Korres Mango Butter Lipstick in Natural Pink Review

My Korres package came in the mail yesterday! I was so excited to try out my new goodies. I bought this lipstick, a lip butter, a lip butter glaze, a shower gel, and a sample of their eye primer. More reviews coming when I have more time to fully test everything out.

Let me start by saying this: I HATE wearing lipstick. As I mentioned in my July favorites post, I was loving Revlon's Primrose. It's a really pretty color and I still wear it, but this kind of blows that out of the water.

One of the main reasons I hate wearing lipstick is the formula just feels so heavy, waxy, thick, sticky, etc. on my lips, and also tends to put a spotlight on dry patches on my lips. I've always been one to play up my eyes and add some drama up there, and keep the lips natural. My lips naturally have a nice little tint to them, so I never found lipstick really a necessity for me.

-dramatic music- UNTIL now. The Korres Mango Butter Lipsticks (well at least this one, I can't say if they're consistent or not but I hope so!) don't have that nasty heavy feeling that most lipsticks do. The best part? It feels so moisturizing and doesn't show off my dry spots! Thank you mango butter!

When I first opened it, I was actually pretty disappointed because the color looked kind of on the red side, which isn't a bad thing but keep in mind the color is Natural Pink. It must have been the lighting though because I opened it to use the next day it didn't look that way at all.

It's not very opaque but you can build up the color. I usually don't build up my color because like I said, my lips don't need that much drama or attention. It also leaves a nice glossy sheen on your lips. I now understand what people mean when they say "my lips but better".

It's formulated without mineral oil, silicones, propylene glycol, and ethanolamines. (Not sure what the last 2 are? But that's what the Korres website said).

I wore it to work and I'd say it lasted about 2 or 3 hours maybe? I'm not really sure. So not the best staying power but I can work with that.

My camera fails at getting swatch pictures, the coloring is always a little off so this was as close to real as I could get.

I still don't consider lipstick something I would wear every single day, but when I do this is my new favorite lipstick. I will definitely be repurchasing!

Have you ever tried any Korres Products? Do you have a favorite lipstick?

Also, don't forget! You can enter my giveaway to win a MAC lipstick of you're choice and an Emma Kisstina MAC lipstick print! Giveaway ends August 22nd!

NOTD- Essie Borrowed & Blue + INM Base Coat Review

Ok this is actually like NOAFWA (Nail of a Few Weeks Ago) because I painted my nails this color when I did this haul. I was able to paint my nails that day (boo for not being able to wear polish at work!), but had to take it off the next day. But I still wanted to share :)

Blue is one of my favorite colors. This was a really pretty light robins egg blue that I got at Bed Bath & Beyond. It was such a pretty summer color, so I'm pretty sad I didn't get to wear it much. I also painted my toes with it and it looked fab :) I'm a fan of Essie nail polishes in general, I don't know why I always seem to gravitate towards them in the store, along with China Glaze. Oh and please excuse my not so good self manicure skills.

Also, I used my INM Clear Bond Base Coat I also mentioned in the haul. I tested one hand with the base coat and one without. Unfortunately, the hand with the base coat had a streakier application, but after applying a second coat it was fine. But, when I went to take the polish off, it was sooo easy to remove, while the hand without the base coat I had to scrub a little harder to get it off. Not a bad purchase, but I'd like to find one that doesn't give me streaks when I paint my nails.

What was your favorite nail polish this summer? Do you have a favorite base coat? Do you feel a base coat is necessary?

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway if you want a chance to win an Emma Kisstina MAC Print and a MAC lipstick or lipglass of your choice!

MAC Melon Pigment + Stila Smudge Pot Kitten Swatches and Review

As I mentioned in my haul, I recently purchased MAC's pigment in Melon and Stila's Smudge Pot in Kitten. Jessica suggested that I do a swatch of the pigment or do a look wearing it. Well, I did a whole look with it and let's just say I need to practice photographing my eye. It's a lot harder than it looks! So instead I did swatch them both and I'll let you know what I think of them!

