MAKEUP-REVIEW: Mac Retro Matte Liquid Lipsticks

I've been hearing about the Mac Retro Matte Liquid Lipsticks for a few months now, after a lot of teaser pictures online (and on Instagram!) and they were finally released in the UK last month, little by little.

I'm a huuuuge fan of liquid lipsticks (it seems to be all that I wear these days) because I love the matte lipcolours that are available, and the longevity of the lipsticks - it's perfect for a working day when you can't be bothered to, or don't have time to re-apply after a few hours or after a messy lunch.

Liquid lipsticks have become very trendy these days, so naturally I was interested when Mac also jumped on the bandwagon and released a range of gorgeous shades.

I managed to get my hands on 6 liquid lipsticks, which I've swatched below - I got a good range of colours and these are mostly about 3 swipes of each colour, so they're impressively pigmented.

From top to bottom:

Oh Lady - a rich berry/grape tone. I loved this one because it was so flattering on my skin tone
Quite The Stand Out - a warm orange-based red, may not suit everyone but looked okay on me
Personal Statement - a rich hot pink, perfect statement pink colour although a little bright
Divine-Divine - A cool baby pink, this is one of the more popular colours in the collections, although it was way too light for me and I didn't like how it looked on me at all
Recollection - A bright violet with pink tones which I liked because it's surprisingly pretty
Tailored To Tease - a deep fuchsia pink, really pretty jewel pink which would suit a lot of skin tones

Out of all of the colours, Oh Lady and Tailored to Tease were my favourites, they were really flattering on my skin tone and I loved how they looked, particularly as I can see myself wearing them a lot. I would have liked to try some more red and nude colours but they aren't available in my local shop yet, but I have high hopes after seeing how lovely these colours are.

Pros - Very pigmented, have the signature Mac vanilla scene, flattering colours and there's a very good range of colours

Cons - They're a little pricey at £21 each and they're may start feeling a little dry on the lips after a good few hours. I also found these horrendous to remove - I had to use two makeup wipes to get rid of them and they still left a faint mark!

I'm keeping an eye out for these and also want to try experimenting with them by mixing colours together, but so far I'm liking them!

What do you think of these? Would you buy any?

OUTFIT OF THE DAY: The Colourful Printed Chinyere Kurta

I went to a dholki night a few days ago for my best friend's younger brother who was getting married (it's amazing how the younger generation have grown so quickly, I feel old!) and thought I'd go for a simple but comfy look.

Out came one of my newer purchases from Chinyere at a local mela in the summer, one brand I love and will always be loyal to because of how wearable and funky their designs are, not to mention their reasonable prices. I bought this in the summer time for barbeque season, but never got around to wearing it (downside of having too many clothes!) - so it was perfect for this dholki.

This is the outfit, it was mainly colourful prints in blue, red, black and green, with a colouful necklace and printed yellow sleeves. I don't often go for something this colourful but I loved this, and thought it was ideal for a warm night in (even though it was freezing outside!) I also really liked the beading detail on the neckline of the kurta, which made it feel very Pakistani in style.

I decided to pick out the royal blue for my accesssories, but kept it relatively simple - plain blue clutch and shoes, and threaded bangles - all about comfort here! I also didn't want to go overboard as it was a simple event (not to mention the 'haldi' night for the groom, which meant potential flying liquids everywhere!)

This is how I wore the kurta, I paired it with plain white trousers which felt summery but very comfortable, and also bought out the colours. I also opted for simple eye-makeup and rich red lips - always a must for me!

I managed to get my mehndi done by one of the guests at the dholki, which was lovely for me, especially as I haven't had it done in ages and keep meaning to practise on myself. It's already come off after less than a week, but I can't complain!

I loved wearing this outfit, it was comfy and very simple, and perfect for a function like this. It's not quite the short kameez fashion that is in at the moment, but I think the white pants and the beautiful print definitely worked together and looked on-trend. I also loved that it worked so well with my hijab, as one of my problems with colourful outfit is finding a scarf that doesn't clash!

Our Eid...Day One!

Eid was a really nice affair for us this weekend, mainly because it felt quite easy-going for us and we all spent a good amount of time relaxing, eating and spending time together - there's usually a lot of rushing around with various people having to get to in-laws and relatives houses, which didn't feel so bad this time!

