The Amazing $5 Liquid Lipstick You're Not Wearing - And Why You Should Be

Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit Matte Lipstick

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who see the words 'liquid lipstick' and think of the chic matte finish and long-wearing ease, and those who see the words 'liquid lipstick' and run for the hills, all screams and finger crosses, swearing off the product like they've seen a demonic possession.

I get the hesitation - liquid lipsticks can be dry as hell, hard to apply and uncomfortable to wear. I've tried a few that left my lips in a virtual vice that no makeup remover short of straight oil could remove, so I feel your pain. 

That said, some liquid lipsticks are just as comfortable as traditional bullet lipsticks (and let's be real, nothing is as comfortable as a great lip balm) and give you hours of steadfast wear without the need to check for touchups in your butter knife, like some cliche lady in a rom-com. If you're gonna act like a cliche lady in a rom-com, at least do something cool like a shopping montage - preferably on someone else's dime. 

If you're willing to try a liquid lip and love a true matte finish, you simply have to grab a Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit. Maybe two. Maybe six. I can't say; I don't know your journey.

Here are five reasons why you need Liquid Catsuit:

a. These things are cheap! Five bucks a pop (less with constant drugstore sales!) means you can impulse buy without regret.

b. These things are great! Because cheap means nothing if the product sucks. They go on smooth and opaque and dry down to a truly matte finish.

c. These things last! I could easily get a day's worth of wear on one application, aside from that pesky business of eating and drinking, which will impair the wear. Since it dries down after application, you're not going to get a ton of, say, transfer to your coffee mug, but if you go hard on a sandwich - and by all means, go hard on a sandwich - you're going to lose some of that lippie.

d. These things are comfortable! Remember those lip vices I mentioned earlier? Not these, baby! A super matte finish usually comes at a cost, but I wear these all day without really feeling them. They feel no worse than any traditional lipstick to me. I'd compare them most closely to NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream, but these are still a bit more comfortable. 

e. These things look cool! Okay, this is shallow, but the packaging is very sleek - a thicker, shorter acrylic tube with a very secure click to close. Plus, a feline lady character leaning on the logo. Not necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit Swatches in (L to R) Rebel Rose, Berry Recognize, Missy and Fierce

Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit on Lips in (L to R) Rebel Rose, Berry Recognize, Missy and Fierce

Interested? I thought so. I mean, it's called Liquid Catsuit, a name so over-the-top-ridiculous, that it swings back around to being kind of awesome. Liquid - yes, catsuit - I guess? Well, no, what am I saying? NO. This is not a catsuit of any kind, if that wasn't made clear by the fact that it's a tube of lipstick. Allow for this one potential flaw in the product and I think you'll still be happy. 

Liquid Catsuit comes in 13 shades, from nude to vampy. Check out these swatches:

Have you ever tried these? What's your favorite lip color?

BEAUTY: New at the Drugstore Spring 2016

With each new season comes the greatest of gifts. No, not your crippling allergies or an excuse to buy new clothes. I'm talking new drugstore makeup! Not that the industry needs a reason to give us new or limited edition products, but they do seem to love a seasonal release. I can't resist every new thing that catches my eye on an endcap at Walgreens.(Believe it or not, I am only human, though I'll let you know when I grow my unicorn horn. Hooves crossed!)

Having picked up some newbies here and there with a plethora of coupons mixed with sales, I realized I had a bit of a haul to share, and what am I here for if not to share my overly specific opinions on things you've never asked me about? I do what I can.

NYX Vivid Brights Liquid Eyeliner

Let it be said: NYX makes some of the best damn liquid eyeliners in the drugstore - nay, the world! My ride-or-die everyday liner is the NYX Collection Noir Liquid Black Liner, and all the things I love about it are captured in the Vivid Brights line: a thin, flexible brush tip, opaque formula, and smooth application. I wouldn't necessarily classify these shades as vivid and bright, though. They're great colors (the full line contains 9 rainbow-spanning shades) and add a pop to your eyes, but I was expecting these to be VIVID and BRIGHT, but they're more like vivid and bright, you know? Still, I love 'em and their all day staying power so I'll reach for them when I need a little oomph on my eye.

Rimmel Provocalips

Around this time last year, I was shouting my love for Provocalips from the rooftops (assuming, of course, that a blog post and vigorous texting with my sister are the modern day equivalent of rooftops). I'm in love with this stuff! No other lip color has ever lasted as long or as well on my lips. Plus, it's like stupid cheap and available basically everywhere. I'm done trying to convince you; honestly, it's your loss if you sleep on this stuff. What you do need to know, though, is that three new shades are now available, and the two I've purchased are just as great as the rest. The other new shade is a deeper berry color, but it looked too similar to Kiss Fatal for me to pick up.

