Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

Let's talk about ColourPop for a second. I shared my first impressions almost three years ago, back when online-only brands that used a fast-fashion production model were rare enough to seem sinister . These days, though, I feel more  blasé  about that aspect of ColourPop's identity. Yes, it's a bit sad that online-only brands with accelerated production cycles have largely done away with the concept of the "holy grail" product. (When was the last time you heard a makeup YouTuber use that term?) But there are problems with that concept, too, and let's face it: novelty is fun and ColourPop makes some genuinely good stuff. Ironically, their highlighter in Lunch Money is  a holy grail of mine. I'm also impressed with the four powder shadows I've tried so far (haven't gotten around to reviewing those, sorry). A few of my favorite CP products. I'm proud of that pan on Lunch Money! However, I've mostly stopped visiting ColourPop's site, for...

Since all but one of the nail polishes I wore in August were new to me, I thought I'd write up a month's worth of mini-reviews! My first polish of August was Zoya Normani , which I bought at the Birmingham Ulta in July. The darkest shade in Zoya's nude-based Naturel collection, Normani is a brown-gray-purple taupe. It belongs to the same family as OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Chanel Particuli è re, though it's rosier and less gray than either of those. Normani didn't catch my eye when I was looking at swatches of the Naturel collection online, but the color leaped out at me when I saw it on the shelf. Further proof that I need to limit myself to makeup I can see in person first (of course, I'm lucky enough to live in a country overflowing with Sephoras and Ultas and such). Normani turned out to be a three-coat nail polish. On my nails, it was darker than I'd expected, but I loved it no less for that. It looked clean and modern and elegant, and I have ...

Or, more properly: Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow in 16 ( £6.90) and Infinity Eyeshadows in 270 and 251 ( £5.90 each) . The fact that the number 251 is attached to lavender is playing havoc with my synesthesia, but 6 is purple and 7 is green in my mental bouquet of numbers, so 16 and 270 are easier for me to remember. I also like the clinical sterility of number names for makeup products. I am, alas, easily swayed by a clever name; numbers force me to pay attention to the quality of the products themselves. Plus, there's the hilarious pseudo-objectivity of numbers! = math! = Very Serious! Those are real exclamation points and not factorial marks, btw. I bought these on Saturday evening at the Kiko store in London. Kiko is a cruelty-free Italian brand that I'd never encountered in the States and, for that matter, couldn't find in Italy. But I was eager to try it after reading Kate's review of the eyeshadow sticks, so I dragged my boyfriend to Regent Street at the ver...