Urban Decay Liquid Vice Lipsticks ($18.00 for 0.17 fl. oz.) range sees an additional 10 shades added to the permanent lineup. All 10 shades are exclusive to Ulta.
First Impressions
Based solely on swatching and applying each shade to my lips once for lip swatches, the formula remains inconsistent from shade to shade. I am not a huge fan of the Vice Liquid Lipstick formula, as the coverage is all over the place, some feel incredibly tight and clingy on the lips and others don’t seem to fully dry down. The Metallized finish can be sheer to more opaque, and the more cream-like shadess tend to be opaque. Even the texture varied a lot from overly fluid to airy and mousse-like. For example, Unbroken hurt to wear just swatching, as it felt like it sucked the life out of my lips and shriveled them up and held them in that position. I appreciate the brand’s shade and texture ranges in the line-up but the formula is so far from perfected.
Urban Decay Vice Lipstick ($17.00 for 0.11 oz.) range sees an additional 15 shades added to the permanent lineup. In terms of where one can find them, five are exclusive to the brand’s website (Caliente, Control, Hawkeye, Plague, Heartache), while ten are available at other retailers. Also: a few of the shades were previously released as limited edition shades.
First Impressions
Based only on swatching and applying each shade to my lips for lip swatches, they seem fairly consistent with past releases of Vice Lipstick. I felt like some of the repeats (like Asphyxia) were marginally improved and more pigmented with less slip and greater hold. The Metallized finish remains inconsistent with medium to full coverage, sometimes more emollient and other times more gel-like with a slight tackiness (and better application as a result). The Cream and Comfort Mattes are typically quite good, and overall, Vice Lipstick remains one of my favorite formulas. I was a little confused as shades like Exhibition and Caliente, which feel like they already have similar shades available in the permanent line-up.
Here’s a look at the most loved and most wanted products from the past week, plus three recently submitted looks! You can check out more looks from community members and myself here, or you can submit your own!
Based on the survey I asked readers to take last week, a lot of you did want first impressions when I feel comfortable making them, and those that did not would rather a brief review. So, here’s the end result: I’ll try providing first impressions whenever I feel confident enough to do so, because the reality is if I wasn’t going to do at least a brief review, there wasn’t going to be any review at all, so this way, you can get a preliminary sense of the palette, just in case I do not do a full review (which isn’t the case with this palette; this is mostly to test the waters as holiday review season will start shortly).
First Impressions
Some of the lighter shades have a stronger white base, and some of the shades felt drier and chalkier to the touch, but with respect to Too Faced’s formula, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing as these were not nearly as powdery as other eyeshadows by the brand. I noticed that the lighter peach/coral shades tended to darken on the lid, and I had issues with those lighter shades really wearing away must faster than is normal (with the brand’s primer as well as without) when worn along the inner lid to inner half half of the lid as well as the inner tear duct area (I’m assuming any wateriness of the eyes, even if slight, was the culprit, and my eyes were not particularly watery when wearing this palette).
The pigmentation seemed to be better than usual and ranged from good to great, fairly buildable and forgiving to use. Despite the texture of the eyeshadows seeming to be less silky and finely-milled, they actually blend and apply better than some of the brand’s palettes have for me. The palette has a sweet, peachy scent, though I found it less noticeable just having the pan open compared to other scented palettes by Too Faced.
Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty sale kicks of September 3rd and runs through the 23rd with different deals each day. I’ve highlighted some of the more intriguing deals below, but you can check out the full calendar here.
ColourPop Here Kitty Kitty Pressed Powder Highlighter ($8.00 for 0.23 oz.) is a light, golden peach with warm undertones and a luminous sheen. It was intensely pigmented and had a soft, smooth consistency that wasn’t too firm or too soft in the pan, which made it a cinch to apply and work with on the skin. The shimmer in this particular shade seemed finer than what I’ve seen through a lot of the other ones in the range, and I think for those who like a very shiny, reflective highlighter, this would be one to consider. I didn’t feel like it emphasized my skin’s natural texture, and at some angles, the high-shine finish seemed to “smooth” out my skin. The highlighter wore well for almost nine hours before fading noticeably.
The powder highlighter is supposed to have a "high-shine" finish with "high colour intensity." In general, ColourPop's pressed highlighter powders have a smooth, moderately dense texture that was soft enough to be picked up easily by a brush but not kick up any powder in the pan. The formula was semi-opaque to opaque but easily sheered out for less shine and coverage if desired. There were a few shades within the range that emphasized my skin's natural texture slightly but most did not. The wear ranged from seven and a half hours to nine hours.
