I should start off this review by saying I HATE NUDES!

Now that I’ve ranted a bit allow me to rave. I’ve been somewhat curious about Mally Beauty lately. I’ve only tried a few of her items and after being wow’ed by her neat little concealer last week I’m happy to report that I was able to test drive a few of her kits this week, the first of which I’m about to review for you.

This morning I was doing a very calm, neutral look. Yes, it’s April Fools Day and No, I’m not kidding around I really did a nude, natural look this morning, honest. Well, as nude as the Muse goes in terms of cosmetics.

First of all I should say how cute is Mally? I find her fascinating to watch on QVC. She’s so excited about cosmetics and passionate about what she does. Dontcha love that? I really dig her voice too for some reason!

Is she cute or what?

My review today is about the CityChick Nude Kit which comes in an ultra cute pink case! I love pretty things and this is most definately pretty. The kit comes with this uber cute metallic pink case that houses a gloss and a dual end liner pencil. The kit retails for $22.80 USD on QVC.com (Item Number A73014). The price is right as the quality is excellent. It evens out to about $11.40 USD per an item not including the bag which is seriously not a bad deal at all in my humble opinion. The kit is available in two shades which are nude deep and nude light. I tested out nude deep. As I said in the beginning of this review I hate nudes. I’m already sporting a very full face and I feel like nudes make my face appear even rounder however I’m happy to report that this actually worked well for me and I actually felt kind of sexy with the lip I created using this little kit! My lips looked very full and juicy after using it as well and mind you it’s NOT a plumping gloss!

The gloss itself is a very intense liquid formula that really packs a punch. The formula is very thick but that doesn’t make it tacky or sticky. It feels very natural on and gives you a feeling of not even wearing gloss at all! The Muse likey that! The color is a cross between nude, beige, and a bit of brown thrown in. Not very exciting but once it’s on WAHOOOO very sexy! It also happens to come with a brush applicator which the Muse Approves of in a major way as I hate sponge applicators for glosses!

The dual end liner is very, very interesting! One side sports a primer while the other side has a natural almost berry chocolate colored liner. Now the primer I was wary of at first. I don’t normally prime my lips but I decided to get the full experience and try this out. I’m really excited about the primer simply because it does exactly what it’s supposed to do and more! The primer offers full coverage of your lips and intensifies the gloss by 100%! It’s very melty so you have to be careful with how much you use and how you use it. The packaging suggests sticking it in the fridge for a bit to harden. It offers more coverage then normal foundation or even MAC lip primer for that matter. It really, really does a super job of nuding out your lips completely and making your gloss or lipstick intensify in color! I used this with the included gloss and also with a lipstick but I felt like it worked better with my lipstick then with the gloss! It really made my lipstick pop and it’s turned me on to priming my lips as it’s not a normal practice of mine!

The liner is a beautiful shade of chocolate with a hint of berry to it and it compliments the nude shade of gloss beautifully. I don’t normally line my lips but again I wanted to go for the full experience when testing this so I lined up. I must say that it made my lips appear fuller by lining pre-gloss which was a curious feeling looking at myself. I felt like Angelina Jolie for a second there. Wide lips, full pout. So yum!

I actually love this kit. It’s sincerely an interesting little combo of goodies that creates a very interesting look! For me it’s a different look which may be why I’m loving it! I don’t normally veer away from my bold looks so this was definately an interesting experience!

The Muse sporting some kissable lips after using the Nude Lip Kit!


All in all I’d say the CityChick Nude Lip Kit is Muse Approved for purchase. The Muse likey and thinks you will too!

Click here to read up on Mally’s new concealer!

19 Comments

Another Pop Review for you guys 😉

I’ve been playing with the Day to Play Palette for about two weeks now and I must say it’s fantastic. Remember I mentioned this during the holidays? Click!

This particular kit is a gorgeous wallet style with a cute button clasp. The package definately sells it for me as it’s really cute for toting around. It almost looks like a checkbook style wallet. This comes with a brush as well and a little brush loop inside the wallet for attaching it.

