My Lucid Intervals

"Hydrating cream color glides on smooth and sets with a matte finish; vibrant, richly-pigmented hues are designed for long wear; lightweight, non-sticky, non-drying formula; velvety, cushion-like texture keeps lips in comfort all day"

Maybelline has been conquering the makeup scene in the Philippine market lately. They have a lot of new releases this year and I have been going crazy over their newest products. As you all know I am a DRUGSTORE makeup junkee, kung hindi lang ako ikakasal ang dami ko na naman nabiling makeup. Tsk tsk. Anyways, I first saw these velvet matte lip colors in BeautyMNL. I got very curious with it. This year is the "liquid lipstick year". Almost all brands whether high end or low end have their own take on this product.

Maybelline Velvet Matte lip color is housed in a plastic tube similar to the color sensational glosses released a year ago. Correct me if I am wrong I forgot the name of those lippies (pero blinog ko yun ah!). It comes with a tear drop sponge applicator. The size of these lip colors are very handy
I can squeeze in at least three inside my kikay kit in one go or even in my pocket. It only costs 349 pesos but is currently priced at 299 pesos as an introductory price. I got 9 shades. I dont know if this is the complete number of lippies in this line.

The first thing I noticed with this line is that these lip colors are not velvet matte at all except for Mat 11. All have glossy finishes and turns into a matte velvet finish if I use my ring finger to rub the product onto my lips. This technique creates that matte tinted velvety effect on the lips. The color selection is quite good. With a choice among reds, nude, orange, plum, and pinks.

I do find these lippies quite comfortable to wear. They feel lightweight when worn but all shades tends to bleed unless applied by layer in a rubbing manner with the use of one's finger. So I suggest that spreading it with your finger is the best way to apply this lip color. Each shade has a different color pay off. Mat 6,12 and 11 have the best color pay off in the bunch. These colors blew me away because they looked so delectable on my lips. May personal favorite is Mat 11 which is a deep red color. This is by far the second most flaterring red shade I have worn next to my MAC Ruby Woo. Some lip colors needs to be layered to give off that lipstick pigmentation but all look flattering as a gloss. Using a lip liner will prevent this lip colors from bleeding and will give an instant ompfh to the color. For longevity, these have a good staying power. It lasts 3 hrs on my lips the most.

I do notice that these lip colors dries up my lips by mid day esp. MAT 12!! The consistency is smooth and liquidy. It takes to dry. These also settle on the fine lines and can highlight the dry areas of the lips. Exfoliating the lips is a must before using these lip colors.

Here are the lip swatches with shade description:

Mat 9 , Mat 1, Mat 2
Mat 9 is a neutral red.
Mat 1 appear neon salmon pink in the tube but looks like a sheer medium pink on my lips.
Mat 2 looks almost similar with Mat 1 in the tube but this appears lighter in tone.

Mat 5, Mat 6 and Mat 8
Mat 5 is a warm orange but lighter in color as opposed to my lip swatch
Mat 6 is a beautiful hot pink with plum tones that look super nice. This is one of my favorite
Mat 8 is a tomato red.

Mat 10, Mat 12 , Mat 11
Mat 10 is a light purplish fuchsia pink
Mat 12 is the velvet matte color amongst the lippies. It is a beautiful peachy nudd shade that looks like a dupe for Nars Brigitte!!!!
Mat 11 is my ultimate favorite!! This is a super rich and pigmented deep red!!!

Over all, these Velvet Matte lipcolor may not be true to its name but I find that it to be a very versatile lip product. Why? The lip colors can be used as a top coat like a gloss or if rubbed gently onto the lips it goes on like a velvet stain. I really thought these lip colors will not work on me because I have dark liplines but as evidenced by my lip swatches they are fairly pigmented.

I highly suggest Mat 6 and Mat 11!! Have you tried these newest lip colors?

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Godbless!!

Wrote by donnarence

"Our delicate powder formula comes in a mirrored compact as a blush, bronzer or a highlighter. It's infused with Aloe Vera and Vitamin A,A, and E to nourish the skin and give you that added glow. "

I have been meaning to blog since last week but my laptop acquired virus so i had to have it reformated. Since then, I had a hard time transferring photos from my cameras to my laptop. Last night, I attempted to blog again and lo and behold, my laptop started updating and it was already midnight. Kaloka lang!! I am not a night person so I was so pissed with my laptop for not cooperating with me. Pero oks na yun. It is a new morning so nakamove on na ako. Anyways, just a quick kwento. I just had the courage to book the flight for the second leg of our 13 days honeymoon. Baka triplets ianak ko nito sa haba ng honeymoon namin. Haha

Okay. Enough of my kwento (namiss ko lang magblog at nakakape na naman ako while trudging the heavy traffic of c5. In short, pagbigyan niyo ako sa mga segue ko. Hehe) I know you have seen a lot of blog posts about the launching of the newest PROUDLY PINOY makeup brand from my fellow beauty bloggers. For a new makeup brand, I was in awe that their makeup line was very much complete and upto date. From eyeshadow palettes to HD blushes to matte lipsticks, they have everything covered and there will be exciting new releases soon. I will make a quick report about the launch on my future post. I know their wide array of lipsticks are pretty tempting to blog and probably some of you would even think that being a lipstick junkee at pabibo sa lipswatches eh uunahin ko yun iblog.hehe Trust me, the HD blushes fromPink Sugar Cosmetics are worth drooling for and checking out. It is probably my favorite product in their line.

