Product Rave: Bobbi Brown Lip Liner & Creamy Matte Lip Color.

Hi lovelies!

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but I'm suddenly noticing matte lipsticks everywhere! I think we're experiencing a revival of the eighties (?), where matte lipstick was reigning king. I'm planning on doing a post soon on matte lipsticks and the best way to wear them as they seem to be the new trend, but for now, I'm going to share my rave review of the new Bobbi Brown creamy matte lipsticks, as promised in a previous post.

In my illness induced haze, I somehow managed to leave out lip pencils while packing for my trip back to KL, so I made a quick trip to Bobbi Brown to pick up a lip pencil (I chose a nude pink called Brownie Pink). While I was there, I also picked up one of the lovely new creamy matte lip pencils (I selected Razzberry, a bright raspberry shade). I love Bobbi Brown, it's one of my favourite high(er) end brands, and the products are always of fantastic quality. I'd been lusting after one of these creamy matte lipsticks since it was released a few months ago, so I jumped at the chance to treat myself to a little pick-me-up (silver lining to being sick).

Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color and Lip Liner.

Top: Sharpener, Creamy Matte Lip Color in Razzberry.
Bottom: Lip Liner in Brownie Pink.

Lip Liner in Brownie Pink and Creamy Matte Lip Color in Razzberry.

Lip Liner in Brownie Pink on the left,
Creamy Matte Lip Color in Razzberry on the right.

Bobbi Brown Lip Liner.

The shade I chose is a pretty nude pink that's really a 'my lips but better' (MLBB) shade, so it goes beautifully with all my lipsticks. I love how smooth, pigmented and long-wearing it is, it always leaves a pretty stain behind. I also like that a free sharpener is included in the package for convenience! For tips on how to wear lip liner, visit my post on four ways with lipstick.

Pros
Sleek, elegant and slim-line design.
Comes with a free sharpener, so you will never have to worry about sharpening it!
Creamy and non-drying, yet manages to be long-lasting at the same time.
Seems to prevent feathering or color sinking into the lines in your lips.
Comes in a variety of shades (8 shades) for versatility.
Contains 1g of product so it should last a fair while.

Cons

Retails for $43, which is a little pricy, but it is quite long-wearing so you should get quite a lot of use out of it.
This is a matter of personal choice but I'd prefer if it was a wind-up pencil to eliminate the need for a sharpener. You do, however, get a more precise application with the current design.

Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color.

I am absolutely loving this lipstick!!! Razzberry is a pretty raspberry shade that's gotten me lots of compliments. I can't get enough and am sorely tempted to get a few more shades. It totally lives up to its promise in being creamy as my lips never feel dry while wearing it, and believe me, that's quite an accomplishment for someone with chronically dry lips! Not only is it very comfortable to wear, but the color is smooth, pigmented and really lasts (even through eating and drinking), and leaves a very pretty stain behind once it wears off (I've found that applying a light gloss over the remaining stain also looks gorgeous).

Pros
Elegant, sleek and slim-line tube design, meaning it will take up very little room in your lipstick drawer!
Creamy, non-drying and smooth, making it very comfortable to wear. Most importantly, the color doesn't sink into the lines into your lips.
Provides long-lasting color, leaving a pretty stain behind on fading.
Comes in a variety of gorgeous, flattering shades including nudes, reds, corals and brights (there are 14 shades in all).
Contains 3.6 g of product, which is quite generous.

Cons
Retails for $44, which may seem pricy, but you use so little product with each application, it should last ages!

Last but not least, I leave you with some photos. I wore these two products for a pool party, teaming a strapless blue frock with simple makeup, then adding a pop of colour with Razzberry on the lips (I applied Brownie Pink underneath for a good base).

For more information, click here to read about the Bobbi Brown Lip Liner and here to read about the Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color. It's actually a fantastic time to invest in one of these (if not both), as there is currently a Valentine's Day promotion on the official website, offering free standard shipping, a free Rich Brown Eye Palette and Extreme Party Mascara deluxe sample! Click here to visit the website, but don't dawdle, as it only runs until the 7th of February 2013!

What do you think of these products, lovelies? Are you keen on matte lipsticks? Do you think you'll be taking up this generous offer? I have to confess I'm very tempted to pick up this offer!

Much love,
MM.
x

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Hi lovelies!

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to everyone who entered my Christmas/New Year International Giveaway!

