Things I've Hated This Month: August

I'm sorry. We're already 1/3 into September, and I'm posting something that dates back to August. I know, I'm terrible. But honestly, I only decided that I disliked one of these products in the last week. I realized I wasn't using it at all, tried it once more this week, then decided that it needs to get returned to Sephora this week when I go home to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Thus begins the things I've hated this month!

This is the Shiseido Lacquer Rouge in RD305 (Nymph). This literally sat in my "loves" on sephora.com for weeks and weeks. I read reviews on it, I loved it, I was convinced that when I actually bought it that it would become a holy grail product for me.

Then I did buy it, and I just simply didn't fall in love at all.

I think part of it had to do with me already owning a couple of lipsticks that are really similar in color to this one (MAC Plumful and MAC Craving). And I didn't anticipate that it wouldn't dry down to a matte finish. Instead, it stays glossy. I'm not a huge fan of glosses in general, so the gloss-like aspects of this lip lacquer just didn't do it for me. And there's just no way that I'm going to keep a product that doesn't wow me when I spent $25 on it. So, I returned it a couple of weeks after I bought it. Of course, I ended up buying REN's Get Radiant, Glowing Skin in Just 10 Minutes! Kit when I returned this lip lacquer.

Then there's this Clinique Lash Building Primer. I initially bought it hoping that the white color of it would make colored mascara pop. I ended up returning the colored mascara that I had bought to use with this, but I figured that I can always use a mascara primer.

Then this week, I really got to thinking about this primer. I took it out of my mascara/eyeliner drawer for the first time in weeks.

This time around, it struck me how much product gets stuck to the brush. And after using it, when you're putting the applicator back into the tube, that excess product doesn't just go back in. Instead it clumps up around the base of the tube, and it just sort of looks gross. But I decided that if I used this primer and it make a difference with the volume/length of my eyelashes, then I would keep this primer.

Forgive the bad lighting in the second photo, I was stupid and in a hurry to get to work, so I took the photo in my bathroom. 

But you can tell, that there isn't much of a difference between my eyelashes in these photos. The top photo is without primer, the bottom photo is with the primer. I used the same mascara both days. This product just isn't worth the $15 I spent on it. I'm going to return it this weekend and buy something that I'll (hopefully) love, instead.

And one more thing about this primer: it made using certain mascaras difficult. I found that if the mascara had a traditional mascara brush (LORAC's Pro Mascara, Benefit's BadGal Lash, etc.), this primer worked fine. But if you tried using a synthetic, plastic brush with it, it was next to impossible. I just could not use my Benefit They're Real! after using this primer. It was rough going.

Moral of the story: sometimes you buy products. And sometimes they just don't blow your mind. Then they sit in the back of a drawer somewhere, but you should return them. And buy more makeup! 

Review: Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick in Berlin

I'm forever on the hunt for a good liquid lipstick. When they're good, they tend to apply easily, dry quickly, and last forever. And I prefer my makeup to not require 10 touchups throughout the day, and I've found that a good liquid lipstick can survive just about anything. A good liquid lipstick can, in fact, survive better than any regular lipstick.

I heard that the Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick was phenomenal, and I am here to tell you that it really is. But I'll begin at the beginning.

I bought this lipstick in the color Berlin months ago, but I've been waiting to post about it because I wanted to make sure that it was as amazing as I thought it was in the beginning.

The packaging is very pretty; it doesn't look nearly as gothic as some of Kat Von D's products. I'm not a huge fan of the gothic look, so the packaging of this product makes me very happy. At first I was a little bit worried about the color. Berlin just looks so damn bright. But then I put it on. And I fell in love.

It looks much less crazy bright once it's actually on your lips. It dries VERY quickly, so if you're fairly slow at applying lip product, you'll want to speed up to put this stuff on. But once you get the hang of it, you can apply it fairly quickly with ease.

One of the things about this product that I can't rave about enough is it's longevity. It will look like you just put it on all day.

This photo was taken at 4:45 pm. I had been wearing this lipstick since 11:30 am. In between putting the lipstick on and taking this photo, I was in class for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I had one coffee, one bottle of water, one brownie, and one fruit juice (that required putting my lips around the bottle's top). I had spent my Great War class (2.5 hours) talking incessantly. Yes, I'm that kid in class that won't stop talking.

Basically, this is magical lipstick.

Because I waited months to write a review on this product, I also found out one more fascinating fact: it survives nap time. Let me explain. My favorite way to test the lasting-power of any given makeup product is to take a nap while wearing it. I have a whole series of eyeliners, mascaras, blushes, and eyeshadows that surpass the nap test. But rarely does a lipstick survive a nap. More often than not, lipstick ends up all over my pillow and I'm pissed. But not the Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick. It survived the nap test, looking like I had literally just applied it.

I only have two complaints, albeit small ones. The first one you can see illustrated in this photo. While it doesn't fade on the majority of my lips, on the upper outer corners, it disappears. I think it has something to do with the way that my lips are shaped and how they fit together. If I keep my mouth closed, it's not a problem, but if I'm talking a lot, you can tell that the lipstick doesn't reach all the way to the corners of my mouth.

The other problem is a packaging issue. The lipstick will leak around the edges of the screw top, sometimes resulting in pink lipstick getting on my other lip products in my lip drawer. It's easily clean-able with a cheap toner or makeup remover, but I wish that it wasn't an issue at all.

Overall, I LOVE this lipstick. Some claim that it's extremely drying, but I didn't find it to be more drying than your average lip product. It was actually less drying on my than some products I use (Apocolips comes to mind). It retails for $19 on Sephora.com. The next color I'm going to purchase is  Lolita.