The Hype Machine: Pat McGrath Lip Products

The Hype Machine is a series that takes a critical look at well-loved, cult classic, appears-in-every-other-Instagram-photo products and asks: are they worth the hype?

Pat McGrath herself needs little introduction. She's known for using a range of inventive materials to create unique looks, and she's done everything from editorial shoots to runway shows. When I watch her applying makeup, I am absolutely flabbergasted by her talent; it's like she puts a brush to a model's skin and magic pours out. It's no surprise that her makeup line has been wildly popular, especially when her products were first released in limited quantities on Sephora and sold out almost immediately.

But I'm not exactly rolling in disposable income, so as pretty as her products looked and as intense as the reviews and praise were, I just couldn't spend my money on the Pat McGrath range. $38 for a lipstick? $125 for an eyeshadow palette? And there's no way for me to swatch the products and experience the textures before I purchase? That's just beyond me and my means.

So how did I get these products? Well, my friends...I did some damage during Black Friday 2018. With the LuxeTrance lipsticks on sale for $26, I decided they were close enough to my $25 price ceiling to give them a try. I went for the shade Strangé, partially because it's a red and partially because I think that's a Grace Jones reference.

 She is perfection and this scene is iconic.

I also purchased an on-sale PermaGel lip pencil in Manhattan, thinking it would match Strangé. In reality, Manhattan is a bit darker and more brown, but that little bit of depth helps.

What do we think of the lighting in this photo: yay or nay?

The packaging for these products is definitely worthy of the price point. Every product comes in a beautiful box fastened with string. The writing on both the products and their boxes is gold foil. And while some people have complained that the giant gold lips on the lipsticks are tacky, I think they're just the right amount of over-the-top for a Pat McGrath range. The woman is famous for the number of bags and trunks she travels with; she's not exactly known for subtly.

Are the formulas inside those pretty packages worth a day's pay? Well, that depends. The lipstick is certainly beautiful: it feels incredibly thin and smooth during application, almost like a liquid, and it gives full color payoff with one stroke. I did blot and reapply on this day, like I do with all lipsticks, and after eating a bowl of homemade sesame chicken, I noticed that the lipstick was mostly intact, with some wear near the very inside of my lips and all of that slightly glossy finish gone. It goes without saying that I love this color, because...red.

The lip pencil, however, leaves something to be desired. The name "Perma-Gel" suggests that the pencil will be creamy and long-wearing. It certainly has a fluid, soft gel texture, but it doesn't prevent feathering in the slightest. This macro shot shows how my lipstick looked after just an hour of wear: you can see that the edges, especially on my top lip, are smeared. I love the color of the lip pencil and how it pairs with this lipstick, so I'll keep using it, but I'll likely use a slightly waxier pencil first to get my lip lines smooth and crisp.

Perhaps the best way to sum up my feelings about Pat McGrath's lip products and the hype around them is this: I haven't looked at any other lip pencil shades, but I have picked out one more LuxeTrance lipstick I'd like to own, 1995. (Take a moment to appreciate my restraint here, please, because there's a shade named Labeija and I haven't bought it just for the name.) It's just one shade, and I won't even think about buying it until it's on sale again. I'll get my use out of these products and may own a few more, but I won't break the bank for them.

BOTTOM LINE: Like the NARS Audacious lipsticks before them, these Pat McGrath lip products are beautiful, but not necessarily better than any of the $20 lipsticks I've tried. Skip the lip pencils and settle on one or two special lipstick shades unless your budget is endless.

The Hype Machine is a series that represents my experiences and opinions. It is not meant to be a personal attack on a specific company, product, or consumer. I always recommend that you try products for yourself and see how they work for you. Everybody is unique, after all!

My Favorite Red Lip Pencil

Before I wised up to the racket that is "free shipping when you spend X!", I would toss things I didn't really want or need in to my shopping cart to hit that shipping minimum. When it came to MAC's website, I usually picked another tube of Strobe Cream or a new lipstick. On one occasion, I decided a red eyeliner seemed like a good idea...probably because the pencils were on sale or something of that ilk. I'd tested the MAC Chromagraphic Pencils in the nude shades before and found them to be pigmented and creamy, so I figured I'd have the same luck with Basic Red.

It turns out red eyeliner isn't exactly the best look for a professor. I wore scarlet wings to class once, received a snippy comment from a higher-up, and retired the pencil to the back of my collection. And at the time, I had such a huge collection that this one pencil was quickly lost in the mix.

I've since downsized my collection dramatically, all the while becoming more and more aware of what I do and don't need to achieve certain looks. Only two red pencils have stuck with me: NYX Auburn, which I've owned for far too many years but refuse to quit because it works so well with deep bordeauxs and bold crimsons, and MAC Basic Red.

