Stila: Countless Color Pigment: Encore

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about the new Stila Countless Color Pigments in the beauty community, so I decided to pick up one. There are some very bright and bold colors in this line, I may be wrong but I believe there are a total of 10 different color combinations available in the market at this point ranging from bright blues, oranges, greens to more subtle pinks and browns. I went for the mediocre shade, Encore. It retails for $29 CAD and each one has a mis-mesh of three shades.

 

 

The packaging is really nice. The outer rim is similar to the brightest shade in the compact, which makes it very easy to identify in a large collection or to separate them from one another.

 

The products looks quite big in the picture  but is actually pretty small. It is hardly the size of Sephora outrageous prisma chrome eye shadows or Hard Candy baked eye shadows. The small size of the compact makes it quite difficult to reach for individual shades unless you are using a small eye shadow brush.  For the pictures, I swatched the shadows using my fingers so you can see the champagne color has some brown shadow to it.  I know they are meant to be mixed for different combinations but it is kind of inconvenient for someone who doesn't want to mix them.

 

Indoor Lighting

Natural Lighting

The eye shadows are very smooth and blend out very nicely. However, since they are so soft and are marketed as pigments, they do have some fallout. The shades are really soft and pigmented. The first one is a beautiful champagne shade, second one is a mid toned pink which for some reason is showing up as coral in the picture, the third one is a gorgeous browny burgundy shade with very fine golden shimmer. 

 

Overall, I do like the shadows and the packaging. But I do not understand the hype behind them because ultimately you are getting so little product for $29 + taxes. So in a nut shell, I found them okay but there is nothing special that you have to run out to get these. Everyone has a different opinion, but at least for me they do not qualify to be a must have product.

 

Have you tried these? What is your opinion?

 

Thank you for taking time to read this post, I hope you enjoyed it. Have a great day!

Sephora Favorites: Give Me Some Lip

Sephora recently came out with another favorites this month. It is a lip sampler with six lip products from different brands. The best thing is that it's only $30, which breaks down to $5 each. Also, the sizes are pretty generous except one. On the website the box looks pretty big, but I was surprised when I received it in the mail as it is barely the size of my hand, which is actually nice as it does not have useless bulky packaging. 

The packaging is really cute, it has a pink outer cover which slips off revealing a rose gold cardboard box inside. 

When you open the flip, it reveals all the lip products arranged in a row based on their height. 

L-R: Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment, Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Bare Pink, Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Dolly, Nars Lip Gloss in Turkish Delight, Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in Rhubarb, Tarte LipSurgence Lip Luster in Glitzy.

Natural Light - Same order as above

Indoor Lighting - Same order as above

 Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment: This is one product that I was most disappointed about, especially because of the size. If you guys remember, this was a part of Sephora birthday gift last year and it is super tiny. And because of its small size, the old one that I have got mangled while application. 

Left: From the Sephora birthday set last year 

The product is 0.08 oz as compared to the full sized product, which is 0.15 oz for $23. 

Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Bare Pink: It is a creamy pale peachy color rather than pink. It has a really nice sweet smell, which is not overpowering by any means. The consistency is very smooth and has a decent pigmentation, but it won't show up on dark pigmented lips. It is 0.1 oz while the full size is 0.15 oz for $26. 

Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Dolly: It is a mauvy plum shade with very finely milled iridescent multicolored shimmer. To me, it smells like winter holidays because the scent reminds me of holiday baking and those delicious coffee shop aromas. I know that is crazy, and I am definitely not an expert on smells but it just reminds me of that time. The pigmentation is quite nice, the glitter does not feel gritty and the color shows up well on pigmented lips. It is 0.07 oz, while the full size is 0.15 oz for $23. 

Nars Lip Gloss in Turkish Delight: This is one of the infamous lip glosses that I do not even need to talk about. But personally it is not my favorite because the color is so light and cool toned that it just does not work for my skin tone (NC 25) and my dark pigmented lips, even though it does have a decent color pigmentation. Also, it does not have any scent. It is 0.14 oz, while the full size is 0.28 oz for $29. 

Bite Beauty High Pigment Pencil in Rhubarb: This is hands down my favorite out of all the six lip products. It is a plumy mauve jumbo twist up lip pencil. The consistency is amazing, it is super smooth and shiny with superb color pigmentation.  I would buy this whole package just for this one product. It is 0.05 oz, while the full size is 0.09 oz for $28. So it is a little over half the size of the regular product. 

Tarte LipSurgence Lip Luster in Glitzy: Now, this is full sized product i.e. 0.1 oz and retails for $29 alone. So basically, you are getting everything else for $1, which is amazing. Tarte lipsurgence's have a reputation of their own. Everything about this product is good,  whether it is the twist up packaging, consistency or pigmentation. Also, this color is very different from the regular lip colors that I own. It is a very shiny coppery shade, which is not very commonly found. However, since it leans towards brown so it is very wearable. 

Result: I am really happy with this purchase and recommend it to everyone. Since the Tarte Lipsurgence itself covers the price of the whole set, so it is worth a shot. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the Bite Beauty Pencil is also more than half the original size. The only disappointment is the Fresh tinted lip balm because of its size and difficulty to use, but other than that I absolutely love this set. This sampler set is a great way to try out different brands at an affordable price. 

Thank you for taking time to read this post, I hope you have a great day!

NOTD: Pink and Blue

I am a nail polish junkie and love changing it every other day. I really like doing bright color combinations in summer and was initially thinking about doing white and blue but then I ended up doing it with bright creamy pink. The pigmentation and color payoff for both of these nail polishes is amazing. Both are under $5, actually I think the essence one is $1.99. I used Revlon gel base and top coat (my favorite). 

Left Hand

Right Hand

I noticed that the blue on nails is showing up way deeper than it actually is. It is more true to color in the bottle, where it leans more towards teal. I highly recommend checking out essence polishes as they are super cheap and great quality. However, the color collection is very limited and that is the only downside. 

If you try this combination or any others, please leave a link to the pictures below as I would love to see them. Thank you for checking out this post, hope you have a great day!