There was a whopping 5,428 entries, so thank you all for the support!

(Taken from Google Images).

The winner, as picked by RaffleCopter, is BeautyFiend, and has been notified by email. If the winner fails to respond within 24 hours, however, I will have no choice but to pick a new winner.

Congratulations to the winner!

To everyone else, please don't despair if you didn't win, I am planning on running more giveaways very soon, so please stay tuned!

I'm still in Malaysia at the moment, I had to delay my flight back to Melbourne as I'm still not fully recovered, but I will be sending the giveaway prizes out as soon as I return, and organizing more great giveaways for all my lovely readers as well!

Much love,
MM.
x

Australia Day 2013 nails!

Hi lovelies!

Happy (belated) Australia Day! As my regular readers know, I'm still out of the country recuperating from surgery, but I did want to do something to commemorate the occasion, so I decided to do a simple manicure in green and gold to celebrate. Unfortunately, I didn't have many polishes or any of my nail tools with me, so I was forced to wing it with what I did have on hand. Fortunately, I found an antique gold polish from Missha in shade HKH01 and a small bottle of some random forest green polish in my stash, so I decided to try my hand at my first 'framed' manicure.

The framed manicure consists of painting your nails as per norm, followed by layering a contrasting shade on top, leaving a thin border of the first colour to frame the second colour. I'm not completely satisfied with this manicure as it's not as neat as I'd have liked, but I did have some trouble with the polishes due to the brushes/formulas, so all things considered, perhaps it wasn't too bad an effort.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

 

Under artificial light.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

There you have it, lovelies, my first attempt at the framed manicure! I'd definitely like to attempt this again, but I'd probably leave a thicker border around the second shade and use more contrasting colours for added emphasis!

How did you celebrate the long weekend, lovelies? Get up to anything exciting? If you did a special post to commemorate Australia Day please leave me a link so I can come by and check it out!

Much love,
MM.
x

2012 Christmas Nails!

Hi lovelies,

As promised, here are the nails I ended up wearing for Christmas! I was still recovering from surgery and feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to brighten things up and get in the spirit by applying some sparkly, Christmas themed polish!

A couple of months ago, I discovered the wonderful world of indie polishes available on Etsy, and fell in love with the many gorgeous, home-made glitter polishes available! One of the stores I just had to buy from was called Pretty & Polished, and I fell in love with some of the polishes from her 2012 Christmas collection. I ended up purchasing a few mini bottles (which are perfect for when you are short of storage space)! I didn't have time to try them as I fell sick just after receiving them, but managed to pack a couple of the mini polishes in my suitcase to try for Christmas!

I did this look by overlaying Love Always, Candy Cain from Pretty & Polished over my favourite scarlet polish, Karina from Zoya. Love Always, Candy Cain is a gorgeous polish containing lots of chunky red and white glitter (in the shape of hearts and hexes), mixed in with red and white microglitter particles, all suspended in a colourless base. As a result, it works best when layered over contrasting colours. I can just imagine how gorgeous it would be when applied over black (to let the white and red really pop).

Love Always, Candy Cain by Pretty & Polished.

Close up of the bottle.

I did have to fish around a little to get a few of the larger chunky glitter bits placed on the nail, but overall, it applied very easily and laid quite flat on the nail bed, although there are a few places where part of the chunky glitter does stick up a little (as you might be able to observe from the photographs).

This manicure consisted of two layers of Love Always, Candy Cain, applied over two layers of Karina, and I used my standard Poshe topcoat. To allow for easier removal, I applied this over my Essence peel off base coat (PVA basecoat).

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In natural daylight.

In direct sunlight.

In natural daylight.

Isn't this just the most gorgeous glitter polish, perfect for Christmas? It really brightened my spirits and I received lots of compliments while wearing this!

In case you're wondering about removal, it was super easy with the peel off basecoat! All I had to do was grab an orange stick and gently prise it away from my nail, and I ended up with this!

Do check out Chels Pretty & Polished Etsy store page by clicking here, and her online store by clicking here, but I warn you, her polishes are so gorgeous that you just might find yourself 'accidentally' purchasing eight bottles, as I did! Her mini bottles retail for about $5, while her large bottles retail for about $9. I'm eyeing some of her colour changing polishes for my next order!

What do you think of this polish, lovelies? Do you love a good glitter topcoat as much as I do?

Much love,
MM.
x

Happy 2013, and what I've been up to....