Top: Besame 1941 Victory Red and 1920 Besame Red. Middle: MAC Chromagraphic Pencil in Basic Red. Bottom: MAC Scarlet Ibis and Besame 1931 Carmine.

Basic Red is the cleanest, most neutral red lip liner I've ever found. Some people say it leans a little warm, but honestly, I think it depends on which lipstick you pair it with. I wear it with all four of the shades above: the cool toned and saturated Victory Red, the more muted Besame Red (which appears outright purple-ish here because it's so muted in comparison to other three shades, but is clearly a soft, slightly blue red on the lips), the slightly warm Scarlet Ibis, and the orange-red Carmine. In every case, lining my lips with MAC Basic Red, then bringing the lipstick right to that pencil line always gives me the sharpest, fullest look I can get sans lip brush.

I've also worn Basic Red on its own with just a hint of balm or gloss on top, as in my Best of 2016 video. The formula is smooth enough to apply evenly to the lips and feel comfortable, but waxy enough to stay put. (The standard MAC lipliners, I find, are a bit too dry and flaky to be worn all over the lips.)

This truly versatile pencil deserves far more hype than it gets. That said, I'm not so much encouraging you to rush out and buy it as I am encouraging you to think very carefully about the products you already have. It's the stuff we tend to reach for automatically, without fanfare or fuss, that's truly deserving of "Holy Grail" status.

Moderate Stash: Lip Pencils

This post has been on my to-do list for almost 6 months, but I never got around to photographing it until now. Why? I dunno, maybe it's because I have a deep love for lip liner that a lot of people don't understand, or maybe it's because I was distracted with more requested posts, or maybe I was just really, really lazy. Whatever. It's here now!

While I never had a truly obscene number of lip liners in my collection, I did have well over a dozen at one point in time. Actually, it might've been closer to 20 pencils--that's a lot when you consider how long they last. I've since narrowed my collection down to 7 favorites. And while I may pop in one or two more over the next year to fill in any supposed gaps, I think this is a solid assortment that meets most of my needs.

With two exceptions, my lipliner collection always has been and likely always will be composed primarily of NYX offerings. The only two outliers are a Kevyn Aucoin liner (Minimal) and a MAC Chromographic pencil (Basic Red). All of these have the kind of formula I like: a bit more hard than soft, but not overly dry and not prone to tugging on the lips, packed with pigment, great staying power. I would say that Basic Red is a hair creamier than the others, but only a hair.

Some notes on individual shades:

• Kevyn Aucoin Minimal and NYX Mauve are very similar, but not totally identical; Mauve is slightly darker and more brown than purple. I like to wear both with cool nudes like MAC Faux. That said, I may eventually get rid of Mauve, just because I slightly prefer the color of Minimal.
• NYX Nude Pink is the shortest pencil I own because it's been sharpened so much. It's my go-to for warm or beige nudes like NARS Raquel, although it's so light that it doesn't add much depth. It's more for getting a precise shape.
• I don't use NYX Rose a lot, I admit it, especially in a traditional lip liner capacity. However, it's useful for warming up other lipsticks; I've used it under the super cool-toned Bite Velvet many times.
• NYX Pinky and MAC Basic Red are my go-tos for bright shades. If I'm wearing NARS Michiyo, you know Pinky is coming to the party, and if it's time for a bold vermillion like MAC Scarlet Ibis, I can't be without Basic Red.
• NYX Auburn has a nice balance of red, brown, and plum, so it works well with both deep scarlets like NARS Charlotte and stark plums like Besame Noir Red. This is also my favorite lip pencil to wear as a lipstick.
• Another liner I don't use a lot is NYX Plum, but that's really because I have a hard time finding vampy purple shades I like on my skintone. Also, Plum is a little dryer than the rest of my NYX pencils, likely because it's such a deep shade.

Swatch Photos

Natural Light

Flash

REVIEW: Kevyn Aucoin Flesh Tone Lip Pencils

Kevyn Aucoin was one of many famous makeup artists who loved the "heavy neutrals" supermodel look of the 90s. While he passed away in 2002, both his legacy and the impact of the 90s live on in the Flesh Tone Lip Pencil. There are currently 7 shades in this pencil, ranging from beige to bright red, but I own the two originals, the shades that have existed for a decade and harken back to Aucoin's roots: Minimal and Medium.

Here I've swatched both shades side-by-side. Also, check out the shape of my swatches, get it?! Ha ha ha ha this is why I don't have friends.

Anyway!

Minimal is a mid-tone mauve, while Medium is a soft brown. I'd say both are relatively neutral, though they lean more cool than warm. I don't generally believe in saying color cosmetics "suit all skin types," since that logic is usually centered around how well things look on light to medium skin, but these pencils come pretty close: Minimal would likely suit anyone very fair to medium-dark, though the darkest skintones may find it too ashy/white, while Medium is a bit too brown for the fairest skin, but will likely look wonderful on light to very dark skintones. Also, I wear Medium anyway because I'm stubborn, so make of that what you will.

