Review & Swatches: Hard Candy Lipstick & Plexi Gloss, Rimmel Royal Jelly Gloss

The products I'll be reviewing in this post are:

Left to right: Hard Candy "Rush Hour" and "Fire Alarm" Painted Lady Lipsticks, Hard Candy "I Want Candy" Plexi Gloss, Rimmel Royal Gloss in "Sweet Lust" and "Pink Taffy"

Dale got these all for me when we went to Walmart

A lot of people don't know, but Hard Candy Cosmetics use to be sold at The Bay cosmetic counters years ago at a much higher retail price. I recall paying just over $30 after tax for one Hard Candy lipgloss as a teen :S  Times have changed for the better here as the lipsticks and glosses were around $6 CDN each I think

The swatches of the Hard Candy "Rush Hour" and Hard Candy "Fire Alarm" lipsticks are pretty true to the colour of the swatch

I'm wearing the Hard Candy "Rush Hour" lipstick 

And here I'm wearing the Hard Candy "Fire Alarm" lipstick

I love the pigmentation of both lipsticks. They apply smoothly. 

And I think the packaging is cute - especially with the ribbon at the bottom of the tube. 

The swivel base for the lipsticks is slightly a bit stiff (it's not as smooth of a turn as say, my Estee Lauder lipsticks or MAC lipsticks), but considering the affordable price, it works and hasn't gotten stuck 

I highly recommend the Hard Candy Painted Lady lipsticks if you find a shade that you like :)

Onto a review of the lip glosses 

The swatches from left to right: Hard Candy "I Want Candy" Plexi Gloss, Rimmel Royal Gloss in "Sweet Lust" and Rimmel Royal Gloss in "Pink Taffy"

I do not recommend the Hard Candy "I Want Candy" Plexi Gloss 

It's sticky, there is no pigmentation in the lip gloss (so it's like any other lip gloss), and worst off it tastes like Benylin to me. 

It's funny because Dale picked this gloss for me since it was the last Hard Candy Plexi Gloss on the stands - so we figured it must be great to be nearly sold out. Wrong. 

But at least I got one thing right! For the Rimmel Royal Glosses, I saw a few highly rated reviews on them (particularly that they are not sticky at all and taste yummy) and picked them up based on that.

I can honestly say they live up to the reviews and I highly recommend the Rimmel Royal Glosses if you're looking for a high shine lip gloss that tastes pleasantly sweet and is not sticky at all. For the two colours I got, although they look different in colour in the tube and in the swatch, they look like regular clear gloss once worn. 

What are you favourite lipsticks and/or glosses at the moment? ;)

FOTD & Swatch: MAC Nehru eye shadow

I've had MAC Nehru eye shadow for a couple of weeks and it's been a staple for me :) That's saying a lot since I'm quite particular when it comes to eye shadows.

MAC Nehru eye shadow in the pot

This is a matte finish and although it looks like a regular black matte shadow, there is a blue-gray tinge to it that I love. If you love a smokey eye, I highly recommend checking out this shade

You can definitely build up the depth of colour with this one or use it lightly

Here is a quick swatch of the colour (one swipe)

MAC Nehru eye shadow swatch

And here's a look with me using the eye shadow 

Any new makeup products that you're loving lately?

Nail Polish Swatches & Reviews: Claire's Icing, China Glaze, SH & Orly

There are so many things I want to post, but I have been kept busy

Thank you for being patient though - I will try to update blogger more regularly again ;) 

As promised two posts ago, here are swatches for some of the nail polishes Dale picked up for me last month. 

The first swatches are from a limited edition set of Icing Nail polishes from Claire's

There is no name for the set nor for the individual nail polishes.
Note that the bottles in the set (12 mL each) are a tad bit smaller than the standard 18 mL nail polish bottles

So from left to right here are the swatches (all the swatches are two coats, no top coat)

This magenta colour has a really nice iridescent sheen to it

I like this blue-green colour more than I thought I would :)

This blue nail polish dries matte

I really like how bright this orange shade is....it reminds me of palm trees and tropical weather ;)

This colour is really why I wanted the set - the bright purple looked so pretty in the bottle. The formula came out thinner than expected though

Although the Claire's Icing Limited Edition nail polishes do not have any names, the regular sized individual nail polishes do have names.