CoverGirl TruNaked Eyeshadow Palette in Roses

I feel like I'm in high school again! Why? Because that's the last time I consciously purchased a CoverGirl eyeshadow. I love me some CoverGirl 3-in-1 foundation, but their eyeshadows usually leave me underwhelmed, with the exception of the eyeshadow single Disco Ball, which I wore almost exclusively from the late nineties through the early 00s. So much glittery fallout, so little time. Sigh. ANYWAY, I kept seeing swatches of this palette and was shocked how good it looked. It's obviously an attempt at a Naked 3 dupe, but these are nowhere near Urban Decay quality. I found that the shades swatch well, but lack some of that pigmentation when applied with brushes, which is a bummer, and no matter what colors I used my eye ended up a bit muddy looking within a few hours, even with an eye primer. Not a total miss, but not the drugstore beacon I was hoping for.

Jordana Sweet Cream Matte Liquid Lip Color 

& NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream

Here we have two products that I couldn't feel more differently about! First, the Jordana: this is a typical liquid lipstick, but what stood out to me was how very matte this looks when it dries down. It's almost chalky, but in a good way? It's surprisingly comfortable for just how matte it is, and lightyears more comfortable than, say, the ColourPop Matte Lips. Raspberry Tart, pictured here, is the perfect cool toned pink that my collection was missing. Bonus: the doe foot applicator has a little scoop shape so just enough product comes out. It's the little things.

Okay, bummer of all bummers: Moscow, this lovely midnight blue shade of Soft Matte Lip Cream, suuuuuuucks. Yes, I meant each and every one of those u's. Don't get me wrong, I love the SMLC line, but this shade is a streaky mess. Lack of pigmentation is one thing, but you can't even build the color up without cracking or wiping off the underneath layers. I tried a navy eyeliner as a base, and that too was rebuffed. This is the lipstick that does not want to be worn. There are so few cheap and accessible blue lipsticks that this is a real loss. Moscow, we hardly knew ye.

KISS Waterless Nail Tattoos

This is my first nail tattoo purchase, waterless or otherwise, and it was on a complete whim, but I'm kind of loving how simple these are to use. You just cut around the design, peel it from the backing, press it on your nail and seal with a topcoat. They have great staying power and look lovely over a bright polish base or on naked nails. The roses are fun, but not 100% my jam, so I'm impatiently waiting for some new designs to be released. 

Have you found any great new products lately? Can you point me in the direction of the best blue lipstick? How many rose-themed manicures do you think I can realistically get away with before people start to talk?

BEAUTY: My First ColourPop Order!

I love a good inexpensive beauty find more than anything (sorry friends & fam) and I'd had my eye on ColourPop for ages before finally treating myself to some birthday goodies a few months ago.

First, I tried three eyeshadows: two shades are Super Shock Shadow (Weenie and Telepathy from the KathleenLights Collection) and the other, Fantasy, is a Super Shock Pressed Pigment. Sleek twist-open pots offer a clear window so you can quickly see what's inside. The formula itself is almost beyond description. It's a powder, but it has such a soft feel that you'd swear it's a cream. The only thing I can compare it to is the feeling of perfectly moist soil - definitely a solid, but you can easily leave a fingerprint on the surface. Swirling a finger in the pot gives a wondrously pigmented result and the softness makes it a dream to blend.

Sorry, my impatient toddler fingers smushed 'em all.

L to R: Weenie, Telepathy and Fantasy

Swatches of Weenie, Telepathy and Fantasy...ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME?!

As you can see, the color is deep and beautiful. Like, seriously beautiful. Like, dipped-my-fingers-in-liquid-metal beautiful. I wore Weenie basically every day for weeks after I got it, and I still reach for it all the time. Telepathy is great for gilded smoky eyes, and Fantasy is always going to make a statement, and that statement is "Check out my eyes because they look AWESOME."

Weenie Super Shock Shadow on eyelids

Telepathy Super Shock Shadow on inner corners

Fantasy Pigment all over lids

You know I had to try some lip color, right? I've heard such mixed reviews on these matte liquid lipsticks, and now I completely understand why. I don't know if I love them or hate them! My first try-on was Succulent, and I was shocked by how dry and strangle-y it made my mouth feel. I can handle some dry lips - I love longwearing mattes - but this was by far the most Death Valley-esque lipstick I've tried. I felt like I'd sucked on a stick of chalk, a feeling I remember from when I used to dress up in my sister's elbow-length prom gloves and pretend to smoke chalk "cigarettes" and drink champagne, as most seven-year-olds do. Oh, just me?