These are traditional wooden pencils with a slightly hard formula, meaning they aren't too smeary or greasy-feeling. That being said, they're soft enough to give you full, even pigment without scratching or tugging on your lips. The harder formula means they'll need sharpened less as well, since it takes a while to wear down the point; I always recommend refrigerating your pencils for 15 minutes before sharpening, but it's not entirely necessary with a formula like this.

Both shades are optimal for lining the lips to make them look fuller and more three-dimensional. In the lip swatch on the left, I've lined my lips with Minimal, then filled them in with MAC Faux lipstick. This has become a favorite lip look of mine, neutral and plump and pretty without looking too harsh on my skintone. And you can absolutely fill your entire lips in with these pencils, maybe topping with balm or gloss, and wear them on their own.

The one part where it gets a bit fuzzy is when you fill in your entire lips with a pencil, then apply a less-than-opaque formula on top; for instance, the lip swatch on the left shows Medium all over the lips with some Flower Beauty Sweet Peach lip butter over it, and the lip butter has done little more than soften the color and add some shine. These are so pigmented that they can and will alter most lip shades you apply on top.

These are absolutely rave-worthy pencils, but I will mention that my NYX lip liners perform similarly for a mere fraction of the cost (and they come in more colors). Still, these two shades are stand-outs that I haven't found exact dupes for, and at $25 for 0.04oz of product, they match other high-end pencils for cost-per-ounce and out-perform almost every other pencil I've tried. In short, Kevyn Aucoin's Flesh Tone Lip Pencils could definitely become standards in most collections.

RATING: 5 out of 5

Pssst--if you're interested in trying these, stay tuned for a giveaway. ;)

Slew o' Lip Product Swatches and Mini-Reviews: Bite, Colourpop, NYX

I was cleaning out the photos on my computer (because yes, I'm that person) when I noticed an assortment of random lip product swatches that had never been posted to my blog. Maybe I ended up not writing a review, maybe I just forgot to post them, but whatever the reason, they were sitting there, labeled but unloved. It's totally disorganized, but I truly hope you guys find these helpful!

First up, I decided to use my VIB discount to test out the new Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick line. I went for Meringue, which looked like it'd be the most different from anything else in my collection. Sure enough, I don't have anything that's really comparable to this peachy nude.

But...I don't love it on me. It's this weird disconnect where I put it on, can't stop staring at how pretty the color looks on my lips, then continuously notice how "meh" it looks on my coloring. In the end, I decided to return it; I think something a hair cooler/more pink will ultimately be more flattering.

I have zero qualms with the formula, though. It's creamy and pigmented, and not only does it apply marvelously over freshly-exofliated lips, but it's also able to mask a multitude of sins on dryer, more flaky lips. The plastic citrus smell and taste are pretty gross, though.

Next is the Colourpop Ultra Matte lipstick in Stingraye. Marketed as a "cool-toned mauve brown," this shade looks plummy and pretty in photos, but in real life, it is a gray plum. Seriously, don't let this picture fool you; it did NOT look that way on my mouth in person! Even my family confirmed that it was straight-up gray on my mouth.

It's a shame, because I didn't totally hate the formula. Like most matte liquid lipsticks, it's drying, and it actually feels a bit like plastic stretched tightly over your mouth. I mean, you smile and it actually feels like something that has been pasted on to your lips and stretching uncomfortably. It's not the worst feeling I've ever felt, though, and it does have decent staying power. Even after 6 hours and a full meal, I had only some feathering (easily fixed with a lip pencil) and a tiny bit of wear in the center of my lips. I might revisit this formula, but for now, I think I need to take a quick break from liquid lipsticks.

Last, but not least, I decided to fill in some gaps in my lip pencil collection with these beauties from the NYX Slim Lip Pencil range: Plum, Rose, and Mauve. All three shades are wonderfully pigmented, leaning on the cool side, and very easy to apply.

I know I've talked about these a ton, but just a reminder that this is my favorite lip pencil formula. They're creamy enough that they don't tug on the lips, yet firm enough to give you a sharp line with no smearing. They're excellent over or under a balm for a quick on-the-go color. The shade range is very broad. And of course, they're only $3.50 each! These are truly some of my all-time favorite lip products.

Try This: Lipliner as Lipstick

After numerous purges and "shrink that stash" missions, I've somehow managed to get rid of every blue-based red lipstick I own. I'm going to guess that this happened because warm reds are just so damn appealing (MAC Lady Danger, c'mon) and because most of my cool-toned reds were in formulas that didn't wow me. Regardless, I've been in a bit of a tizzy this past month, fretting over whether or not I should spend my non-existent money on ye olde favorite MAC Dubonnet.