Their Sweet Cheeks HD Blush consists of 8 shades. Their products are made in Taiwan. What draw me to their blushes was their color selection. Their colors range from muted natural tones to hot neons to highlighters. Whether you are a morena or fair skinned, you will surely find a shade perfect for you. May bonus pa, they also have a bronzer/ contour powder. Yay!! They nailed it. I am not being biased here pero san ka naman nakakita ng new makeup line na gets agad ang gusto ng consumers. Considering that the owners are MALE. Yep lalaki. I am amazeballs. Haha

Another thing that I observed is the pigmentation of their blushes. The color pay off is beyond what I expected from a new brand. Look at the photo below, that is just one swipe from the pan and my finger picked up a good amount of product instantly. These blushes are housed in a sleek black compact with a good sized mirror and a pony hair brush which is not useful (in my opinion because it is too thin and flimsy). I always bring a separate brush to apply these blushes. The product is easily picked up by synthetic or animal hair brushes.

I will be reviewing this blushes based on their finishes and shade

South Beach

By the shade name, I immediately had the impression that this is a bronzer or contour powder. During the launch, Liz told me that this is a dupe for the Nars Laguna. While swatching the shades, I remembered what Liz told me and made a side by side comparison of the bronzers. It was a pretty close match.

On the pan, there is barely a difference. Nars Laguna Bronzer is slightly lighter. When swatched, Can you believe that Pink Sugar is more velvety and smoother in texture. I had to almost scraped off my Nars to get the color that I want. Anyways, my Nars is a bit old so that would probably explain why there is difficulty in picking up the color.

Nars Laguna is golden brown while Pink Sugar's South Beach is darker in tone. It is a medium brown with very very slight hints of taupe making it perfect for contouring. It has noticeable gold flecks that eventually becomes less noticeable within the day. This is a very pigmented bronzer. I applied it with a heavy hand and it looked so blotchy on my first use. It was really hard to correct. The next time I used it I made sure I started with a light hand while I slowly building up the color. South Beach has a pretty good staying power. It lasts on my skin for 5 hrs max and it fades into a subtle contour line on my cheeks.

There are two highlighters in this line. Sin City and Concrete Jungle.

This is Sin City.I bet that it is knock off for Nars Albatross because it is whitish golden shade. On the pan, this looks whitish yellow but when swatched it delivers a seamless lustre.

Concrete Jungle is a champagne peach with chunks of silver glitter. The silver glitter may not be noticeable when blended. This has got to be my least favorite in the line. I am not a fan of the silvery shimmers and this appears quite chalky and chunky when swatched. This product requires a lot of blending but in the photos, you can see that it looks so good. I have not yet fully road tested these two highlighters because my skin is very bad at the moment. As for their staying power, I will update you as soon as I get the chance to use them longer.

My favorite from their Sweet Cheeks HD Blushes are the matte shades. I am very happy that they have wearable hues and neon shades. The matte blushes are soft and velvety in texture particularly Miss Independent and Summer Nights.

The first shade and my most favorite of all is Miss Independent. This is muted pinky brown color that looks so gorgeous on the pan and when worn. It reminds me of Clinique's blush in the shade Mocha Pink. The color is very suitable for my medium yellow skintone. It is also very blendable and looks seamless when applied. This lasts quite longer than most of the matte blushes in this line. I used this inside the mall and church and it stayed put almost the whole day. If I remember coorrectly, I barely retouched that day.

Paris Lights is an obvious dupe for Nars Orgasm. This has noticeable gold flecks and is seriously a gorgeous coral pink shade. On my skin, it looks more coral than pink. I know this is not a matte blush but i considered reviewing this particular shade side by side the matte ones because it is a colorful and shimmery blush and not a highlighter (imo). This takes a lot of blending to make the color look even. This blush is very chunky and a bit chalky like Concrete jungle.

Summer Nights is a warm peach. This is my second favorite. This is buttery and velvety in texture. It glides smoothly on the cheeks upon application. It lasts longer on me like Miss Independent.

Tokyo Rush is a hot neon pink that looks scary on the pan but looks blushing barbie pink on my skin. Unlike the two matte blushes I previously mentioned, this goes on a wee bit chalky and flat. This has an average staying power of 3 hrs.

