TheBalm Read My Lips Lipstick Swatches!

Happy New Year everyone! What was your new year's resolution? Mine was to actually use up more things in my stash, hah. Today's swatches are theBalm's line of lipsticks, cutely named Read My Lips Lipsticks, and athough they have a limited number of colours - I'm not sure if I got the entire range down, but it seems that their colours are only limited to 6 - they cover most bases for lip colours. And most of their lip colours are very pretty and wearable too. They also come in cute paper packaging that looks like newspaper print - unless of course you don't like paper packaging, since these can get wet and spoil quickly. Personally, I only like the look of paper packaging, but it's not very practical for me.

Overall, I think these lipsticks are not bad. They have nice textures, and apply relatively evenly. And they don't have any weird smell - I think they just smell of unscented lipsticks - slightly chemically, but very faint. They're also all on the sheer side, although they build up nicely. They're not as superpigmented as the Barry M Lip Paints (which I'm so swatching, by the way), but they're wearable. Overall I think these are one of their better products, although they are a tad underrated.

Here are swatches, as always:



L - R: Wanted, Scoop, Gossip, Letter to the Editor, Classified, Smut

Wanted is a very pretty pinky-plummy rose, Scoop is a warmer rose that's less dark than Wanted and has more brown, Gossip is a pale pink with silver shimmer. Letter to the Editor is a shimmery bronzey brown colour with a hint of rose, while Classified is less shimmery, and less rosey. Smut is a deep purply-plum with some pink, and silver shimmer.

Although these colours are boring, I quite like them, particularly Wanted. They're good for work (unless you don't like shimmer), and these are pretty much safe, pretty colours.

Complete Sleek Blush Swatches

Today, we will be swatching and reviewing Sleek's entire line of blushes. That isn't very hard, because there are only 5 of them. Nevertheless, there are, as usual, some hits and misses.

First off, here are the swatches:



L - R: Pixie Pink, Flamingo, Sahara, Flushed, Coral

Pixie Pink is a matte pale baby pink, this one took a bit of building up to get the color intensity seen in the swatch. It's pretty much a very neutral pink, although I'm tempted to say it leans to the cool side just a tad. I'm guessing this one will be popular with the paler girls, who might find the other colours too intense for them. I'd say this is pretty much your universal pink, although I do imagine that it could potentially look chalky on darker skins. I like this colour, but it doesn't excite me for some reason - I mean, doesn't every other brand have their universal matte light pink? It's boring, but I guess it's a basic colour you have to have in your stash.

Flamingo is probably easily my favourite of the bunch. This one had good pigmentation, and I really like the colour. It's a peachy-pinky colour with a bit of red to give it that extra oomph, setting it apart from it's fellow peachy-pinks like NARS Orgasm. This one had a bit of gold shimmer in it, but I really like the dimension that gives. And the fact that this is my favourite says a lot, because I didn't even like NARS Orgasm. Anyway, I have a hard time deciding whether this is cool or warm, so I'm just going to say it's neutral. I do imagine Flamingo could be used on everyone, and I really really like it a lot.

Sahara is a rather orangey bronzed browned colour, and I'm having trouble picturing who would wear it, because it really leans very orangey on me (maybe it's just my colouring that pulls out the orange or something). It's very heavily orange and brown, even in the pan. This one is matte. Obviously, this isn't my favourite colour-wise, but someone else might like it.

Flushed is a red-berry colour, with just a bit of brown, and it sort of reminds me of a sort-of NARS Outlaw or Exhibit A, as it is sort of in the same colour family. I also really like this one, and with careful use it could probably work on most people, the emphasis being on 'with careful use'. I'd say this colour is a neutral, although it does lean a little to the warm side.

Coral isn't really coral at all, but a browned orangey red colour. I know the swatches make Flushed and Coral look similar but they really aren't (@#%@#% camera). Coral is a good bit browner, and a good bit warmer, and a good bit more orange, Once again, this isn't really one of my favourites, because of the inordinate amount of orange in it, although it has less orange than Sahara. This is definitely warm toned.

In general Sleek blushes had a pretty decent quality - they weren't fantastic and rivalling the high end brands, but they were certainly good for drugsore quality. In general, the lighter colours tended to be weaker in pigmentation than the darker colours, and Pixie Pink in particular was a bit weaker in pigmentation than the rest of the colours. Texture-wise, these felt alright. A couple of the testers were on the hard side, but most of them felt pretty decent. The packaging of these is quite cute, especially if you like NARS. These are packed in NARs-esque packaging, complete with black rubber case and little mirror inside, and rectangular pan of blush with no brush. I probably wouldn't rush out to collect these, but I do like the look of Flamingo.

