Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

I never paid much attention to Wet n Wild until recently. They've truly stepped up their game in the past couple of years, and perhaps the best evidence for that is their new line of "Liquid Catsuit" lipsticks ($4.99 each). By the time Wet n Wild got around to creating liquid matte lipsticks, every sane variation on the phrase "liquid matte" had already been taken, but I appreciate their creativity and  their commitment: there's even a sexy lady in a catsuit on the tubes. Personally, though, I think of catsuits as shiny instead of matte. Am I wrong? The word "catsuit" makes me imagine a Bond girl from the Age of Aquarius, clad in gold lame or black patent leather. Regardless, kudos to Wet n Wild for coming up with a cute and memorable, and only slightly objectifying, name. There are 13 Liquid Catsuit shades, most of them pretty basic: you've got your beige nude, peach, cool red, warm red, fuchsia, etc. I picked up two shades at my local Rite Ai...

Milani was perhaps the first drugstore brand to release a true matte liquid lipstick, back in the summer of 2015. I tried one of the original limited-edition shades — Crush , a dark brown —but hated it. The lipstick went on patchy, felt painfully dry within an hour, wore off in noticeable flakes, and had a strong root-beer-float smell. So when Milani made the Amore Matte Lip Crèmes permanent in 2016 and released dozens of new shades, including metallics, I didn't pay much attention. That changed last month, when I popped into a Rite Aid in Philadelphia to look for the Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit lipsticks and came upon a display of new metallic Amore Mattes. And there was a metallic dark purple , you guys. And this was where common sense should have taken hold, to remind me that I'd been let down by the formula before and I didn't need another vampy lipstick I couldn't wear often. But I was preparing for an interview and had allotted all my reason to that, so I had nothin...

One of my goals for this year is to pull my blog's aesthetic out of 2007. I may be meticulous about my makeup, but I'm not a particularly visual person in most other aspects of life. (I remember one of my college friends telling me very seriously that the handmade Latin grammar charts I'd hung on my walls were a real boner killer: "No guy is going to want to come over here.") My carelessness about the charm of my surroundings extends to graphic design. I'm used to typing my academic work in Times New Roman, so I set my blog font to Times New Roman three years ago. Recently, though, I've begun suspecting that I can do better. But I don't entirely trust my instincts, which is where you come in. I've spent the past nevermindhowlong experimenting with the fonts provided by Blogger; let me know which of these you find most readable and visually pleasing, and which you find simply unconscionable. First, my current font, good old TNR: Droid Sans: Inconsol...

Having devoted the better part of a decade to studying Renaissance (we in the biz prefer "early modern") literature, I perked up when I heard that Anastasia Beverly Hills had released an eyeshadow palette called "Modern Renaissance." The palette came out in mid-2016 and started a warm-neutrals trend that, as of February 2017, shows little sign of dying down. Despite my instant attraction to the name, I resisted Modern Renaissance for half a year, for a few reasons: I have a hipster distaste for any product that receives a tremendous amount of hype. (Preteen me held out on the Harry Potter novels for at least a year because ~everyone else~ liked them.) Historically, I've preferred eyeshadow singles to palettes: more travel-friendly, less visually intimidating. My skin, hair, and eyes are all cool-toned. I wear simple neutral eye looks almost every day and didn't trust myself to use the bolder colors in the palette.  I'd never tried anything by Anastasia B...

Well, we somehow got through January, even if we spent the last third of the month refreshing various news sites in growing horror. And now it's time for my first low-buy progress report of 2017! A reminder of the low-buy goals I've set for myself this year: No more than two makeup products per month, excluding replacements No new nail polish in the first half of the year And that's it for the consumption part of my beauty resolutions — the more I make, the more I'll forget, right? So let's see how well I did in January: New Makeup: L-R: The Ultimatte, Nudist Peach, Missy and Fierce. Milani Amore Matte Metallic Lip Creme in 15 The Ultimatte: $8 Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit Lipsticks in Nudist Peach and Missy and Fierce: $5 each Total: $18 New Skincare: Skinfood Super Nut mask, My Beauty Diary Damask Rose mask, and Tosowoong Propolis mask (already used): $7ish total Etude House My Beauty Tool blotting papers: $4 Samples: COSRX Ultimate Nourishing Rice Mask and Snail Mu...