Hourglass Unreal Volumizing Lip Gloss Swatches and Review

WHY AREN'T THESE ALL OVER THE INTERNET!!?? 

I guess the idea of lip glosses isn't something brand new or trending, and in all honesty, this type of product isn't something so incredibly new... but it's basically all the things you love about a lip gloss in one. 

Here's the Hourglass Unreal Volumizing Lip Gloss! Just a bit about the product: It has .2oz of product for $30, so it is considered a luxury item. Hourglass also says: 

An innovative formula infused with powerful active ingredients for rich hydration and a long-lasting look of volume. With supernatural volume and ethereal shine, lips appear fuller without the sting of traditional lip plumpers. Light-reflecting shimmer and brilliant luster give multidimensional shine that’s unreal. Unreal Volumizing High Shine Lip Gloss is available in 18 high-shine shades.

It also has: *Volulip™ and Hyaluronic Acid: Delivers rich moisture to enhance the look of lips’ natural shape for long-lasting volume. *Shea Butter and Avocado Oil: Hydrates lips.

Below are the swatches of the shades I have: 

L-R: Halo, Provoke, Solar, Canvas, Icon

Halo - clear with gold shimmer

Solar - coral with gold pearl

Provoke - mauve nude

Canvas - true rose

Icon - blue red 

Here are my thoughts: 

Packaging: The packaging is in any standard lip gloss package. It does feel weighty and luxurious with a golden cap. I love the round but flat doe foot applicator that really allows to carry a lot of gloss in one go. It almost looks like a paddle, so it's able to conform to my cupids bow as well! 

Formula: is SO SMOOTH! It's NOT sticky at all and feels thick enough to feel hydrating and luxurious, but not too thick that it feels overwhelming. It has a bit of a minty flavor to it to help "plump" your lips, but it's not overwhelming or stinging. It's incredibly comfortable on the lips! 

Moisture: This is SO moisturizing! I got a sunburn on my lips the other day and didn't have anything else but this gloss in my bag, so I used it, and it really did hydrate my lips so nicely! With shea butter, avoid oil and hyaluronic acid, there's no doubt this product hydrates ur lips nicely! 

Pigmentation: I mean - LOOK AT THEM! They give just the right amount of pigmentation for a gloss. The neutral colors are not fully opaque, but you can still SEE the colors for a while. Then you have the bold colors that are -- well, as you can see in Icon ... bold! 

Lasting ability: I would say they last as any standard lip gloss. It was about 2-3 hours before I had to reapply. 

Overall: LOVE. If you have an extra $30 lying around, I definitely recommend trying this product out. Although it's not a super new type of product, they really perfected the lip gloss formula to give you everything you've ever needed! Like.... I'm waiting for the 20% off sales so I can pick up more!!! :P 

Thank you Hourglass for sending me some of these! :)

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Jouer Cosmetics's High Pigment Lip Gloss Review and Swatches

You guys are well aware (by now), how much I adore Jouer products. The first thing that I fell in love with (and bought a huge amount of... LOL) was their moisturizing lip glosses - which I believe they are discontinuing (and I'm SO SAD although not too sad because I love these too lol!). So you could possibly imagine my excitement when I heard that they were coming out with HIGH PIGMENT lip glosses. I jumped on it asap and purchased 4 of them and I am ready to head back for more!!!

Below are swatches of the four lip glosses that I purchased:

Here's my breakdown of the product

From the Lip Gloss Tubes, Top to Bottom: Fifth Avenue, Beverly, Champ-élyées, Bond

Top to Bottom: Champ-élyées, Fifth Avenue (favorite), Bond, Beverly

Packaging: It comes in a sleek tube that is very similar to the old lip glosses as well as the lip creme. The only difference is that there is a gold layer at the bottom of the cap adding a bit of pizazz and fun. It has a standard doefoot applicator which allows nice precision and giving off the right amount of lip gloss.

Formula: These are extremely creamy and moisturizing, yet very lightweight. If I compared it to the old lip glosses, these are definitely more lightweight and slightly thinner - however they do NOT lack in the moisture department. This is packed with great ingredients for your lips like coconut oil and jojoba seed oil to really nourish your lips.

Pigmentation: They weren't kidding when they said High Pigment! Dang I just remembered, I should've probably swatched these on my lips for you - but how about when I get more of them (lol), I will do a huge swatch fest for you. Again in comparison to the old glosses- almost all of those were sheer but glossy - these are all extremely high pigment and glossy. Even lighter shades like champs-élyées pack a ton of pigment!

Lasting ability: Similar to many glosses, these are not transfer proof and these do come off relatively quickly. For me - it lasted a solid 1.5 hours before it began fading and if I were to eat or drink anything, I would have to reapply. Some of the deeper colors I had like bond, feathered slightly after about an hour, which was slightly disappointing - so for ones like that, I would recommend a lip liner.