On another note, Christmas is coming! Merry Christmas everyone!

Are they dupes? Comparison Swatches and pictures - NARS Outlaw vs Wet and Wild Berry Shimmer

Since good ol' Wet n' Wild brought out its Silk Finish Berry Shimmer blush, there's been a lot of talk about whether that particular WnW color is a dupe for NARS Outlaw. Now, it so happened that I had Outlaw, which I swapped for awhile back, but NARS blushes were breaking me out, so I though I'd get the Berry Shimmer and see if they were really dupes! I totally wanted them to be, and were they?



Click for full sized pic.


Well this photo above makes them look pretty close in the pan. To be fair, they are both definitely in the same colour family - both of them are bright berries that have a touch of dustiness in them. The WnW, however is more of a screaming berry tha, while the NARS is more dusty. And the NARS is more cool-toned than the WnW - it's obviously more blue-based.

Now, for some swatches:





L - R: WnW Berry Shimmer applied lightly, NARS Outlaw applied lightly, WnW berry shimmer applied heavily, NARS Outlaw applied heavily. These were taken in shaded natural light.

Click for full sized pic.

Now, it becomes pretty evident that although they're close, they aren't by any means dupes, like other people have been saying. Sure they're in the same colour family, but there's a definite difference when swatched, as is evident from the picture. While they're both berries, the WnW is a warmer berry, while the NARS is a cooler berry. Also as I've mentioned before, the WnW is brighter, while the NARS is a more muted, 'dusty' colour - of course this is relative, since both the WnW and NARS are pretty bright anyway. Both of them have gold shimmer, so for anyone who hates shimmer blushes, I'm afraid you're out of luck. But I love the way the shimmer is done in both blushes though, it's glowy without being overdone.

So I guess if you wanted a cheap-ass dupe of NARS Outlaw, I'm sorry people, this isn't actually a dupe, but it's pretty darn close. Especially if you're a warm-toned girl. In fact, if you're a warm-toned girl, this might actually suit you better than the NARS, since the NARS is definitely cool-toned, and might wind up looking 'bruise'-like on warmer skin. Outlaw is definitely a color that's better on cooler skin, IMHO, so if you're warm, you've got yourself a deal with the WnW - same berry color with similar gold shimer, just with a warmer undertone. However, if you're really cooltoned, I'm afraid the NARS is still the more $$$$$ way to go.

That's not to say the WnW isn't pretty in it's own right. I totally love it, it's an awesome color, and definitely a must-buy the next time you head to your local Walgreens. I'm just saying as a dupe it isn't a 100% dupe.

And another thing I noticed that might surprise people - Berry Shimmer was insanely pigmented, much more than NARS Outlaw in fact! *Cue gasps of surprise and mood music* For the heavy swatches, I had to dig into my Outlaw to build up the swatch, but the Berry Shimmer heavy swatch was just a few strokes of color! Yes, yes, yes, we all know NARS blushes are so insanely pigemented that very few beat them, but guess what, WnW has decided to load their blushes in the pigment department, and they have come out on top! I myself was very surprised swatching this, because while I've had really good experiences with WnW blushes in the past, this was just totally AWESOME. A skunk will definitely be required for application - don't say I didn't warn ya!

The only gripes I have about WnW are the packaging. The plastic window in the casing likes to come off and dig into the blush (be careful if travelling with it), and the small brush it comes with is really useless. The brush issue isnt a problem for me, since i use my own brushes anyway (which reminds me, I must do a post on face brushes soon), but I'm always worried about my WnW blushes getting all banged up if the plastic window screen comes off. It's not that sturdy for travelling, the NARS has much better packaging in that respect. But then again, it's not perfect either - anyone who has owned a NARS anything will know that that rubber casing likes to attract loose powder and lint, so it looks really dirty after awhile. Wiping it down with a wet baby wipe to remove the gunk built up on it should do the trick though.

I love my NARS, of course - in fact I was wearing Outlaw everyday for a week straight before I started breaking out due to the Isopropyl Palmitate (that's how much I love it), and to a lesser extent the Tocopherol, so I'm always glad to have an alternative that doesn't break me out :) Of course, YMMV, so just because it breaks me out doesn't mean it breaks you out etc etc etc...But I just thought I'd mention it, because so many other bloggers tend to get drunk on the NARS kool-aid and start raving about it, when actually some of the ingredients in their blushes are potentially pore-clogging - it's just good to put it out there. Of course, tons of people wear their blushes and it doesn't break them out - but for the rest of us, there's always Berry Shimmer.