Excitement! Impatience! Cosmetics! Eeeeh!

After reading a bajillion super-positive reviews on Evil Shades cosmetics, I have placed an order for bunches of lovely samples and a full-size Wicked Gloss in Deadly. It's such an incredible red in the pictures... I'm gonna give the pic straight off their website (which is http://www.evilshades.com/ by the way... go check it out!) just cause the shade is so delicious:

I think this actually might be that gorgeous, dreamy, delicious red gloss I've been searching for. I can't wait to try it out. These lovely glosses sell for $3 per full size, and $0.85 per sample. So come on, say it with me: EEEEEEEEEH!!!

In addition to this gloss, I ordered three sample glosses: Loxensis, Lethal Kiss, and No Angel. These shades look absolutely gorgeous from the pictures I've seen and I can't wait to give my own review of the products.

As you undoubtedly know by now, I'm an avid  fan of all kinds of lip products, and that's originally what drew me in. But as I was surfing the Evil Shades site I came across a wide array of absolutely dazzling eyeshadows and some very appealing blushes. The swatches I've seen of both of these make me want to toss all my current eyeshadow palettes out the window and buy every shade of this newfound brand I can get my hands on.

Yes, I'm getting very carried away. I'm so thrilled at the prices... and the names of the products are so original and interesting. Can't wait to get my shipment (how many times have I said this now? Hmm...) and you can be sure I'll write a review as soon as it arrives.

Yves Saint Laurent Gloss Volupté in Frozen Cherry

This was part of my little spree at Sephora. I'm like a magpie with packaging, especially when it comes to lippies and ooh this is SHINY. The Gloss Volupté comes in a sleek, slender gold tube with a thin ring around the middle indicating the shade of the gloss. It seals with a nice, satisfying click! and I can't help but feel so damn chic pulling this out of my bag. Just look at it!

The product itself is a gorgeous red stick of glossy goodness with a mango scent. Personally I love the smell but it's fairly strong, so keep that in mind if you're planning to buy it.
I was kind of disappointed when I first applied it. The color is sheer, as I knew it would be, but the red was too blue-toned on my lips and didn't look so great. I can't wear cool tones easily, and this turned out less GORGEOUS RED than red with a cool magenta undertone. These swatches are with (left) and without (right) flash.

For the over all aspect of the gloss, I don't think the price was worth it. Even in a more agreeable shade, the texure still seems a bit off. It's glossy, but almost in a greasy way. There is absolutely nothing sticky or tacky about it.
I like a product to feel substantially moisturizing on my lips, but this felt drying instead. There was very little color payoff after the gloss wore off, and it only lasted about thirty minutes. Although there's a certain thrill about using a designer product, that's the only thing that bumps this up from 2.5 stars to 3.
I'll let you in on a little secret - if you're still hell bent on trying out this gloss, go to your nearest pharmacy or WalMart (wherever they carry Lip Smackers) and pick up the original Strawberry Skittles lip balm flavor. The balm is much sheerer than the Gloss Volupté but it'll give you an idea of the texture of the product and it costs a LOT less. Hope this review helped. Happy splurging!




I'm editing this post on 9/24/10 to tell you that I was wrong! Eeek! I'm bumping this to 4 stars because I'll admit I was looking for a vibrant red for Fall, and that's not what this is. But I think that this gloss is for Spring and Summer, really. That's making me go a little lighter on the judgement of the product (and a little heavier on the application in Autumn!)
I want to update this mainly because I realize that all summer I was lusting for something of this exact consistency. No one wants a heavy gloss on a hot summer day. The Gloss Volupté is light and, strangely, almost cooling on the lips. Not what I want for the cooler months though.
I figured I'd better change this review, however, because we've had a few hot days here and I realized I was using this gloss constantly. So time to eat my words. This is lovely for warm weather, and it still smells sooooooo good!

More Smashbox... O-Gloss!

I've been dying to try this out, so after a long internal debate I splurged and went on a mini spree at Sephora. This gloss was on sale at the time... I think the original price is $22.
The O-Gloss comes in a cute pink tube with a slant tip applicator and is self titled "Intuitive Lip Gloss". The gloss itself is clear in the tube and reacts when it comes into contact with skin. This reaction is caused by a goji berry-C complex, designed to find your perfect individual gloss shade.

My shade is apparently a candy pink. It's a bit brighter than something I would've chosen for myself, but it isn't too vivid and it doesn't clash with my makeup.

