Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

[Note: NSFW for Nell Gwyn's boobs.] No, really, I'll always have this blush. It's so pigmented that I can't imagine hitting pan earlier than 2018. I bought Paris two months ago, during Anthropologie's Thanksgiving sale, but have worn it only a few times since then. It's a bright watermelon pink, perfect for the warm months, but prone to clashing with my usual plum-taupe-rose-scarlet winter color scheme. I'd wanted a Face Stockholm cream blush ever since the notorious Driveller posted her glowing reviews ( here and here ) of six of the shades, but it took me a long time to settle on just one. I go through blushes very slowly and didn't want a color similar to one I already had, so after much hemming and hawing I opted for Paris. My collection was missing a warm pink blush, and looking at dozens of portraits of Restoration beauties for this post made me wonder why I'd waited so long to acquire that dissipated claret-and-adultery flush. The acronym ...

Back in November , I decided to participate in Project Make-a-Dent, the creation of Helen at Lola's Secret Beauty Blog . Quite a few people on my blogroll have joined in this project, which aims to curb excessive consumption by forcing us to pay attention to the products we already own. The idea is to choose a handful of makeup or skincare products we've been neglecting, then either use them up or "make a dent" in them. Since I have more lipsticks than any other kind of makeup, I chose seven that struck me as suitable for fall and winter. Here's the photo I took originally: Left to right: Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in Across the Universe, Revlon Plum Velour, NYX Perfect, Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry, Revlon Fire and Ice, Revlon Cherries in the Snow, and YSL Glossy Stain in Rouge Gouache. Now that two and a half months have passed, it's high time I updated you on my progress--except that I haven't made much progress at all. Instead, I've achieved som...

Names: Wet n Wild MegaLast Lipsticks in Stoplight Red and Purty Persimmon Dates of Purchase: September and October 2013 Grades: A-, A- Notes: Wet n Wild's MegaLast lipsticks make me ask myself hard questions about my aesthetic threshold for makeup packaging. I'd like to believe that I'm the sort of person who cares more about the formula of a lipstick than the sleekness or uniqueness of its case. After all, we've all heard of lipsticks that look cool but perform badly (Kat von D's new Studded Kiss lipsticks come to mind). But what about the other extreme: a great lipstick in an ugly tube too short for the lipstick itself? In other words, which is preferable: pure form or pure function? And if you chose the latter, would you enjoy carrying this around all day? Be honest. Over a year after buying these lipsticks, I've come to accept that my tolerance for homely packaging is lower than I used to think. At first I was reluctant to confess this to myself, fearing tha...

Auxiliary Beauty turned one today! I don't have any especially attractive baked goods lying around, so here's one of the peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies I made earlier this week. I didn't start blogging regularly until February 2014, but my introductory post went up on January 18. Maintaining this blog has been one of the best parts of the past year: I've loved interacting with my readers, developing my makeup skills, and having a place to do some non-academic writing. Since I'm always fascinated when other bloggers reveal which of their posts have been the most popular, I thought I'd do the same in honor of my first anniversary. Below, the five posts that have received the most pageviews over the past year: 1. NARS Audacious Lipstick Swatches and the Allure of Audrey Liv, Audrey, Grace, Vera, Annabella, Fanny, and Bette. This post got about five times as many views as the second most popular post. The release of the Audacious lipsticks for NARS' 20th...

This look had a rather complicated genesis. I stayed up last night watching Lisa Eldridge videos in order to learn some new eyeshadow techniques. ( This video was my favorite: I wish I'd known about it before attempting my Cindy Crawford face four months ago.) Then I went to bed and had a classic dissertation-anxiety dream: I was sitting in a dark, dingy Starbucks, scrambling to finish a chapter in advance of an urgent deadline that had crept up on me, while a creepy dude tried to strike up a conversation. Then I woke up and started mulling over all the academic tasks facing me in the next two weeks. Then I got some news that made me wonder, not for the first time, why great things so often happen to awful people. I dealt with all this frustration in a two-step process: a caps-locked rant on my private Twitter, followed by an attempt to cosplay my mother in 1967. In my recent review of Maybelline Lilac Flush, I promised a '60s-inspired look centered on LF's stark white-...

I was tagged by the inimitable Bellyhead , whose makeup collection outclasses mine by several orders of magnitude. Here we go, nonetheless! 1. Which product do you still keep buying more of despite having plenty in your collection? Lipstick! I'm so, so bad about this. I have no trouble resisting blush or eyeshadow or even lip gloss, but lipstick exercises a special spell over me. In my defense, I rotate through my lipsticks pretty regularly and don't neglect many of them, but there's no denying that I have too many for one person with one mouth. I also have a tiny weakness for nail polishes... 2. What's the one product you can't live without? Concealer. I've been wearing it since my early teen years, when I didn't own any other makeup but lip balm. A good friend of mine once told me that she has a moral objection to concealer, because "it creates an unrealistic standard of perfection in the world." I have no moral objection to anything that anyon...