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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Review/ Swatches: ColourPop Cosmetics Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils


Disclaimer: I was contacted and sent these products by ColourPop Cosmetics for the purpose of reviewing. I am not and will not be paid by any monetary means to write this review. This review is strictly based on my honest and personal opinion of these products and the company.

The Company
ColourPop Cosmetics is a cosmetic company base out of Santa Monica, California USA that I, like most people, discovered through its popularity and presence on Instagram. The company's selling point is color pay off and color selection of their products. They market all their products at a (ridiculously)  low price of $5 USD each and take pride in the fact that none of their products are tested on animals. All of their product are made with quality in the USA.

The Products
The products I will be reviewing are ColourPop Cosmetics Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils They are relatively new products that launched mid-September 2014. Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils come in a very wide range of shades from the typical nudes, pinks and reds, to blues, greens and a black! They also have different finishes to choose from: pearlized, glossy, satin, and matte. Each Lippie Stix have a matching Lippie Pencil by the same name. However, ColourPop encourages its customers to unleash their creativity by mixing and matching!

Contents
My Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils came in ColourPop's standard white box within a brown shipping box. Each carton of Lippie Stix/Pencil came individually wrapped in bubble wrap, which any makeup lover can appreciate. They also came with ColourPop's standard, hand-written greeting card with a silly message, as well as a card introducing their line of lip products. Inside each carton of lip product, there is a piece of paper disclosing the list of ingredients.

(^ Tap to Enlarge & Read!)


Packaging
The Lippie Stix do not come in a conventional short and stubby lipstick packaging. They're in a stick about the length of your typical tube of mascara. You roll the product up and down by twisting the upper colored portion. Each Lippie Stix tube contains a net weight of 1.0g/ 0.352oz according to the packaging. As a reference, MAC lipsticks contain 3g/ 0.1oz of product according to the MAC website.
The Lippie Pencil come in packaging very similar to the NYX Jumbo Pencils. It's like some sort of plastic material. I'm not quite sure though. However, it sharpens quite nicely with my basic sharpener from Sephora. The Lippie Pencil also contains 1.0g/ 0.352oz of product. As a reference, MAC lip pencils contain 1.45g/ .05oz of product.


Swatches
The Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils I received are ones I picked out for myself from ColourPop's original launch line up, which I leaked in my last post. Since then, ColourPop has release dozens of new shades. I received 6 Lippie Stix and their matching Lippie Pencils, a total of 12 individual products. I strategically chose 2 of each finish and shades that I don't already have in my lipstick collection. The colors I picked out are: Easy, Flawless, Bound, Clique, Button, and Wifey. 
(Top-bottom: Easy, Flawless, Bound, Clique, Button, Wifey)


Easy (Glossy)
Website description: Pale vivid yellow pink in a glossy finish is easy peasy lemon squeasy. Wear it with anything!
Upper lip: Lippie Stix alone
Lower lip: Lined and Filled with Lippie Pencil under Lippie Stix


Flawless (Satin, originally listed as matte)
Website description: Deep red violet in a satin finish. It legit woke up like this.
Upper lip: Lippie Stix alone
Lower lip: Lined and Filled with Lippie Pencil under Lippie Stix


Bound (Glossy)
Website description: You’re bound to be addicted to this light nude pink in a glossy finish.
Upper lip: Lippie Stix alone
Lower lip: Lined and Filled with Lippie Pencil under Lippie Stix



Clique (Matte)
Website description: Vivid true orange red in a matte finish. When wearing, you can sit with us.
Upper lip: Lippie Stix alone
Lower lip: Lined and Filled with Lippie Pencil under Lippie Stix


Button (Satin)
Website description: Pale creamy peach nude in a satin finish. Ain’t it just cute as a button?
Upper lip: Lippie Stix alone
Lower lip: Lined and Filled with Lippie Pencil under Lippie Stix

Wifey (Satin)
Website description: Bright lavender pink in a satin finish. Wear it once and he’ll def put a ring on it.


Overall Personal Opinion
I think the ColourPop Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils are absolutely perfect for experimenting! They're very inexpensive and come in every color you can think of! And not to mention the color pay off! However for staple colors or shades that you use very often, I think you'd be better off paying the extra few dollars to get more product since the packaging of these Lippie Stix make it a bit impractical for discreet touch ups on-the-go. But really, you can't beat the quality and colors like these for $5. That's just not how the economy works, lol! Personally, I'm not very fond of the glossy finish formula though. It's too runny/slippery for my taste. It's more runny than MAC cremesheens, which I love. I found that the glossy formula tended to gather quite easily in my lines. However, the formula for the satin and matte finishes are excellent! I honestly prefer ColourPop's satin and matte formulas over MAC's formulas! They're not drying AT ALL! Same goes for the Lippie Pencils as well! They glide on very easily on the first swipe but because of the formula, I don't think they would be very effective at preventing feathering. I feel like the Lippie Pencils are more so for aesthetics.

So the big question is: Would I buy these? YES, but really only the satin and matte finish Lippie Stix.







Friday, September 12, 2014

Preview: Colourpop Cosmetics Lippie Stix Shade Exclusive

I got a preview of the shade selection for the upcoming launch of Colourpop Cosmetics Lippie Stix! As I mentioned in my last post, Colourpop Cosmetics is scheduled to release their new line of lipsticks and lip pencils September 18, 2014 (unless otherwise stated). Check out the image below!!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Review: ColourPop Cosmetics Super Shock Shadow (Fall '14 Collection)

Disclaimer: I was contacted and sent these products by ColourPop Cosmetics for the purpose of reviewing. I am not and will not be paid by any monetary means to write this review. This review is strictly based on my honest and personal opinion of these products and the company.

