Revlon Colorburst Laquer Balms | Review

Can we talk about the huge trend that we've all been seeing over the last year or two? Giant lip crayons! At first when all the drugstore brands came out with them one after the other I was pretty sure they were all going to be crappy knock-offs for the Clinique Chubby Sticks. But every new expansion in the budget friendly lip crayon realm keeps impressing me.

I swear my bathroom looks like I'm hoarding bunches of Crayola jumbo markers, but I'm addicted to these things!

The newest addition to my crayon pack is Revlon's most recent offering aptly titled "Laquer Balms". At the same time of their release, Revlon also gave us the "Matte Balms" and I have one of those, too. Although while I find the Matte Balms to be quite drying on their own, under a good lip balm they work nicely and have some powerful colour payoff. But it's the Laquer Balms that really have me jazzed, which is a nice surprise since I'm usually drawn to anything matte.

While the Laquer Balms come in a wide range of shades from light pinks to plums and firey reds, the one that drew me in was the shade 'Demure'. For starters, it's a little glittery. Nothing too intense, while you can't feel the "grit" of the glitter like with a lot of lip products, the glitter is certainly noticeable. Secondly, the colour - Demure is a light peachy pink (this is a running theme with me, I know) but it's so flattering! Probably my favorite thing about it is its ease, because the Laquer Balms are sort of glossy (and also moisturizing)  you don't need a mirror to apply these for them to look amazing and can feel confident that the product isn't smeared all over your face.

One thing to note is like the original Revlon lip crayons (which I also have in like, every colour) there is that lingering minty/menthol feeling. It doesn't really stick around, so it's not a big deal for me. Lastly, these also twist up to dispense more product which is awesome. I've been wanting to pick up the Nars Velvet Matte lip pencils because they have about 50 amazing different red shades, but the fact that you need go sharpen them yourself really gets to me. I don't know what it is...something about paying close to $40 for something that makes ME work for THEM and not to mention sharpening the product wastes about half of it! Urgh, Nars, why do you do this to me?

Anyway, I would rate Revlon's Laquer Balms a solid 9/10.

Have any of you jumped on the massive lip crayon band wagon?

Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial | Review

Months and months and months ago we all kept hearing about Rimmel's new lip offerings in the liquid lipstick gloss world, the Apocalips collection.

Since Rimmel is a UK brand, naturally it was released in the UK months before anywhere else and the rest of us were left watching everyone else rave about it for what felt like years.

Finally about a month ago I was wandering through WalMart, as you do, and stumbled across them on Rimmel's display. Nonchalantly they were just sitting there as if they've been there for months just waiting for me to have a closer look.

I only picked up one shade, Celestial. It seemed like a safe bet, nothing too crazy but it looked like it would give a nice colour pay off. Also as a side note, I expected these to be a lot bigger but they're actually just a little bigger than a credit card!

The one thing I kept hearing was that it was really drying on the lips...I didn't find this to be true. Although for the record, I'm pretty much slathered in lip balm at all times so that could have had something to do with it. Anyways, the colour was really nice and rich and the applicator is pretty neat! It's like a regular doe-foot applicator but with a little divot in the centre sort of like a cupped hand just holding more product for you.

Now, application with this divot-foot can turn into a hot mess if you slap it on all willy nilly so I would suggest using a steady hand! But otherwise, it goes on smoothly and evenly - Celestial is like a purple-y/pink shade which could also probably pass off as a neutral so that's a plus. It also definitely has a smell but I can never describe what it is...it's the same smell as Rimmel's Kate Moss lipsticks in the red tube...sort of citrusy but not really? I don't know.

My only gripe with these is their staying power. I just don't find the Apocalips to be very long-wearing. If you're someone who likes to reapply your lip stuffs throughout the day then it probably won't be an issue; my problem is that I only reapply when I remember to so I can go hours and hours without realizing my lips have worn off...which isn't always a good look.

All in all these are a strong 7 out of 10 for me.

Have you tried Rimmel's Apocalips? What's you're favourite shade? They have a nude colour which looks pretty but I was too apprehensive to take the jump!