Charlotte Tilbury Secret Salma Lipstick

Charlotte Tilbury must be one of the fastest growing brands, not only by beauty bloggers but by those that don't even know the beauty bloggersphere even exists. Who can blame us with rose gold packaging, quality that is on point and shades that are just on another level.

Today I am sharing my views on the B-E-A-Utiful Secret Salma Lipstick which I have been referring to as Secret Selma, my first Charlotte Tilbury item of course it had to be a lipstick.  I am so happy with how opaque this shade is a lovely almost dusky nude pink.  The sales assistant said this is a great colour for Spanish skin, que bien.  I love the creamy formula, a matte finish but its not drying. Possibly not the most log lasting lipstick as it is so creamy but for me this how I prefer my lipsticks to be. I am really enjoying wearing this through Winter during the day and evening. I think the shade and formula are perfect for transitioning into spring makeup, if we ever get there.
Let's talk packaging, I mentioned the rose gold tube that is just so Instagramable who can resist? I also get that warm fuzzy feeling in my belly when I see a lipstick with something embossed on the barrel.  In this case a whopper set of lips are perfectly detailed on the tube I think its a great idea that the end of the lipstick instead of the standard round tip, Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks have a square finish.  I have found this helpful when trying to get a crisp edge around my lips.

At £24 these are at the higher end of the pricing bracket but all in all I think this is such a classy makeup product I fully understand the price tag. I am so happy I think I am going to pick up a red shade and a darker shade too.  If you have any recommendations on any Charlotte Tilbury products please leave suggestions below.  

Affordable Berry Lip

For me nothing says Winter makeup like a berry lip.  I have found two berry shades that I love and are from the great British high street so are super affordable at under £7.  These photos are from the archives so were taken probably two years ago and I have re purchased both shades since! The reason I am showing both in the same post is that I think the tones are very similar but the finishes are complete opposites.  Depending on your preference you may love one but hate the other yet for me I think the colours are dupes for each other. 

For a lot of people matte lips are a must for winter and if so you would love the Rimmel Kate Moss Lasting Finish in 107. A Zoella favourite this can last all day. For those of you with dry lips this lipstick maybe isn't a wise choice as I have had some unflattering moments. But if you don't have that issue then this is a great one.

However if you prefer a more hydrating or shiny finish I would recommend you go for the Maybelline Moisture Renew in 470 Glam Plum Fulham. These were repackaged and reformulated a while back now and I 100% prefer the new shades they introduced. Not as long lasting on the lips but a great way to inject a bold lipstick.

I think the high street does some great berry shades so let me know which ones you have found recently. 

YSL Rouge Volupte Shine Lipstick - Shade 5

I have been waiting for the opportunity to share possibly the most aesthetically pleasing lipstick I will ever own.  The Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte Shine Lipstick in the shade 5. A beautiful bright, yet sophisticated pink. The lipstick glades on so smoothly even with dry chapped lips I always find this instantly makes my lips feel perfect.

Due to this being the shine formulation it means these are quite sheer and has more of a gloss or sheen to them.  Depending on your confidence with brighter lipsticks, for me I can wear this in the evening or on a hot summers day.  But if you are looking for an easy way to wear a bright lip I would recommend the Volupte Shine lipsticks. It is light on the lips and very comfortable. This shade I will would work on a range of different people, warm tones as well as paler ones.

However I do remember the first few times of wearing this shade I was a bit worried that as the formula is so hydrating that it may easily transfer across my face.  Something I do not need when tucking into a hot dog at a friends BBQ. None the less I have yet to experience any such disasters only compliments when I wear it.

Encased in gold tubing and boxing I keep my collection on my dressing table, I really like the center of the tube where the shade of the lipstick is shown through the YSL logo.  I think these are such elegant lipsticks.  At £28 they obviously carry the highend price tag, and to be honest I think I have always bought mine a duty free. But I can see why they are that price, I don't think there is anything on the high street that competes with this at the moment.

If there is one lipstick that instantly picks me up it is this one.  A brilliant shade for the work Christmas party, and a lovely gift if you are looking for some inspiration for Christmas presents this year.  

I am hoping to show you my Rouge Volupte lipstick collection soon so please let me know if you would be interested in that.

L'Oreal L'Extraordinaire Liquid Lipstick by Color Riche - Rose Symphony

When Boots were doing their 3 for 2 offer, I found this the perfect opportunity to try out those extra bits and bobs that you don't need but I want anyway. I was after a couple of products for a night out back in February and decided to dip into the new L'Extraordinaire Liquid Lipstick range from L'Oreal. At this point I hadn't heard anything about this collection, recent posts have made up for it. 

I picked up 203 Rose Symphony which is a beautiful fushia shade. I did pick up the orange shade first but decided I have far too many orange shades of lipsticks. I wore this the night I bought it and it didn't disappoint. With an opaque glossy finish I have rediscovered my hidden love for the glossy lip. L'Extraordinaire Liquid Lipsticks create a nice stain on the lips so even as the colour does fade, it is undetectable to others. I did find I had to top this up every couple of hours or so which during the day is not ideal but the I am still a big fan of the formula. A massive move on from the Glam Shine Stain Splash things that had no colour payoff at all.

I love L'Oreal packaging and find this to be similar to YSL lip stains packaging, in terms of the square shape and the strip of shade colour down the side of the bullet. The shade number and name is printed on the top with the shade also shown on the bottom so these are easily recognisable in anyone's collection. Applied with a doe foot applicator which I find to be pretty precis even in those awkward places around the lips.