Smell: It has a beautiful luxuriously sweet vanilla cupcake flavor. When I put it on my lips, the smell lingered but left over time.


Overall - I do love these pigment glosses. Pigment wise, I do absolutely love them. I do find that the old formula lasted a bit longer on the lips, despite the sheer coverage and if I were to recommend any of these, I would recommend the more neutral lighter shades as they are smoother and a little bit less maintenance than the darker shades. I do wish they were slightly longer lasting, but their moisturizing factor makes it okay for me because I don't mind reapplying it.

These cost $17 each for .21oz of product. I purchased mine off the jouer website, but you can also purchase at nordstrom or beautylish.

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Jouer Lip Glosses Swatches + Review

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love Jouer glosses. These have essentially taken over all my glosses and are now among the most used glosses that I have.

These are among some of the most moisturizing, non sticky, hydrating and plush lip glosses I own. They are packed with Vitamin E, jojoba seed oil and shea butter for this amazingly buttery, smooth pout.

I have these lip glosses in four different shades. Three of these glosses are a creamy milky finish and one of them is more of a jelly finish. I didn't choose any lip glosses with shimmer, but they do have a great range of shimmery glosses as well!

I love the sleek, simplistic packaging of these! L-R: Malibu, Divine, Peony, Wind

It has a standard doe foot applicator :) I do wish that each time I took it out, it packed more gloss on the applicator. Maybe this is because I want to douse my lips in the color, but I have to dip approximately 3 times to get the amount of gloss  I'd want!

Naked Lips. Oh. So DRYYYY! 

Malibu: It's a jelly-ish finish. Although the color in the tube is pretty 'hot pink' it only gives a lovely hint / wash of color. It almost looks like a glossy reddish pink stain.  

Peony: This has as nice creamy finish. I love this dreamy cool pink color. This looks great on its own, but looks SO nice layered on top of colors. This always just gives that perfect hint of pink.  

Wind: This also has as creamy, milky finish. This is literally for me, the perfect nude pink. It looks great layered, but gives enough color to wear on its own. I love how it has just the perfect amount of pink to not make me look dead! haha! 

Divine: This is such a lovely creamy color. They describe this as a creamy rose. It's such a perfect my lips but better color. It this neutral, slightly brown rose color. It looks SO effortless! This is probably my favorite of the bunch!  

Here are the swatches. Top to Bottom: Peony, Wind, Divine, Malibu

Overall, I am just so obsessed! I just wish that they had more retailers close to me so I can check out the colors before I purchase! All the colors I have purchased, I absolutely adore, so it may be worth the gamble! lol! :) 

You can purchase these lip glosses for $20 online at jouercosmetics, nordstrom, and at these retailers. 

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Maybelline Elixir Color Lip Balms

Oh I Love these SOSO much!!!

I picked up four colors. I only pictured three because after one day of loving the mauve one so much and playing with it, I somehow managed to lose it. It was my favorite color of the bunch!!!! :(

These are the new Maybelline elixir color lip balms and IMO they are AMAZEBALLS... and from what I've heard, I believe they are permanent.

They are like a lip gloss / lip balm hybrid. And they are divine. Let me break it down for you.

Packaging: I absolutely adore the packaging. I love that its not just a clear tube with a 'gloss type thing inside,' but that the cut out of the tube is in the shape of a lipstick! I actually thought when I pulled it out it would be the lipstick shape. To my surprise there was a ridge-y slanted doe foot applicator (similar to the loreal lip stains). It provides really nice precise coverage because of the applicator.

Texture: AMAZE. I do not say these kind of things lightly, and I'm scared I may get hurt by some of my blogger friends... but these glosses are so plush and cushiony - they are reminiscent of some of my dior glosses (gasp!) I like how the texture is glossy and balmy, slightly thicker, but not sticky at all.

Color: The color payoff is not as great on the lips as you see in the tube. In fact, when I first picked them up, I was highly disappointed at the color because it was absolutely not the color I thought it would be. The celestial coral color looks like it would be a deep pink coral, was actually more of a jelly pink. Once I accepted the color was going to be slightly lighter than the tube, I was able to accurately pick which colors I would want. They are quite buildable on your lips depending what color you are using.

Wear time/moisture: This lasted only about 1-2 hours on my lips, but it did make my lips more hydrated and plump. Some colors have staining power, so it leaves a nice stain after the actual balm disappears.

Smell: It has this typical perfume-y sweet scent that like little girl's play lipglosses have. Do you know what I'm talking about? Some people will hate it, but I didn't notice the smell for very long.

Amethyst Potion: 

Just to show how glossy gloss it is! :) 

Here is with the product after about an hour on my lips. a pretty left over stained color! 

Celestial Coral: 

this is the doefoot with the weird, ridgey catepillar applicator!

Here is the stain it left behind after 2 minutes of it being on my hand. 

