Cheap Drugstore Nude Lipsticks For The Melanin Deficient

I know, I know, I've been MIA for awhile. But I have a few blog posts I'm excited about coming up soon. For now I have a few nude lipsticks that I can actually wear. Being so pale I'm practically transparent this is quite a feat! I put this together for a Facebook group I'm in and I thought I might share.

These lipsticks are very affordable and pretty easy to find!

Rimmel Airy Fairy- $5 to $6
Essence Creamy Nude- $2.99
NYX Pumpkin Pie- $4

Sorry my lips are so damn dry! The change in the weather this time of year does it every time!

Here is the swatch picture in a bigger size.

From left- Rimmel Airy Fairy, Essence Creamy Nude, and NYX Pumpkin Pie

My Number One Talent- Spending Money

First of all I want to thank those of you who comment on my mopey post yesterday. Everything you guys said really touched me and I immediately started crying like the big weepy dope that I am. I've decided to stop putting so much pressue on myself to post every day. If I don't have anything to say that day, I'm not going to beat myself up about not posting. Well, I'm going to try this anyway. :) I'm feeling a bit better right now. Hopefully it stays that way!

As you may know I've been reaaaally trying to cut back on my spending. I actually went a few weeks without buying anything, which is a record for me. I'm a sucker for a sale, so this weekend and all the labor day sales were especially difficult. But I did it! So, to reward myself, I spent money. Haha, I'm so bad. But at Walgreens most Maybelline cosmetics are 40% off until Sunday and I had a bunch of $1 coupons so I couldn't resist. I ended up paying $36 plus tax for what would have been $79 plus tax full price.

Sometimes I feel like my blog is a little impersonal and I think maybe that is why my interest in blogging is waning a bit. Like every other human being who has ever existed, I like talking about myself. You are under no obligation to pay attention; if you want to just look at the pretty makeup pictures, that's cool, too. Just as long as you keep coming back! Haha.

When I was in high school my parents bought a house out in the middle of nowhere. The area was gorgeous. We lived right up against a body of water called a resaca (apparently they're former channels of the Rio Grande). Our back yard went right up to the edge of this water. We had a shitty metal boat and one oar, but my boyfriend and I liked to out and paddle around looking for alligators. I never saw one, but my parents did a few times! I sort of miss living there, but my parents sold the house and moved back to Austin when my brother graduated from high school.


Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Wet n Wild Idol Eyes Creme Shadow swatches and review

It seems like every brand has a cream eye shadow stick these days- from cult favorite NYX to Urban Decay.  But at just $1.99 Wet n Wild's just might be the cheapest. First I'll show you some swatches and then get to the meat of the review.

Wet n Wild Idol Eyes Creme Shadows

From top to bottom- Pixie, Envy, Techno, and Distress

From left- Pixie, Envy, Techno, and Distress (Techno blended out at the very end)

The swatches look decent don't they? The only one I had issues swatching is Techno, which is a bit sheer.

From the beginning I knew that these weren't going to be a miracle non-creasing product to rival the high end brands.  This is what they claim, "Soft-blending, creamy eyeshadow at the convenience of a pencil. Silky-smooth formula glides on easily for high-impact, light-infused color that lasts for hours." (Quote from wnwbeauty.com)

I'm going to ago over each claim and let you know how it stacks up. The following is probably going to come off a bit snarky. I love Wet n Wild as a brand, though, I really do. But you can expect every brand to have a few duds.

Soft-blending-  I'm not sure what "soft" blending is but yes, these blend pretty well.  But, they sheer out really quickly so you are losing that intense color.

Creamy- Yes, these are very creamy.  Too creamy actually.  They never really set on their own (without powder on top).

Silky-smooth formula- Yes, I will give them that.  They aren't clumpy or lumpy.  But once again it is that creamy smoothness that gives us the problems.

High-impact- If you don't blend these a few of the shades are what I would consider high-impact (the blue and the green). The purple is quite sheer and the beige is neutral.

Light-infused- Well, they aren't matte.  I guess being shimmers makes them "light-infused".

Lasts for hours- Aaaand here is the kicker.  They don't.  Not by themselves anyway.  On a bare eyelid with no primer the don't last more than 5 minutes.  Well I suppose they last if you consider bunching together and having a little party in your eyelid creases lasting.  And that is applied straight from the pencil and blended (sheered) out.