Here is Claire's Icing nail polish in "Laura's Fave"

I was on the hunt for a nice turquoise-blue nail polish colour....and the colour of "Laura's Fave" caught my eye when I was walking past the store!
It's a nice colour but I wish it was more opaque...so it might be "Laura's Fave" but it's not Karen's Fave LOL


The next nail polish was along the St. Patricks' Day themed shelf

This is Claire's Icing nail polish in "Green with Envy"

This is two coats...but I find that three coats gives a nicer finish

This was my St. Patrick's Day manicure of the week with three coats
I really like it! It took me half a day to get use to it since I tend to be more demure with my choice of colour with longer nails...but it grew on me quickly and I'll be wearing this even during the year

Overall it was my first time using nail polish from Claire's. And they're quite good. There wasn't any streaking that could not be covered after two coats of nail polish, and the only one requiring a third coat was the green glitter one (for intensity preferences). The colour has lasted me 3-4 days without major chipping, and that's pretty decent wear for me


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Here are several other nail polish swatches from a few other brands

This one is China Glaze "Innocence"

I really do not understand the great reviews on this nail polish colour
I personally think China Glaze is slightly overrated (sort of like MAC eyeshadows)
Basically, this is any other light ballerina-ish pink colour - I can find at least two others like this at my local pharmacy drug store for half the price. I thought the formula would be slightly more opaque....but what really bothered me was how long it took for this nail polish to dry. It seriously took much longer than other nail polishes to dry.


Next up is China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy"

Unlike China Glaze "Innocence", I do recommend China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy" if you're looking for a hot pink colour. There just isn't a hot pink colour nearly as bright as this one (that I could find), which is nicely opaque with two coats and applies well. Dale picked out this colour - good one Dale ;)


The following two are nail polishes are from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line

If you know me, you'll know that it's difficult for me to resist anything of nude or taupe colour - that's high heels, dresses, tops, lipgloss, lipstick and even nail polish....

This one is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Quick Sand"

I should have read some reviews prior. I must say that the negative reviews regarding the brushes for this line of nail polish is quite accurate as you can see

Honestly, if you're going to design a nice wide brush (like OPI) please ensure the opening of the bottle is substantially wider than the brush width!!!

For some reason the formula for "Quick Sand" sadly comes out looking like sand on my nails each time I've used it. I keep getting a ton of air bubbles for this nail polish colour. I'm not sure if it has something to do with this particular nail polish formula since the following nail polish is also from the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line and it applied very nicely

This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Sonic Bloom" 

With the exception of the strange combination of a wide brush and small nail polish bottle opening, I quite like "Sonic Bloom". The formula applied very smoothly.

I find that the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polishes dry just as fast as the Claire's Icing Nail polishes. In fact, the China Glaze "Flip Flop Fantasy" dried a tad bit faster than the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes....so I do not agree with many reviewers that said the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes dry much faster than other brands


The last one for this post is Orly in "Passion Fruit" from their Hot Neons collection

This was my first Orly nail polish and wow! I'm really impressed with the formula and I absolutely love the rubberized handle on the brush:

If the rest of Orly nail polishes are anything like this one in terms of formula, application and even the rubberized handle, then this might very well become my favourite brand of nail polish. I know China Glaze gets a lot of love, but sometimes the formulas are not to my liking. And yes, the OPI nail polish brush is quite nice, but I found the Orly one great to work with too. We shall see!

Do you have a favourite nail polish brand? 


What have you been up to lately?? :)

Prize from sssdawna's giveaway

I was one of the winners for sssdawna's 12 Days of Christmas giveaway

Yayyy! I think this is the first blog giveaway I won :) Thanks so much Hun!!