I decided that, before I pulled the trigger, I should get re-acquainted with the lipliner I always used with Dubonnet, NYX Auburn. I swatched it on my hand, and wow, how did I forget how damn pretty that color is? So I smeared it all over my lips. Boom! Instant blue-based red lipstick!

"Use your lipliner like lipstick" is old hat, but we often forget to try it. I think it's because lipliner can be very polarizing, especially in this era of Apocalypse-proof liquid lipsticks and tattooed makeup. We think of it as an unnecessary "extra step." It's the stuff of the 90s. It's too "obvious."

The truth is that lipliner isn't necessary, especially if you like a super-natural or slap-dash look. But no makeup is necessary. And if you want something that'll make your lipstick last longer or your gloss look bolder? You can't beat lipliner. No lip primer I've tried has ever compared to liner's tenacity.

Using lipliner all over your lips instead of a "traditional" lip color has several advantages:

1. It's cheap-ish. Most companies are aware that lipliners don't inspire awe in the average consumer, so they rarely pop up in limited edition collections and don't receive the same coverage as lipstick or eyeshadow. It's also kind of hard to make a pencil's packaging attractive. Hence, lipliners are often some of the cheapest color cosmetics companies produce. It doesn't always hold true--MAC charges the same for a lipstick and a lipliner because they know they can--but I know I can get 2 NYX lip pencils for the price of 1 NYX matte lipstick.

2. They're generally travel-friendly. I've been lucky enough to dodge most makeup quibbles, but I have had a few lipstick caps pop off in my purse, and I've definitely experienced a gloss tube leaking/breaking at inopportune moments. Lids come off of pencils, too, but for the most part, I find that their caps stick a little better. I think it may be because most lip pencils are made of wood, and that has more texture than a metal lipstick tube. (PSEUDO-SCIENCE!) Lip pencils are also light, thin, and don't count as a liquid during air travel. Last, but not least, most pencils have a harder formula that makes them less prone to melting than a traditional lipstick.

3. It's easy to alter the finish. Applied straight to your lips, most pencils will have a matte finish. You can apply them over a thin layer of balm for a more satin finish. If I want a glossy finish, I dab some of my trusty Elizabeth Arden Crystal Clear Gloss on top. Voila!

4. Care is easy. To get that precise point back, just refridgerate your pencils for 10-15 minutes, then sharpen them. (If the pencil is very soft, strive for 30 minutes in the fridge.) Sharpening pencils helps to sanitize them as well.

5. You can get a precise lip line with little effort. MAC lipliners are especially good for this because they have a hard formula. If you prefer a softer line, you can put a bit of balm on your fingertip and use that to blend a harder liner out. Or, you can use a softer lipliner, like Colourpop's offerings. I prefer a formula that's in the middle: hard enough to sharpen to a good point and get a great line, but not too terribly difficult to smear out. Call in the NYX pencils!

REVIEW: ColourPop Lip Products

I have a distinct weakness for cheap lip products. More specifically, my knees tremble when a brand provides a wide range of colors that appear to be super-pigmented and will cost me a fiver. ColourPop fits that bill to a T: they've got dozens of colors in a variety of finishes, all for $5 each. As an added point of interest, for every lipstick, there's a liner of the same name; sometimes the lipliner matches the lipstick, and other times it's darker/lighter, but still a good pairing. The lipliners are also $5 each. Call me weird, but...I love lipliner. *swoons*

When you do the math for the pricing, however, you realize that ColourPop lipsticks are actually on par with most mid-end products. Here are some comparisons:

ColourPop Lippie Stix -- $5 for 1 gram

MAC Satin lipsticks -- $16 for 3 grams

Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks  -- $22 for 2.8 grams

Lipstick Queen Jean Queen -- $20 for 3.7 grams

Kat von D Studded Kiss lipsticks -- $21 for 2.8 grams

Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie lipsticks -- $18 for 3.4 grams

Clinique Long Last Soft Matte lipsticks -- $16 for 3.9 grams

You get a lower unit price with ColourPop, but also less product. In terms of price per grams, it works out to roughly the same price as a MAC, Bare Minerals, or Lipstick Queen lipstick. This is not inherently a bad thing, because the price for unit makes it a great option for collectors like me, people who want to try a bunch of different shades on the cheap, or people who don't wear makeup that often and therefore don't want to spend a ton of dough on it. But it's just something I want people to be aware of.

Before I go any further, please note that ColourPop calls their lipsticks "Lippie Stix." At the risk of sounding like a snob, I prefer to just call them "the lipsticks."

It took a little less than 2 weeks for my order to be processed and shipped. Some people have complained about the 2-3 week turnaround time, but I think it's pretty impressive for an indie company that exploded overnight.

