SERIOUSLY, SKIP IT: Butter London Lippy (in Snog + Dupes)

I love Butter London. I love their logo, their website layout, their packaging, and their nail polish. It's square. Squares are excellent shapes for basically everything.

I tried really hard to like the Lippy Liquid Lipstick. Like, really hard. I put it on in the morning and I ate with it and then I was so grossed out I wiped that stuff right off.

Look at that cute rectangle.

The packaging is fantastic. If I could scrub out all the pink gunk and pour in a different product, I totally would. Although now it's more likely I'll put it in my box of lip products and pull out every now and then, quietly admire, then put back to resume gathering dust.

The product itself is totally confusing. I have no idea what I own. It's called a Lippy--but so is every lip product from Butter London. Is it a lip gloss? Is it a liquid lipstick? I have no fucking idea. From the packaging it looks like the Lippy Liquid Lipsticks, but the little sticker at the bottom assures me I'm holding a lip gloss that's 0.24 fl oz. The box, on the other hand, corrects me: "no, honey, it's 0.25 fl oz."

Whatever it is, I hate it.

Typical applicator.

The smell, oh man, the smell. When you open the package and smell it, it's ok. It's something between old perfume and a Jolly Rancher. But like if the Jolly Rancher had no sugar. Just that overbearing, synthetic fruity smell. The kind of perfume your elderly aunt has been wearing since the 50's. Color payoff is great, but it doesn't dry either.

The worst part is actually smearing this glop on your mouth. The texture is really thick and liquid lipstick-y, but boy howdy is this thing sticky. It stays in place, but I feel like I stuck one of those weird sticky strips you find on the back of samples but on my lips. You know the ones. Like clear boogers attaching your already-tiny primer sample to unnecessary cardboard.

And then you start to taste it. Imagine walking though the perfume department right as someone sprayed a bottle, and the perfume gets in your mouth. And then you eat a bar of soap. That's exactly what this Lippy tastes like. When I ate some sandwich I couldn't taste anything but soap--and it was a damn good sandwich too. Even after you remove it, the smell lingers for a good, long while.

Because I hate myself, I photographed it on my lips. No flash.

There are the sacrifices I make in the name of blogging.

As much as I wanted to test the lasting power of this thing, I just can't keep this slathered on my lips. The perfume scent is so overbearing and I don't want to perpetually feel like someone shoved a bar of soap in my mouth.

Like any responsible blogger, I bring you less disgusting dupes. I have entirely too many lip products, mostly drugstore, so I quickly managed to pick out a few similar shades.

L-R: Butter London Snog, Maybelline Color Elixer in Celestial Coral (~$9), Maybelline Superstay 14HR Lipstick in Continuous Crandberry, Eternal Rose (~$9), Revlon Super Luxurious Lipstick in Pink Velvet, Love That Red, Fire & Ice (~$8). 

L-R: Butter London Snog, Maybelline Color Elixer in Celestial Coral (~$9), Maybelline Superstay 14HR Lipstick in Continuous Cranberry, Eternal Rose (~$9), Revlon Super Luxurious Lipstick in Pink Velvet, Love That Red, Fire & Ice (~$8). 

Flash, same order as above.

I wouldn't call any of these identical in the swatch, but on the lips, it's a lot harder to spot the differences. In person, Continuous Cranberry is a lot redder. The closest dupe is the last one, Fire & Ice. The undertones differ slightly, but again, on the lips the difference is imperceptible.

I would spring for Revlon's Fire & Ice and toss Snog right in the trash. The color is so great, but everything else gets a sad emoticon from me.

The Lippy Liquid Lipstick retails for $18 for 0.24 fl oz ($75 per ounce). In comparison, OOC Lip Tars are $19 for 0.33 fl oz ($57 per ounce) and are much better quality. Revlon's Super Luxurious lipsticks are ~$8 for 0.15 oz ($53.33 per ounce).

Bonus:

To make up for the mediocrity of this 'lippy', here's a picture of the bun showing off her weird rabbit feet.