Here's a peek at what I wore on Eid, a jade coloured jacket suit by Pakistani label Zainab Hasan, with criss-cross designs and floral embroidery all over the jacket. I had originally intended to wear this outfit on the main day of Eid, and didn't really think I would buy anything new for Eid, mainly because everything was pretty pricey and I didn't see anything I love. More on this soon, but I saw this in a shop (while I was meant to be looking for something else!) and fell in love with the outfit, then talked myself (using my sister as a sounding board!) into buying it!

This is me wearing the outfit (and posing in my mum's garden!) - I loved LOVED how light and comfy this outfit was and how easy it was to wear - I didn't wear a lot of jewellery but I did pair with sparkly heels and red lips to finish off the look.

I had done my own mehndi the night before on my hand (I wanted to get my husband to do my right hand but he just said he would write the alphabet on my hand so I decided to leave it!). I didn't know what bangles to wear so opted for a pretty kundan bracelet and a floral shaped ring, both from Bees, given to me by my husband when we got married as part of my bridal trousseu.

I wanted to make the patterns more intricate and neater than it ended up, and it looked a little wonky. but I liked the colour anyway!

This is my eldest sister's mehndi which she had gotten done as well, I love how neat it looked and the fact that both hands were symmetrical. My other sister had also gotten mehndi done but I forgot to take a photo of hers!

The ladies were, of course, dressed up in beautiful outfits, I didn't get everyone but here's a few -  my sister in the hot pink and blue ombre suit got her outfit stitched (amazingly enough, in time for Eid) which looked really pretty on her, and my sister-in-law wore a gorgeous hot pink, black and white Zainab Chottani jacket suit which I loved. My niece, on the right, bought a beautiful satin printed kurta, which I loved - her mum replaced the boring buttons with beautiful emerald and white stone buttons, which was a really lovely detail.

The babies, as usual, took the main stage as divas - these are what the younger four nieces wore - I love the mix of colour and styles and the fact that they were all such lovely, summery colours.

We also had some yummy treats to enjoy (I also took about three cupcakes home to eat as well, then had to find my husband for them) - the cupcakes were made by one of my sisters, while the fresh-cream cake was given by a cousin of ours. We also had some very yummy food made by my mum, but I actually forgot to take photos of these for once!

I also wanted to show the eye-makeup I had, which I did mainly using the Urban Decay Naked palette. I initially wanted to do a smokey eye, but i loved the glowy pink look of this look so left it was it was, and paired with a matte scarlet lip, Mac's Russian Red, for a dramatic look.

We had a really fun Eid, and it was a peaceful day spent with family and toddler babies, not to mention a bucket load of chocolate (which I really missed during Ramadan!)

I hope you all had a great Eid (regardless of the day you spent it on!) and got lots of presents and/or money, lots of food and that you all looked beautiful!

MAKE UP REVIEW: L'Oreal Celebrity Matte Reds

You may have seen the latest L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Collection advert for the 'Pure Reds' matte lipsticks, which boasts a red lipstick for every skin tone. I love the fact that there are so many A-List celebrities gathered together for this advert, each with a rich shade of red which actually looks great on each celebrity.

While I'm a little sceptical about some of these shades suiting my skin tone (I don't have the same skin tone as Aishwariya Rai, for example, but I thought Frieda Pinto or Zoe Saldana's one might suit me).

Here are some stills from the advert - I like how each celebrity is wearing white to set off the red even more, and that each has their own style and interpretation of the lipstick and outfits.

My sisters and I were quite interested in these lipsticks when the advert were aired, so naturally I had to go check these out in the shops as well to see if there were any I'd like. Unfortunately, the three or four shops I went to, and also a couple that my sisters visited, only held a few shades of the red lipsticks - the most I saw in one shop was just four shades, so I'm not sure if each celebrity actually had their own lipstick allocated to them, and it does say in the advert that there were four custom-made reds.

I also liked the fact that there was a nude collection by the celebrities as well, which was also meant to be matched to their skin tones - a few of these caught my eye as well, although some of them were very light and nude for my skin tone.

I was quite surprised, though, by some of the colours which were a little different from the adverts and the celebrities wearing them. My sisters and I all liked Eva's dark red lipstick, but the actual lip shade itself is more rusty and slightly orange-based - not red at all. Liya's red was really pretty, again a little oranged based so better suited to our skin, but I found this a little dull and too similar to reds I already have. Surprisingly, Blake's lipstick was quite night, it was a little blue-based but nice and bright, slightly cherry red - my sister bought this to try it out on herself. My personal favourite was Julianne's red, which was a pretty, bright fiery pink-red - think something along the lines of MAC's 'Relentlessly Red' or Revlon's 'Fire and Ice' (although perhaps less pinkier and more brighter). I'm still wondering whether to buy that one because I have so many colours like this, but it's also something I'd love to wear.

