discovering cerise

When I first bought Collection 7 Day Wear nail polish in Cerise nearly a year ago, I was sure I bought a burgundy (thanks drugstore lighting!) My initial disappointment was the result of not getting what I expected, but this nail polish introduced me to a colour (a type of colour) that I grew to love. Cerise, which is French for cherry, made me realise I never paid close attention to what colour a cherry is. I think I might have tasted fresh cherries once, but otherwise it's been the sugary and definitely added-with-colour cherries used in baking, and usually they're bright red. So Cerise didn't remind me of cherries because I had the wrong kind of cherries in mind. Whatever little memory I have of fresh cherries, they were more red and deeper than red grapes and for whatever reason, I am also reminded of a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. (Do they taste that way? Man, I'm gonna grab some cherries if I find any after this. I really don't remember what they taste like.)

Anyways, Wikipedia described cerise as a deep to vivid reddish pink, which I agree with. Prior to Cerise, I didn't have the vocabulary to describe such a colour. The reason I'm bringing up Cerise the nail polish is because the colour perfectly describes two new lipsticks in my collection: Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Cherries in the Snow and Revlon Ultra HD lipstick in Petunia.

Revlon Petunia, Revlon Cherries in the Snow and Collection Cerise (also on my nails)

Cherries in the Snow is one of the colours I have read so much about from the blogosphere, but this post by brutally honest beauty is the one that made me purchase the colour. I was intrigued: is it a pink? Is it a red? How would it look on me? Off to eBay I went where drugstore lipsticks are more often cheaper (I didn't want to buy 3 lipsticks at Superdrug to get the discount, y'know?) I also checked out other lipsticks on this seller's page and found Petunia. I have been interested and on several occasions, tempted to purchase the Ultra HD formula after reading about it from allura beauty (aka best swatches ever + great Youtuber too, imho!) but constrained myself because #omfgIdontneedanotherlipstick. Described as a pomegranate pink, Petunia seemed like a good colour for spring.

Left: Warmer indoor lighting, Right: Bright outdoor lighting

 Forgive me for the non-crisp photos, btw. As you can see, all three colours are practically identical and they are perfectly described by cerise, no doubt. Cherries in the Snow is has a traditional lipstick shape and packaging, and as a matter of fact, I find the black-gold Revlon lipstick packaging quite classy. Petunia (or Revlon Ultra HD lipsticks in general) is a design failure: 1) the bullet is too wide so I've got lipstick going outside my lip line during application and 2) it doesn't completely twist down a.k.a. you feel like you're in a goddamn thriller to prevent catastrophic mess when you open/close the lipstick cap. Come on, Revlon. It's 2017. Get your shit together. You know everyone hates this kind of packaging.

Left: Multiple swipe of Petunia and Cherries in the Snow. Right: one swipe of Petunia (bottom) and Cherries in the Snow 

Petunia feels gel-like, slightly more solid than Revlon's lip butter and feels balmy when applied. It is scented, not with an unpleasant scent but I dislike it. There is shimmer in Petunia, which at this point, I'm not sure if I like or hate. Cherries in the Snow is creamy, non-scented, non-shimmery and a bit bolder than Petunia. Both has a glossy finish but my preferred way of wearing cerise is as a "lived in" kind of look so they appear more matte. Apply lipstick at the centre, dab it outwards to get an ambient sort-of effect. I was also actually inspired by french kissed look by (apparently) everyone's current crush and #aestheticgoals, violette_fr. I didn't use a brush or anything to fade the lipstick out. I just dab the colour on my lips and more often in the centre.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the nail polish is decent.

My rating for Petunia is a 2/5, with its packaging (and maybe the shimmer) preventing a higher rating. While Cherries in the Snow is a 4/5 as I have found no fault in it at all.

A note on cerise as a colour. When I first wore Cerise the nail polish, my first impression was "Wow, this is an Auntie pink!" and that impression remains till today. Perhaps imaginable only by some from a certain cultural background, an Auntie pink is what I imagine a middle-aged, unmarried Asian aunt who's gossipy, slightly selfish but generally has good intentions would wear as her manicure. If you have a rating from 0 to 10 of the bold & loud scale, she's a solid 7. She's absolutely comfortable in her own skin, jokes about the extra pounds she's gained over the years and shyly ogles attractive younger men although who is she trying to kid with that shyness! I'm not sure if you would love or hate such a character. But guys, I am totally gonna be that Auntie. I also just realised that I don't own any clothing in this colour, but can you imagine a cerise headscarf + black top and jeans + nude make-up?! Fabulous.

Lipstick Diaries #3: NARS Audacious in Anna

NARS Audacious lipstick in Anna has been in my collection for almost a year. I actually bought it on Depop from someone who didn't like the colour. Unlike the US, people can't return make-up here in the UK (not possible in Malaysia too) so selling it online is the only possible way to not throw away unwanted make-up (or donate it, of course). One woman's wrong colour.. can be my type of colour. I would describe Anna as a cool-toned deep rose, leaning toward purple. NARS officially calls it a dusty mauve (i.e. what rose-purple is?) while Temptalia calls it a neutral pink.

In direct sunlight (left), the colour appears slightly blue-toned pink on me, although in real life, dusty mauve is a more apt description. With lighter application, my natural warmth dominates the cool tone, expectedly.