MAC pigment in Melon

Melon is a very pretty golden peachy color and has a very pretty sheen to it. I'm kind of confused on this product, because other websites say it's party of MAC's permanent line, but yet it's not on the website or at my MAC counter. If anybody knows whether it is or not, please let me know so I can give a correct review :)

This is a gorgeous color that I like to wear over my Kitten Smudge Pot for a pretty wash of color that is perfect for summer. I haven't used it as a highlighter yet, but I've seen looks with people who do and it looks very pretty! I think it would look better on darker skintones, though. If you have the Hello Kitty Lucky Tome Palette, I think it would be really pretty to do a look with combining Melon with Creme Royal and Paradisco (Paradisco is part of the Permanent line). Maybe if I can teach myself how to take good pictures of my eyes, I'll do a look using these colors!

Overall, I am very happy I purchased this pigment and I would definitely repurchase it (though it comes with so much product and you don't have to use a lot at all, I don't really see myself running out anytime soon!).

Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten

I've mentioned my obsession with cream eyeshadows and I'll mention it again! I bought this at Ulta, when I was really looking for Benefit's Creaseless Cream shadow in either R.S.V.P or Birthday Suit, but they were both sold out :( so, I wandered over to Stila, because I wanted to get the regular Kitten eyeshadow, but decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and get the Stila Smudge pot!

It is intended to be an eyeliner, but can be used as an eyeshadow as well. For the purpose of being a liner, I wouldn't use this particular color on my upper lash line, just because I like darker colors to make my lashes stand out more. I do like to use this on my lower lash line if I'm using it as an all over sweep of color, I just kind of bring it down under my eyes to make them pop. Like I said earlier, I use this a base for my Melon pigment, as well as an inner corner highlight. The only problem i ran into was that it can be a bit clumpy, but it was nothing so major that it would dissuade me from repurchasing.

Overall, this is a great product if you don't mind a little bit of minor clumping (it doesn't clump or anything when you apply your eyeshadow or throughout the day, just upon initial application until you blend it out better). I would definitely repurchase!

Again, I had issues with my camera getting a good picture of this one. Check out Temptalia's blogpost on it if you want a better idea of what the color looks like :)

What do you think? Have you used Melon or Kitten? What are your favorite MAC pigments?

Mark. Ibiza Sol Collection Review

Hellooo! We finally got our cable and internet hooked up :) Sorry for the lack of posts, but I'm happy with the giveaway so far and I'm glad everyone likes it! It ends TOMORROW so don't forget to enter if you haven't already!

Mark. Cosmetics had a Facebook contest and I was lucky enough to be one of the winners! They sent over some products from their Ibiza Sol line as a prize, so I'm going to review them! I've been meaning to try Mark. for a while now but never got around to buying any, so this was a great way for me to test run them!

The nail polishes

I was pleasantly surprised with these nail polishes, I honestly wasn't expecting them to be very good. They come in very small bottles (.09 fl oz.) which would make them good for traveling. They come in Tango, which is a hot orangey-red, and Mojito which is a minty blue-ish green.

They are very opaque and have no shimmer. I applied one coat of Tango and got the result above, which was really awesome. I had to apply 2 coats of Mojito though because it was just a tad streakier, but nothing too terrible. They are $7 each, which for that price or a few dollars more you could get an OPI or Essie or something, which comes with more product. I paid $8 for a set of 2 mini Essie nail polishes, both of which were bigger than these. But like I said, good quality and good for travel.

Marbleized Lip Glosses

I have nothing bad to say about these really. The packaging is cute and sleek, and they give a nice sheer wash of color and shine. However, the first time I tried these out I had my Nivea a Kiss of Moisture on my lips already, and putting these on top of that burned my lips like crazy! I decided to give them one more shot this morning, when I was not wearing anything on my lips already, and they felt fine. These are $9 a piece and come in 3 shades, but I only got 2 to swatch.

Marbleized Eye Shadow Sticks

These were just alright. They look really pretty when I swatched them on my hand, but on my lid I had to press down pretty hard and really work to get a good color payoff, which is not what I want in an eyeshadow stick. I read some reviews online before I even got these, and people were complaining about how to sharpen them because they are packaged in plastic. You CAN sharpen them, you just need a pencil sharpener that will fit the pencil. I already tested mine out and it sharpened just fine. For $10 each, these are not worth the price.

(I promise my hand doesn't normally look like a dead person hand, it was just weird lighting I guess)

Hope this helped for any of you who were wondering about this collection! I was just excited to get it because I want to go to Ibiza so badly. Have you tried Mark. cosmetics? What do you think of them?

P.S. Don't forget, giveaway ends tomorrow!