YouTube videos and other blog posts have shown ColourPop products arriving in a box. Mine, however, arrived in a bubble mailer. The cardboard boxes that contain each product and an ingredients list don't seem to close that tight; several of mine had opened in transit. That being said, nothing was damaged.

The packaging for the lipsticks and pencils is basic but functional: they're plastic tubes that close tightly with a satisfying "click" and do not shake open in a bag. The lipsticks twist up, but the pencils need sharpened. While I haven't had to sharpen one yet, I'm a little loath to try it: plastic packaging almost always sharpens strangely and chews up sharpener blades.

#1 - Frenchie lipstick over Frenchie lipliner; #2 - Frida lipstick over Frida lipliner; #3 - Cake lipstick with Fancy lipliner around the edges; #4 - Fancy lipstick over Fancy lipliner; $5 - Pony lipstick over Pony lipliner.

I purchased 5 lipsticks--Frenchie, Frida, Cake, Fancy, and Pony--with the complimentary lipliner for each shade except for Cake. Why did I skip the Cake lipliner, you ask? Well, Cake is quite a milky shade, and I figured it would need a bit more dimension. Fancy is a very similar shade, so I assumed the Fancy lipliner would work well with Cake.

The lipliners for Frenchie and Fancy are identical to the lipsticks. Pony is a light, cool pink lipstick, and the lipliner is purple. The Frida lipstick and lipliner are very similar, but have different balances of pink and peach. (See the end of this review for comparison swatches.)

All of these shades are in the "satin" formula except for Frenchie, which is classified as a "matte."

Now, if you just go by these lip swatches, then Frida, Cake, and Fancy are going to look very, very similar. While they are in the same color family, I don't think they're anywhere near identical. This is more obvious when I show them in "full face" pictures:

 From left to right: Cake with Fancy lipliner at the edge, Frida lipstick and lipliner, Fancy lipstick and lipliner.

As the above image shows, these shades all have a coral edge to them, but they're not identical. Cake is a very milky, 1960s sort of Coral. It's not the kind of shade I can wear often, but I always enjoy this sort of color, and it's fun to have it in my collection. Because there's so much white in the base, I think this shade is best left to fair and light skintones.

Frida is softer, more beige, and more "work appropriate," with a good balance between pink and peach. I think it's a little too dark/brown for me when I use the lipliner. However, I could see it working on a wide variety of skintones.

Fancy is a light, bright coral that is more flattering in real life than it is in this photo. It doesn't have the pastel undertones found in Cake, so I could see it working for a lot of people, especially those with dark skin.

From left to right: Frenchie lipstick and lipliner, Pony lipstick and lipliner.

Frenchie and Pony are close to my usual wheelhouse of "bright reds and pinks." Frenchie is the shade I was most excited for, and it's a really gorgeous color. I'd say it's a relatively neutral red that leans towards the warm/orange undertones, but only slightly. I don't think it's all that flattering on me, however, and I'm extremely picky about my reds these days.

Pony is interesting because the lipliner and lipstick are such different colors. combined, they create a cool purple-pink color that's very similar to MAC Petals and Peacocks. (Again, please see the comparison swatches below.) I would even use the lipliner WITH MAC Petals and Peacocks because they're so similar. On its own, the lipstick is a pretty pink. I'm more likely to wear these two products separate.

The ColourPop lipstick and lipliner formulas feel identical to me. It's a formula that's relatively creamy, opaque, and easy to apply. The lip swatch photos make it seem like these products settle in to fine lines, and they kind of do. If you have a lot of lines in your lips, or a few that are very deep (I'm in the latter group), they're going to be accentuated. The same goes for any dryness. Be sure to exfoliate your lips before applying!


This is not a "weightless" or "moisturizing" formula. It is dense, and you will feel it on your lips, though it's not as heavy as most pigmented, matte lipstick formulas.

Layered, the wear is pretty impressive for these: they'll last for 6-7 hours and a meal with very minimal fading. I think layering over the pencil, however, contributes to the long weartime: if you layer any lipstick over a lipliner, you're going to get more longevity. Sans lipliner, you still get good wear from the lipsticks at about 5 hours before there's fading.

My biggest qualm with the creaminess of the formula is it's almost impossible to get the super-sharp lip line I like. You can see this in the lip swatch photos: the edges always look a smidgen rough and "feathery." It's not a deal breaker for many of the shades, but I don't think I'll run out and purchase a bunch of brights/darks. ColourPop's products don't really really smear or bleed, but the edges will soften even more throughout the day; I use a q-tip at the edges of my mouth at about the 4 hour mark.

These products have a faint sweet scent that I cannot detect when they're on my lips.

