Perfect Berry Shades For Winter – Guest Post

When Natalee said she was looking for some guest writers for her blog while she was on holiday, I jumped at the chance. Not only because she’s wonderful, but because it’s nice to write about something not related to my mental health! I write about my life with borderline personality disorder, you see – and it can get heavy at times with such a serious topic at hand. So it’s a nice change to write about something fun! Plus, I LOVE MAKE-UP. I really do. So I wanted to take this opportunity to write about it!

But first, a little story. I got married a few weeks ago, and my colour scheme involved rich berry tones along with purples and ivory. November is a month of change with autumn going into winter, the crisp colours of browns and golds going into plums and silvery whites, and being the totally non-traditional woman that I am, I was never going to be a traditional bride. I wanted colour to be a part of my look, I didn’t want to be all dressed in white. So, I took a part of my colour scheme and brought it into my look for the day… which brings me to this post!

As well as berry coloured shoes and sash on my dress to go with the berry coloured buttons in my handmade bouquet, I decided to be bold and wear a berry-toned lipstick. It wasn’t an easy decision. Here, I’m going to give you a rundown of my top five berry-toned lipsticks for winter, ending with the one I ended up wearing for my big day! So, without further ado…

Image taken from MAC Cosmetics website

5. MAC lipstick in Rebel – £15.50 from maccosmetics.co.uk

I have Natalee to thank for this classic making its way into my lipstick collection. On the site, it’s described as a ‘midtonal cream plum’ and it is seriously flattering on any skin tone. It does look more purple-toned on me, which wasn’t quite right for the wedding, but it did end up being worn by my bridesmaid! The Husband calls it my ‘going to war’ lipstick, as I always seem to wear it when I need that bit of confidence to get me through anything – and it seriously works. It is gorgeous, it feels amazing on the lips, and it smells heavenly and lasts for ages even without primer or liner. I usually have to remove it with baby oil as it always leaves a stain! Really worth the money and definitely a staple for the make-up bag.

Image taken from Rimmel London Cosmetics website

4. Rimmel The Only 1 lipstick in One of a Kind – £6.99 from Boots

The first ever lipstick I bought back in college was Rimmel Lasting Finish in Amethyst Shimmer. It probably would’ve looked fine on me, had I not insisted on the dark eye make-up along with it. Rimmel are touting this as a ‘lipstick revolution’ and while I usually guffaw at such statements, they have a right to brag. The quality is astounding, especially given the low cost and brand. It felt amazing on the lips, really creamy and soft, but it lasted a lot longer than expected from such a comfortable lipstick. The colour is a much more red-toned berry than Rebel, and I definitely will be rocking it over the winter months!

Image taken from Max Factor website

3. Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Mulberry – £7.99 from Boots

I’m a huge fan of Max Factor. I swear by their mascara and foundation primer, and when I discovered their Colour Elixir lipsticks, I fell in love. Another creamy lipstick with added benefits – ‘A blend of 60% emollients, conditioners and antioxidants including vitamin E’ according to the Boots website. Mulberry is a vampy, dark shimmery shade that says “I’m here to party, and I will get off with that bloke I’ve fancied for ages because I am a goddess of the night.”

…or something like that, anyway.

With the added pampering benefits for your lips, I would definitely recommend it for the winter months when we could all do with a little help against the elements. And Christmas parties. Go get ‘em, tiger.

Image taken from Clinique website

2. Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer in Love Pop – £16 from Boots

There is a shade of this called Berry Pop which is very dark, which I imagine will be stunning for the season, but looked far too dark on me. The selling point of this lipstick is that you don’t need to wear primer underneath for it to stay on. A nice idea… but I didn’t think it worked out too well. However, with primer and liner, it upped the game. Love Pop is a soft, pink-toned berry which gives a very romantic look and is extremely wearable. It also feels amazing. I am a fan of this product, so much so that I have since purchased two more shades!

And in the number one spot, which made it to my face on my wedding day…

Image taken from Feel Unique website

1. Burt’s Bees Lip Crayon in Napa Vineyard – £8.99 from feelunique.com

PERFECT. WEDDING. COLOUR. I have seen people raving about these little crayons on reddit, and I can see why! The colour payoff is phenomenal, it feels just like a lip balm, and the finish is a very fashionable matte. It went perfectly with the colours we had, and it made me feel so glamourous and just finished the look in the way I wanted it to. The only downside is that it wasn’t very long lasting, even with primer and liner, but you know what? It looked perfect and I hope in the final photos you’ll be able to see just how much it made my final look.

So, there you have it! Thanks Nat for letting me write this for you, and I hope your readers go out and get their berry on – seriously, it’s a colour that looks good on everyone, and will never let you down.

If you’re interested in my blog about life with borderline personality disorder (BPD), visit me at http://allmouthnospoons.wordpress.com. I can also be found tweeting nonsense at http://twitter.com/MouthAndSpoons.

A huge thanks to Claire for writing this post up for me on such short notice! It’s the first of many guest posts that will be on my blog over the next month, which is pretty damn exciting! I love all the lipsticks she spoke about, especially Rebel which is by far my favourite lipstick. Which shades did you love? Make sure to leave Claire some love in the comments down below!

Until next time all, take care and see you when I’m back from holiday (I’ve officially been here a day now!)

Tanya Burr Lip Gloss in Exotic Island – Review

This evening I’m bringing you a review that I have been so excited to write-up (and FYI this is my first ever lip gloss review!) I’ve only owned this lip gloss 2 weeks but it certainly feels like a lot longer! I’ve used it quite a lot and it’s already one of my favourite go to products.

I’m talking about one of Tanya Burr’s lip glosses, which launched back late February this year, as well as nail polishes by Tanya Burr too.