Hi lovelies!

Happy 2013! I hope the new year is off to a great start for everyone! Before I go any further, I just wanted to say a big thank you for your lovely messages of support, via comments on my last post, email, Facebook and Twitter! It's so lovely to get a nice message from someone when you've been feeling a bit sick, and it really put a smile on my face to know I was missed! I even received a gorgeous little 'Get Well Soon' bouquet of flowers from my bestie, complete with some gorgeous flowers, cute little soft toys and an adorable smiley face balloon! I'm so blessed to have such caring people in my life, thank you all so very much!



Adorable flower bouquet complete with balloon and soft toys!

 

I'm feeling much better now (although still not quite 100%) and I promise to reply to all the emails/comments soon! I'm sorry for the delay but I've been having some tech problems with my iPad so it's been a bit difficult. It's also been hard to stalk visit my favourite blogs/websites as often as I'd like, so I'm in withdrawal! I have been lurking around a bit but I promise to be more active once I'm back in Melbourne (in early February)! I can't tell you how much I'm missing my laptop!

It's amazing how feeling a bit under the weather can really make you feel quite crummy overall..I actually went a whole week with naked nails! That's the longest I've ever gone (yes, I'm guilty of not really giving my nails a breather in between paint jobs). I had a very quiet Christmas and New Year, which is a bit disappointing as it's usually my favourite time of year, but it was lovely to be surrounded by my family! I did, however, do my nails up for Christmas. I'll be publishing that post tomorrow so do drop by to have a look!

Although New Year's Eve was spent at my aunt's place, I made the effort to get dressed up, put on some purple smokey eyes (a review of the Isadora palette I used will be on the to-do list), and put on a party dress! It made me feel so much better and more myself just to put on a pretty frock, some makeup, and a pair of heels!



Made the effort to frock up for New Years Eve, and
it made me feel so much better! Strapless bubble dress
purchased from Asos.

I also spent a whopping six hours yesterday getting my passport renewed. It's rather a long story but involved getting lost trying to find the new immigration office and watching a few dramas at the immigration office, but all ends well and I finally have my new passport in hand! I don't know why getting a new passport photo is always so difficult, but I do think that the instant photographs seldom flatter anyone (although having my hair frizz into a lion's mane thanks to the humidity also doesn't help...).

I only have two weeks left of my 'holiday', so I'm now running around and getting all the things I needed to do done (like shopping - can you believe I have barely bought any new beauty products?!). I did, however, manage to buy one of the new matte lipsticks from Bobbi Brown, which I've been coveting ever since they were released a couple of months ago, and I'm completely in love with it! I also bought a nude lip pencil because I somehow managed to leave Melbourne without packing any lip pencils!

They are so smooth and comfortable to wear, and they wear beautifully, leaving a lovely stain behind! It's honestly the best matte lipstick I have ever tried, and I have actually gotten my mum and cousin to buy a couple of these too! I will do a full review soon, complete with swatches.

I also managed to get my hands on six pairs of new shoes, practically all bought within an hour. It was on my first outing out of home after the surgery so I think I went a bit crazy (I'm going to blame being housebound for 3 weeks as my excuse). Two of them were practical shoes though, so really, it's more like buying four new pairs! :D

Is anyone interested in seeing photos of the heels? Well, to be honest, I'm probably going to share photos even if you aren't, because I am quite proud of my haul!

What have you all been up to lately, lovelies? I have missed you all!

Much love,
MM.
x


PS - A big thank you to all who have entered my International Christmas/New Year's Giveaway (and hello to all my new followers)! I have extended the closing date, as I had to postpone my trip back to Melbourne thanks to recovering from surgery, so it's not too late to enter if you haven't already! Remember, you can tweet once a day for extra chances (click here to enter)!

A little update.

Hi lovelies,

I just wanted to give you all a little update.

I apologise for not having blogged much in the past couple of weeks. About a week before I was due to leave on holidays, I fell ill unexpectedly, and was in so much pain, I just wasn't up to blogging.

I managed to catch my flight home to Malaysia but had to cancel my holiday to Krabi. I had surgery done a couple of days ago and was hospitalised overnight. Now it should just be a few weeks of recovery and all should be well again. I'm so thankful that I managed to make it home as my family are looking after me very well!

Please bear with me as I recover, I will be back in top blogging form soon!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and happy new year. Stay safe and happy!

Much love,
MM.
x