The thing she's chillin' in was intended to be a litterbox, but she decided it makes a better bed.

L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream: Catering to 5 People, at Most

BB creams are kind of gimmicky. In America, most are just tinted face lotion. DD creams? CC creams? If you pick a letter out of the air, I'm sure someone will name it the new big thing. Anyway, I don't like slapping Revlon Colorstay on my face every day so I thought I'd pick up some drugstore BBs.

The back, if you need ingredients.

Here's the L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream, with "Beautifying Beads; encapsulated pigments infused in an ultra-light lotion with antioxidants Vitamins C&E". L'Oreal claims this BB cream "delivers 4 beautifying actions in 1: hydrates, corrects, evens and perfects. Instantly transforms to your perfect shade for a flawless, bare skin finish. Over time, more beautiful skin" (Source).

Let me skip right to the punch line. Don't buy this BB cream.

First off, why are Beautifying Beads capitalized. Also, how are they beautifying. If you've never used this BB cream, you'll notice it comes out as a white lotion with little round things in it. As you press them and rub them into your skin, they pop and color comes out. It sounds like a neat idea in theory, but damn is that inconvenient. You have no clue what color you're going to get--and if you don't rub it enough, you're going to have weird half-white skin.

"Beautifying Beads" 

This lotion may be "ultra-light", but the problem is it won't be so super light when you have to slap more and more on to cover your gross skin. This product was tinted but at the same time kind of transparent. It basically just sits on your skin. It feels a little greasy. L'Oreal also gets a finger-wag because saying "over time, more beautiful skin" is so vague and unmeasurable that it really shouldn't be said at all. Also, no sunscreen in this BB.

L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream next to Maybelline Dream Fresh BB

It may be a bad product, but L'Oreal's nozzle is snazzy and convenient.

Now the real kicker is the shitty color choices. "Instantly transforms to your perfect shade"? God no. They're so horrendous that unless you're medium toned, pink, have a fake tan, and have relatively clear skin, this BB cream can go straight to the trash. If you have really dark skin, sorry, since L'Oreal only caters to the medium. The colors available are Fair, Light, Medium, and Deep. Somehow, they managed to alienate just about everyone.

I'm pretty pale. Usually I fall under 'ivory' or the 2nd lightest shade so I grabbed Light. Jesus Christ was this awful.

L-R: Unblended gloop, hardly blended but still white, Fair color, Light color.

Yeah, you're seeing that right. The Light shade is fucking orange. I don't think even someone with a fake tan could use this successfully because it's just so damn orange. And guess what, Fair is literally fucking white. There must be a good 10 skin tones between Light and Fair. It looks ok on the back of my hand, but on my face it's white. And I can't tell what the color is supposed to be because of the damn Beautifying Beads. Is it white? Or am I not blending it out enough? It just gives my face a white mask with a pink undertone, so I can't use it either way (since I'm yellow-toned).

Here's my arm zoomed out, to give you a better idea. Note how the Fair shade doesn't cover my faded lipstick swatch.

So overall, this BB cream is supposed to hydrate, correct, even and perfect. It does hydrate, but if you pile on, it's too greasy. It doesn't correct either, since the colors are off and super duper sheer. Again, doesn't even and perfect for those reasons too.

Look, I even put it on my face. Because I hate myself.

I couldn't dare to go outside to take photos. The orange looks even more orange in natural light.
On the rest of my face I've been wearing Maybelline's BB in Light for 10hrs in 100 degree heat. Still looks ok.

Just don't buy it. If you want an affordable but more neutral and more appealing to more skin tones, try Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream. It still is targeted towards the white medium tones, but they lean more neutral. Plus, there's coverage. I have acne and it covers it pretty well and makes the rest of my skin look less blotchy and red.

L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream retails for  ~$10 for 1 ounce. For comparison, Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream retails for ~$7.50 for 1 ounce, depending on where you buy.

Skip It: BITE BEAUTY Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in Palomino / Violet (+ much needed dupes!)

