budged, and I wasn't using a liner with it. At €10.20, it's reasonable, but may be difficult to justify for some budgets.

Now that's a result!!

Top Tip: For extra opacity with this lipcolour, apply a first coat, blot, and then top up with a second coat before allowing to dry. Hello, Hollywood glamour!!



High-End:

Credit to Miss Penny Dreadful
http://misspennydreadful.blogspot.ie

The only lipstick that I think deserves a place here, is the much beloved, insanely popular MAC Retro Matte lippie, Ruby Woo.

This lipstick doesn't come cheap, at €19 a tube, but it is absolutely unbelievable. I would recommend this to anyone who was out to treat themselves to a lovely red lipstick.

Have you a birthday coming up? Need something for the Christmas wishlist? This is the lippie for you!! It has a gorgeous matte finish, lasts for ages, and smells divine.

If you are passing a MAC store, on Henry St or a MAC counter, treat yourself to this baby, I promise you wont regret it. It truly is the best red lipstick I have tried, and trust me, I have tried a lot.

Top Tip: For the best wear time and appearance, be sure to give your lips a good scrub with a sugar-scrub such as Lush Bubblegum Lip-Scrub, and moisturize with a good quality lip-balm. This will avoid it showing up the imperfections we all invariably have on our lips.


Christmas is the time to rock a festive red lip, no matter your budget, there is a red lip for you.
Will you be rocking a festive lip this season?

Amy
x

Maybelline Super Stay 24hr Lip Colour Review

Hey All, sorry for my absence, I've been beyond busy this last week!! Today I have a quick review of the Maybelline New York Super-Stay 24hr Lip Colour!!

The applicator is slim and easy to use! 

Maybelline are promising a lot when they offer 24hr color that wont move off your lips... Or, at least, that was what I thought when I saw it. I asked Kayliegh (knowing she had used it) was it as good as they made it out to be, and she confirmed that it was everything it promised to be, and more!

When I swatched this on my hand in Boots, I thought to myself that it would never be what it was hyped up as. I was so wrong!!! After I swatched it, I wandered around for a few hours, forgetting about it. I washed my hands multiple times, and I actually had to scrub it to get it off that evening. Color me impressed. 

The wax/balm sealant is moisturizing and glossy

This lipstick comes in two parts, a lip color and a wax sealant. First you apply the color and then wait for it to dry. The drying bit takes no time at all, in fact, by the time your top lip is coated, and you finish the bottom lip, your top lip is dry! After that you slick on the wax sealant for a moisturising, glossy pout!

I am now the proud owner of this glorious lipstick, and I am so pleased with its lasting power, wearability and the sheer comfort of it!! I would nearly consider this my holy grail lipstick. 

Maybelline Super Stay 24hr Lip Color retails in Boots for just shy of €15...

What do you think? Would you be on for trying this out? Do you think it's too good to be true?? Or have you tried it and can testify to its lasting power? 

Kisses,
Amy
xo

Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick

Today I decided that I would wear my newest lipstick, Revlon's Colorstay Ultimate Suede in the shade Finale out and about to see how it fared.

Top Left: One Swipe (top), Multiple Swipes (bottom),
Middle Left: 095 Finale,
Bottom Left: Immediately after application in Natural Light.

First Impressions. 

As soon as I put it on, I was thinking "Suede means matte, and this isn't matte!!" It goes on glossy. I was confused. After all my raving and cheering and general recommendations of the Colorburst lip-butters, I was pretty deflated. Had Revlon been lying to me?! But I stuck it out and no sooner had I checked in the mirror than I realized it had mattified beautifully.

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters

Left-Wild Watermelon
Right- Candy Apple

As a lover of Revlon's "Just Bitten" Kissable Balm-Stain, I have to admit right now I had high expectations of the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters since they started cropping up on every blog I've ever read, though I didn't know what shade to opt for. So, last night on the Twitter chat for Irish Beauty Bloggers, I put forth the question "What Revlon lip butter would you guys recommend?" and Dani, the lovely "Glamour Nazi" answered with "If you love a red lip, go for Candy Apple".

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter
035 - Candy Apple

Armed with a name and some good reviews, I headed for Boots, where the stand had just been restocked. Huzzah!! I swatched Candy Apple, hummed in approval, and decided to go the whole hog and see if the reviews of "Wild Watermelon" were as good as the Internet sad they were... I wasn't disappointed. That had to be mine too.

I must admit I did 3 laps of all the make-up stands, swatching and dabbing, but at €11.20 each, I had maxed myself out for one trip. I suppose the problem is when you're as attached to good quality budget brands like Essence and NYC, €11.20 seems excessive, but no matter.

I've been wearing Candy Apple all day (needing only 2 reapplications because of dinner and a cuppa) and it's immensely comfy. It makes a change from the drying nature of the matte colours I adore so much. The bottom left tile, on the photo illustrating the product shows swatches after one swipe (left swatch) and multiple swipes (right swatch). Its a beautiful buildable colour. A+!

Lush Loves Lips...

Its pretty much taken as Gospel that lipstick looks better on a lip that has been scrubbed smooth and slicked with something healing or softening before you slap on that color. The same goes with tan, foundation, even nail polish looks better on smooth nails!

Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub

As a result, every time I've found myself in a Lush store, I've somehow managed to pick up a lip scrub and just stand there smelling it. They have 3 flavors, Mint Juleps, Popcorn, and Bubblegum! Mint Juleps is lovely, very strong but sweet somehow, Popcorn smells like just that - popcorn, buttery, salty wonderful cinema food! Bubblegum is the best. Vibrant pink, smelling like the love child between candy-floss and Hubba-Bubba, it's a complete throwback from those childhood days!

Ever since they released these beauties, I've been lusting after and coveting them intensely. I had to have a bubblegum one, but at the same time, I'm unemployed so money is tight. These lip scrubs are somewhere in the region of €8, which can be a lot depending on the look of my wallet... But last week I decided it was high time I got my hands on the highly-coveted Bubblegum Lip Scrub. So off I went, into Dublin, so I could get a few bits (I will be posting a haul soon I hope), with a stop into Lush being top of my list...

Oh God, I've Become A Girly-Girl!!

Girls, we all love our beauty products and make up. Its just the way we are, and guys wont ever understand why we need 3 different mascaras, or 100 bottles of nail polish, but we do. Or at least, that's what we tell ourselves! 

We all have our favourites though, so here's mine. My favourites, for my face!

Skin Wisdom Youth Protect Facial Wipes.

Skin Wisdom Youth Protect

These bad boys are amazing! I stumbled across these when I finished my Simple Kind-To-Skin wipes. They have a "Recommended Age Group" on the side of the nice, shiny pink foil packet, saying you should use these between the ages of 20-35. I suppose, those are the years between which you'd wanna be protecting that youth of yours, missus! They smell lovely and they do a great job of stripping off makeup, mascara, everything! I will say that you need a good moisturiser for after them, because they can leave your skin a bit tight. Maybe that's the Youth Protect bit?!

They claim to cleanse, tone and moisturise in one easy step, and are enriched with rhodiola rosea and amino acids, as well as cranberry and white tea.

They also claim to be suitable for all skin types, but I would say if you have dry skin, either avoid them entirely, or use a damn good moisturiser after them!

At €1.69 (I think!), in Tesco, I'd recommend them, even just to see if they do anything for your skin, but personally, I love them and have already repurchased them, in case they ever disappear from the shelves!