NYX Glosses: Amazing & Affordable

NYX is a great affordable brand with amazing quality products. Their lip products are no less, especially lip glosses. I have few shades from all different categories available in the market, however, I can't find the where I placed my NYX Xtreme lip gloss so that is not included in the swatches. 

NYX Girls Gloss; NYX Mega Gloss; NYX Soft Matte Lip Creme; NYX Butter Gloss

 

All of them have nice and sleek packaging. The new releases, namely lip cremes and butter gloss come on stout tubes as compared to the traditional glosses. 

NYX Girls Gloss: The one shown in pictures is in the color Peach. The name defines the color perfectly and it is a true peach shade. It has a very subtle sweet scent and contains some glitter. Even though there is noticeable shimmer in it, I don't feel it to be gritty or bothersome. It has decent pigmentation and goes on smoothly.

Natural Light - Same order as above

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss: I don't even need to say anything about this gloss because it is a cult favorite of the beauty community. The shade in the pictures is Beige, which is actually more pink than beige. The consistency is nice and smooth, however, it is a bit thicker than regular glosses but has good pigmentation. The only thing that can bother some people is the strong scent like licorice. I am not too sensitive to the scents so it is okay for me. 

Flash Light - Same order as above

NYX Soft Matte & Xtreme Lip Cream: The shade in the pictures is Antwerp, which is a matte corally peach color and have a sweet smell. Even though these are matte, but they are very smooth and does not feel drying at all. Also, these are pretty long lasting just like the Xtreme lip cremes. I find Soft Matte and Xtreme lip creme to be quite similar in the consistency and pigmentation except Xtreme lip creams are little bit glossy like regular lipsticks. 

 NYX Butter Gloss: These are the newest addition to the NYX gloss family and are a new obsession of the beauty community. The shade in the pictures is Strawberry Parfait, which is a bright blue toned pink. The pigmentation is nice and the gloss smells like bakery products to me. However, one thing that I can't stand about this gloss is the consistency. It is even more thicker than the Mega Gloss, which I find quite uncomfortable.  Also, it is a little sticky much like Mac glosses. So, personally this type is my least favorite, but that is just my personal preference. 

Have you tried any of the NYX glosses? If yes, which ones are your favorite? If no, which ones do you want to try?

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

Real Techniques Brush Alternatives NOT Dupes: Even More Affordable

Brushes are a necessity for some people and I am definitely one of them. But finding good quality affordable brushes is a challenge even though some companies are getting into the race. However, problems arises due to the lack of convenient locations or high shipping costs.  Real Technique brushes are one of the affordable and good quality brushes available in the market and recently Walmart has started carrying them. But I have found even more affordable alternatives. 

If you look at the picture above, all the brushes look similar except the color of the barrels, but the difference is that the first four are a different brand from the rest, which are Real Techniques brushes. I found these brushes on ebay for just $2.60 - $3.05 while Real Techniques brushes are above $10 for the individual ones. I bought them a few months ago so the prices may have increased or decreased. 

Round Brush

I have never seen this brand before, but as you can see in the picture it is either called Joursna or Joursno Professional brush. On ebay, there were two colors, pink and baby blue. But I went for pink because they look similar to Real Techniques line. 

Angled Brush - Sorry it looks dirty because I used it for Powder Foundation  

Tapered Brush

Stippling Brush

I checked several sellers and all have the same five styles, flat top, angled, rounded, stippling and tapered. I bought all except the flat top because I already have enough of those. As far as the quality is concerned, they are really soft, dense and synthetic. I have washed them several times and they have noticed no shedding at all whatsoever. Also, the bristles for the angled brush seem yellow, and it is because I have used it with powder foundation, so I am sorry about its color in the picture. 

Left: Round Brush; Right: Sigma F82

In the above picture, you can see the comparison between the round brush and Sigma F82. The only difference I feel is Sigma one is more dense and tight. Also, I feel that this round brush is more comparable to Real Techniques Buffing brush in terms of density. But they are not flimsy at all whatsoever. In addition, they clean up really easily and do not take too long to dry. I have been using them for over 6-7 months are they are holding up great so I would definitely recommend you to check these out as they are super inexpensive. If you want these brushes, it would be best you can search them as "Professional Powder Blush Brush Cosmetic Stipple Foundation Brush Makeup Tool" or some of these words and go for the cheapest option available.

Have you tried these brushes? If yes, do you like them? If no, are you going to try them?

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

September 2013: Ipsy Bag

I am a regular subscriber to Ipsy bag for a while. I have tried almost all other subscription services that ship to Canada but this is the only one for now. Ipsy is pretty consistent with the quality and size of their samples as compared to some other services in the market. However, I must say that when I saw this months bag, I wasn't super excited about it. 

Septemper 2013 Ipsy Bag

This months bag contains 3 Freeman Masks, which can be found at Walmart for around $2-3 and are pretty popular. However, Ipsy sent sheet masks, which I believe are a new addition to the brand. Then there is a NYX eyeshadow, Cailyn Tinted Lip balm, Starlooks Kohl eyepencil and It's So Big Volumizing Mascara by Elizabeth Mott. 

Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm - Big Apple

Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple is a beautiful cherry red shade that comes in a glass packaging usually used for gel liners. Judging from its name I thought it is going to be a sheer lip balm but I was so wrong. It is super pigmented, goes on smooth and leaves a matte finish. It is absolutely stunning and my most favorite product from this months bag. 

NYX Eyeshadow - Hot Crystal (Left: 1 swipe; Right: Multiple swipes)

I have several single NYX shadows and I love their pigmentation but this particular one is not my favorite in terms of consistency. It is a creamy white shade with some shimmer and goes on super sheer in the first swipe and takes several coats to build up the the actual color, which still looks kind of splotchy. 

Top: Rimmel Scandaleyes - 1 Swipe; Middle: Starlooks eye pencil in Obsidian - 1 Swipe; Bottom: Starlooks eye pencil - Several Swipes.

The Starlooks kohl eye pencil is nothing special. It takes several swipes to get to the desired color. Also, it is not very smooth and these days almost all the drugstore liners have raised the bar for smoothness and lasting power so high that these kind of liners do not even stand a chance. 

I didn't open the It's so Big mascara because I have so many mascaras lying around to be used. However, I was reading the ingredients and it contains stearate, which I am allergic to which means that there is a possibility that other mascaras also do but I never paid much attention to the ingredients of the mascara. Can anyone clarify this to me,that if  you are allergic to certain ingredients then do you avoid them even in mascaras or just in products that come in direct contact with skin?

Extra Sample - 1 look out of Em Cosmetics Life Palette

This month an extra sample was included from Em Cosmetics which was kind of disappointing in the sense that the shadows and the blush are actually on a piece of paper and you need to peel off the plastic to use them. I give them props for the unique packaging but I have to say that it is not user friendly. I am not a fan of samples that come stuck on a paper whether they are of perfumes, skincare or cosmetics. I usually toss them out and I guess for this one too I'll just swatch them on my hand. I know this was just an extra but Michelle owns Em Cosmetics and she is also a part of Ipsy so they could have included one decent eye shadow pan like they do for Coastal scents or BH Cosmetics if nothing more. 

Are you subscribed to Ipsy? If yes, then what did you get? If no, then would you consider subscribing in future?

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

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!