Bite Beauty is a Sephora-exclusive brand that markets natural, 'good enough to eat' lipsticks. They claim each of their Luminous Creme Lipsticks contains "super antioxidant resveratrol" and that "each lipstick contains the amount of resveratrol found in five glasses of red wine" (Source). This makes me raise my eyebrows a bit. The lipstick may contain the antioxidant, but applying a thin layer on your lips once a week will give you absolutely none of it. You will neither absorb enough through your skin, nor will you lick off enough lipstick to get any measurable benefit. Maybe if you sat down and chowed down on your $24 dollar snack, but not if you use it as intended.

Well anyway, I decided to pick up the $12 Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in the Vibrant shade, which includes two mini bullets in colors Palomino and Violet. Violet is self explanatory, but I have no clue why they chose to name the fuchsia 'Palomino'.

One of these is not what it's named.

Source
Now this is a palomino.

This tiny thing is tinier than anticipated. Obviously Bite made the box 4x bigger than the actual lipstick so you feel like you're getting tons of product.

The back of the box, if you like reading lengthy ingredients lists.

The two colors here look really vibrant and exclusive, but they're actually pretty plain. They're bright, but no special snowflake.

Nonetheless I slapped both ends to my lips and smeared them around in the usual fashion.

Palomino on the top lip, Violet on the bottom. I blotted Violet somewhat and they both looked disappointedly similar after that.

These Luminous Creme Lipsticks applied like butter. Like literal butter: they were, in fact, a little too creamy. When I tried to layer on more pigment for a really vibrant punch, they sort of slipped and slid around in an uncertain way. Not to mention the two have basically the same undertone. If you wear them as a stain, they'll look the same. But overall, they felt ok on my lips and stayed alright. The finish is satiny and shiny, far from matte.

I wear my lipstick all day without reapplication, that's why I don't like liquid products. This duo, though, faded significantly and within 4 hours, taking the shine with it. The stain still lingered, so that's a plus in my book, but it was no longer a vibrant shade, but a very typical snooze-worthy fuchsia.

The problems came in after 6 hours and at the end of the night. The Luminous Creme Duo dried my lips out so fucking much. I think the Revlon Super Luxurious mattes are drying, but in an acceptable way; I'm not particularly sensitive to dry lips. This duo, though, was out of control. It went on so buttery at the start, but deteriorated to a disgusting smear on my lips.

You can clearly see the straight line where my lip ends and lipstick begins.  My lips are so chapped.

I had to scrub this stuff from the fine lines and chapped spots after the photos; my lips were starting to flake because they were so dry at that point (10 hours). It felt and looked absolutely disgusting. I have over a hundred lipsticks, many drugstore, and nothing has fried my lips this much.

Here's how the colors look when first applied next to the worn version.

On the plus side, even when your lips are cracking, the duo goes on smooth for reapplication and doesn't emphasize fine lines.

Overall, I'm really disappointed that this cute little duo is like a disgusting little bullet of deception. I won't return it, it's cute to keep for later reference, but I definitely won't be wearing it. Thankfully, the colors are pretty easy to come by in the drugstore, with an actually decent formula and good lasting power.

First up is dupes for the Violet shade:

L-R: Bite's Violet ($12), Maybelline Color Sensational Lipcolor in Brazen Berry (~$8), Covergirl Lip Perfection in Divine (~$7), L'Oreal  Colour Riche Caresse Lipstick in Violet Chiffon (~$10), Revlon ColorBurst Lacquer Balm in Whimsical (~$10) 

L-R: Bite's Violet ($12), Maybelline Color Sensational Lipcolor in Brazen Berry (~$8), Covergirl Lip Perfection in Divine (~$7), L'Oreal  Colour Riche Caresse Lipstick in Violet Chiffon (~$10), Revlon ColorBurst Lacquer Balm in Whimsical (~$10) 

Same order as above, but with flash.

Maybelline's Brazen Berry leans cooler than Violet, while Covergirl's Divine is a spot-on dupe in person. I've worn it on many occasions and it still looks fresh and purple after my 10 hours, so I would definitely pick it instead of Bite's.