If I gave "half stars," I would rate ColourPop a 3.5. As it stands, I'm rounding up to a 4. The formulation of these lip products is nice, though nothing stellar. The color range and cost per unit, however, make it a great indie brand to try, especially if you're looking to try a bunch of new shades or build up your collection without breaking the bank. I will probably try more, though the softness of the formula makes me hesitant to go for the bolds.

RATING: 4 out of 5.

ColourPop products are available at ColourPop.com. This is an affiliate link that will give you $5 off of your first order and will reward me with $5 in store credit.

From left to right: ColourPop Fancy lipstick and lipliner (sorry for the typo!), ColourPop Cake lipstick, MAC Sushi Kiss lipstick, MAC Betty Bright lipstick, ColourPop Pony lipliner and lipstick, MAC Petals & Peacocks lipstick, Urban Decay Native lipstick.

From left to right: ColourPop Frida lipliner and lipstick, Hourglass Canvas liquid lipstick, Lipstick Queen Pink Sinner lipstick, ColourPop Frenchie lipliner and lipstick, MAC Scarlet Ibis lipstick.

Reviews: Recently Purchased ELF Products

ELF (short for "Eyes Lips Face") gets a bad wrap in many sectors of the beauty community, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Are all of the products going to be perfectly-concocted miracles? Definitely not; I've only found one product that I love unconditionally and would recommend to just about everyone, and that's the Complexion Perfection powder. But does the fact that it's cheap (just about everything is $1-5) and sometimes a wee bit shoddy make it all bad? God, no! Just like Wet n' Wild and Jordana, ELF has some real gems. You just have to be realistic about your expectations.

I purchased these products from EyesLipsFace.com about 3 weeks ago with a free shipping code, so the entire order came to about $25 shipped. You can also find selections of ELF products at certain Target, K-mart, and Wal-mart stores.

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Keep

ELF Essential Liquid Eyeliners in Ash and Coffee, $1 each.
Liquid liner has slowly but surely become my favorite eyeliner "medium," so to speak, and the ELF liners are the sort that appeal to me. The formula is smooth and liquidy, and the applicator is a thin brush tip. It's extremely easy to control the applicator and apply the product, though part of that may just be that I'm used to applying liquid liners. Coffee, a rich medium brown shade, is very slightly sheer and may require a second pass; Ash, however, is a really beautiful, opaque slate gray that for some odd reason photographs blue. These stayed on all day without flaking, but will come off easily with soap and water.


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ELF Baked Blush in Peachy Cheeky, $3.
I was hesitant to purchase this product because it's very new and just about impossible to find reviews on, but bit the bullet because, hey, somebody has to go first, and I can spare the $3. One of the few reviews I could locate mentioned that the shades are much lighter than they might appear on the website, so I went for something that appeared to be too dark for me, Peachy Cheeky. I'm glad I did: this turned out to be a really gorgeous baked blush that's just right for my skintone. It looks coral with streaks of brown in the pan, but swatches and applies as a golden peach. The texture is also quite nice, only a hair dryer than my MAC and Milani mineralized blushes. This would probably be a lovely blush for fair and light skintones and a highlighter for anyone darker. The pot is rather small--I've compared it to a MAC Cream Color Base for size reference--but the dome is quite "tall", and for $3, I ain't complaining.



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ELF Studio Makeup Remover Pen, $3 (see in action in swatch picture, bottom of post)

In the past, I've shunned makeup remover pens. I just never saw the need for them: if I want a super-sharp line on my eyeliner, I'll use a piece of clear tape, and I'm otherwise fine with free-styling my eye makeup until I get a decent shape. But this little guy intrigued me, and I thought it might be nice for those moments when I sneeze or get the snot scared out of me by a family member, leaving me with eyeliner streaks and mascara blobs. This is a hard felt-tip pen, just like a Crayola marker, and it's slightly thicker than I would want. It does work, however; I've used it to clean up my eyeliner lines a few times. This would also be nice for people who often wear just eyeliner or concealer and want an "emergency makeup remover" for nights at a special someone's house. The tip DOES stain and get dirty, so be sure to wipe it off after each use.

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Consider

ELF Essential Bronzer in Luminance, $1.
As the pictures on the right show, this product looks EXTREMELY similar to theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer in the pan and even on my fingers. While I normally avoid purchasing duplicate shades, I thought Luminance might be a great alternative to Mary Lou for travel and for folks on a budget. Once applied, however, the product becomes a very sheer, slightly-golden-toned bronzer, while Mary Lou is definitely a bright golden highlight. It's not a BAD bronzer by any means, but the pan is pretty deceptive, and I can only see it working for people in a very select skintone range (NC20-30).


