Toss It Out!

Hey There!

I think I briefly glossed over the fact that in 2 months I'm moving. It's not simply moving from one place to another, I'm moving from one facet of my life to another. The kiddo is graduating from high school. She is running away from home to go to college (well, that's kinda what's happening!). And, when she leaves for college (before she comes back home for winter break) I'll be in a new place.

And what happens before you move to a new place (besides you visit it every chance you get like a crazed stalker woman)? You purge.

Folks I'm purging hard. I've been in my current place for 4 and a half years and I am NOT moving everything with me. Some of this stuff needs to be tossed out. Some of this stuff will get tears as it goes. But, it will GO! So that means you get to watch the purge process and wonder, "Is she like one of those hoarder people, like on TV?" and I will answer, "No. I've never been on TV." So over the next few weeks be prepared to not only see empties posts but purge posts as well.

And, the first purge is from my lip gloss area. I mentioned that I was going to wear one brand of lip glosses for a few weeks, just to see what I use, what I like and what is simply unremarkable. Well, for the last 3 weeks I've rotated my 6 Milani Brilliant Shine Lip glosses and whittled them down to...

2! Yes, you heard me correctly, 2. I wore them all at least twice and then did a one day mega test and decided that 4 of these bad boys can go to new homes. What am I keeping? Luminous and Mauve Fetish. The rest of them are too light or too dark or just really unremarkable.

Have no fear. Between the kiddo and my sister all of them will have good homes.

Wanna know what else I've been wearing to see if they can stay or if they have to go? I tried on all of my Almay lip glosses and they are VERY unremarkable. None of them gave off any color that I could see. So, the kiddo liked them and wanted to gloss up her lips with them.

That's 3 lip gloss brands down (I already went through my NYX Butter Lip Glosses). Stay tuned and see what we sort through next!

March Lip Love - Milani Brilliant Shine Lip glosses

Hey there!

I forget things. That happens when you have 9 million lip glosses. You keep using the same brand over and over and forget everything else. You forget about all of the other wonderful lip glosses that you just had to have. You try to think of ways to solve this problem. A while ago I put all of my lip glosses in color order and thought that would help. Well, it kinda did.

Even though it almost helped, I felt that I could do better. So, what I did recently was pull out all of my NYX Butter Glosses and used them throughout the month. Now that we are in March, I decided to pull out all of my glosses in another brand and use them. I looked through all of my glosses and Milani Brilliant Shine Lip glosses won.

I've loved my Milani Brilliant Shine Lip glosses for a while now. They are very pigmented, they go on smoothly and they smell great. I reach for them a lot and I think I'm going to enjoy spending my March wearing them.

I own Black Cherry, Berry Tempting, Pink Lady Mai-Tai, Luminous and Mauve Fetish. I was actually watching a Favorites video and someone mentioned Pink Lady. That got me to thinking that I needed to change out my NYX glosses for these! The shade spectrum is going to give me a lot of colors to play with and I will be able to layer these over lipstick, lip liner or wear them by themselves.

And, I like the idea of being brand specific for a while. I really do have a lot of lippies and this will give me the opportunity to give these Milani gems some love.

Latest Lippie Love Combos

 Hey there!

Normally I keep all of my current lippies just scattered on my makeup counter. They get in the way but I like having them handy (rather than put away nicely, like a normal person) so I decided to put them in an old candle jar. Then, I thought wow, I've been wearing the same color combos a lot! It actually slapped me in the face when I was going to put on my Valentine's Day lip combo. I've actually been wearing my VDay lippie for several days cause it's so pretty. I posted it on my Instagram and thought maybe the good people that read my blog would like to see the rest of my lip combos (of course they would!). So this one is for you!

Let's start with the first lippie love combo. For Valentine's Day (and several days after it) I was loving a pinky red lip. It's crazy how I forget that I can actually pull this off. My complexion has so much red in it, I can pull off a red with very little effort. This one though...wow! It's KatVonD's Studded Kiss Lipstick in Bachelorette and Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss in Adorned. I line my lips with Rimmel London 1000 Kisses Lip Liner in Cherry Kiss. Va Va Va Voom! I love this combo. So pretty and so perfect for the day o'love!

I like a "nude for me" lipstick combo. There is something sultry about just a hint of color on the lips. One of my favorites is Urban Decay's Ladyflower topped with Milani's Mauve Fetish. I use NYX Nude Pink liner to line my lips. Lovely! It's a light nude that stays in rotation.

My other "just this side of nude" has been Bite Beauty Lipstick in Pepper, NYX Butter Gloss in Angel Food Cake and NYX liner in Nude Pink (again). It's a soft, sweet color that doesn't look like I'm wearing anything but oh, wait, yes I am. Again, looking natural takes a lot of makeup!