And now here's the dupes for Palomino:

L-R: Bite's Palomino ($12), Maybelline Superstay 14HR Lipstick in Eternal Rose (~$9), Maybelline Color Sensational Lipcolor in Vivid Rose and Fifth Ave. Fuchsia (~8)

L-R: Bite's Palomino ($12), Maybelline Superstay 14HR Lipstick in Eternal Rose (~$9), Maybelline Color Sensational Lipcolor in Vivid Rose and Fifth Ave. Fuchsia (~8)

Same order as above, but with flash.

Maybelline's Eternal Rose is the only one that leans on the red side. The other three are basically the same on the lips. I would say Maybelline's lipsticks go on a tad more sheer than Bite's--but you can easily build up color, while Bite Beauty's duo just sort of slides around.


So in the end, I don't recommend this little impulse buy. You can easily get two full lipsticks for the same price, but with a formula that lasts great for my 12hr wear. The dupes get a Veronica thumbs up, while Bite's Duo gets thumbs down with an added fart sound effect.

You can price Bite Beauty's Luminous Creme Lipstick Duo in two ways: as 1 lipstick, or as two small ones. If you combine the sizes, Lipstick Duo retails for $12 for 0.1oz ($120 per ounce), but if you buy it for only one color, it retails for $12 for 0.05oz ($240 per ounce).

The regular sized Luminous Creme Lipstick retails for $24 for 0.13oz ($184 per ounce). So it's up to you to decide whether this is a good deal or not.

Perma Faves: MAC x Lorde Lipstick in Pure Heroine (Review + Comparison)

If I could marry one person in the world, it would be Lorde. Not my boyfriend or anyone--but Lorde. Since this isn't a post dedicated to her, I'll keep the ranting to a minimum.

I only began buying high-end makeup pretty recently and wanted to get a MAC lipstick, but none really jumped out at me. The stars basically came together when I found out there was a Lorde-themed lipstick. Hell yeah, I'm gonna buy it. Good thing the MAC website has free shipping since I wanted this sucker immediately.

Be jealous.

The Lorde collection included an eyeliner and an Amplified finish lipstick in Pure Heroine, obviously named after the album. I'm still not sure if we're talking protagonists or drugs, but whatever. You can be jealous since the lipstick is sold out now.

This one comes in the usual MAC rounded style and swatches beautifully. Honestly, I would have preferred a more Lorde-esque dark plum, but this is totally fine.

No flash, but held up right next to a light.

In the tube, Pure Heroine looks like a really dark purple, but when you really look, it has a really bright fuchsia undertone.

Flash.

I have lipsticks that have a similar fuchsia undertone, but I love how this one wears off. Instead of getting grossly patchy like my other lipsticks, it wears off to an even pink stain. In fact, sometimes I blot off all the dark and leave that nice magenta--it's like a two-in-one. Great for the lazy (i.e. me).

Freshly applied, full color. It's very moisturizing without sliding around.

You don't need a lipliner with Pure Heroine; it doesn't sit in the fine lines and seep outside your lip line.

Freshly applied, with flash.

I then dabbed it with a clean square of toilet paper until nothing else came off and got to that nice-looking stain.

This is a much more daytime color.

With flash and wind in my face.

I was sort of cleaning out my photo folder and happened to delete my 12-hours-later picture, but let me describe it for you. Pure Heroine wore off really evenly; I didn't have that awkward ring of color on the outside of my lips and on the inside it became a gradient from my lips to the color. None of that 'straight line of lipstick' stuff.

It did disappear somewhat from the corners of my mouth after the 12-hours and the rest had lightened by about 50% of the above stain, but not in a gross, patchy way. So overall, even if you wear it as a stain, this lipstick definitely stains. My lips didn't feel disgustingly dry at the end either and I started without any chapstick underneath.

And because I have too many drugstore lipsticks, I tried to pick out some similar colors.