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ELF Studio Stippling brush, $3.
People brag on this brush like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, especially for applying foundations to give you an "airbrushed" look. I love my Real Techniques (pictured, the pink brush) to absolute death, but because I use it so much for blushes and therefore have to clean it constantly, I figured a back-up couldn't hurt. The ELF Studio stippling brush is, quite frankly, mind-boggling: the bristles are absolutely FREAKISHLY long and not densely packed, giving the brush a very "loose" feel, especially in comparison to the shorter, thicker head of bristles on the Real Techniques brush. The length of the bristles also makes it very hard to control the brush, especially in tight spaces like the nose or the temple, so I only use it if I'm applying my foundation first. That being said, it really does provide a lovely finish to the skin and blends foundation well, which surprised me, given how hard it was to control. I would only recommend using it for runny liquids or powders; very thick, creamy foundations might pose a problem to such sparse bristles.


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ELF Studio lipliner with blending brush in Grapefruit, $3.
I saw a swatch of this lipliner on Specktra and pounced on it without a second thought: as the picture shows, it appears to be a pinky-coral a la MAC Viva Glam Nicki lipstick, and anything vaguely VG Nicki-esque in color is like crack to me. Even in swatches, it appears to be a dead-on lipliner dupe for the lipstick. When I apply it to my lips, however, it turns much more coral-orange in color, which is a little confusing, given the fact that my lips are naturally a cool rosey-mauve. I also found the formula a bit drying; if you're like me and you enjoy filling in your lips with a lipliner as a lipstick base or as a stand-alone color, this is not the formula for you. It's still a pretty color, and I admit that maybe my body chemistry does something funny to it, but it's more than odd that it instantly turns so orange once it hits my mauvey lips.

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KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

ELF Studio Complete Coverage concealer in Light, $3.
I'm still not sure why I bought this when I know that the $1 Tone Correcting concealer works quite well for my skin...I think I was hoping for more coverage and more shade options for my $20 Face tutorials. Suffice to say that this product is not complete coverage; in fact, it's next-to-no coverage, despite feeling like a thick, heavy cream on the face. This barely lasted on my discoloration and bled right off of my undereyes, even when set with a powder. The one good thing I can say is that the shades are decent: there's 2 cool and 2 warm shades, ranging from roughly NW10-NC20. Why bother mixing for the perfect shade, however, when the concealer is absolute shit?

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ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer in Sheer, $3.
I liked the Essential primer just fine: it didn't make my eyeshadows brighter, but it DID hold them in place and make them easier to blend. But people insisted that I just HAD to try the Mineral primer, calling it a dupe for the rather lovely NARS primer. I was unable to test that theory, unfortunately: my tube arrived bone dry and basically empty, and I can't get any of the product out. Ugh.

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Here are some swatches--again, not sure why the Ash liquid liner looks blue in photos, because it's definitely gray on the eyes. The line through the top few swatches is from 4 passes of the makeup remover pen. You can also check back on some of my old FOTD posts to see a few of these products in action.

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And now, some kitteh pictures! Yes, she is slightly cross-eyed, as some people very rudely and ignorantly point out whilst laughing at my beautiful baby. Her mother was a Siamese cat, and strabismus is extremely common in the breed. She's still a gorgeous specimen of felinity, if you ask me.

Drugstore Holy Grails + FOTD

Drugstore Holy Grails

What is a "Holy Grail"? In the beauty community, it's a product that beats out every other product of its kind, something you could use for years and never tire of, something you would cry over if a company cruelly decided to discontinue it. Basically, it's your absolute favorite eyeliner, highlighter, etc. For me in particular, a Holy Grail is a product that's so perfect, I don't feel the need to purchase the same sort of product from any other brand.

Surprisingly, I have found that the vast majority of my Holy Grails come from the drugstore and cost me less than $10. I say "surprisingly" because drugstore products have been getting a lot of flack in the past year or so for being low quality and overpriced in comparison to similar stuff from mid- and high-end brands. I, however, maintain a deep connection to my local Rite Aid.

I don't buy any more eyelash curlers because I have...

...the ELF eyelash curler, $1.

I've tried quite a few lash curlers and was impressed with most of them, including the rather expensive and much-loved curlers from Kevyn Aucoin and Chanel. When my trusty Avon lash curler finally bit the dust, I skipped out to Target to find a cheap replacement until I could purchase one of my long-time favorites, only to fall madly in love with this little baby by ELF. I don't know what it is, but something about this curler leaves my lashes perfectly-curled for days at a time. TIP: change the pad on your eyelash curler every couple of months. Most, including the ELF, come with an extra.

I don't buy any more mascaras because I have...

...Prestige My Biggest Lashes, $8, and Jordana Best Lash Volumizing Extreme, $3.50.