My darker nude is a combo of Maybelline ColorSensational Lipstick in Untainted Spice, NYX Butter Gloss in Angel Food Cake (again) and Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in Rich. It's not vampy or anything but it's a deeper nude that I've been loving for the winter months. The lipstick is matte but the Butter Gloss makes it moist. And, the look is day to night fantastic.

I have a ton of lipstick and I could/should be wearing it but these are my faves and they have been making the rounds more than any of the others. I guess it's probably proof that you don't need a ton of makeup to look 'purty' everyday. But really, having less makeup wouldn't be as much fun for either of us, would it?

What had your lips been showing off a lot? Do you have a favorite that you been rocking more than others? Or, are you just ready for the spring colors?!

Quickie Review - Black Opal Color Splurge Lustre Gloss

Hey there!

I don't know if you ever peek at the Black Opal products but I have always made sure I looked at what they had going on. Most of the time I'd pick up eye products or concealer products. This is honestly the first time I've ever looked at their lippies.

The Black Opal Color Splurge Lustre Glosses are touted as "opulent, shine-boosting liquid gloss (that) illuminates lips with a glistening iridescence". There are 16 colors on the website. My store had about 10 color to choose from. I picked up Plush and Mahvelous (because folks had obviously gotten there before me and cleaned them out). I thought both of these colors would look great on me.

First thing that was a downer was that they have brush applicators instead of spongy things doe foot (I can't think. I've been out all day). I'm not a fan of the applicator style. I could get around it though.

The glosses aren't good "alone" glosses. They are comfortable but I wouldn't wear them alone. They are kinda sheer, kinda patchy so the best use for them is as a lipstick cover or on top of a lip liner base.

Now both colors are great but Plush is the bomb dot com. Really. It's a peachy pink that really does illuminate my lips with a glistening iridescence. I wore it over Revlon Superlustrous Just Enough Buff and The Balm Ima Goodkisser.

Mahvelous is a pretty fuchsia that that adds some pop to lipsticks. It's ok -- nothing to write home about.

The lip glosses were $6.99 but BOGO 1/2 off. So, $5.24 each. I also used a $4 off coupon when I added my NYX lip liner in Vanilla Sky (Oh.My.Gosh! It is soooo gorgeous!). So, everything was $11.48 plus tax. Not bad.

Would I buy them at full price? Probably not. Mahvelous was just ok and I have several other illuminator lip glosses. Would I buy them at a discount? Plush, yes. Mahvelous, no. Would I recommend them to a friend? Well, yeah. If you get them at a discount, they really are nice to wear over lipsticks or with lip liners. I just think that $6.99 is a but high. I mean my current loves (NYX Butter Glosses -- smell the vanilla) are only $4.99. My Milani Brilliant Shines are also $4.99 but I might not buy them at full price. And, I love the Nanacoco Caught Out Loud glosses from the beauty supply store for $1.99.

I guess I sound a tad bit harsh, but look... the bottom line is that lip gloss shouldn't have to cost a lot and if it does, it should be superior quality. No, $6.99 isn't a lot, but these glosses aren't $6.99 quality.

Maybe $4.99.

Definitely $3.99.

Milani Brilliant Shine Lip Gloss

I mentioned a while ago that my stores were putting up new, bigger Milani stands and I talked about loving the Milani Color Statement Lipsticks that they have. I do love them but I'm still a gloss girl and Milani has added some new glosses to their line.

Milani Brilliant Shine Lip Glosses are soooo nice. They run about $4.99 (I of course, got mine with BOGO 1/2 off) at the drugstore. They are moist and they last a long time (I eat and drink all day and I got 4 good hours plus 1 "color still there" hour). These colors stand on their own. With 2 or 3 swipes of the doe foot applicator, you have a powerful bit of gloss. They are a bit sticky and I'm not a fan of that normally but with these glosses, the stickiness doesn't drive me crazy. They have a slight smell that's not unpleasant and they don't leave that line on your lips.

The website shows that they come in 14 different shades and most of the stores that I've been in have about 8 - 12 of those shades. So far (yes, so far) I've picked up Mai-Tai, Luminous, Mauve Fetish and Pink Lady. I have my eye on a few others (Sweet Grapefruit, Coral Crush and Ravish Raspberry are on my list).

I like to wear lip liner so I line my lips and then pop some Brilliant Shine Gloss over them and "BAM" you get a beautiful color. I added a picture of the day that I wore Pink Lady with a Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in Eastend Snob (got the idea off of Pinterest). Are you for real?! Isn't that gorgeous?!

Oh I have plans for these glosses. I think that have slipped in as my spring fave ladies. If you haven't tried these out you need to run to the store and pick up some. I'm serious. Stop reading this and go now!!