All of the shades gave me this overwhelming dryness and usually crumbliness on the first go, but I found on subsequent wears they were much more comfortable. Maybe I just knew what to expect or maybe they needed to air out a little, but I do find myself wearing them regularly. I especially love Lychee because the purple hue is so bright and bold, but I've found LAX to perform the best of the bunch. Definitely exfoliate your lips and put a good balm down before playing with these guys!

Swatches of Succulent, LAX, Lychee, & Dr. M Ultra Matte Lips fresh from the tube

Swatches of Succulent, LAX, Lychee & Dr. M Ultra Matte Lips after drying down

Again, the shades are beautiful. Succulent is a great orange-y red, which is somehow toned down and neon all at once. LAX is the perfect dramatic blood red color. Lychee is bright and fun, but still really wearable. Dr. M is a very deep green, perfectly matte but also full of microscopic glitter. 

Ultra Matte Lips in LAX on the lips

Ultra Matte Lips in Lychee on the lips

I'm glad I gave into the hype and tried this brand, though I'll likely stay away from any more matte lip colors just to be safe. For such a decent price they really do have a lot to offer, and the delightful sensation of touching these eyeshadows is worth it alone!

Have you ever ordered from ColourPop? What are your favorite affordable makeup brands? Got any offbeat color lipstick faves to share? 

BEAUTY: Morphe 35S Palette Review/Swatches

Doesn't it seem like makeup brands spring up overnight sometimes? Think about it - two years ago we were not even talking about ColourPop (and probably would've mocked the unneccesary "u" right?), but now their name is thrown about so frequently we can feel like we're missing out on something we barely just learned existed.

The same can be said for other YouTube-famous online makeup brands like Morphe. I saw the brand written about on beauty sites, reviewed in videos and used in tutorials, and since I like to keep an eye on these up-and-comers, I had checked out their offerings and maybe even pinned a product or two. I can be skeptical about beauty newbies, but when I saw their 35S Smokey Eye Palette, I was interested in trying it out for myself.

Because I have a wonderful and generous sister, I received this palette as a surprise gift in the mail, but you can buy it either directly from Morphe or from Amazon, where it seems to be a couple of bucks cheaper with free Prime shipping.

The Pros

I was instantly struck by the palette's size upon opening the package - this thing is a full 9" x 6" and each individual eyeshadow is about a 1" circle. You get a lot of product here for the price, but I was curious if that product would be worth it.

I'm happy to say that, overall, I think this palette is certainly worth the price, as even though not every shadow is well pigmented, the majority are at least useable, with many being supremely soft and colorful. There is also a great mix of colors here. I don't feel drawn to the million neutral palettes available these days (how the hell did we, as a society, decide to get this excited over taupe?!), but this palette offers a selection of useful neutrals, as well as bold brights and some unusual shades you won't find many other places, like the banana yellow and magenta.

There are both matte and metallic finishes, and several groups of shadows that can be worked into no-brainer smoky eye looks. This is a very user friendly palette, meaning that you can either choose to play around or work within a given color family or zone to get whatever look you're going for.

The Cons

My biggest complaint is that there are too many similar shades in this palette. Looking at the above photo, you'll see several bright blue shades, each appearing slightly different from the others. In the swatches below, you'll notice they come out of the pan looking nearly identical. Just kind of a bummer since this is a missed opportunity for even more color selection.

The same can be said for black shadows, and you might wonder why the bottom row of this palette appears to have three of them. I did too, but after swatching I saw that they are each different, with the first black in the bottom row being deeply pigmented, while the others are weaker and read more like dark gray. Again, just a missed opportunity to stuff even more color into this palette. 

Some shades are too weak to use, specifically the tan shade at the end of the top row, and some are crumbly, like the pink at the end of the fourth row.

First Row Swatches (the last shade showed up so lightly that I accidentally cropped it out of this photo!)

Second Row Swatches

Third Row Swatches

Fourth Row Swatches

Fifth Row Swatches

I get a lot of use from this palette, and love having such a mix of colors on hand. It would also be great for traveling, since it could get you through many looks. Honestly, the super metallic shades make this completely worthwhile to me, as they're so bright and unique I go back to them again and again. Also, even though I disparaged the color earlier in this post, the taupe eyeshadow third from the left in the fourth row has become a constant in my makeup life - it's even more gorgeous in person. Wait, one more con - I wish these colors had names so I could reference them a little easier!

Have you tried any Morphe palettes or brushes? What is your favorite affordable makeup product? What other beauty newbies are you dying to try?