Notting Hill Nude

 I am a very impressionable young lady, and if someone raves about a product enough, I will have to buy it. In this case, after hearing everyone bang on about the Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Notting Hill Nude, it was inevitable that I would eventually cave and buy it. 

Other than the Kate Moss lipsticks, I've never tried any Rimmel lipsticks (until recently, I wasn't much of a drugstore lipstick kinda girl) so I didn't really know what to expect.

For a highstreet lipstick, the formula isn't bad. It's creamy (I would say comparable in application to MAC Cremesheen lippies) and doesn't tug on your lips, and the pigmentation is good. The wear isn't fantastic, as you would expect with any creamy formula, but it will last a couple of hours, and you'll make it til lunch with the aid of Lipcote.

As for the colour, it's less peachy than it appears in the above formula, for some reason it just doesn't photograph true to colour. I tried swatching on my hand and photos of me wearing it but none of the photos were particularly realistic. You can however, spot me wearing it in this selfie.

I've never been one for true nude lipsticks, I always reach for pink or peach tones, but this really is a true nude, and shock! it suits me! I can imagine this is going to suit anyone with pale-medium skin tones, it's super easy to wear, and I've been reaching for this when I don't know what lippy to wear. It keeps things neutral with natural makeup, or tones down a smoky eye for the day. 

In all, I'm really pleased with this product! I did look to pick up some more colours from the range, but it always tends to be badly stocked in Boots and Superdrug, and some of the colours are a bit suspect.

Have you tried any of these Rimmel lipsticks? What are your favourite highstreet lippies?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win an Urban Decay Lipstick here!

MAC Lustering

In my absence from the blog, I've developed a new lipstick love. There was a serious gap in my lip colour wardrobe for a pink that's a little darker than my natural lip colour, but not quite in the same region as my Chanel lip pick of choice, which definitely border on the neon. In essence, what I wanted was an unoffensive lip shade with a bit of a kick, I have a lot of barely there pinks from MAC (Lovelorn, Sunny Seoul, Viva Glam Gaga..) but nothing that I could wear with a neutral eye without being too 'done', or I could apply lightly with a bit of a smokey look.

Whilst YSL's Rouge Volupte Shine #17 Rose in Tension would have filled that gap wonderfully (I spend a lot of my time at work gazing lovingly at that one) my budget was a little less excited by that option, so a little aprés work swatching at the MAC counter in Selfridges and I left with this shade, Lustering (and two Lola's Cupcakes, but we won't mention those). I thought this might have been new because I don't think I've ever come across it before, but apparently it's been around for ages!

It's a warm pink with red undertones, something I don't usually favour, but quite like in this lipstick. I actually went in thinking about Crosswires, after seeing a few people mention it recently, but when I swatched it, it was a lot more peachy than I expected. My eye however, was instantly drawn to this number. It's a lustre finish which I'm not usually a fan of, but in this case is a good thing, since you can wear it sheer, or build it up, like I have in the above photo (also, please excuse squinty eyes in this photo, it was so sunny but it's the only photo I have of me wearing it!). It actually looks a little darker in that picture than in real life, I think that's just down to the sunlight though.

It's not too intensely pigmented so it makes it quite easy to wear, and it's definitely a more daytime appropriate take on the bold pink lip I've been loving for summer.

All in all, I'm really pleased with this lipstick, so much so I barely noticed the cheeky little price hike MAC seem to have taken? I can see myself wearing this for the rest of the summer!