Can I tell you a secret? A few years ago I was so over lipgloss. The market had become saturated with glosses, and I all I saw was glossy, nude lips everywhere I looked. How boring! That's when I started reaching for lipsticks again, and I ended up with a huge collection of creams, shimmers, sheers and mattes. If a color of lipstick exists, I've probably got it. But now, I find I'm growing fond of glosses again. My lips in winter are hard to keep moisturized. I think it's just a combination of the indoor heat and my growing age, but yep, they're drier than they used to be in winters past. Lipstick just doesn't look good on chapped lips. But you can get away with a gloss on a dry lip and even benefit from it. I found Coral Reef by Revlon last May while on a bridal shoot. I had originally mixed it with Maybelline's Baby Lips in Pink Punch to get a gorgeous pastel, but I didn't try it on it's own. Lately, though, I've gotten my own tube, and I wear it every day. It's very moisturizing, and such a pretty color on my skin. I don't have to worry about lining my lips. I don't even have to worry about exfoliating. I just pop it on and go. It brightens my face, too. Because, let's face it, no girl wants a lipgloss that sucks the life out of her. Yeah. So gloss is back! Rejoice!
Product retails for $5.99. revlon.com
Do you know what the most amazing thing about red lipstick is? It's the red's ability to make a face look a little more polished, a little more special, and a little more eye-catching. I love blue-based reds in particular because the color makes my teeth look whiter. Revlon's Certainly Red is a gorgeous blue-based red, that does just that very thing. The lipstick itself is creamy with enough of a wax consistency for some decent staying-power. It has no offensive or overpowering scent. In fact, it has no scent at all from what I can tell. I have a little ritual I do when I wear a red lip. I tell you about it now, but I'll follow up down the line with a pictorial to better explain. I start with exfoliation, then I line either with a red liner or with the lipstick and a brush. I follow by going straight to the lip with the bullet. I blot, then apply from the bullet again. Blot then one last application. That keeps a mother load of pigment on your lips and seals it in with a little bit of wax. You'll be hard pressed to get it to fade completely after that. Take the tube with you though, you will need to reapply. All reds need touch-ups to look their best throughout the day. The classic black and gold tube retails for $7.99. revlon.com
Lemme level with you peeps. I'm not much for hype. If I'm really honest with you, hype turns me off. Completely. Why? Because little, if anything, lives up to the hype that surrounds it. So I was apathetic about the release of Urban Decay's Naked Skin foundation. I read all the press; I did all the research. I watched Youtube reviews. Meh. I was working a very large shoot last October when one of the models (Hi Megan!) brought this foundation for me to play with. I shook the bottle - says to shake it in the directions - and pumped a bit out onto the back of my hand. Then I took my duo-fiber brush and went to work. It went on and spread like any other liquid foundation. It was a little between sheer and medium at first application. When I went back to double up on the foundation in a couple spots, it spread beautifully. It just melted into the skin. And it looked like skin. Yay! A few weeks later, I purchased it for myself. I love its versatility. I love that if I want a sheer foundation, I can apply a little bit, and it's sheer. If I want to put on more than one layer to increase its opacity, I can, and it never looks cakey. It just looks like skin. I'm not saying that it lives up to the hype, but I can say that I like the product, and I will be buying it again. This line of foundation comes in 18 warm, cool and neutral tones - there really is a shade for everyone. And even better is it's vegan. Product retails for $39. urbandecay.com