Now, obviously, I buy new tubes of mascara every 5 or 6 months, seeing as they dry up after a while. But lemme tell ya: I've tried a ton of high-end mascaras, and none of them has worked quite as well as these drugstore gems. What's more, I find that expensive mascaras don't last me as long--I had to replace Makeup Forever Smokey Lash every 2 months, YSL Faux Cils every 3 months--and I strongly dislike paying that kind of money every couple of months. Instead, I use Prestige My Biggest Lashes for super-thick, over-the-top lashes and Jordana Best Lash Volumizing Extreme for a more separated and fluttery look. TIP: scrape the excess product off of the brush with a tissue or the inside rim of the tube to prevent clumping.


I don't buy any more lipliners because I have...

...NYX Lip Pencils, $1.50 for the Long and $3 for the Slim.

My favorite lipliners used to be the Estee Lauder DoubleWear and Shiseido pencils. Then I found the NYX lipliner range and was absolutely blown away by the color range and price. They have absolutely every shade you could imagine or want, from basic pinks and reds to frosty lavenders and uber-darks. What's more, the formula is incredibly creamy and long-wearing. I like both the Long pencils (which are cheaper, slightly smoother, and give you a bit more product, but come in far fewer colors) and the Slim pencils (which are a tad dryer, but still beautiful and very very purse-sized). Pictured are the Slim pencils in Tangerine and Rose and a Long pencil in Plush Red. TIP: I always keep a lipliner and a lip balm in my purse. That way, if I suddenly need a lip color, I can just fill my lips in with some liner and dab on a bit of balm for moisture.


I don't buy any more pencil eyeliners because I have...

...Milani Liquif-Eye Metallic Eye Pencils, $7.

I used to absolutely shun eyeliner pencils. They were dry, they didn't last, their pigmentation was lackluster, and it was just much easier to slap on a cateye with some liquid liner and call it a day. Then someone recommended the Milani Liquif-Eye pencils to me, and oh my sweet gherkins, I was hooked! These are the creamiest, dreamiest, most amazing eye pencils I have ever used. They glide on to your lids with the barest amount of pressure and are true-to-color in one swipe. You can easily smudge them out with a Q-tip or a brush, but they set after 30 seconds and absolutely do not move. These are labeled as "metallic," but I don't find the Black or Brown to be "frosty," just a bit satiny. (In essence, they're not the most matte pencil I've ever used, but they're more velvety than anything.) There are only 2 bad things I can say about these: the shade range is kinda limited, and because they're so soft, you'll have to refrigerate them before sharpening. Those are minor nitpicks, since I mostly wear black or brown liner and my family kinda gets a kick out of seeing an eyeliner next to the milk jug. TIP: dab your waterline dry with a Q-tip before tightlining. Eyeliner will almost always adhere better to dry skin.


I don't buy any more nude powder shadows or brow pencils because I have...

... Wet n' Wild Brulee eyeshadow, $2, and La Femme Taupe brow/eye pencil, $1.50.

Sometimes I do stray to other nude shadows or brow products, always with vague impression that there has to be something more incredible than these $2 wonders. I've tried brow powders, gels, and creams, plus cake liner and eyeshadow, and the number of nude shadows I've tested in cream, powder, and liquid forms is a little scary. But at the end of the day, nothing is quite as flattering on my eyes as this little combo. The Wet n' Wild Brulee shadow is the perfect all-over lid shade for fair or light-skinned ladies and a fantastic matte highlight for just about everyone, while the La Femme brow pencil is a fits-many-skintones product that lasts forever on my brow and works for most of my models. As always, there are downsides to these products, but they're pretty minor: the La Femme pencil is so long that it won't fit in most makeup bags, and the Wet n' Wild shadows are so soft that they shatter quite easily. Beyond that, I adore these products, and I will buy a zillion back-ups if they're ever discontinued. TIP: both of these products can do double duty. I've used the La Femme pencil as an eyeliner when my brown was temporarily out of commission, and fair-skinned ladies in a pinch can use the Wet n' Wild Brulee shadow as a setting powder.



Today's FOTD also features a number of these products, though I apologize for the medicore pictures. My computer is here, but still hasn't been unpacked. I wanted to use my Missha BB cream today, but I've managed to get a "tan" this summer (N15 now, LOOOOL), so I added in a dot of MAC Face & Body in N1 to darken it up...and absolutely loved the results! Very natural with a slight glow, and because I used the Missha, I didn't have to powder down or wear a sunblock underneath. Huzzah!

BASE: Missha Perfect Cover BB cream in #13 Bright Beige mixed with a dot of MAC Face & Body foundation in N1, Clinique Airbrush concealer in 01 Fair

EYES: Urban Decay eyeshadow in Virgin, MAC Cream Color Base in Pearl, Milani Liquif-Eye eyeliner in Brown, La Femme brow pencil in Taupe, Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing mascara

CHEEKS: NYX Blush Stick in Pink Lotus, MAC Cream Color Base in Pearl

LIPS: Revlon Just Bitten Balm Stain in Sweetheart