Duping Too Faced Melted Peony

Truth time: I love a lot of lipstick formulas that other people hate. This is partially because I am willing to exfoliate my lips daily and deal with a more drying formula in exchange for a matte finish and an apocalypse-proof wear time. I always try to make this clear in my reviews.

But even I stumble on to products that are just too damn wrong for my lips. Meet Too Faced Melted Peony: the most perfect sorta-nude-lip for me, with a great balance of peach and pink. The color is gorgeous...the formula is atrocious. Seriously, I have never put anything so drying or finicky on my lips before--and I wear Ruby Woo on the regular!

And so I went on a long and arduous quest to find a dupe. Most supposed dupes were way too pale and beige, or bubblegum pink with no peach, or in yet another formula I hate with a burning passion. Finally, somebody mentioned Bite Beauty's High Pigment Pencil in Bouquet. Great! I love the Bite formula! After searching numerous swap and sale threads for an on-the-cheap tube, I managed to obtain Bouquet via swap.

Annnnnd I love it.

Daylight on top, flash on bottom.

Here are ze swatches. As you can hopefully see, Melted Peony and Bouquet aren't exactly alike, but they're super similar: Melted Peony is a bit paler and more peach, Bouquet has more pink and is brighter.

I swatched a few other shades in the same-ish color family for comparison. Bite Velvet is brighter, cooler, and more pink than Melted Peony. MAC Faux is actually a muted neutral pink on me, but because it has more brown in it than these other shades, it looks crazy dark in these swatch photos.

Here's how Bite Bouquet looks on my lips. Again, it's definitely a bit brighter than Melted Peony, and it reads more as a peach-pink than a nude. But I think it's a pretty damn good replacement. In a sense, any time I could wear Melted Peony, I can now wear Boquet.

I'll continue to try nude lipsticks because I'm a lipstick fanatic and I love to try ALL TEH THINGS, but for now, I'm oh so happy with Bite Bouquet!

Oh, and yeah, I'm wearing a shit ton of glitter on my eyes. God bless you, Lit Cosmetics Clearly Liquid Base! (The actual glitter in this picture is a limited edition Wet n' Wild product...which may or may not be eye safe. Oops. Do your research--check for it around Halloween!)

FOUL TEMPTRESS! Duping (most of) the Stila Convertible Color palette

Truth time: Stila is not a brand I am particularly drawn to. I think most of their products would sell better if they were priced lower and sold in the drugstore as "almost mid-end" stuff, like Hard Candy or Flower Beauty. However, there is one product Stila makes that I am madly in love with: the Convertible Colors, their cream lip-and-cheek product that is eh for lips, great for dry cheeks like mine. Through some mystical magic, I've resisted the urge to buy a ton of those things.

Now they've come out with a limited edition palette of Convertible Colors for their spring collection. My magic is fading. Those suckers are tempting. Imagine: having every color I could want for trips to visit my boyfriend, beach vacations, and rushed work days! With 12 shades for $49, I'm having a hard time not buying the thing.

So I decided to be proactive and steal a page from the bloggers who attempt to dupe eyeshadow palettes: I'm trying to find alternatives to this palette in my current stash. I use cream blushes exclusively these days, and I'm only interested in duping 8 out of the 12 colors (the top left corner has lots of brown tones, which I could give or take on my pale skin). Here are my results!

I lined up my stash and, based on how the product looks in the pot/tube and how it wears on my skin, I made my choices. With two notable exceptions, I think my line-ups are close enough to count. And the two exceptions? Well, I think I kind of prefer them to the shades in the Stila palette.

Let's take a closer look at what I came up with, starting with the peaches and corals on the left.

I swapped Stilla Gladiola for MAC Neon Orange lipstick. Yes, this is a lipstick, but the formula is quite creamy, so I can use it as a blush. Neon Orange is a faux dupe because it has distinct red tones, whereas Gladiola is a true orange. Still, it functions fine on my cheeks. My only quibble: Neon Orange is so dense that I have to mix it with some moisturizer or foundation if I want to wear it as a blush and not look like a clown.

I swapped Stila Peachblossom for Kevyn Aucoin Creamy Moist Glow in Tansoleil and Stila Gerbera for Becca Beach Tint in Grapefruit. The swatches make it look like I should've alternated Tansoleil and Grapefruit; on my cheeks, however, Tansoleil pulls slightly darker and more orange, and Grapefruit has the softer, peachier tones. Beach Tints and CMGs are two of my all-time favorite formulas, so I'm glad to see they work as dupes!

