Weekend Review: theBalm Schwing Eyeliner & Meet Matt(e) Hughes Lipstick

Over Mardi Gras weekend, theBalm had a sale, so I thought I would try out some of their products. I'd had some eyeshadow, lipstick, and eyeliner in my Amazon shopping cart for a while, so the sale at theBalm's web site made the purchase irresistible. I was going to get the same things from the sale, but the lipstick I wanted ("Committed") was sold out, as was the eyeshadow I wanted, but I did get their Schwing Eye Liner and Meet Matt(e) Hughes lipstick in a similar color, "Honest."

These purchases were delivered yesterday, so I thought I would give them a go this morning and see what I thought of them. My criteria for a good eye liner is as follows:

1. The applicator needs to be able to make a wing point that could draw blood
2. The liner itself needs to be thin enough to create said wing, but thick enough that it doesn't run into my eyes before it dries
3. Smooth to apply; no clumps
4. Dries quickly
5. Doesn't make my eye lids itch (I have this problem with a lot of liners) or swell up
6. Lasts all day

My criteria for a great lipstick are these:

1. Color looks great with my skin tone and makeup style
2. Lasts for at least a few hours
3. Doesn't get clumpy or make my lips dry or cracked

On the Schwing eye liner: I'm impressed. The applicator is small and sharp and lifts out a goodly amount of liner liquid, enough to make the whole wing and fill it in in one dip, which I like. It goes on smooth and does seem to dry quickly, as I didn't have to keep my lids low for too long while it dried. I've been wearing this application for about three hours now and I don't have any itchiness or swelling, which is a problem I have had in the past with some brands of eye liner.

As you can see, the Schwing eye liner delivered on making a sharp wing. My overall rating? A+! I love it so far! I will update if anything changes by the end of the day or after using it for a week, but the outlook on this one is BRIGHT!

On the Meet Matt(e) Hughes lip stick, the first impression I got from it was the scent of it. I had never really given a lot of thought to how a lipstick smelled, but this was really nice. It has the scent of Peppermint Patties with a strong chocolate overtone to a minty scent. My second impression of it was the color, which seemed really orange. I was a little afraid of how bright orange the color was, but I only applied it to my upper lip and then pursed to get it on my lower lip. After a soft blot with a tissue, I actually really liked the color, too.

I'm not usually one for a lipstick that is so matte as this one is, but I knew what was coming based on the name of the product. I actually like it a lot with my skin tone and coloring, and it seems like it will be good for understated looks. Plus, I've been wearing it for a few hours now, and it is still on, just like when I put it on, and I've eaten some crackers and cheese in the meantime. Makes me a happy glamper.

Overall rating on the Meet Matt(e) Hughes lipstick? A+! I'll definitely be buying the "Committed" color from Amazon next time I place an order.

Colorpop Velvet Gloss Lipstick Review

I am a bit of a penny-pincher when it comes to just about everything; when it comes to beauty products, large sums of money are reserved for pretty dresses and eyelashes and eye wrinkle cream and not much else. When it comes to makeup, I tend to just stick to whatever I can get from drug stores on sale or whatever. I'm not too picky: Covergirl for foundation and powders, e.l.f. for most everything else. I did splurge recently and bought a really nice set of makeup brushes. Made my life so much easier.

So, I recently heard about Colorpop lipsticks and someone I know said that they were amazing, so I bought a set of six Velvet Gloss colors from Amazon to try out.

My first impression: the colors I would be getting weren't really represented well in the photos on the web site; the colors I got were pretty much nothing I would ever use. The nude looked promising, but it is too pale for my skin; I look like an alien. The only color that I ended up being even a little bit interested was the red. So I tried the red, and it is a little more orange than I would like, but it did go on pretty well, for all that it is applied with a lip gloss wand.

This stuff dries really, really fast. Like, the first coat was totally dry before I was even finished applying it. I expected that, and I also expected that it was going to be tough to get off, based on the Amazon reviews, so I expected that it would last all day without reapplying.

Not only did it not last all day, my lips felt super dry, and, within an hour, it was flaking off. Two hours in, and my lips looked pretty awful. Ultimately, I wasn't very happy with it, and I have already gone back to my Jordana lipsticks, which, properly applied, do last all day without flaking. To apply my lipsticks, I cover my lips with a light coating of foundation, pat it dry, dust with powder, and then just apply like you would any lipstick. Then, I blot, reapply, blot, reapply, sometimes layering different shades to get different effects. A couple times through, and the color is set and doesn't smudge or transfer or smear or anything. Not bad for $1 per tube.