Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

One of the best lipstick formulas that I've discovered in 2016 is the NYX Liquid Suede formula. I generally prefer solid to liquid lipstick, but I've somehow collected three Liquid Suedes: Amethyst , Stone Fox , and most recently Brooklyn Thorn, one of the 12 new shades released this past spring. I have no idea what the name "Brooklyn Thorn" means —Googling the phrase brings up nothing more than the lipstick —but maybe one of you can enlighten me. During a visit to Ulta last month, I came upon a display of the new Suede Matte Lip Liners, which NYX debuted this year in shades that match the Liquid Suedes and some of the original matte lipsticks (e.g. Alabama, Aria, Maison). Out of curiosity, I picked up the Brooklyn Thorn lip liner as well. Here are the two together —I've already sharpened the lip liner twice: The Brooklyn Thorn Liquid Suede is a very trendy amalgam of gray, brown, and purple, along the lines of ColourPop Kapow or Jeffree Star Scorpio. Accordingly,...

NYX expanded its matte lipstick line at the beginning of this year, adding some trendier colors to its extensive but mundane collection of reds, pinks, and nudes. The new shade that immediately caught my eye was Up the Bass, a medium purple with a large dose of gray. Because we were heading into spring at that point, I decided to wait and see if I still wanted it in the fall. It turned out that I did (of course I did: it's a purple lipstick), so I picked it up at Ulta last week. Like other '90s lip colors, this shade of grayish lavender is having a moment right now. I believe its first 2010s iteration was the NARS Audacious lipstick in Dominique, but other brands have since produced variations on the theme. True gray lipsticks are also becoming more popular (MAC Halsey comes to mind), and as someone with cool grayish undertones, I couldn't be happier. Up the Bass is poised exactly midway between gray and purple, making it a flattering color for me, but I have a feeling that...

I didn't learn to swim until my first year of college and still can't traverse more than two lengths of a pool without having to rest. Strictly speaking, I'm the last person who should be laying claim to sea witchery of any kind. But that's the great thing about makeup: it allows us to put on and take off as many characters as we wish. And come to think of it, do sea witches even do much swimming? I tend to picture them sitting in murky grottoes surrounded by their eel and seahorse familiars, not doing the backstroke from point A to point B. In any case, I wish I could give you a photo of NYX Liquid Suede in Stone Fox amid drifting seaweed, but the best backdrop I can muster is an old volume of Bakhtin: I mentioned in my review of Amethyst (which I'm wearing as I type this) that the NYX Liquid Suede range is oddly limited: there are some very bold colors and some very drab ones, and little in between. So despite my love for the formula, I wasn't tempted to add ...

I had such a bad experience with Milani's liquid matte lipstick last year that I...ordered another liquid matte lipstick earlier this month. Luckily, the universe sometimes rewards our lapses of logic, and I'm pleased to report that ColourPop's Ultra Matte Lip in Trap surpassed my expectations by a little and Milani's version by a lot. The Ultra Matte Lip collection debuted last June (Temptalia has swatches of the original 25 shades in one convenient collage ). The lipsticks sold out almost immediately, and ColourPop took a few weeks to restock, which only intensified the buzz and demand. But some deep-rooted perversity in my psyche ensures that the more hype a new product receives, the less likely I'll be to buy it —w ell, to buy it right away, at least. I'm not immune to hype, but I like to wait for the gushing praise to die down and the negative reviews to emerge before I make a purchase. Though I was immediately drawn to Trap, I didn't mind waiting seve...

If you've viewed any other post on my blog, you've probably seen NARS Single Eyeshadow in Lhasa. Since buying it last November, I've worn it almost every day, which means that it's found its way into the vast majority of my FOTDs. I use it so much, in fact, that I've almost stopped thinking about it; it's become one of those under-the-radar beauty products that I don't review because I take them so much for granted. But Lhasa deserves better treatment than that. (Indoors, in direct sunlight.) Released to great acclaim with the Spring 2012 collection, Lhasa is described on the NARS website as "lavender gray." But a pure gray wouldn't have sparked a frenzy in the beauty blogosphere; the frenzy arose because Lhasa is more taupe than gray, and taupe causes beauty bloggers to flip their collective shit. I can see why: the color flatters a variety of complexions and pairs well with just about every eye or lip shade. Lhasa is as cool-toned as a taupe ...