The best way to back up any claim. Proof. And here is mine. (Be warned- scary, gross, creased eye makeup ahead!)

After 10 minutes- Applied thickly with no primer

I wasn't expecting this test to go so well. And it didn't. Applied like this they actually creased immediately. You can tell by looking at my lid how "wet" looking it is. And sorry, I forgot to wear mascara in all these pics, haha.

After 10 minutes- Applied sheerly with no primer

My next test was to apply as thin a layer as possible to see if it would crease. As you can tell, it did.

After 10 minutes- Applied a medium amount over primer

This time I used a primer, Too Faced Shadow Insurance. After 10 minutes the creasing isn't as horrific as the first picture, but it's still pretty damn bad. Unwearably bad.

After 10 minutes- Worn with primer and set with powder eyeshadow

This time I used the pencils as a base for powder eyeshadow. I used similar colors as the pencils (sorry, I don't remember which ones!). After 10 minutes I did not have any creasing and I like the way it looks better than just the powder shadows alone.

After 3 hours- Worn with primer and set with powder eyeshadow

So after 3 hours I still didn't have any creasing. Sorry for the crappy pic, but it was getting really late and I was so tired of messing with these things. At least I found a way to wear them that works for me!


Really, the only way these can be worn for me is as a base for other eye shadows. I have normal eyelids that rarely get oily, so I'm not sure how these would fare for those of you that do get oily. For $1.99 they are worth a try if you see a color you like. Plus, you can always take it back to the drugstore if it didn't work and you have your receipt.

To be honest, I don't really use these that often because they add another step to my makeup routine and that extra step is an extra 2 minutes I could have spent sleeping, haha. These do not live up the claims at all, but you might get them to work with a little work.

Oh, another thing. I hate the packaging. The plastic cap has a tendency to crack really easily making it loose. On all the pencils I have this happened and the cap mushes down on the top of the pencil, ruining it. I would either depot these and be very very careful with them.

Pros:

• Work as a base for powder eyeshadows
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• Crease instantly, even with primer unless used as a base for powder shadows
• Would like a broader color range. A white would be nice.
• Techno is pretty sheer
• The packaging is terrible and tends to ruin the pencils

Available:

• These retail for $1.99 and are sold at drugstores and where ever you can find Wet n Wild

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Wet n Wild's Blue Had Me At Hello Swatches and Review

A few weeks ago I got a very generous package from Wet n Wild of products for me to review.  Included in the package were all 3 of the 8-pan palettes.  I am so excited about these because I have heard all of the great reviews of them, but somehow had never got around to buy them (How did that happen? They're only $5 each!).  You can see by all my past posts that Wet n Wild is a brand I use a lot.  Especially recently.  I'm no impresses that they have stepped up the quality of their products and have become synonymous with great performing products that are budget-friendly.  Its refreshing to see that quality doesn't have to equal ridiculous prices.  I think that Wet n Wild still have a few items in their line that could be revamped to meet the standards on the new items, but every line has a few "not-so-great"s and Wet n Wild's are surprisingly few.

As expected, I absolutely love this palette.  There are essentially 3 black shades (they all look similar on the skin) that I probably won't use much, but for $5 I don't care.  And plus the ones that are awesome, are REALLY awesome.  I would buy this palette for that bright turquoise alone.

I like that the palette is sealed.  It's gross when drugstore cosmetics don't have any safety seals and people put their fingers in everything!

For those just starting out in makeup, the designations on the shadows of where are your eye to put them is helpful.  And I'm sure those type of people are a large part of Wet n Wild's customer base.  When I was first starting to wear makeup as a young teenager Wet n Wild was the brand I bought.  I know lots of other women have similar stories.  Which makes it neat that now we're grown we're coming back to Wet n Wild, not just because it's all we can afford like when we were young, but because we genuinely like the products.

The shades aren't named so I  numbered them for seeing as it's easier to refer to #3 versus "the matte black eyeshadow with blue sparkles" every time.

1- frosty silvery white
2- silver metallic shimmer
3- matte black with blue micro glitter (a bit patchy and blue glitter does not show up that well)
4- black matte (dry, patchy, and under-pigmented, but not the worst black matte I have used)

5- pale white-blue frosty shimmer
6- vibrant blue-green shimmer
7- black based dark blue shimmer
8- black matte with sparse silver glitter (patchy, and the silver glitter is prone to fallout)

The first column of colors.