Sometimes, I forget how pigmented the NARS Audacious lipsticks are and while I have my early morning lamentations"ugh do I have to work today!!!" I unconsciously apply like 7 million layers of the lipstick. (and by 7 mil I actually mean two layers.) I wouldn't say this is a problem per se, it's just that the pigment is SO THERE it gives me a more "heavy" look and actually feels heavy too. I mean, look at that cup-transfer, people!

Side note, it is SO HARD to get the right colour to show. I truly understand why people go to extreme lengths with lighting, camera equipments and editing product shots now.

The Audacious lipsticks are creamy and dries to a matte finish. They are more creamy than the Maybelline creamy mattes (my review of Magnetic Magenta here) and less likely to be patchy during application and re-application. With Anna, I prefer a good dab-and-go rather than full-swipe to avoid the "heavy" look and lipstick feel. It doesn't stain and comes off when I drink/eat, but it wears away so gracefully, worthy of the high price tag it has. I'm not going to fangirl about the magnetic clasp here because at this point, it is given that we all LOVE that satisfying magnetic clasp!

The green coordination-composition of these two pictures were totally unplanned! Anyways, we have here Anna pictured in front of my window on the left and at a more shaded part of my room on the right. Both dusty mauve and neutral pink is appropriate to describe Anna's colour.

Here is Anna in comparison to my other deep pinks. From left to right, NARS Audacious in Anna, KIKO Smart Shade in 913, Topshop in Devotion and Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry. Because my lips are quite pigmented, they aren't necessarily "deep" as in "dark", rather they make my lips look more defined and bold. I hesitate to call them my MLBB  colours since I obviously look like I wear lipstick with them, but they make me look put together in the most natural way.

I am rating Anna a 3.5/5. While I like the lipstick and the colour is okay, I actually rarely wear Anna. It is rather odd-looking on me, perhaps because of its underlying tone. However, as I look at the pictures I took for this blog, it is definitely better than an okay and I hope to wear it more often.

Lipstick Diaries #1: KIKO Unlimited Stylo lipstick in Warm Rose

It's February and a tad bit too late to post on resolutions, but better late than never, they say. I hope nothing but survival this year. It's all I think about. Pass my graduate course, get a job, not get depressed. My aim this year with this blog is to post on a regular basis. While there are numerous challenges that I can commit myself to, evidently from last year's un-updated project pan, I don't think working on the same products and writing a progress report on them monthly was something I can commit to. I'm also not a seasonally-motivated person so I can't be bothered to have a make-up capsule as a project, or a mini project pan (Finish X by X sort of a thing.)

A project that I feel I am interested to invest my time into completing is Bad Outfit Great Lipstick's Lipstick Diaries. It's a great way to work one's way into using all of their lipsticks, especially if that someone (me) has a lot of them. So, I will attempt to use one lipstick from my collection for a couple of days and write about them. A bit of warning, I think I won't be able to write just about lipsticks, though. I have always preferred a blogging + beauty style, not just reviews. I can't promise the things I write alongside my reviews are spectacularly interesting, so if anyone skips that part completely, no offence is taken, of course.

Enough babble. Now, let's begin!

I was visiting a friend a couple of weekends ago and visited a nearby KIKO store to check out their 30% sale. Of course, it's never that easy -- you gotta spend £30 to qualify for said sale. I ain't spending that much money! My intention was to get some of their Smart Shade lipsticks. I tried one lipstick from the range last year and loved it. Unfortunately, none were seen in the store (and only one shade is available on their website), I am sure they are discontinuing the range :( So instead, I went on a swatch fest with my friend and we talked about how I got introduced to KIKO, since she's never even heard of it. (The blogosphere, of course.)

I ended up getting their new Unlimited Stylo lipstick in 05 Warm Rose.  In the above picture, it is the only swatch on the third row and the swatch above it. Yes, I swatched it twice on my hand and even on my lips!

The design of the lipstick's packaging is sleek, making the lipstick look more expensive than they actually are. It's plastic and the clasp is pretty secure, although a bit janky (is this a word?) at times.

Forgiving lighting vs. Unforgiving lighting

I adore the colour of the lipstick. Instead of warm, I think it appears to be a white-based pink neutral on me, especially in conditions where the light is unforgiving (i.e. direct sunlight). In the dimmed lighting of the library, it looks warmer. The lipstick application was creamy and opaque in one swipe, and in fact one of its selling point for me was how creamy it applied when I swatched it in store. However, when my lips are dry and flaky, expectedly the lipstick becomes crumbly but it was not the worst of all the dry-crumbly textures I've had to experience. Alas, I can't hope a tube of lipstick to do any magic if the fault is actually my dry, chapped lips, no?

In the library vs. in front of the windows

I would call the finish to be velvet matte, it has no shine at all. In fact, I noticed it to turn into more of a powdery matte finish after about an hour or so. The lasting power is not that great, maybe 4 hours with constant coffee/water drinking? I personally don't mind this with my lipsticks, reapplication is a ritual I actually enjoy. Talking about reapplication, I didn't like how the lipstick reapplied on itself after some hours of wear. It is unattractively patchy. My trick is apply lip balm first, then the lipstick.

L-R: KIKO Unlimited Stylo in Warm Rose, KIKO 414 Mauve,
Revlon Lip Butter 096 Macaroon, Revlon Matte Balm 205 Elusive.

Compared to my other lipsticks, Warm Rose is most similar to Revlon Matte Balm in Elusive, but a bit deeper and warmer. It is not a my lips but better colour (KIKO 414 Mauve is) but it is a very natural pink for everyday use.

As for ratings, I'm gonna go for a simple scoring out of 5 points for this project and Warm Rose would be a 3.5/5.