Wanderlust looks close to Tokyo Rush but this shade is a light purplish pink. This has tiny hints of shimmer that makes the skin glowing.

Overall, I recommend Pink Sugar Sweet Cheeks HD Blush. My personal fave like Miss Independent, Summer Nights and the bronzer South beach are highly recommended. If you are looking for a good highlighter Sin City is a good choice. If you are looking for a nice and affordable Nars Orgasm dupe, I recommend Paris Lights.
These blushes only costs 499 pesos a pan!! Sorry for the earlier typo on the price.That is the best news ever diba? Pink Sugar is available in selected Watsons and SM department stores.

Me wearing South Beach and Miss Independent. On my lips is Pink Sugar HD Lipstick in Naked.

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Godbless

Wrote by donnarence

San San released their Create Your Own Eye shadow a couple of months back. I was given by HBC the opportunity to try out all 20 colors. When they mentioned CREATE YOUR OWN eye shadows to me, I immediately thought of empty palettes that can be personalized like that of Mac's. I was surprised that it was more of a single pan eye shadow. The eye shadows are classified into four groups: Earth Tones, Candy Pastels, Jewel Colours, and Smokey Hues.

(I lost the pictures of eye shadows in groups.) There are only five matte shades in the entire collection. The rest have frosty and pearl finishes. I love the wide selection of colors, from wearable hues to playful shades. The eye shadows do not have consistent texture. Some have that hard texture. I need to scrape the eye shadow to pick up color from the product. Most of the eye shadows have a soft and buttery texture that are really creamy. The matte ones have the best consistency. All the eye shadows have fairly good pigmentation. I was afraid that light shades like Green Mints, Cotton Candy Pink and Blueberry Pop would have that whitish cast but they showed a very nice hint of color. Some colors looked almost the same when swatched like Silver Ash, Vanilla Bean and White Frost. The matte ones are not too powdery and chalky compared to the other eye shadows. The pearly/frosty eye shadows adhere quick to the skin once applied. These eye shadows have major fall out issues.

The eye shadows are quite huge and each pan contains a good amount of product. They are as big as the San San Concealer and way bigger than a ten peso coin. I am not a fan of the container which looks very flimsy. The eye shadows themselves are quite sturdy. They do not easily crack except for the Soft Sun Glow which I accidentally dropped. Each eye shadow only costs 50 pesos! One of the most affordable single eye shadows in the local market.

Here are the individual swatches of the eye shadows:

Natural Air Sienna is a soft faint peach shade. Great for highlighting the brow bone and evening out the lids for natural look.

Blueberry pop is a frosted light Persian blue.

Charcoal Brown is beautiful and exquisite shade. I cam use this on a day time basis and for a soft smokey look at night. This is one of the few colors in my stash that I can just use alone and do not bother much with blending and color combo because by itself, the color is such a beautiful stand alone shade. It reminds me of Pistol in the Naked 2 Palette but is more of a warm taupe brown. The hints of taupe is very overwhelming. I wore this one time and it looked taupe than brown on my lids.

Deep Earth Brown is a matte deep brown color that is great for contouring the crease area, nose line and even the cheek bones. It does not have any hint of red undertones to it.

Emerald green is brilliant lush of color that looks bluish green when applied. It goes on very rich when applied.

Yellow Topaz is a muted gold. Looks like a dupe for Half Baked, don't you think?

Pink Opal is frosted strawberry salmon pink.

Soft Sun Glow can pass off as my skin tone. It works so well under and around my eyes that I use it primarily to highlight my brow bone, clean the edges of my eye shadow and to blend the hard edges of my eye shadow.

Warm Copper Fire is a warm brown that have hints of red undertones.

Water Terra Cotta is soft blush/peach shade that is perfect for the no makeup makeup look.

Golden Chiffon is bright yellow gold.

White Frost is a silvery white shade with a pearl finish.

Purple Amethyst is a purple shade with pink iridescence.

Green Mints is a light and frosty mint green shade.

Cotton Candy Pink is a pearly baby pink shade.

Blackground has micro silver shimmers on the pan. When swatched, the shimmers does not show up at all. It is a great matte black shade.

Ash Gray is a shimmery dark grayish color.

Vanilla is white pearly shade. It is great highlighter for the inner corner of the eyes.

Silver Ash is a true silver that does not emit that does not have a pearly white effect like that of White Frost.

I really hope that HBC would create a palette where I could place depotted single eye shadows. Carrying two to three colors is not really practical since it takes up much space in my makeup kit. I highly recommend to collect all matte shades, and to get Charcoal Brown, Vanilla Bean, Emerald Green, Yellow Topaz and Purple Amethyst. I also hope that HBC will release more matte shades like deep blue, maroon, moss green, and dark purple.

Have you tried these single eyeshadows? What are your thoughts and What is your favorite?

Have a safe and blessed day!