Milani Cosmetics Coming Up Roses Blush: Bella Rosa

Swatches & Review

Like all limited edition drugstore cosmetics, I always have a hell of a time finding them. I spent hours making calls to all the drugstores within 25 miles of me and they all said they did not have it, or was sold out. Although one of the stores told me they did not carry Milani, I went anyway to purchase another item & what do you know.. I found the new Milani Coming Up Roses Powder Blushes! Luckily, they had one of each left for the ones that I wanted, and three of Warm Petals, which is the only shade I did not get. The first shade I immediately tried after I got home was Bella Rosa.

The limited edition Coming Up Roses blushes are packaged in Milani's regular plastic packaging with some gold on it. These are shrink-wrapped on the side so you would definitely know if someone has previously opened it.

The blush itself is shaped like a rose, which is gorgeous! It definitely looked way too pretty to use, but what is the point of buying something without using it, right? haha.

Bella Rosa is a cool toned pink with a matte finish.

Okay, so lets start off by saying I absolutely hated the color payoff of these. In the borders on the swatch image, I applied the blush using four swipes & it pretty much did not show at all! In person, I was able to see a very very faint hint of pink, but it was basically nothing. For the hard swatch (which was done by finger), it took a while for my finger to get a bit of color onto it to be able to swatch it. I basically had to rub it down super hard and scrape it a bit to get any color off of it because the blush from the pan was so dry. It did not apply that nice because it was not pigmented, and powdery.

I also tried it on my cheeks, which took a lot of effort because no matter what brush I tried, the blush would barely get onto it. I ended up scraping some off the pan, swirling my brush over the powder and applied it. It actually did not come out too bad, but that effort to just get color to show up is definitely not good at all.

Overall, I am pretty disappointed with this blush. Although it looks super pretty in the pan, it is not worth the hassle to get the color to show. It was not pigmented at all, which is a shame because I love Milani's Baked Blushes and a lot of their other products that I have tried from them. I am definitely hoping the other two I purchased would be better than this.

The price may vary depending on location and store. I purchased this for $6.99 at Walgreens, but I have seen others and an empty display at my local CVS selling these for $9.49 (which is way overpriced).

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Rimmel Kate Moss Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick: 107

Swatches & Review


Since purchasing Rimmel London's Kate Moss lipsticks a few months ago when they had their 50% off sale, I only tried two since I have been trying to use up some lipsticks I already have before opening new ones. I have always wanted to try 107, but it seems like it is more of a Fall shade, which is why I decided to try it now as the end of summer is nearing.

107 is a berry red shade in the tube.

The lipstick is packaged in a plastic semi-matte red tube. The red tube is from the Kate Moss line of Matte finish lipsticks and I like how the package is semi-matte because it does not attract fingerprints so I don't have to whip out the microfiber cloth after using :P

Swatched on the lips, it definitely looks similar to the color straight from the tube. It is a gorgeous berry red and this glided on the lips very smooth. This was super pigmented so I used one swipe from the tube. I did not use any lip liners to see if it bleeds or feathers and it did not, which is good since dark and bright shades usually bleed/feather around my lips. This lasted on me for about four hours with minimal eating and drinking before I had to reapply it. The downside to this is like 109. Although it claims to be matte, it is not very matte. It seems more like a semi-matte finish, which is more matte than their black tube lipsticks, which has a bit of shine to it. Because it is not really matte, it was not very drying on the lips. Another downside to this is the scent. Like 109 and the Show Off/Apocalips Lip Lacquers, they smell just like Asian dried plums, while the black tubes have a sweeter scent, but the scent does not linger around the lips after applying.

Overall, this is a nice berry red lipstick for fall and the holiday season & the price is not too bad (about $5.99 depending on location and store). I wish there were names of the lipsticks instead of just numbers, but I think after a while, the numbers aren't too bad to remember. Rimmel London Kate Moss Lipsticks can be found at some drugstores, and Target/Walmart.

What do you think about Rimmel London's Kate Moss lipstick line? Do you prefer the red tubes, or the black tubes? (I wish they had the pink tubes in the US).

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Maybelline Color Whisper Lipcolor: Plum-Setter

Swatches & Review

Maybelline's Plum-Setter Color Whisper is part of their new limited edition display of lip colors. Maybelline describes their Color Whisper line as weightless gel, so it is supposed to be very lightweight on the lips.

Like all of Maybelline's line of Color Whispers, they are packaged in a plastic tube with its color being similar to the color of the lip color itself.

Plum-Setter looks like a dark vampy purple with sparkles in it from the tube.

