MAC Cremesheen Lipsticks - Creme In Your Coffee

Hello, everyone!

So, the entire beauty world seems to rave about MAC lipsticks. I can definitely see why just because of the color selection. There are a LOT of colors and textures to choose from, and this is really great for somebody like me that has really, really tricky coloring. I have dark skin, but I also have a dark brown top lip and a pink bottom lip. It's just about impossible for me to find a lipstick that will actually suit me, so it's really lovely to get the entire MAC color range to choose from.

I mentioned this before, but I have really horrible dry lips. I am always putting Vaseline on them (unless I'm lazy, in which case I wait far too long and then apply my Tropic Skin Care Lip Love). So, when I was at MAC after finally deciding to buy a MAC lipstick, I mainly looked at the Cremesheen texture because I read so many reviews on how it was "super moisturizing!" and things like that. And, on the few occasions prior to my venture into beauty when I had worn lipstick (for a play and for being a bridesmaid at a wedding), my lips had turned horribly dry by the end. It took a few weeks of Vaseline both times for my lips to return to normal - and I figured that if I bought a lipstick and wore it on a regular basis, it couldn't be like that!

I've had this lipstick for about six months now and wear it quite frequently. And I can say with absolute certainty that I don't think the Cremesheen formulas are moisturizing. At all. They do still dry out my lips, although I will say that they are not nearly as bad as the other lipsticks that I've worn in the past. But the fact remains that if I want to wear it comfortably, I do have to put a thin layer of Vaseline or some other lip balm underneath it. This is mildly irritating, and I am not sure that I will repurchase the Cremesheen because I have found a different lipstick that actually is hydrating (more on that later).

I will say, however, that the color I bought, Creme in your Coffee, is lovely. It's a dark pink rose color, perfect to slightly brighten my bottom lip color (I bought it as my evening lip color). I can lightly pat the lipstick onto my top lip and blend it so that it looks natural. The effect is not at all chalky. Here is swatch on my hand so that dark-skinned people can see what it looks like against a dark background:

And then against white skin so that you can see the "true" color:

So, I realize that if the entire beauty world is saying that something is moisturizing when it's not, it could just be because I have incredibly dry lips. It's definitely not as bad as a lot of lipsticks with regards to that, but it's not good, either.

I hope this was helpful, especially to those with dark skin and for those with super-dry lips. Thank you for reading!

Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow in Nutmeg

Hello, everyone!

I thought I'd do a post on my staple eyeshadow. This is actually the first eyeshadow I ever owned. I am dark skinned, so it really evens out the skin tone on my eyes and makes it look a little darker and a little more polished.

As it says on the back, it is a matte shadow. I am a no-makeup makeup kind of girl, so I'm really not into shimmers unless it's for a special occasion of some sort. This eyeshadow looks natural, but at the same time, does make me look better - it's just very subtle.

Also on the back, though, it says that it's an all-day, crease proof shadow. This claim could not be more wrong. I will mention that I have fairly oily eyelids, but after wearing this every day for six years, I can tell you that after about three hours, it creases really, really badly. Of course, because I was very uninformed about makeup until about a year ago, I didn't know that these things called primers existed, so I just dealt with the creasing for years! When I finally learned that they existed, I.... waited until about four weeks ago to buy one. I'll do a post on my primer later this week.

What I used to do until about a week ago was take a sponge applicator and apply it on my eyelid. Now, I use a MAC 217 brush, which is very, very new to me, and apply the shadow with it. I don't like sponge applicators, but I didn't have enough money to get a good brush until recently.

This eyeshadow definitely blends well. I have tried it against some higher end ones, and I actually like this texture a lot better than some more high-end brands. It is quite well pigmented as well, so a little goes a long way. It's definitely good for someone like me on a college budget!

Sorry about the bad lighting - it's very hard to capture exact shades on camera, but you get the general idea. It's a deep, dark, very matte brown. For people with fairer skin than I - which is most of the world's population - it's a very good crease color. I used it on a fair-skinned friend in her crease, and it worked beautifully. Although the eyeshadow is very pigmented, you can take a lot of it off on the back of your hand if you just want to apply a sheer wash. I did this on a blue-eyed girl, and the effect was gorgeous - her blue eyes really popped out as a result of this eyeshadow.

So, overall, this range of eyeshadows is very good texture and pigment wise. If you have oily lids... you're going to need a primer, unfortunately. I have no idea how well this works on non-oily lids. I've used it on myself, my sister, and two friends, and all of us have oily lids so we used a primer. I would recommend it because it is not very expensive - I believe I paid something like $5 at most, and this particular one has lasted me a year. It's recommended that you change your eyeshadows about every two years, so this will definitely last me the duration of that time if not slightly longer.

Thank you very much for reading!