Current favourite Lip Products

I'm a bit of a lipstick obsessive, as this post will prove! And I personally think you can never have enough (I have a problem). So I thought I'd share my current favourite lip products that I love to use. You may notice a running theme colour-wise!

Basics / Lip balms:

Vaseline Lip Therapy - Original & Cocoa Butter

EOS lip balm - Honeysuckle Honeydew

Maybelline New York "Baby Lips Lip Balm" - Cherry Me 

I thought I'd start with the classic that is Vaseline Lip Therapy, with my particular favourites from the collection - Original and Cocoa Butter. (Apologies for how battered the cocoa butter tin is, but it just proves how often it gets used!) These tiny tins are staples in most people's make up bags, or even just their pocket as they're great to have on you at all times. I don't know if you could consider these a make up product, but I certainly consider them an essential. Whether you wear them alone or over your lipstick, these lip balms are perfect for treating and moisturising sore, chapped lips or just adding a subtle extra something to your look.
The EOS Lip Balm is true to it's name (Evolution of Smooth) and my Honeysuckle Honeydew lip balm is now my second EOS purchase as I went through my first one in a flash! These lip balms are just gorgeous; they smell great and do what they promise - keep your lips soft and smooth. And obviously I have to mention the packaging, which is adorable.
And lastly, the Maybelline New York Baby Lips lip balm in the colour Cherry Me. I was sceptical when I first bought this as I was expecting a dark and unflattering pink, which I don't really want from a lip balm. But it actually gives off a shear, rosy pink which is nice and subtle and won't overpower the rest of your face of make up. However, if you were looking to have a darker pink, you would be able to build up the colour with a few added layers. And again, it does what it promises and leaves you with baby soft lips!

Lipsticks and glosses:

No.7 "Stay Perfect" - Love Red

No. 7 "Stay Perfect" - Claret

Maybelline New York "Colour Sensational" - '530' Fatal Red

Rimmel London "Lasting Finish" - '264' Coffee Shimmer

Barry M "Ultra Moisturising lip paint" - '160' Black Cherry

Topshop "Matte Lip Bullet" - Get Me Bodied

Seventeen Make Up "Lip Lustre" - Wild One 

(The lipsticks in the image and the swatches are all in the same order as the above list from left to right) As you can see, I love my reds, wines and purples! I use all of these lipsticks regularly individually but also like to mix and match with them all and create different shades. The No. 7 Stay Perfect lipsticks are the shades Love Red and Claret and both are creamy and smooth, incredibly moisturising and incredibly pigmented - I can't recommend these enough! I rarely use Claret on it's own as it's quite a deep brown, but it's great for adding to the other colours to create all sorts of shades.
The Maybelline New York Colour Sensational lip stick in the shade 530 - Fatal Red is also a smooth, moisturising and pigmented lipstick which when applied straight onto the lip (as opposed to with a lip brush) can actually look almost like a lip gloss. Another great red lipstick which I can't recommend enough.
The Rimmel London Lasting Finish lipstick in the shade 264 - Coffee Shimmer is another one I mainly use on top of other colours to give it a different type of finish. I prefer to apply this one with a lip brush so I have better control of how much of a golden brown sheen I add to my lips.
The Barry M Ultra Moisturising Lip Paint in the shade 160 - Black Cherry is a shade that I have used for years and is a firm favourite of mine. The deep cherry colour is great to wear on its own or to mix with reds to create a great wine colour and is one that I always turn to whether I'm just doing casual make up or aiming for a more formal look.
The Topshop Matte Lip Bullet in the shade Get Me Bodied is another one that I use for all occasions. Despite being a matte lipstick, it still applies smoothly and doesn't look dry or cracked on the lip as matte lipsticks sometimes can.
And the last one, the only lip gloss of the bunch, is Seventeen Make Up Lip Lustre in Wild One which was in my Christmas of a Thousand Swatches post which is a lovely deep red lip gloss which has some pinky undertones. Like I said in my other post, it's rare if not unheard of for me to like a lip gloss so this one surprised me. While I did like the whole collection of lip glosses that this came in, the red shade Wild One was my favourite by far. Again, it's great to use by itself or to add an extra something to a lipstick base

Lip crayons and liners:

Fearne "Kiss and Tell" lip crayons - Purple, Deep Red & Lighter Red

No. 7 "High Shine" lip crayons - Delicate Pink & Daydreamer

Barry M "Lip Liner Pencil" - Red / 3 

(For the crayon and liner swatches - the top three are the Fearne crayons, the middle two are the No.7 crayons and the bottom one is the Barry M liner) The Fearne 'Kiss and Tell' lip crayons, annoyingly don't actually have shade names or numbers, so I'll just refer to them as Purple, Pink Red and Deep Red. These matte lip crayons are just gorgeous and a combination of the three is a favourite of mine to wear daily. Again, like with the matte lip bullet, despite being matte they still apply very smoothly and don't make your lips appear dry. They are also smooth enough to be applied with a lip brush for when you want to get a more defined matte lip. All round winners!

The No. 7 High Shine lip crayons in the shades Delicate Pink and Daydreamer also featured in my Christmas of a Thousand Swatches post and are silky lip crayons which have a similar consistency to lip balms and give off both subtle colour and subtle shine. They both look very natural and are great for when you want a more toned down make up look.

And finally, the Barry M Lip Liner Pencil in the shade Red / 3 which is one of my all time favourite lip liners. This liner plus a combination of the No. 7 Love Red and either the Maybelline Fatal Red or the Deep Red Fearne pencil is how I like to create the "perfect" red lip. Extremely pigmented, a gorgeous colour and also an excellent price at £2.99!

What are your favourite lip products? 