Flash

Without Flash

This particular palette is quite a steal for the price at $42 USD which is about $1.75 USD per a strip of color as you get 24 shades of fabulous shadows.

If you don’t have a vast collection of eyeshadow and are looking to start one up so you’ll have a variety of looks you can create this little palette is definately alot of bang for your buck. With 24 shades you can create a multitude of looks ranging from natural and elegant to loud and outrageous!

I’ve been using the top part for the past few days as it contained the most Muse Approved colors that ranged from bold greens and blues to beautiful pinks and reds.

The top half the palette contains all the vibrant popping shades where as the bottom contains more natural shimmering shades of browns, pinks, and pastels.

Bottom

Top

This is also particularly great for beginners or those of you afraid of a little color. I love how Pop always includes a handy little card of color in with the packaging to show you which colors work well together and what sort of looks you can create using the palette.

Color Card: Instructions for different looks!

The colors are of good pigmentation and blend very easily but lack too much shimmer which is sometimes a deal breaker for the Muse but since the colors are so lovely I can’t complain over much! They have a very fine sheen of shimmer but not an overload which can be good since fall out isn’t a major problem plus it makes them easier to work with!

I know a few people who had expressed interest in buying this when I did my original post and I’m here to say it’s definately worth your time. Pop does a range of these palettes but this is by far the nicest I’ve seen. Most of the older palettes they did contained 12 shades of shadow but they are now doing bigger and better palettes which also include blushes. I’m really loving these at the moment as simplicity is becoming a daily part of my regime.

The brush included with this is plenty to create the look you desire. One end is a fluffy eyeshadow brush and the other is a flat liner style brush.

All in all Pop gets my vote for cool palettes as of late. Simplicity with a range of gorgeous colors!

Cheers to that!

The Muse like the Pop Day to Play Palette and recommends having a peek at it!

You can find out more about Pop by clicking here to visit the Pop website!

If you missed ’em click around for some other Pop reviews!

Click for my review on Pop’s Eye Cake!

Click to discover Pop’s Rose Belle Blush Palette Review!

Click to read my review about Vincent Longo’s C_Scope Collection including a mini review of Pop’s Lid Neon Palette!

16 Comments

Tis 80’s Monday girlies!

A few of us on the blogsphere got together and decided to do some 80’s looks! The looks are popping up everywhere and they look fab!

For mine I went with a really vibrant orange and fuschia combo. My inspiration came from Cyndi Lauper’s brilliant orange hair back then!

What I Used:

Eyes
MAC Eyeshadow in Firepot
Make Up For Ever Star Powder in Iridescent Fuschia 951

Lips
MAC Heatherette Lipglass in Style Minx

Cheeks
MAC Beauty Powder in Serenely
MAC Pro Blush in Full Fuchsia

Check out other 80’s FOTD’s around the blogsphere today by following the links below (not everyone has their looks posted yet so keep checking throughout the day):

Lakahna
Yummy411
Beautyful Habit

37 Comments

Shiseido has quite a few different brands available exclusive to the Japanese market one of which is Maquillage. I know I’ve mentioned that before and many of you already know it as you’re as passionate about Japanese Cosmetics as I am however I thought it deserved a remention in my introduction because I have quite a flow of newer readers visiting with me lately and I thought that’d be a nice little way to introduce this review plus give them a little info about the brand.

Maquillage is not my favorite brand in the Shiseido line (I’m sure you can guess which my favorite is…go on comment and tell me!). For me Maquillage is a hit or miss sadly. Some products are really good and some aren’t so great. The price range is lovely, the packaging is fabulous, but the actual products are sometimes too sheer or not particularly the best quality in the world. I’m not that big a fan of the shadow compacts, the liners, or the glosses. However, I do give a better portion of my money to Maquillage on a rare occasion!

Today I’m reviewing Watery Crash Eyes from Maquillage. I don’t follow Maquillage as much as I do other Japanese brands so when something new is released I know of it but not when it was released so I’m unsure which collection these are from.