For the first lip picture, I took it in direct sunlight. The other two were taken indoor, with the middle one being in front of the window.

Swatched, it is a very sheer plum color. For the arm swatch, I used one swipe, but for the lips, I used two swipes in order for the color to show. In the arm swatch, you can not see the glitters much, but if you enlarge the picture, you can see the glitter on my lips.

Honestly, I was pretty disappointed with Plum-Setter because I expected it to be a bit more pigmented, especially since it looks like such a dark shade from the tube & it applied unevenly on the lips. I understand that their Color Whisper formula is supposed to be very moisturizing and not have as much pigmentation, but I have tried a few from their permanent line that are a bit more pigmented than this is. When I think about this, I feel like I am using Baby Lips, which I would definitely choose over this limited edition color because it is half the price, is more moisturizing if you are looking for an item that moisturizes the lips & the slight tint is basically what this similar to. If you are not looking for much pigmentation & want something moisturizing and lightweight, this might be for you, but it is definitely not for me since I would rather pick Baby Lips (for moisture) or Revlon's Lip Butters (for pigmentation) over this. Skip!

What do you think about Maybelline's Color Whispers? Have you tried their limited edition colors?

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Zoya Fall PixieDust

Swatches & Review

We're still in the middle of Summer & Fall collections are out already? Yes, this is how it normally is, but this just reminds me that Fall semester for school is coming closer and closer. Anyway, Zoya always has amazing Fall collections and this year, they decided to also make a PixieDust collection for Fall. The new Fall PixieDust collection has been provided for me free to review from Zoya, and just when I thought I was over the textured nail polish craze, some of the new colors have got me hooked again!

Like the previous two PixieDust collections, the Fall set also comes with six shades. Although some of the shades look similar than ones from past seasons, they actually aren't exactly the same.

Tomoko: Champagne nude with a silver glitter. This shade is very soft looking & is super sparkly when it is out in the sunlight. This was a bit on the sheer side so I used three coats for swatches.

Chita: Forest green with light green glitter. Chita was very pigmented and it can definitely be a one coater, but I used two for swatches. To me, Chita was very thick so it is best wait a bit longer to add on the second coat if you plan to do so or it will drag a bit on the nails. This stained my nails so I would recommend using a base coat with it.

Sunshine: Denim navy blue. Sunshine was also very pigmented and this was easier to apply than Chita. I used two coats for swatches and to my surprise, it did not stain (since blues normally stain on me).

Carter: Royal purple. The first coat applied very sheer & uneven, which is not what I expected from this since I have never had a PixieDust apply sheer on me for the first coat like this one has before (picture below).

With one coat, it looked like it had a black jelly base with a bunch of glitter packed together, like a confetti. Indoor, it looked a bit darker, but outdoor, it was lighter. With the first coat, you were able to see all the glitters clearly.

Since the first coat applied sheer, I thought that I would need more layers, but by the second coat, it looked just like how it does in the bottle, so I used two coats for the swatches. This was a surprise favorite for me because like I have said before, I am not a big fan of purple, but this was absolutely amazing on the nails. It is like a blackened purple with lavender, magenta & silver glitter. The color kind of shifts in different angles, and it was just gorgeous! Removing this was a bit harder because the glitter gets everywhere around the nail & I assume it might be because this has more glitter than the other ones do.

Here's an upclose picture of Carter to show you the multi-glitters in it. Doesn't it look super pretty?

Arabella: Zoya describes this as a rich fuchsia, but to me, it looks more raspberry. This was very pigmented & I used two coats for swatches. Out of the whole collection, this was the only color I did not like because it did not look to well with my skintone.

Dhara: Juicy bright orange. This looks like a nice shade to transition into fall because the orange of this reminds me of pumpkins. This was also super pigmented & I used two coats for the swatches.

I liked most of the colors in this collection. If I were to choose a few, I would choose Carter, Dhara & Tomoko because they were three of the most sparkly ones that looked amazing in different lighting. The feeling of these are exactly the same as the ones that Zoya previously came out with, which is textured/gritty when it dries, but if you want it softer, you can run it under water a few times after it is completely dry and the gritty texture ends up being more of a sugary texture feeling instead of a hard gritty feeling. These are also easy to remove like the previous PixieDusts as long as you hold the cotton ball with remover on top of the nail for about a minute before wiping it off.

These are available for purchase on Zoya.com now, and they retail for $9 per 0.5oz bottle.

What do you think about the new PixieDust collection? Do you still love the textured finish nail polishes? What fall collection are you most excited for?

**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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