L-R: MAC Pure Heroine, Maybelline Color Sensational in Brazen Berry (~$8), Revlon Super Luxurious in Plum Velour (~$8), L'Oreal Infallible Le Rouge in Everlasting Plum (~$10), Maybelline Color Sensational in Deepest Cherry (~$8), Maybelline Color Sensational in Mauve It Up (~$8), NYX Butter Gloss in Raspberry Tart (~$5),  Revlon Just Bitten Kissable in Crush (~$9).

L-R: MAC Pure Heroine, Pure Heroine as a stain, Maybelline Color Sensational in Brazen Berry (~$8), Revlon Super Luxurious in Plum Velour (~$8), L'Oreal Infallible Le Rouge in Everlasting Plum (~$10), Maybelline Color Sensational in Deepest Cherry (~$8), Maybelline Color Sensational in Mauve It Up (~$8), NYX Butter Gloss in Raspberry Tart (~$5),  Revlon Colorburst Balm Stain in Crush (~$9).

Out of my 100s of lip products, I don't have an exact dupe. As you can see, all my berry/purple shades are on the redder side, while Pure Heroine is cooler and purely purple.

Taken with flash.
Same order as above.

Some of these do leave a stain, even after vigorous scrubbing. Same order as above.
L-R: MAC, MAC, Maybelline, Revlon, L'Oreal

** Update: If you've got a Pure Heroine-colored hole in your heart, check out Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm in Shameless (~$9). The color is spot on, but the finishes are different, since the Matte Balm is, you know, matte. I don't find it drying and it lasts all day, albeit wears off to be a tad more patchy stain than Pure Heroine. But the color is a perfect dupe.

Overall, I love this lipstick. It wears off well, lasts ages, and can give you two different colors with minimal effort. And it's Lorde themed. Come on. Totally worth the $16.

MAC x Lorde Pure Heroine retails for the usual $16 for 0.1oz ($160 per ounce).

Review: L'Oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner and Why Do I Love Flaky Eyeliner

I'm a greasy girl. In middle school I once got Sharpie on my eyelid. A black, permanent dot right on the eyelid. You know where I saw it when I came home and inspected my 12 year old face? All up in my fucking crease.

Pencil eyeliners might as well be an eyeshadow substitute for me. My eyelids are both greasy and somewhat hooded so basically everything migrates into my crease. Again, gross and unfortunate. Pencil eyeliners just don't cut it. I'm too impatient to wait for gel eyeliner to dry, but it stays ok. Ok, though, isn't good enough when I want my wing to be sharp enough to kill a man.

I googled 'best liquid eyeliner' and got a bunch of $20 products. What am I, made of money. I refined my search to drugstore, and decided to pick up Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner in Carbon Black.

T-B: Maybelline Line Stiletto (~$8), L'Oreal Lineur Intense (~$9)

This sucker is fantastic. That's kind of a subjective statement, since different people want different things out of the squiggles on their eyes. So for the sake of simplicity and objectivity, I thought I'd break this shit down for you in the case you have an eyeliner checklist sitting on your lap.


1. Packaging

Admit it, pretty packaging is worth it. I could buy some generic brown-bottled Walmart perfume--or I can throw my $100 at a Sephora employee and get a fancy, breakable thing.

Source
What are these? Why are they so ugly? Why do they appear in my house as though by magic?

The Lineur Intense packaging is fine. It doesn't use comic sans and doesn't shed glitter. For the sake of a funny image, I google searched 'comic sans perfume', but instead I found Helvetica The Perfume. Yes, it's real. It's $32. It's also just distilled water.

L-R: Maybelline Line Stiletto, L'Oreal Lineur Intense

Anyway, the Lineur Intense packaging is fine and functional. The tip isn't a brush that can flay out and get misshapen, but a nice, stiff wedge sponge. It has a fine tip and is flexible enough to not stab you in the eye. It's a little bit longer than Maybelline's Line Stiletto, if that matters to you.

L-R: Maybelline Line Stiletto, L'Oreal Lineur Intense

I like how the handle is nice and long. For me, it makes it easier to draw a smooth line.


2. Product / Application 

Being called Carbon Black, you'd expect this eyeliner to be black. It's black. It's very black in my swatch and in my eye (literally). Sorry if I misled you with the first line.