A very sweet friend of mine did some personal shopping for me in Tokyo last week and she picked up Watery Crash Eyes as a request from me. Sadly, I’m not quite so into it. The lemming for this came from the fact that it reminded me of Chanel’s Ombre D’eau Fluid Eyeshadow but the Maquillage price is much more affordable. The color selection isn’t vast by any means and this particular product is only offered in 5 colors. I got the PK213 which is a beautiful baby pink color.

Now I can’t fairly give this a poor review. The reason for that is the product is actually good and the problem is that I’m just too bloody picky with cosmetics.

The texture and formula is wonderful as it blends a real treat however a few things I don’t like about it are the finish which is more of a shine than a shimmer if that makes sense, I’m also not loving how much I need to use to get color onto my lid as this is very sheer, and finally I’m just not enjoying the total look it created for me.

As I was saying it blends very well, just dot and smooth on. The texture is thick and creamy. All and all I see no problem with the formula however it’s lack of shimmer kind of disappointed me. I should mention that I’m not a fan of cream shadows and honestly the main reason I had purchased this was because it not only reminded me of the Chanel but also Visee’s Aqua Shining Eyes so I was kinda hopeful this would be as good a quality as both of those.

The product is sheer so you have to do at least three layers to get some color onto your lid. One layer will not do much of anything. I noticed that it doesn’t dry fast either which is a good thing because if you mess up while blending you can easily go back and smooth your finger around a bit more without worrying about it being dry and messing the entire look up. This is particularly nice as well when you’re layering the color because you’re not packing color onto an already “dry” look.

My final look when I was done layering and blending wasn’t exactly great. No pop sadly. But as I said I can’t give it a bad review because the formula is very good (especially the fact it stays wet so long before setting which makes for ease of application). I’m just a nitpicker because I enjoy a bit more shimmer and the look I achieved was more of a shiny, neutral look!

If you enjoy simplicity without shimmer or pop this might very well be something you’d enjoy using. For myself I’m not loving it at the moment but I’m going to continue using it to see how I feel after a few weeks!

Here’s what I created using Watery Clash Eyes:

Here’s what I used:

Eyes:
Maquillage Watery Clash Eyes in PK213
Visee Mascara

Lips
Bobbi Brown Lip and Cheek Rouge in Pink Raspberry
Bobbi Brown Lipgloss in Pink Popsicle

Cheeks:
Bare Minerals Blush in Fruit Cocktail

Love Maquillage?

Own this already?

Adore it?

Hate it?

Tell the Muse!

34 Comments

I’m procrastinating at work.

Shhhhhh! Don’t tell anyone! That’s the best part about being self-employed you actually can’t get yourself in trouble for procrastinating but of course later on today I’ll give myself a good talking down to make myself officially responsible.

I honestly deserve a little procrastination today as I had a super asthma attack yesterday evening so a bit of chillaxing at work is just what the doctor ordered!

Mostly this consists of me sending e-mails back and fourth with our favorite Cookie from The Daily Cookie (I’m dragging her into the procrastination vortex with me!), browsing around for new ideas for blog entries (comment box is open to your suggestions!), and trying to somehow someway get caught up with e-mail in my inbox (maybe I can somehow get through 10 years of e-mail in under 10 minutes!)!

While I’m doing all this I also happened to surf my way over to QVC to check up on Mally Beauty. One of my readers, friends, and fellow New Yorkers, Adina, had mentioned that Mally had some updates over yonder so of course I had to investigate it for myself!

I didn’t see anything too interesting but I did run across something new or at least I think it’s new called Liquid Eye Brightener!

This stuff sounds awesome!

It’s basically a powder but when you drop it into your hand and rub it turns into a liquid. Once liquidated (is that even a word?) you pat it gently under your eyes for a little concealing magic to make your eyes look refreshed, awake, and beautiful!

I’m very curious about this and I’m wondering if it’s good for touch ups! I normally tote around a Dior Radiance Pen for touch ups but I find it too messy honestly…hmmmm I want this! I might wait though to see the reviews first!

I really like the format of the bottle as well with the small dropper style squeeze top! This is $22.80 USD and is available now from QVC, A81636.

What do you think? Nay or Yay?

Ok now it’s back to work with me…seriously…..honest….maybe….sorta…….kinda……

7 Comments