My sister bought a few shades of the red lipsticks to try out,  I don't think the pictures reflect the true shade of the lipsticks themselves as they're all different to each other, and unfortunately I didn't get time to swatch them!

What do you think of the matte red lipstick collection - have you tried any of these lipsticks? Which one do you think is the best?

My Eid...!

Eid was an lovely, small affair for us, but no more fun than the usual Eids, filled with family going in and out of each other's houses and eating plenty of food to complete the day!

This is what I wore, which was a very last-minute purchase from a local store called Maria's Collection, which carry a range of non-branded formal and semi-formal outfits. I initially wanted something with a shorter hem, but couldn't find anything I liked, and ended up seeing this one and thought it looked pretty so bought it. My mum and sisters thought that it looked a little Kashmiri in style, and also a little Turkish in the style of embroidered jackets, which I thought made a change from the usual blingy outfits I wear. The outfit was a jacket style gown with a plain kameez underneath, very light and comfy to wear with colourful embroidery. Here's how I wore it:

I also managed to wear the Red Velvet shade of the Lime Crime liquid lipstick, which I was happy with because the colour was beautifully vivid and lasted the whole day! I wanted to match my shoes to my lips to make them stand out more, and was happy with the effect.

I also dressed up for the second day of Eid, although this was a lot more relaxed and comfortable, particularly as it was a warm day! I wore an Agha Noor kurta in hot pink and black, which didn't come with any bottoms so I took a hot pink churidar from another of my outfits and wore it with that instead. The kurta is a lovely silky material and was perfect for a summer's day, as well as not feeling too dressy (although I changed my shoes to flats by the end of the day because I couldn't be bothered to wear heels and would have preferred sandals!)

 

I wasn't the only one who dressed up though - the little babies of the family were wandering around like little princesses, and my sisters and sister-in-law looked very chic in their outfits (I only managed to capture two of them, the other ones wouldn't stand still long enough!). Here's just some of the pretty dresses, my sisters looked lovely but it was the babies who stole the show!

I didn't manage to get time to put mehndi on, but some of the girls in the family did. I had wanted to go out to on Chand Raat the night before to either buy some mehndi and bangles or get some mehndi put on, but after seeing the huge number of people on the main road and hearing the dhol players, I changed my mind!

My sister also baked us some pretty pink Eid cupcakes to enjoy, which tasted scrumptious after all the yummy food my mum made.

I completely forgot to take pictures of the food because I was too busy eating it, so I don't have a lot of other pictures from my Eid (apart from chasing toddlers around and making people pose), but it was a really fun day. We had dinner at my sister's and a barbecue at my Aunt's house which was a nice opportunity to spend the day with family too.

How did you spend your Eid? And what did you wear?

MAKE-UP REVIEW: The Matte Liquid Lipsticks

I've never been a real fan of lip glosses when wearing make-up because they usually leave my lips feeling sticky, or the colours don't feel very visible (not to mention getting flyaway hair stuck to my lips!) - I haven't really worn lip glosses since I was a teenager.

Recently though, I've become crazy about matte liquid lipsticks, which look like lip gloss but wear like lipsticks - they're long-lasting, they're matte and they are highly pigmented. I've built up a small collection of liquid liquids over the last few months, especially as these tend to what I reach for when I go to work, when out with friends and even to a few dos - it's convenient that they last all day and I don't have to re-apply or worry about it coming off when I eat (which is a problem with some of my usual lipsticks).

There are several brands which have launched their own collections of matte liquid lipsticks, some which are better than others. I've tried out a few brands which I'll write about below, although there's still a few other brands which I'd like to try.

Lime Crime have a popular range of matte liquid lipsticks, a collection call Velvetines, which started off just with two collections, and which has now grown 7 colours in the collection. I have been hankering after a Velvetine lipstick for a while, and finally put myself out of my misery to buy some. Because this is an American brand, it wasn't easy to find, but for those who are interested, I bought mine from here. I bought two shades,  Red Velvet and Suedeberry, both which looked really good on the swatches I saw online.