The second column of colors.  And the one that makes this palette worth buying!

I used mostly of the shades (except the matte blacks) for this look. I later added on to So I'll get to the exact shades and placement in a few pictures.

Using the same numbering system as earlier in the review, here are the shades I used. The eyeliner is just shade 3 used wet. I'm also wearing Wet n Wild Color Icon pencil in Taupe on my eyebrow and their MegaLash Clinical Mascara on my lashes.

Pros:

• Great price
• Mostly soft, pigmented eyeshadows
• The teal/turquoise color is really unique for drugstore makeup
• All the colors work really well together
• Blend easily
• Easy to use for those just starting in makeup

Cons:

• Not easy to find outside the U.S.
• The matte blacks apply a little patchy

Available:

• The 8-pan palettes retail for $4.99 and can be found at Walgreens, Walmart, and some CVS stores.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Disclosure: I was sent this for review purposes from Wet n Wild. All opinions are completely my own.

Recent Hauls/Purchases/Acquisitions

Sorry I don't have time for a proper post today, the class I'm taking this summer is threatening to kick my butt if I don't give it nearly every second of my free time.  And I don't take kindly to threats of violence, so I better stay on top of it. :)

I just wanted to share a few things I bought/acquired recently so you know what to expect in upcoming reviews!

I like high end makeup, but I'm a drugstore queen at heart.  I didn't buy all you see above at once, but with sales and coupons I only paid about a total of $30 for it.  You can barely buy an eyeshadow palette for 30 bucks at Sephora.  I always try to save my money to buy a few higher end things, but my natural tendency is to spend as little money as possible while acquiring the most items.  What can I say, I'm cheap.

The above are few recent indie makeup purchases.  I've really been into pink eyeshadow lately, so I just HAD to buy the pink mNg trio from My Pretty Zombie when I had the chance.  Something else I had to take advantage of (again!) was Detrivore's sale of 10 eyeshadows for $20.  Unfortunately Detrivore is closed for the next month and a half so I feel bad posting swatches when you can't even order right now!  I may just wait to post them until her shop opens again.

And last, but not least, I won Zoya's Summertime and Sunshine collection from Mary from Body and Soul when she was hosting a giveaway.  Isn't that awesome?! I was even planning on buying a few from the Sunshine collection before I found out I won.  I even love the cremes, but I have so many nail polishes that I'm pretty sure I have dupes for almost every color.  My stash is already out of control as it is, so I was thinking of saving them for a giveaway of my own.  Do you think it would be rude/weird to give away something that I won?  I just would rather them go to someone who would use them more than I would.


So there ya go.  Is there anything you've bought/reviewed recently that you're especially excited about? Feel free to share links if you want.


Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Shimmery Drugstore Layering Polishes for less than $2

Nowadays there are tons of glitter layering polishes at the drugstore.  I can think of 3 from Wet n Wild's 99 cent polish line alone.  Finding a nice shimmery layering polish is a bit trickier because most of the time they just look like boring sheers in the bottle.  But man, oh man, when you layer them over a dark polish they really will pop.  It takes some experimenting to find a sheer polish that is sheer enough to layer well without being streaky and ugly.  Here are a few from the drugstore that I've found.  To further challenge myself, I only used polishes that were $2 and under!

All of these are layered over 1 coat of Wet n Wild's Black Creme.  Seriously, this is the only black polish you will ever need- it's cheap, and it's opaque in one coat.

Sorry these are a bit messy.  I decided I wasn't in the mood for swatching AFTER I had already started.  And of course I was too stubborn to stop and too lazy to do clean up on my nails.  Also I'm too stubborn to do the swatches over again, haha.

Pure Ice- Busted

Taken in the sun

 This is one coat of Busted.  It has a subtle duochrome look to it but I wasn't able to capture it. :-/

Taken in the shade

Wet n Wild- Teal of Fortune

Taken in the sun

This is one coat.

Taken in the shade

Sinful Colors- Glass Pink

Taken in the sun

This is one coat.  It's almost too opaque to use for layering, but it still looks pretty cool.

Taken in the shade

   Pure Ice- Heart Breaker

Taken inside with the flash

 This is 3 coats, but it still looks pretty awesome with two and even one.  This one is a must own- it's a duochrome ranging in color from bright emerald green to a medium blue.  I have 5 pictures of this just to show you its range.