The thing that I find fascinating about this gloss is that even after the glossiness wears off, it leaves behind the tint like a lipstain. This can go two ways. The stain left behind is buildable, but I find that going past two applications makes the color too bright for my complexion. I hope this isn't a common problem because this product is, by my standards, priced pretty steep. Here's a swatch of the gloss, and then the tint left behind when I wiped the product off later (again, sorry about the lighting in that second picture!):

I find this to be fairly durable. I don't feel the need to apply often. It's a thick gloss, but guess what! It's a thick gloss that isn't sticky!

I'd recommend this if you're willing to throw a little money around playing with cosmetics. I'm not sure I'd buy it again, but I have no regrets about buying it once. A little bit goes a long way, and I plan to keep using this gloss for a long time yet. Four stars.

Smashbox Tinted Treatment Lipstick SPF 15 in Solar

This was an impulse buy! I want to say that right off the bat because it's not at all the shade I'd normally wear. Solar is a hot pink, blue-toned lipstick similar to the colors I remember seeing on female news reporters in the early 90's. Here's a swatch:

This is a honey-infused lipstick with vitamins A, C, and E... along with SPF 15! It's very moisturizing and gives a lot of pigment. It has a subtle cosmetic-y scent, but I can definitely smell the honey in there as well.
Packaging:
I like the frosted white glassy tube this product comes in. It's cute, not very showy or bulky, and the color of the product stands out against the whiteness of the tube. (Sorry about the wacky coloring in the pictures. My camera really didn't like me today.)

This is something I'd gladly buy again (at a discount price) if it was in a less ostentatious shade, but I wear it around the house anyway because the feel of the product is great! I rate this 4 stars when in a more neutral color.

Revlon Super Lustrous® Lipgloss Haul

There was a clearance sale on Revlon lippies in a shop I frequent, so I figured I'd review these first. I grabbed 6 different shades, which I'll list in a moment. First though, these are all the same scent and consistency. They're a bit sticky. Not too bad in my opinion but I know how many people out there dislike a gloss that fuses with their hair every time the wind blows. If that's the case, these may not be for you.
I wasn't pleased with the scent of these glosses. They smell like any old makeup to me, with that kind of weird mineral-y scent. I'm not crazy about it. The colors are fun, though, and all very wearable.
I'll list them in order of the swatches, left to right and then top to bottom:
                                                                                                     



Sweetheart Pink, Pearl Plum, Raisin Glaze, Cherries in the Glow, Nude Lustre, and Toast to Shine.

The names are all relatively accurate except for Sweetheart Pink. Last time I checked, pink wasn't the same thing as orange. This particular gloss was a limited edition, and it may have been from a while ago. That's my theory behind the weird orangey color. If it's correct then heads up: it doesn't look like these glosses age well.

They all seem fairly wearable. Sweetheart Pink and Toast to Shine were a little bit harder to wear. Orange doesn't really match with my daily makeup look, and Toast to Shine was a little pale, but I'm thinking it could be really nice over a creamy lipstick. My favorites were Raisin Glaze, Cherries in the Glow and Nude Lustre.

Over all, I'd give these glosses 3 stars. The colors are pretty for the most part, and the lasting power is decent (several hours without food or drink) but the texture is a bit sticky and the flavor is a turn-off. If you have any questions about any of these glosses, I'd be happy to go into more detail. Just drop me a comment! Thanks all, hope you have a great day.

New Leaf

As I said, it's been a while since I last wrote anything on here. But I want to kind of turn over a new leaf. For now, I'm gonna try to branch out of my fixation on C.O.B and come back to their wonderful glosses later. I've stocked up on a lot of random products I'm dying to talk about.


Here's the truth though: I'm not sure if anyone's really reading this... looking back it all seems a little boring. I hope my new recent reviews won't be. But if you ARE reading this tell me what I can do better, what specifics of a product you're most interested in, etc. I'll work on getting swatches up when I review things. I'm still a little hopeless. Thanks!
P.S. It seems that most of my new posts occur some time in the wee hours of the morning. Just figured I'd say that up front. ;)

C.O. Bigelow Winter Cordials Lip Gloss

I'm sorry this review is coming so late! But here goes:

I was so excited to recieve my first order - the Warm Spiced Cider flavor of the new (I think) Winter Cordials line from C.O. Bigelow. It wasn't on the B&BW website, so I bought it off Amazon.

The consistency is the same as all their other glosses. The taste reminded me of walking into Michael's or Hobby Lobby at Christmas, with the scent of Holiday candles wafting through the place. It tastes artificial to me, and not much like cider, but it's still fun and I don't regret buying it.

The line of C.O. Bigelow Winter Cordials isn't currently carried on the B&BW website -- it's now spring, so they won't be back for a while. When they were still in stock, however, they cost $7.50 per tube. They add up if you buy enough tubes, but a little goes a long way, both in terms of gloss coverage and flavor.