For a while the lip glosses and nail polishes were only available to purchase from Feel Unique, but at the start of April they were launched in Superdrug, which I was super excited about! I knew just days after their launch in Superdrug that I would be going shopping for my boyfriends birthday and I decided I would treat myself to one of her lip glosses, which one however, I wasn’t 100% sure on!

There are 12 shades to choose from, Smile, Dream, Sparkle, Champagne Toast, First Date, Just Peachy, Afternoon Tea, Chic, Picnic In The Park, Aurora, Exotic Island, Let’s Travel The World, Heart Skipped A Beat and Vampire Kiss.

In this review I’m going to be reviewing the shade I opted for, as well as the collection as a whole, as I have a few things I want to say about it.

 

I opted for Exotic Island, a gorgeous dark pink, sort of like a raspberry shade and the shade itself reminds me of my MAC lipstick Daddy’s Little Girl, which came out with the Archie’s Girls Collection. You can check out the review for that here, but that shade was classed as “mid-tone pink violet” which is probably what the shade is for Exotic Island.

The packaging for this lip gloss is simple but really lovely and delicate, something anyone would be pleased to pull out of their handbag. It’s a clear tube, which shows off the lip gloss shade perfectly and has a black lid, which has a cute little pink heart on the top, which just adds to the girlyness of the product as a whole. Also the writing on the gloss itself is written in Tanya Burr’s own handwriting, which I thought was a nice touch and made it feel that little bit more personal.

The packaging that Feel Unique buyers got for this was a cardboard packet with a picture of Tanya Burr on it, however if you purchase the lip glosses from Superdrug,  you just get the lip gloss of your choice in a wrapper, so you’ll know no one has opened it… Unless they’ve ripped it apart to try and swatch.

The gloss itself is really pigmented as well as non sticky, which everyone looks for in a lip gloss nowhere days so when I applied this to my lips for the first time, I was nothing but disappointed! Pigmentation wise I’m not sure if this can be said for ALL of the shades from the collection, as a couple of weeks after purchasing Exotic Island I swatched another shade from the collection when I popped into Superdrug in Milton Keynes and it was more of a light pink than the red that it looks like in the tube. SO if you are able to swatch, make sure to.

The applicator for this lip gloss is a flat and long doe foot applicator, which I’m always happy with using. However this applicator is better than the usual doe foot as it’s longer and wider, meaning if you have fuller lips that you’ll be able to apply it quicker and possibly more even, if you have thin lips… I don’t know if there would be an issue or not, but really I don’t see why not!

A little of this gloss goes a long way and I find myself quickly applying it before I head to work, as well as during my shifts as it’s just such a lovely gloss to wear! I don’t know if it contains any conditioning properties but it certainly feels like it does! I wear this as my lazy lip gloss a majority of the time, but that being said I have worn this for some evenings out with friends as it’s just lovely to wear and it lasts ages in my opinion.

As if it couldn’t get any better, this lip gloss also has a gorgeous scent to it! It smells like sweeties, boiled sweeties you would get from your grandparents as a child. Which sweets however, I haven’t got a clue! The nice smell just means it tastes nice too, so you can’t go wrong with this and as it isn’t an overpowering sweet smell, more of a subtle smell, ladies out there who hate scented lip products needn’t worry as this won’t make you gag!

Overall I’m really happy with this lip gloss and I would like to own another one, maybe two lip glosses from the collection! Two I have my eye on are Afternoon Tea and Vampire Kiss. Whether or not I’ll pick them up, who knows (but it’s more than likely!).

Here you are, a few pictures of me wearing the product to see how it shows up on my complexion (FYI I’m yellow toned).

Okay now onto the things I wish to talk about with the collection as a whole. There are some good and some bad things I’ll be mentioning.

Pros:

• The collection is huge and with a shade that will suit anyone, with any skin tone.
• These are affordable and now that they’re available to buy in Superdrug that’s just great!
• The gloss itself is gorgeous in so many ways! The pigmentation, the doe foot applicator, how it isn’t sticky and finally how it smells lovely, but of course this is all mentioned above in more detail.

Cons:

• Although the collection has a shade that will suit anyone with any skin tone, there are quite a few shades similar to others in the collection, but personally this doesn’t bother me. However I know some whom it has bothered.
• When I went into Superdrug to first check these out, there weren’t any testers which was a pain as for all I knew I could have picked up Exotic Island expecting it to be a bright purple shade and be solely disappointed that it isn’t. However for me this isn’t the case, but if I hadn’t of tested one of the shades out that someone had opened previous to me, I would have been very annoyed to discover that the shade was NOTHING like it was in the tube when I arrived home with it… As personally I wouldn’t have wanted it. But this is just a personal preference and for all I know Superdrug could be getting testers out now!

So overall the pros weigh the cons but even if the cons outweighed the pros it wouldn’t be a bad thing as this collection is amazing!

Tanya Burr has created the perfect drug store lip gloss for the normal lady. All we want is a range of shades of lip gloss that will smell good, last ages, have good pigmentation and be affordable. This is Tanya Burr’s first collection and I really hope she teams up with Eye Candy again to create another as it would be amazing.

You can buy your Tanya Burr lip glosses at £6.99 each from:

Feel Unique

Superdrug (both in-store and online)

Cloud 10 Beauty

Pom Shop LTD

Have you checked out the lip glosses by Tanya Burr? If so, do you like them? Any you own or have on your wish list? Let me know in the comments down below!

I apologise that this post is up so late at night, I’ve been pretty busy all day and have only just had time to get this post finished off and published on my blog.

Until next time, take care all and I hope your weeks have started off well.