Buxom Time to Shine Full-On Lip Collection

Swatches & Review

Last Holiday, Buxom came out with an exclusive Time to Shine collection, which I have reviewed here (link). About a few weeks ago, I noticed that Sephora had a new set of the Buxom Time to Shine Lip Gloss set up. At first, I thought it was similar since these sets normally does not come out until around Fall, but after looking at it, I realized this set has different colors in it.

Like the collection last Holiday, this set includes six mini lip glosses. Three of the glosses have a creamy finish, and the other three have a diamond finish. Each mini lip gloss are about half the size of full-sized Buxom lip glosses.

Kir Royale: Creamy wine red. It looks a bit dark, but when applied to the lips, it sheers out to a nice red without it being too dark.
Cherry Flip: Creamy bright red.
White Russian: Creamy nude pink.
Tiffany: Shimmery red.
Gabby: Shimmery maroon.
Amy: Shimmery beige.

Out of these six shades, one is a repeat shade from last year's Time to Shine collection, which is White Russian. I actually prefer this set more than the one I purchased before because it seems like the cream finish ones will match well with the diamond finish ones because the colors are similar, but with a different finish, such as Kir Royale & Gabby, and Cherry Flip & Tiffany.

Buxom lip glosses are my favorite because I like the tingly feeling from them, but one thing to note is that you should not put too much onto your lips because the feeling will become a bit overwhelming, and a bitter taste comes with over applying, so it is best to not use too many layers of them. This set retails for $32 and can be found at Sephora (online & in some stores).

What do you think about Buxom lip glosses? Do you have a favorite brand of lip gloss you always stock up on?

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Lorac Uptown Allure Eyeshadow Palette

Swatches & Review

Lorac Cosmetics Uptown Allure palette is exclusive to Nordstrom Rack. On the box, Lorac notes this as the warm eyeshadow palette because there are two palettes they had exclusive to Nordstrom Rack, which the other notes that it is the cool eyeshadow palette for cooler shades.

The palette is packaged in red all over, which is just like the Sweet Luxuries palette, but in a different color.

When you open the palette, there are five warm neutral shades. Four of the shades are shimmery, and one has a matte finish.

These eyeshadows do not have names on them so I will go from left to right.
1) Frosty Beige: This was very smooth and easy to apply, but it is very very shimmery.
2) Frosty Champagne: This was also very smooth, but it was very shimmery.
3) Warm Brown: This had a golden shimmer to it. When I looked at it in the pan, it looked a lot more shimmery, but after being swatched, the shimmer is not very overwhelming. It was very smooth and pigmented.
4) Purple/Mauve: In the pan, this looked more purple, but when swatched, it's a gorgeous mauve shade. It had a shimmery finish, but it was also not too overwhelming, I really liked this more than I thought I would.
5) Dark Brown: This had a matte finish. Even though it was matte, it was not chalky and applied easily.

From this palette, shades one and two look very similar, and although there are slight differences between them because one is more yellow and the second leans more pink, I would have liked to see another shade in the pan instead of two similar colors. Since used cosmetics cannot be returned to Nordstrom Rack, I was a bit on the fence about these because some shades from Sweet Luxuries (Ulta Black Friday exclusive) were chalky, but after swatching these, I fell in love with them! They were all very smooth and not very powdery either, which is definitely good. The shade I did not think I would like was the fourth shade because I am not too big on purple eyeshadows, but it ended up being my favorite because it was more of a purple-brown, which makes it very wearable. I did not like that packaging that much because it feels very cheap, but for the price, I guess I can't really complain too much about it. If you missed out on the Sweet Luxuries from Ulta, I recommend getting this because the colors are a bit similar, and it is definitely a good deal.

This palette retails for $12 and each eyeshadow is about 0.06 oz in size, which pretty much a full-sized Urban Decay eyeshadow. When I went to Nordstrom Rack, they had a shelf full of these on the display (a bit more than fifty) so if you are interested, definitely call your Nordstrom Rack and see if they have it in stock.

What do you think about Lorac eyeshadows? Have you tried Lorac Cosmetics? What is your favorite neutral eyeshadow palette?

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Maybelline Fall 2013 On The Runway Collection Lipsticks

Swatches & Review

For Fall, Maybelline has released four limited edition lipsticks for the On The Runway collection. Out of the four lipsticks, I picked up two, which are Lavender Voltage & Violet Intrigue. I was initially going to pick all four up, but once I saw them in person, I felt like I was not going to use Midnight Plum and my Vivids collection had colors similar to Fuchsia Fierce.

For my swatches today, the picture above is used from my instagram because my laptop is being fixed so I do not have an editor to watermark my pictures.

The picture on the left is with Lavender Voltage and the one on the right is with Violet Intrigue.
Lavender Voltage is a medium purple that looks like a blue-purple and Violet Intrigue is more of a pink-purple.

For purple lipsticks, I feel like they are very wearable because they are not too dark. I loved the application and wear of Violet Intrigue because it was very opaque with one swipe. With Lavender Voltage, it required more than one swipe because it was a bit sheer when first applied, but it builds up nice, but when you press your lips with Lavender Voltage, the color seems to move around so blotting it before applying a second/third layer would help. Both of the lipsticks left a slight magenta looking stain on my lips, which is not bad. The scent is like normal Maybelline lipsticks, which smell a bit like honey, but very plastic-y.

Overall, I liked these two lipsticks that I have picked up and for the price, it is definitely worth it! The only downside is that these do no have a seal so anyone is able to just open it and swatch it in stores, which is like all Maybelline lipsticks.

I picked mine up for $5.49 at the beauty section of Bed Bath & Beyond. It should be found in drugstores soon, but prices may vary depending on store & location.

What do you think about purple lipsticks? Would you wear them for fall? :)

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Zoya Fall Cashmeres Collection

Swatches & Review

In addition to the Fall PixieDust collection, Zoya also has two additional collections for fall called Cashmeres and Satins. The Cashmeres part of the collection consists of six creme finish nail polishes for fall.

Flynn: A camel nude creme. It is a nice nude that is not too light so it actually works well with my skin-tone. I used two coats for the swatches.

Louise: Dark brown creme. This applied kind of streaky, but it evened out by the time I put on the third coat.

Hunter: Dark green creme. I did not really like apply this because it was super watery, so I had to use very very thin coats. I used three coats for swatches.

Livingston: Bright cherry red. I feel like this is a sheer creme, almost jelly-like because it is sheer. I loved the formula because it applied smooth & gave me no problems at all, but you can still see my nail line after three coats. This also stains the nails so I recommend using a base coat.

Pepper: Brick red creme. This has the perfect formula and everything! This is actually my favorite from the whole collection & will be my favorite for the fall season. I used two coats in the swatches.

Sailor: Dusty navy blue. This was a bit on the sheer side, so I used three coats. After three coats, I was still able to see my nail line so I think four coats may have been best for this.

Overall, I felt that this collection is okay. The only color that stood out to me that I loved was Pepper because it does not look like a lot of the nail polishes that I already own. The other colors does not seem too unique like Pepper was to me, so I can easily have done without some of the colors from this collection. What I actually liked from this collection as a whole is that it actually dried quickly for me, which normally does not happen when I use Zoya creme finish nail polishes.

These are available for purchase on Zoya.com now, and they retail for $8 per 0.5oz bottle.

What do you think about Fall collections? Do you think they come too soon since it's not even the end of summer yet?


**The products in this post were provided to me for my honest opinion/review. I was not paid nor compensated for the review.

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