Taken in the sun

Taken in the shade

 You can see both the blue and the green on the nail here.

Taken in the sun

Taken in the sun

NYC- Love Letters

Taken in the sun

Here is one coat.

This one is my favorite.  It looks like a boring pink sheer in the bottle but it is actually a glass-fleck duochrome changing from pink to teal.  I can't remember where I first heard about the awesome powers of this polish, but whoever discovered it- thank you!

Taken in the shade

Available:

• Pure Ice retails for $2.00 and is sold at Walmart
• NYC is $0.99 and is sold at drugstores
• Sinful Colors retail for $1.99 and is sold at drustores (I've seen it at Walgreens and Target)
• Wet n Wild FastDrys retail for $1.99 and are sold at drugstores

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

More 69 cent Wet n Wild Lipstick Swatch Spam!

Okay, I'm officially obsessed with these lipsticks and I feel like I need to collect them all.  Well, all the ones that have a remote chance of looking good on me.  Yes, that means I'm excluding you frosty turd brown.  Sorry.  I refuse to pay even 69 cents for you.  I'm sure someone out there can pull you off, I'm just not convinced it's me.

This is a continuation of this post right hurr. Right now until the end of May Wet n Wild lipsticks, eye liners, lip liners, brow pencils, and nail polishes that are normally $0.99 are on sale for $0.69.  I figured this was the perfect time to develop a fascination with lipsticks.  Might as well start small right?  I did almost buy a Dior Addict lipstick at Sephora the other day.  But I don't think I'm quite ready to make the jump from paying 69 cents to paying $28 just yet.

So how to we feel about a little lipstick swatch spam?  I had bought and swatched 7 lipsticks for this post but I waited so long to post it them I have since bought another.  So here are 8 (!) lipsticks, swatches, and lip swatches.  My lips hurt so bad after swatching this many!

The colors are (Wet n Wild name/description followed by my own):

• 516C (Sunset Peach)- orangey peach frosty shimmer
• 528A (Pink Ice)- light pink frosty shimmer
• 553B (Taj Mauve-Hal)- rosy pink frosty shimmer
• 511B (Nouveau Pink)- bright, almost hot pink, creme
• 520E (Hot Paris Pink)- bright pink-red creme
• 519A (Hot Red)- cherry red creme
• 509A (Cinnamon)- pin-up red creme
• 525D (Retro Pink)- cool, lavender-toned pink shimmer

Taken outside in direct sunlight

 From left: 516C, 528A, 553B, 511B, 520E, 519A, and 509A.

Taken outside in ambient light

516C Sunset Peach

528A Pink Ice

553B Taj Mauve-Hal

511B Nouveau Pink

520E Hot Paris Pink

519A Hot Red

509A Cinnamon

Lipstick in 525D

 

525D Retro Pink

Available:

• Untilthe end of May the lipsticks are $0.69 at Walgreens stores.  At all other locations that carry Wet n Wild they sell for $0.99.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Drugstore Deal of the Century- Physician's Formula at CVS

Okay, I know I said no more hauls.  Well, that lasted about... 2 hours.  But wait, before you judge me, let me explain!  So I knew that Physician's Formula was 40% off this week at CVS.  Physician's Formula is pretty pricey for a drugstore brand so even at 40% off I wasn't going to buy anything.  But then someone left a comment on Nouveau Cheap's post about the weekly drugstore sales that there was a coupon floating around on the internet for $5 off any Physician's Formula.  40% off plus $5 off means you will pay anywhere from nothing to a few bucks per item.  So of course I printed out 50 million coupons (okay, it was 9) and headed over to CVS.  And they took ALL the coupons.  I paid about $15 for $100 worth of makeup.

Oh, before I forget, here is the link to the coupon.

Here is a picture of my receipt (with credit card details blanked out with a noob photoshopper's best friend- clone stamp!)

So these are the 9 items I bought.  4 of the items (the 3 on the right and the eyeshadow) are gifts. I was really hoping to find my favorite drugstore concealer there- Circle Rx Circle Control Concealer, but it was sold out.  Oh well, that just means I get to go buy more stuff at a different CVS!  Oh, and I don't think the concealer makes my dark circles fade at all.  I just love the coverage and the color matches my skin.

So what are you waiting for?  Get thine bum over to CVS NOW!

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!