The most accurate swap for this portion of the palette is probably Stila Petunia for Kiss Me Touch Me Lip&Cheek in Mango. An afforable Korean cream, Mango is incredibly smooth and super-pigmented. It's a pink coral that borders on neon.

On to the reds and pinks! I swapped Stila Tulip for the Lipstick Queen Rose & Shine pot. The Lipstick Queen product looks more red than the Stila in these photos, but it looks like a true berry shade on my cheeks. Beauteous.

The most obvious faux dupe in this whole set-up is Chanel Fantastic, meant to replace Stila Rose. The Chanel appears lighter and pinker in these photos than it looks on my cheeks; when I actually put it on my face, it has more of a plummy shade to it. Still, it's a far cry from the deep, purpled burgundy of Stila Rose. As much as I wish I could truly dupe that shade, I really do think this Chanel blush would be the more flattering option on my skintone. Furthermore, swatches of Stila Rose are varied: sometimes it looks burgundy, sometimes it looks dark pink. Hmmmm.

Two more very accurate dupes are Stila Hibiscus for Canmake CL01 and Stila Fuchsia for Kevyn Aucoin Isadore. I've owned Fuchsia in the past, and I replaced it with Isadore because I prefer the Kevyn Aucoin formula. I haven't owned Hibiscus, but I've had a similar red shade from Stila: Poppy. I prefer the Canmake because of its jelly texture. As the swatch suggests, this product is hard to overdo because it maintains that gooey, delightful jelly sheen on the skin.

Those are my dupes and faux dupes! Have you found anything to replace the Stila palette? Or have you tried the actual Convertible Color palette? Comment with your thoughts!

Potential Swaps for Chanel Dragon

Chanel's long-discontinued Rouge Allure Laque in Dragon has always prompted some polarizing, powerful responses. On the one hand, it's the most perfect medium red I've ever worn, and the formula is slightly glossy and decently long-wearing. On the other hand, it's one of ye olde liquid lipstick formulas, meaning it feathers easily and sucks every drop of moisture out of your lips.

So why was there such widespread panic when the product was discontinued? Why didn't people just march off to other red lipsticks?

Uh, yeah. It's THAT gorgeous. I've never found a red that looks exactly like that on my lips. And with a little lipliner and some q-tips, I'm able to get through a hot night on the town without excessive feathering or fading. It's just my perfect red.

I've been on a quest to find the best Chanel Dragon dupes for at least 3 years now. Every time I get a new red, I swatch it against Dragon. And while I've yet to find a product that looks just like Dragon on my lips--not only in terms of color, but also with regards to the finish--I've found several potential swap-outs.

The Armani Lip Maestro in shade 400 "The Red" is probably the closest match I've found in terms of color. Upon closer inspection, the Armani is a hair darker and slightly less blue; however, I think the darkness is partially because the product dries matte. Armani The Red is also a liquid lipstick, but its formulation is more creamy than liquidy, and it has a slight powdery feel on the lips. While the product lasts long, it also smears very easily; even with lipliner, the edges of my lips look quite soft after a few hours of wearing this one.

Hourglass Opaque Liquid Rouge in Icon is more blue than any of the other options seen here (to the point where it appears almost raspberry in these swatches), but it behaves the best. An incredibly long-wearing, only slightly drying liquid lipstick, Icon will last me for an entire day without feathering or fading. On my lips, it is about a shade darker than Dragon, and it dries down matte.

If you want the same bright, shiny red and aren't too concerned about longevity, Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in Pomegranate is your best option. This shade lasts for about 4 hours on me with minimal feathering. What it lacks in wear time it makes up for in finish: it is every bit as glossy as Chanel Dragon. It's also the least-drying option here due to the rich, creamy formula.

MAC Ruby Woo seems very off here--if you were going by swatches alone, you'd easily judge this too matte and too pink. And while, yes, it is easily the most matte option here, it also applies much more red on the lips--I think it looks pink here because the matte formulation appears more "chalky" on skin than these liquid and cream products, so it's not catching as much light. It's not particularly comfortable to apply or wear, but the color is gorgeous, and it does. not. budge.

Here are the swatches after one quick swipe with a baby wipe. The Armani and Hourglass lipsticks appear to be the most waterproof; the Hourglass lipstick also stains slightly and takes a bit more elbow grease to get off.

FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS: If you want the most similar formulation and a very close color, go for the Armani. If you want something that is spot-on in terms of color and finish, but performs and applies quite differently, go for the Bite. If you're willing to go a bit darker and give up all glossiness in exchange for a long-wearing, non-feathering product, go for the Hourglass. Last, but not least, if you want a similar shade in a more classic lipstick formulation, go for the MAC.