Intoxicating Spice:

 Overall - although the smell and color pay off is not what I hoped for, the product is something that is definitely worth trying out! I'm definitely going back to pick up more! I have a list of 6 more I want to try HAHA! #addicted #hoarder #LOL

I purchased mine from my local Harmon / Bed Bath and Beyond for around $6

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Benefit Box Sets!

If you are a fan of sephora on facebook - they had a Fan Friday of the benefit box sets! Even before they came out (in july sometime), they had a deal where you get a pack of THREE of their sets in a cute lunchbox for $50!!!! (So cheap!) Considering the fact that each box set is $28, this was an incredible deal. I snatched it as FAST as I can, posted it soo speedy fast and then breathed a bit.

I had these pictures taken a while ago and just totally forgot to post them up. I absolutely adore these sets and am such a huge fan of their new lip glosses. I will surely make a new post on the four glosses I have :)

 Here are the three sets you get - sugarlicious (sugarbomb), feelin' dandy (dandelion), and tropicoral (coralista) 

There are so cute because it comes with its own little mirror and some pages of tips and tricks! 

MY FAVORITE part of these sets (besides the makeup Lol) is the packaging. The whole inside can come out so you can use each product as you please. You don't always have to bring around the annoying box. (even though its so cute lol) Sometimes traveling with a box is such a hassle, so having the option to mix and match, move the products around is such a bonus! 

Without further ado - here are the pretty little things :) 

 Here's the coralista set: chachatint, high beam, coralista blush, coralista lip gloss. GOSH i really love the gloss formulaa!!! 

 Here are the swatches of each product :) 

 Sugarlicious set: benetint, high beam, sugarbomb blush, sugarbomb lipgloss (no swatches because I may give this as a gift)

Feelin' Dandy set: Posietint, highbeam, dandelion blush, dandelion lipgloss 

Swatches of the set! :) 

Hope you enjoyed! I love these box sets -- and am pleasantly surprised with how amazing the new lipglosses are! :) 

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Asian Beauty Haul: First Impressions

So I was killing some time today shopping for some stuff before I go on a one month cosmetics fast :P and picked up some asian beauty things! So cute! I picked up three things, but got some nice little samples too :) (not pictured whoops!) I really got suckered in with packaging today... everything I got was just SO darn cute. I couldn't resist!

Apple Hand Lotion

First, I went to The Face Shop, which the one I go to, the people there are really nice, non intrusive and not snooty. usually I end up in stores where they are overly nice to try and get you to buy stuff and are all up in ur face, or they are really mean and not nice. I picked up this apple hand cream simply because it was just the cutest thing in the world. I mean let's be honest here, LOOK AT IT. who doesn't want to just WHIP out a fake little apple and fake people out by saying its lotion? I dont think I know one person. LOL.

The smell is PHENOMENAL. if you like apple-y scents. by god, you will love this! (aka if you are obsessed the MBD mask apple face mask, you will be obsesssed with this! :P) The hand lotion it self is incredibly watery. It's not greasy one bit and leaves ur hands feeling really smooth. Unfortunately, I found myself needing more pretty soon afterwards because my hands felt dry again. Would I buy this again? Probably. Mainly because of the smell and cute packaging. The product, meh. just okay. (they also have this in orange and lemon!)

FACE it - 4D Perfection Concealer Kit

I also picked up their new FACE it - 4D Perfection Concealer Kit. How beautiful is this packaging? (again, I know I am a sucker).. I love how this packaging has a small little mirror in the middle and its cool swivel packaging is really unique. I also love how it has a secret passage way for a sponge tip applicator!

The product itself is really nice. It's creamy, but not too heavy... but not too light. It's a really pleasant consistency and the highlighter is a nice dry highlighter that won't make u feel extra greasy. This product seems promising, but I will let you know in the future how it is :) --I'm in shade 23 (there were only 2 offered, this one and a lighter one).

Kim Won Hee Lip Gloss 

Lastly, I went to Beauty Credit. Their new Kim Won Hee lip gloss and blushes came out recently in this beauty credit. sigh again... my eyes were naturally drawn to the beautiful pretty crystal-y heart packaging. LOL. oy me.

They had a nice array of colors, but I of course got directed my eyes toward the more nude-ish colors. I think this was a pretty cute milky beige color (or as fuz likes to say MILK TEA!). When you apply it on, its less milky and more of that greasy feel. I felt as if I was putting on thinned out vaseline on my lips. (omg what if its just vaseline with color! lol) This for some people may be a good or bad thing. For me... it's neutral lol. In addition to that, the color was not as pigmented as I'd hoped. I can see the subtle color of it, but in all honesty, it looked more just like.... i put regular gloss on. On the upside, it's a pretty long lasting product. I put some on my lips about 2.5 hours ago and I can still feel it on my lips and they feel particularly hydrated. Thats a surprising plus! :)

Welp! That was it! Thanks for reading folks!

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