(This is not an advertisement for any of the above products or companies nor am I being paid or sponsored for this post.)

The Christmas of a Thousand Swatches

Hello again! I hope you've had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed your Boxing Day too (lots of food involved I hope!). I spent Christmas with my family and spent Boxing day with even more family which was lovely!

I really do feel spoilt this year, especially in the make up department, so I thought I'd share with you some samples of them all. Maybe you'll see something you like and bag it in the New Year sales!

Starting with the Seventeen Eye Palette:

I was so excited when I opened this because I only actually have one other eye shadow palette, which is the "Barry M Natural Glow Shadow & Blush Palette" which I use literally every day, because this palette has more peach and pink based colours in comparison to the Barry M one which is solely browns, creams and one deep gold shadow. This palette also has more dark colours than the Barry M one so I'm looking forward to having more variety and options and also having more looks to experiment with. It's a good gift for someone who likes to wear eyeshadow without having "harsh" eyes as the first four colours (particularly 1, 2 and 4) are very,very natural and clean looking. But then you still have numbers 5 and 6 as an option if you want to dress it up a bit. Also, it would be ideal for anyone like me that loves having statement smoky eyes in neutrals and browns. I really don't have any criticisms about this palette; the colours go together lovely and make a nice looking smoky eye, it'd be just as good a gift to someone who is just getting into make up as it would be to an experienced make up lover who is looking for a small palette to carry out and about and finally, the pigmenting is just right, allowing you to gradually build colour when applying. An all round winner!

The second Seventeen product is the Seventeen Mini Lip Gloss Library:

First of all, I love the name "Mini Lip Gloss Library" so much, it's so cute! And secondly, for someone who isn't usually too keen on lip gloss, I was pleasantly surprised with these! I was instantly drawn to number 6 for two reasons: 1) I prefer non-glittery to glittery when it comes to lip glosses and 2) Like most people, I adore deep red lip colours. So it's safe to say that number 6 is my favourite of the lot. Number 1 and number 2 have been ideal for these festive past few days as they are subtle and natural with just the right amount of sparkle and shimmer. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 will be perfect for summer and number 6, for me, will just be perfect for all year round. A very good idea for a present as it caters to all make up tastes!

Moving on from Seventeen to No.7 with these really cute No.7 Mini Lip Treats:

Again, completely irrelevant, but I love the name "Mini Lip Treats" too! These two are just lovely and I've got literally nothing bad to say about them: they're glossy without being sticky (although my swatches photo really hasn't picked that up well, apologies!), they feel lovely and moisturising and because they're subtle they would flatter most skin tones. Also, I usually don't bother with nude lip colours but because "Day Dreamer" is so subtle and has a slight peachy/pink hint to it, it didn't make my lips completely blend in with my skin like most nude lip products usually do. "Delicate Pink" is just a really sweet and toned down every day lipstick that would go with almost any look. A very cute present that definitely won't be going to waste!

The next product, Benefit's "They're Real!" Mascara wasn't a Christmas present, but was instead a Boxing Day present to myself after my Mum and I went to Boots to treat ourselves and look out for any post-Christmas bargains!

(I left one eye untouched for comparison)

I've wanted this mascara for so, so long and I'm not sure why I hadn't got round to buying it until now - because I know it wasn't my usual reason of it being too expensive as, in my opinion, £9.95 really is not bad at all for a product that seems to have had universal praise. So I've finally jumped onto the bandwagon and have instantly fallen in love. The only things that I would change about this mascara are the wand, which is made of a plastic-y/rubber material and the size of the product itself (I understand that £9.95 for this is a bit of a miracle but for that much I would expect the tube to be at least a tiny bit bigger, but maybe I'm just tight). And while having a plastic mascara wand is usually better for separating the lashes, I just generally prefer mascara wands to be made of fibres (I think that's the right word? I have no idea). But they are just minor things and certainly aren't deal breakers! Just one coat of this mascara would leave me happy which is unheard of as I'm one of those people who has to have 50-odd coats of mascara on before I can even think about leaving the house (slightly exaggerating there!). But the fact that just one coat is genuinely enough has really, really blown my mind as I thought that that just wasn't an option in life (bit dramatic). But TWO coats of this stuff was when I needed to sit down; when this mascara promises a "false lash effect" it does not disappoint. I'm so excited to have finally bought this mascara and all I can say is: if you haven't already - get it, try it, LOVE IT. AAH. Sorry.

And lastly, the Seventeen Make Up Brush Collection:

I've been meaning to get my hands on a new make up brush set for a while now, so you can imagine how happy I was when I opened this on Christmas morning. The set consists of: 1 cheek brush (which is a small/medium blush brush which could easily be used for bronzer and regular face powder as well), 3 eye shadow brushes (#1 for blending, #2 for definition and #3 an angled brush also for more defined eye make up) and 1 lip brush. The only criticism I have for this kit is the lip brush, which is very, very firm which makes it difficult to fill the lips with (but on the other hand means that it is excellent for lining the lips). As I've already got a lip brush which is good for filling the lips, I don't have too much to complain about as it's not exactly a stretch to use both is it? As for the rest of the brushes, I've got no complaints; the three eye brushes work wonderfully and the two definition brushes are excellent for enhancing a smoky eye. Also, the cheek brush is lovely and soft and allows you to build up your powder rather than cake it on. So I have a feeling that these brushes will become staples in my make up bag because, as anyone else with ridiculously sensitive skin will know, the softer the make up brush the better, and these are just gorgeous.

So again, I hope you've had a lovely Christmas time and hope you enjoy the rest of this festive period (as we're now in that wonderful sleepy week between Christmas and New Year where the country just switches off). Spend it with family, friends and food!

Thank you for reading, see you soon!x