L-R: Maybelline, L'Oreal, L'Oreal after a vigorous rubbing.
Maybelline was noticeably more watery.

It applies very smoothly, and doesn't need more than one layer if you're precise. You may need to go over it again if you don't dip your brush in on the first stroke. The only problem is that you need to wait for it to dry before drawing over. If the eyeliner is still semi-sticky, then trying to mess with it will actually take off some. It dries very quickly, though, and I'd call the finish somewhat semi-glossy (although nothing awful like Maybelline's Glossy Liner), rather than a true matte. The Line Stiletto has a similar finish, but was significantly more prone to flaking when you tried to go over it again.

The bottle doesn't need much shaking. It's a nice consistency: not watery, but also not clumpy and dry. You don't get any patches when you apply and it doesn't tug at the skin. Just like with all liquid eyeliner, you probably should wait a few moments before looking up if you have hooded eyes. I've forgotten and gotten some on my lid, but a tiny dot that was super easy to remove.


3. Wear Time

This thing is fantastic at wear time. It stays on me for 12 hours and then some. If you didn't catch on, I have semi-hooded eyes and greasy eyelids.

Awkward photo of my eyeballs. See how much of the eyeliner touches my crease?

I blink as much as everyone else and every time my eyeliner rubs the rest of my eye. Nonetheless, it definitely stays on. I've put swatches on my arm through the shower, and if I don't rub, they stay on fine through running water.

I don't have a 'before' picture (it looked perfect, trust me), but here's a 10 hours later image.
Looks fine from afar, I would totally go out like this.

L'Oreal's Lineur Intense flakes. I, personally, think it's a nice combination of flaking and not. Like I said, my eyeliner is constantly rubbing my lids, but that's not enough to flake it off. I also fuck up my wings often and removing them is easy, but leaves a few flakes here and there. The eyeliner goes smoothly on top of them and wears the same.

In this swatch, I rubbed the last one rather hard. Harder than I would rub my eye.
My eyes are really oily, so it flakes much easier on my eyes than my dry hand.

Here's a closeup of 10 hour wear. No one will be looking this close at my eye when it's closed, so I'm ok with it.
And don't forget I am super oily and this is a pretty extreme case.

On the other side, for the sake of a test, I gave my eye a quick rub.
Again, extreme case. Dry people will experience less flake.

Also a point to note: I never touch my eyes. Maybe scratch under my eye, but I never touch my lid. You shouldn't either, but if you compulsively rub or if you have itchy eyes, this eyeliner will flake off on you when you rub it: more if you're oily, much less if you're dry. It's easy to reapply, though, and if you clean it up with a wet q-tip, people probably won't notice you're missing a chunk.

I also conducted an extreme-extreme test. I applied my eyeliner in a less chunky wing than above (not much touching my lid) and wore it from 8am to 12am. That's 16 fucking hours on my oily skin. The only difference was some slight fading on the left side, and a few minuscule flakes on my eyelid. There wasn't even any fading towards my tear duct.

It looks like my eyeliner is uneven, but trust me, that's just the bad-flash-photo angle.
My eyebrows stayed on awesome too. Four for you, Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade.

So there you have it. If your skin is less greasy than mine, your results should be even better.

Note: I have tried this eyeliner alone with a few eye primers and the results were worse than without. It seemed to smudge and crease and flake faster and easier.

4. Removal

I can find a kick-ass eyeliner--but if removing it is a pain in the ass, I'll probably never use it. Eyeliners that flake off are awesome. They just rub off. So easy.

If I wanted, I could just rub off L'Oreal's liner with my fingers. I'm not that filthy, though, so I use Yes to Cucumbers Facial Wipes and they easily get it all off. I have yet to find a decent mascara I can just rub off.

This eyeliner is fantastic.


L'Oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner retails for around $9 for 0.05 fl oz ($180 per fluid ounce), depending on where you buy. For comparison, Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner retails for $19 for 0.058 fl oz ($327.58 per fluid ounce).