The Red Velvet shade was surprisingly not as deep as I thought it would be - it has a slightly coral base to it which made it brighter. When I wore it, it looked a lot like it did on this beauty blogger - although on me it wasn't as neat! Suedeberry on the other hand, was a very bright, orangey-coral colour, which took me a while to get used to. It's also a slightly chalky orange, so I needed some base underneath to make the colour 'sit' properly on my lips and also give a little moisture. The closest colour I can show for the orange shade is probably this (for some reason, on the beauty bloggers I followed online it looked slightly redder). Out of the two, I preferred the Red Velvet shade, it's really easy to wear and suits my skin tone a lot - and it's also a very pretty colour too.

A brand I have been using a lot lately is Sleek, whose liquid lipsticks - Matte Me - I'm really in love with. The colours look exactly the same as they do in the tube, they're easy to apply and very pigmented, and I eventually ended up buying all the colours they had because they're reasonably priced and I found the colours so flattering. The pinkier and purple shades have been a lot more flattering on my lips than the lighter shades though, which I need a base or a lipliner with in order to make the colours pop.

I've also gotten my sisters and sister-in-law to try these, and they've all had various preferences over which shade they like, but my favourite by far has been the purple shade, Fandango Purple. This is how the purple lipstick looks on me, it's a very pretty purple-pink shade which has gotten me compliments everytime I wear it. It also lasts the whole day on me, although it slowly fades away a little in the middle of my lip to a more hot pink shade unless I re-apply at the end of the day or if I have oily food.

I've also discovered a few matte liquid lipsticks by Bourjois, who also jumped on the bandwagon recently with their new Rouge Edition Velvet collection. I found these a little creamier than the Sleek lipsticks, although colour-wise, there were a few similarities. I bought a few hot pink and cranberry colours in this brand, and was also glad to see a dark red shade which I've been wanting to try in a liquid lipstick, especially as most that I have seen so far are the brighter shades of red.

The shade Pink Pong was the most flattering on me, it's a pretty hot pink colour with a slightly blue base which I really liked. I think this is a shade which would suit almost anyone, and it's a very easy colour to wear - the colour on me was similar to this beauty blogger. The other two pinks are a little less bright and vibrants, but are still very pretty, easy colours to wear, both perfect for everyday wear as well as a day out. I only bought the dark red shade Grand Cru recently (you can see the sticker marks on it!) but I imagine it will look very rich and red, something I'm looking forward to trying. The finish of these lipsticks are all pretty good, they feel light without being drying or looking flaky - I've been eyeing up the other colours to see what they're like too.

MUA has also got a collection of lipsticks called MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquers, which are the cheapest of the bunch at £3. Like the other brands, there are some very bright colours available, although these may not suit everyone's tastes. I bought one of these in Reckless, which is a red shade that I thought was wearable, but not amazing. I think that for what they cost, they're not bad, but the quality isn't as great as the Lime Crime or Bourjois lipsticks, especially as this lipstick peels lightly as the day goes on.

Revlon has had long-lasting liquid lipstick for a while, their ColorStay collection is a little more sober in colours though. My mum has used some of their nude and pink shades for a long time, and even I have a tomato coloured liquid lipstick in this collection that I use every now and then (I forgot to take pictures of mine though!)

TopShop make-up is another that I've been hearing good things about - I have a highlighter by them which I love because it is surprisingly one of the better ones I have. So naturally, I wanted to check out their liquid lipsticks, which they had a range of, one called Lip Paint (which is creamier) and another called Lip Varnish (which is more of a shiny lacquer). Both are in very bright shades and long-lasting, although I didn't end up buying any because I didn't think any of the shades below would suit me, and the colours that would I already had shades of in other brands. Topshop also does Velvet Lipstick but as far as I can see, it's only in a black shade. I did end up buying a Gloss Ink in a pretty cranberry shade called Smitten which is like a pigmented, glossy lipstain.

I know that there are other brands which do liquid lipsticks as well, although I haven't tried them myself - there are a few higher-end brands like Hourglass and Guerlain; Illamasqua also have a popular liquid lipstick and Stila are also another, and NYX have a big collection which I've been wanting to try out. Lastly, Lush are another brand I've been eyeing up, their products are natural and come in pretty shades, but the down-side is that there is an expiry date of a year, which I'm still trying to decide whether I want to buy or not.

Overall I can see liquid lipsticks becoming more popular, they're not as fussy as normal lipsticks, they look beautifully elegant and they're very flattering. Who knew something which looks like a lip gloss would look as good as it does!

What do you think of matte liquid lipsticks - passing trend or here to stay? Which ones have you tried?