And a few things I love about sssdawna's blog is: she writes well and is straight to the point, I love her honest reviews and if I ever need hair product advice I'd ask her for sure, her StyleWatch series is cool and she always follows up her blogger comments 

She sent me such a sweet card and wrote such sentimental words - it really made my week :)
I'm pretty sentimental myself - I keep all the cards I get

From top to bottom: Avon Glazewear Intense in Brown Sugar (G522)
Avon Glazewear Shine in Iced Pink (G200)
Avon Glazewear Intense in Crimson (G104)

The respective swatches are below:

And I can see why the lipglosses above are rated America's #1 Lip Gloss

They glide on very smoothly, they are not sticky and the pigmentation is even & super pretty 

Plus I love how small they are - perfect for my small purses when I head out :)

I'm wearing the Avon Intense Shine in Iced Pink 

I can never have enough cream :P
The texture of this one is very nice and concentrated - reminds me of Neutrogena's Norwegian Formula hand cream

Gorgeoussss Stila palette with four eyeshadows and a duo lipgloss/blush
I already had my makeup done when I picked up the parcel - but I'll be doing FOTDs with this palette soon!

I use cream liner everyday so this brush is perfect - and I love how it's bent/angled

Lush Products!!! 

I love how they're all handmade and so far, I've had very good experiences with Lush products despite my sensitive Skin. They smell soooo nice and I can't wait to pamper myself with the Lush Hokkaido bath bomb

Thank you so much for the lovely prizes and the beautiful card Hun :) 

It definitely made my week!

Have you tried any of the products in this post? 

MAC Pro Longwear Lipstain Marker Review

From MAC's Art Supplies Collection, I got three lipstain markers in the shades Point of View, Runway Ripened and Puposefully Red.

Just to note: for the shade Point of View the swatch colour on the box is a bit misleading from the actual colour.

The colour swatch on the box looks much more nude than it really is. I seriously don't think it would come out that kind of colour on anyone's lips.

This is the swatch on my skin. It is watery in consistency but only a thin layer applies and it's literally a stain (just like Benefit's famous cheek stain. Same idea).

See the colour that comes out? I would put this in the brown family rather than the nude family.

Purposefully Red and Runway Ripened both come out red on my lips with Runway Ripened being a tad bit brighter.

However the swatches show that Purposefully Red has some coral/orange undertones to it and Runway Ripened having some magenta undertones to it.

Here are the swatches: Purposefully Red (left) and Runway Ripened (right)

It really does look like a marker....felt tip and all...just like a Sharpie permanent marker :)

This is me with nothing on my lips

After applying MAC's Point of View lipstain it makes my lips a red-maroon colour with a caramel undertone

This is later in the day with MAC's Purposefully Red on my lips. I really like this shade a lot. In person it looks more red than in this picture. This picture seemed to pick up some of the coral undertones

And this is me wearing MAC's Runway Ripened which is a tad bit brighter than Purposefully Red

It's a stain so it's obviously not creamy or moisturizing. Everyone has fine lines on their lips so the stain will sink in and naturally accentuate it.

The stain will dry within a minute or two. After it dries, to avoid the prune look for my lips I applied a gloss on top.

Here I added MAC's Dazzleglass Creme in Perfectly Unordinary on top of Point of View.

You can see from the tube of gloss what shade of pink it is. When I layer this pink gloss on top of the lip stain the colour becomes more mauve (not evident from picture). This is a close up of the lipstain + lipglass on my lips.

So a gloss on top definitely takes away the "dry" look the stain will give your lips and the lipstick did not budge when I applied the gloss on top.

Personally I like these a lot more than MAC's Pro Longwear lipcolour which I have in the shade Clingpeach (note Clingpeach looks nothing like it does on the website swatch). I do not like the consistency of the longwear lipcolours - even with a thin layer of colour and gloss on top, the longwear lipstick starts to crack off in little bits and you can feel the gritty lipstick bits if you smack or rub your lips together. What's worst than feeling it is seeing it LOL (or others seeing it!).

With the new lipstain markers, you can't feel it on your lips at all which I love. And I can smack my lips together as much as I want and I don't have to worry that the lipstick is coming off in bits :\ Also, with regular creamy red lipsticks I often have that dreaded red lipstick on your teeth problem. I don't want to be so conscious of that or to have to keep checking my teeth in the mirror when I'm wearing red lipstick so for that reason, I really like the lipstains in the two red shades I picked up.

Have you or will you check out the new MAC Pro Longwear Lipstain Markers? Or are you eyeing something else from the Art Supplies Collection?

How is your week so far?

:) Karen