The Libstick: March 2016

Saturday 19 March 2016

High end beauty: Hourglass Lipsticks

Let me just start of by saying, I love a bargain. When you find something cheap that you love - it's great, however when you find something you would have happily paid full price for but it's significantly discounted, that makes my day. Especially if it's lipstick(s).

Secondly, as a makeup lover I find it hard to save money. There is always something popping up that I wanted to buy. So with my holiday coming up (Dubai, hello Sephora!) I thought about going on a spending ban. Then lent came, and I thought, perfect I'll give up buying makeup for lent. Guess how long I lasted?

3 weeks.

It's all because of these two beauties.

Off I popped into TKMaxx one day after work, rummaging around the shelves spotting some excellent brands: Nars, Stila, TheBalm, Hourglass. Wait, Hourglass?!

Hourglass is a brand I adore. With such a high end, cult beauty status I never expected to find it in TKMaxx. I have two of their powder palettes and some blushes, already but I've always wanted to try one of their Opaque Rouge lipsticks. However at £24 for such a diddy size, I've always been tempted but held off. So when I spotted one in Riviera, a beautiful orange red I grabbed it straight away for £14. Still quite expensive but after trying it out, the colour payoff is amazing and it lasts for hours, so it is definitely worth it.

Then I spotted some other Hourglass packaging and found this beautiful Femme Nude Stylo lipstick in Nude No5. I absolutely love the packaging for this, it's so luxurious and stunning. The colour is a perfect beige nude with a slightly glossy finish, the only issue with this lipstick is the scent. It smells like the cheap toy makeup I used to play with as a kid, but I'm sure I'll get used to it!

Left: Opaque Rouge in Riviera, Right: Femme Nude Stylo in No5 Nude

So there we have it. Two new beautiful lipsticks to the collection.

Now this time, no more spending!

Libi xx

Saturday 5 March 2016

MAC Lipstick Collection

I love lipstick. It's my most purchased beauty item ever and I can't even begin to tell you have many I have. It's a bit mental really. So when I say Mac lipsticks are the best of the lot. I really mean it.

Mac lipsticks are the only lipsticks I've ever fully used up. Some colours I've used and repurchased and some I haven't. But the best thing about Mac I'd say, is that when you take into store 6 empty packaging (think foundation bottles, lipsticks, even eyeshadows) you get a free lipstick of your choice.

You may wonder why are these lipsticks so great? (you may not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!) For starters, they smell amazing. They have this lovely vanilla scent, that isn't too overpowering but like a lip balm almost. They also have loads of different textures, shades and collections. Some collections like Viva Glam are endorsed by celebrities and all proceeds go to charity.

I've probably been buying and collecting Mac lipsticks since I was about 16. I've had some unfortunate colour choices (Mac Myth - google it), lost some on nights out, given some away and had to throw some away due to makeup expiry dates but these are the ones in my collection now. I love looking at these kinds of posts as I'm always intrigued to see what other people have in their collections and also I like to see swatches. This is usually incase I want to know what a colour looks like on the lips and whether it would suit me, so I can then rush out to buy it should I like it!

Before I end with a crap tonne of pictures, my faves of the bunch are probably: Velvet Teddy, which isn't actually shown here as I'd lost it at the time of taking this pictures, Mehr and All fired up. Also don't judge my terrible lipstick application! Now on with the pictures...