The Company
ColourPop Cosmetics is a relatively new company base out of Santa Monica, California USA that I, like most people, discovered through its popularity and presence on Instagram. The company's selling point is color pay off and color selection of their products. They market their products at a (ridiculously) low price of $5 USD each and take pride in the fact that none of their products are tested on animals. All of their product are made with quality in the USA.

The Products
This will be a review of ColourPop Cosmetics Super Shock Shadows from the Fall Collection which launched toward the beginning of August (oopsies). As of right now, ColourPop Cosmetics only has a line of eyeshadows. They have dozens of colors in various finishes from Metallic, Pearl, Pressed Pigment, Satin, Tie Dye, and Ultra-Metallic. The eyeshadows are sold individually and in quads. ColourPop is launching their line of lip products which include Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils September 18, 2014.

Shipping
My package came in a standard brown box. Inside the brown box was a ton of packaging paper. Underneath was a white box containing a smaller box which held the actual product. The smaller box that held the product was wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap, which I appreciated because any time of powder product in 100x more fragile in the post. Also, keep in mind that ColourPop ships out of Santa Monica, CA. I live outside San Francisco, CA and received mine the next day.




Contents
The box containing the products is a pull-out box. The containers of product are firmly set in a stiff foam. The foam lining goes only up to the screw off lid. If you like, this can be used as a sturdy palette for your ColourPop shadows. I also received a hand-written greeting card, which was placed at the very top inside the package. I honestly feel like the greeting on mine is kinda generic. ("Hey Babe--", really?) From what I have seen on Instagram, ColourPop Cosmetics typically writes out the customer's name in the greeting which sounds so much more genuine. Either way, the fact that the company includes a hand-written card in all their order is a very personable touch. Not many companies do so. On the back of the card is actually a mini description of their Super Shock Shadows and "tip & tricks".





Packaging
The physical packaging is quite bulky in comparison to standard eyeshadow packaging such as MAC eyeshadows. Because of the texture and type of product the ColourPop shadow is (more on this in a bit), it comes in a screw top container. The surface area is slightly larger than my MAC ED eyeshadow (Sorry, I don't own any permanent MAC shadows.) and contains oh-so slightly more product. ColourPop contains a Net Weight of 1.8g/ 0.06 US OZ. MAC Extra Dimension shadow contains a Net Weight of 1.3g/ 0.04 US OZ.



Super Shock Shadow Texture
On the back of the greeting card, ColourPop describes its Super Shock Shadow texture: "This long-wearing creme powder has an elastic-like texture that is totally party proof. Avoid the fall out from traditional powder shadows and say goodbye to racoon eyes!"

The texture to me is somewhat of a foamy mousse feel, but not quite. In my mind, I think it is like the Maybelline Bouncy Blush but I have never tried them. The best why I can describe it, which was also the first thing that popped in my mind when I began swatching, is the extra shimmery shadows (Dust, Buzz, Trick) in the Urban Decay Naked3 palette. In my particular palette, Buzz is very soft and has chunks of fall out as oppose to dusts of fall out. As you can see, Buzz gives in and leaves an indentation when I gently jab it with the back of my eyeshadow brush. I am not sure if Buzz does this for everyone, but it does in my palette.





Fall 2014 Collection
The colors I received are from the Fall 2014 Collection. Altogether, there are 12 shades and I was sent 6 of the 12 at random. I received: Tea Party, Lace, Bae, So Quiche, Cricket, and Mittens. The other 6 Fall shades which I did not receive are: Game Face, Bandit, Mooning, Hammered, Shameless, and Krinkle.


I had a mishap with Bae. (No pun intended.)


Tea Party
Website description: A versatile soft peachy pink with gazillion silver glitters and subtle hints of pale pink glitter. Highlight anything and everything with it! This shade is made for you if: you love pink champagne, sparkles, and tea parties (duh).



See the flecks of shimmer?


FYI: All swatches on this post are 2 swipes.


Lace
Website description: A deep rich blue violet with a pearlized finish.  My lace, my lace my lovely lady lace.






Bae
Website description: Ay Bay Bay, this rich eggplant purple with an emerald, and turquoise, glittery duo chrome metallic finish is legit better than anything else.







So Quiche
Website description: A soft olive with a highly reflective gold and pink violet glittery duo chrome metallic finish…there are no words in the dictionary to describe this. Not even urbandictionary.com .  Aka: this shade is hotter than hot – the F**king Queen of shadows.






Cricket
Website description: A smoky mid-tone plum with warm and cool highlights of soft glitter. There won’t be any awkward silences when you wear this…







Mittens
Website description: A deep warm brown with a red violet undertone leaving a satin finish – As warm as your coziest pair.



Very minimal shimmer.




Overall
I think these are amazing quality eyeshadows! The thing that most impress me was the pigmentation! I think these shadows are honestly worth more than $5! As you read earlier, these contain more product than the MAC ED shadows and are significantly more affordable! The only thing that I'd like everyone to keep in mind is the texture. It should be treated differently that your regular shadows. It is a foam-mousse texture which makes it so much more fragile than a pressed powder compact. (Repairs are super easy though. No rubbing alcohol required!) Since it is fragile and the packaging is bulkier, I wouldn't carry this around in your purse and be extra careful when traveling with them.You also need to be absolutely sure you close and seal the containers properly to prevent the product from drying out. However, the texture is what give this product the out-of-this-world color pay off!

Direct sunlight

Indirect sunlight (indoor)

Indirect sunlight (outdoor)-- Truest to color