At £8.99 I think that is a fair price and with 9 shades in the range I'm sure there will be one to suit everyone. For an opaque finish in one swipe and a moisturising feel on the lips these are one of my favourite lip lacquers from the drugstore.

MAC Vegas Volt Lipstick

I have been meaning to blog about this lipstick since I got it a year ago! I don't know what has taken me so long.  If you don't know anything about MAC lipsticks, there are eight finishes: Creamsheen (my favourite), Frost (my least favourite), Matte, Retro Matte, Amplified Cream, Lustre, Glaze and Satin. Vegas Volt is an amplified finish which means the colour is super pigmented but is still creamy and doesn't dry out the lips. MAC lipsticks are now £15 in the UK but I bought mine in New York so I think I paid $15.

I love this shade, between a red and an orange this is the perfect day to night lipstick.  As I mentioned it has an opaque finish but still leaves your lips looking healthy.  I find that this shades lasts about 3 to 4 hours, including eating and drinking, and that the shade fades evenly to a lovely stain.  I do have the MAC lipstick bug now and with such a huge shade range MAC is definitely the place to go for a good lipstick. 

Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer

This month Rimmel's Apocalips Lip Lacquers have literally exploded into bloggersphere and have taken over our lips. These were released at the very end of January in the mist of a 3 for 2 offer on Rimmel, lovely lovely. I, of course, picked up three shades Luna, Nova and Apocaliptic.

From Top to Bottom: Apocaliptic Nova Luna

I have heard nothing but glowing reviews for these so naturally I thought that I would instantly fall in love never to use a standard lipstick again. The reality was very different, I hated them. They smelt like paint, they felt like paint on the lips and showed ever dry crack in my lips. They were not what I expected at all. 

I actually really like the packaging, you can easily see which colour you're choosing, the lid has a sort of crystal style end. The wand is a doe foot applicator which actually spreads the product evenly across the lip. The wand contains a lot of product therefore can be a bit of pain when you first apply.

After spending a while testing all the different shades on my lips I decided that I wasn't going to just throw them to the back of a drawer and forget I ever bought them. I decided to play around with them a little bit and make them work for me. For me these are not a throw on as you leave the house sort of product.  How I have found works best for me is to apply one coat, then blot the colour on some tissue to remove the thickness of the product while creating a stain on the lips. I then apply a thin layer again, depending on which shade and the occasion I could be done there. However, with the brightest shade I own Apocalipic, I would then blot and apply one more time to make sure the colour is really vibrant without being too heavy on the lips.

Luna: The peach tone in the range. There is a shade that is more nude than this one. I have actually been a bit unfair with this shade as this photograph was taken after the first application, before I blotted whereas the other two are after the blot. This is probably my favourite out of all three, I think it would suit a lot of different skin tones.

Nova: A really nice daytime pink, this is almost a your lips but better shade. I wear this slightly more opaque than photographed but can look lovely sheered out too. The shade range is really varied and contains all different shades from a soft nude all the way to post box red 'Big Bang'.

Apocaliptic: The brightest shade that I own and for me a lovely nighttime shade. I wore this out to dinner and it stayed put for such a long time even after eating the stain still remained. When I swatched these on my hand in Boots, this shade causes me the most pain as it wouldn't come off my hand. I rubbed it and it just turned my hand pink. Good to know that it wasn't going anywhere, but embarrassing that I looked like I had a really bad rash. 

I now really like these and have been using Luna or Nova every day. These were created to combine the colour payoff of a lipstick and glossy finish of a lipgloss. I'm still working with the texture as the brighter shade can bleed a little and sometimes I do have to check to make sure I don't have any on my teeth. At £5.99 I think these are really great, and have also taught me that I shouldn't just give up on a product if I don't like it immediately. 

Winter Lips

You can always tell when Winter is fast approaching, and not by the wet mornings and windy nights. Girls, I don't even think we mean to do it, but our instincts tell us to buy as many moisturising lipsticks, lip balms and scrubs as we can carry, until one unexpectedly drops and rolls under the counter never to be seen again. These are some of my favourite lip products I have been wearing throughout Winter.

 From Left to Right (above) From Top to Bottom (below)

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - Crush

17 Mirror Shine - Scrimptious (this looks the scariest but is actually probably my favourite day colour)

L'Oreal Cresse - Nude Ingenue

Natural Collection - Cranberry

As you can see I have been loving the berry look. What have you been wearing on your lips this season?

Vaseline Pink Bubbly Limited Edition

I haven't really seen many posts on this product so I thought I would indulge in the world of Vaseline. Pink Bubbly is the new limited edition lip therapy and is supposed to smell like champagne, I personally would describe it more like a fruity scent with a kick really. But I do like it oddly enough and the more I smell it the more I like it. 

I don't use mine as a 'lip therapy' as I don't think Vaseline actually does anything to moisturise or hydrate the lips.  There are other useful ways, on my lashes to help them grow, over lipstick to add a sheen to the lips and also on any small dry patches of skin. Saying this, I do own every single version that they bring out, my excuse is that it's a staple item. 

Vaseline is always quite sheer, hence why no swatch, and mine now lives in my handbag. A normal pot would be £1.99 but this one is £3.49 from Boots, smacked lips face! I really cannot tell why this one would be £1.50 more than the others. However, I do spy with my little peeper, there is wine extract in the Pink Bubbly which may explain a little.

Overall, I think this is my favourite scent but was a bit of an impulse buy, I don't know if I would repurchase this if I happened to lose it though.