Nars Velvet Matte and Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils in New Lover, Frivolous, Club Mix, Sex Machine, Mexican Rose, Dragon Girl, Toundra - Review, Photos, Swatches

It has come to my attention that, at some point over the last few years, I have gathered a small but substantial army of Nars lip pencils! I swear I don't know how this happened 8D I do like these products, though, so I though I'd throw up some photos of the shades I have in case anyone was curious.

Club Mix, a sheer warm grape

New Lover, a sheer medium strawberry pink

Frivolous, a sheer pink nude

Sex Machine, a matte muted mauve

Mexican Rose, a sheer, vibrant hot pink

Toundra, a matte, rusted bronze

Dragon Girl, a matte classic red

L to R: New Lover, Frivolous, Club Mix, Sex Machine, Mexican Rose, Dragon Girl, Toundra

My favorites would have to be Mexican Rose and Dragon Girl. Mexican Rose is a lovely mid-vibrant, everyday hot pink that gives your lips a burst of color without being too over the top of neon for the workplace. It is my most used Nars lip pencil! Dragon Girl is simply a gorgeous, gorgeous creation - this is my go-to matte, blue-based red. I love the matte look (so vintage and classy) and I feel Dragon Girl is subdued enough, without losing the sexy sophistication often associated with these hues, to be a good fit even for those apprehensive of reds. My least favorite is Toundra; I got in on sale for $5 and I'm glad I didn't spend more! It is very unforgiving to dry lips, and is not a good complement to my skin tone.

The Nars Velvet Matte Pencils wear really well (about 4 hours) with even, non-splotchy fading. Dragon Girls and Sex Machine are comfortable to wear, though, as mentioned earlier, Toundra is drying. The Velvet Gloss pencils have a pleasant texture - smooth and soft. They don't hold as well as the mattes (only about 2 hours), but they're still really nice and shiny.

Both the Velvet Matte and Velvet Gloss Nars Lip Pencils sell for $24 regularly at Sephora (here and here), the Nars online store, and at some department store makeup counters.

What do you think? I'm a fan, and even more so because they come in pencil form!

Thanks for looking! :)

Inglot AMC Lip Gloss 541, 543, 544, 546 - Review, Swatches, Photos

During Inglot's online Black Friday sale I ended up welcoming many new members into my makeup club/collection, including a few of the AMC lipglosses (I had already had and cherished 541 and decided he was in dire need of some friends..)!

This little line of glosses is beautiful, complicated, lustrous, wonderfully duochromatic, and woefully hard to capture photographically :( This is my best effort!

L to R: 541, 543, 544, 546

Here they are swatched -

541

541

541 is my first and probably most favorite of the AMCs - it's an iridescent, prismatic, futuristic sometime-pink sometime-lavender with fine, radiant shimmer. To me this is very alien and radioactive-looking; I would feel perfectly proper wearing this on an intergalactic vacation, if only such a thing were possible! Lovely.

543

543

543 is my least favorite of these glosses, though still decent. I was hoping for a light pink, though on me this looks more a light peachy nude.

544

Argh, my photo is awful! 544 is actually a rather lovely red-pink. It is the most pigmented of the four Inglot glosses I have, and is really a very pretty shade.

546

546

546 is much more beautiful and nuanced worn than in the bottle. It is the most gorgeous opalescent pearl with a creamy yellow shift - truly as if you would've (somehow) melted a pearl and spread it over your lips. So cool!

(All together now!)

L to R: 541, 543, 544, 546

Overall I like these very much, though I don't believe I would purchase 543 again - it is a nice color, but it's straight forward enough that you could find cheaper dupes. They last a good 2-2.5 hours and adhere well without being too sticky. They are fairly moisturizing, too, and each has a different fruity scent (some of the ones I detected were peach, melon, and cherry) that's moderately strong at the start but fades rather quickly. Inglot's AMC lipglosses are available at Inglot stores and online for $16 each.

~~I apologize for my sporadic posting lately... The holiday season is busy for everyone, and work has decided this is also a good time to unload on me. I promise I will be back to posting regularly in the new year. Thank you for reading, I appreciate you sticking with me! :)

Sephora Ultra Shine Lip Gloss Set - Review, Photos, Swatches

Here's another of my Sephora F&F sale purchases: the Sephora Ultra Shine Lip Gloss Set!

This collection contains eight mini Ultra Shine Lipglosses (0.1 oz each) and is available at Sephora for $22. I couldn't find the volume of the full-size product online, but regular tubes of these glosses can be purchased for $14 each.

Let's get to it!

She Sparkles

Sassy Soiree

Fresh Peach

Perfect Nude

Pop Princess

Pink Diamond

Purple Red

Cinnamon Spice

L to R: She Sparkles, Sassy Soiree, Fresh Peach, Perfect Nude, Pop Princess, Pink Diamond, Red Purple, Cinnamon Spice

Color me pleasantly surprised! I think this little set offers a nice variety of colors in a good mix of finishes (glitter, shimmer, and creme). The glosses have a generous amount of pigment and I can tell that the sheerer ones, like She Sparkles, were formulated as such intentionally to provide a veil of sparkle atop a lipstick base, and aren't just accidental duds. Fresh Peach looks positively glowing and gorgeous on its own, while the rest of the shades (with the exception of She Sparkles) would work splendidly both by themselves and layered. Very festive conglomerate of colors, and I love that with Sephora's Ultra Shine Lipgloss Set one can easily maneuver between a subtle look and a glamorous look as one sees fit. At the price point this product is great for those who like to change at up or are commitment-phobic when it comes to their makeup choices (I'll admit I'm one of the latter lasses!). Sephora uses a sponge hourglass applicator:

Sephora's Ultra Shine glosses have a nice, soft texture and a vanilla scent. They wear well for a gloss (roughly two hours) and they aren't drying in the slightest (perhaps even a bit moisturizing?). The quality of these products exceeded my expectations; definitely worth checking out!

Have you tried any of Sephora's lip glosses?