Five Days of Lipstains Reviews: Giorgio Armani Lip Maestro

The cream lip stains I own are:

- Sephora brand

- Armani 

- NYX

- Hourglass

- Limecrime 

What I haven't tried that I want to:

- Pretty Zombie Cosmetics 

- BMB Cosmetics



I already devoted a whole post to the Sephora cream lipstain that I love, which I will link here ! So let's move on to the Armani "Lip Maestro" ....

So, to be quite honest, I LOVED this product so very hard when I first bought it, the texture is everything you could hope for when it comes to these long wearing products: velvety, soft, not sticky. It lasts for ages, and the color was damn good. However, at some point I noticed it got fairly bleedy. Which is something I can't really deal with. So I slightly retired it, tossing it in amongst my other millions of red lipticks in favor of something else.




I recently revisited it after my twin telling me that she lost hers. Now.. the color seems a little different from what I remember, a little more orange than red. And it still bleeds. But it is fairly long wearing and so velvety soft! However, it's definitely NOT my favorite. I found that I liked wearing it underneath other lipsticks to give the lipsticks that I liked better a longer wear.. IDK! Oh, and the apron I am wearing in this photo, (that would be the pink bow-tie, white collar, blue ruffles action) is what the lovely Sutter Store ladies and myself will be wearing for the rest of this month, courtesy of whoever won the last project runway: under the gunn !

I would recommend, to avoid the bleedy, to use a long wearing lip liner. I used Urban Decay's 24/7 glide on lip pencil in the color "69"
and was careful to only put the lip maestro right UP to the liner and not over it!

…..And I also scored some sweet rings that match my tattoo today ! Win !

Up

Tomorrow, assuming I can find it: NYX

Sephora VIB Rouge

So the other day, when I was making a I'M STUCK IN SF WITHOUT ANY FAMILY SO I'M BUYING MYSELF CHRISTMAS PRESENTS purchase at Sephora (I bought a powder blush from Becca called 'gypsy,' one of their beach tints, and a third thing I can't seem to remember...) I was being rung up and the wonderful woman at the counter says to me "you're now VIB Rouge" and hands me this strange box. I say, "thank you" and probably looked a little puzzled, and walked home. When I reached my house, I finally took out the box and read a little bit about this whole VIB Rouge deal..

Basically, it is a new tier to their rewards program, the top tier, in fact. I don't really want to disclose how much money one has to spend to get this deal, because it is really just depressing to think of how much money I spend on certain things... but I digress. So! The best part about this, besides free shipping all the time at sephora.com, is this exclusive lipstick designed by Bite called "rouge." Now, I had never used any lipsticks by Bite before, somehow I didn't think they would be pigmented enough for me, or would just melt off my face like some lipsticks do... but this may actually be my new favorite red lipstick. The color is so wonderfully rich, and the lipstick is also hydrating. It has average long wearing power to it, but it doesn't claim to be a long lasting lipsticks, so that doesn't bother me one bit. It does leave a really nice, really soft stain as it wears off. I've been pairing it with Urban Decay's lip pencil in 69, and they work magic together. So I am one hundred percent obsessed with this lipstick, and it is also kinda awesome that only a handful of people are able to buy it. Because sometimes it is nice to get the VIP treatment, or VIB Rouge.

What's in my makeup bag!

Now, keep in mind this is excluding lipsticks.

First I would like to give thanks to my favorite makeup bag, the 'Gabby" bag by Benefit Cosmetics. It has pockets for brushes. Pockets. For brushes. And if you've ever had the pleasure of using brushes with your makeup you will understand how lovely this addition is. And if you don't use brushes, you should probably start.




So this is being told in the order in which I put my makeup on...



(After moisturizing..)







I start with my eyes. I have MAC's "painterly" paint pot as my base.

The shadows I keep with me are MAC's  "phloof!" "copperplate" and "naked lunch." Naked Lunch is easily one of my favorite shadow colors. It is a soft nude with some shimmer... so simple and so lovely. There really is no reasoning behind the other colors I have chosen to carry with me..




  I carry around three different types of eyeliner, all very necessary. Two are by MAC: their "liquid last" liner, which stays on like nothing I have ever seen before. And my general favorite; blacktrack fluidline gel liner. And last but certainly not least, Benefit's waterproof badgal pencil liner. I love this liner because it will stay in my upper waterline. Which is quite spectacular.

Then, time for zee lashes. So I have a small confession.. In addition to my lipstick addiction, I also am a ridiculous connoisseur of mascara's. What I'm using right this minute is Maybelline's "the colossal volum' express." But I always curl my lashes with my shiseido lashcurler. Definitely my favorite lash curler, even compared to the shumemora one.

So the issue with my lashes is they tend to stick straight out. So my goal is always to find a mascara that does not weigh them down, and right now this is hands down the winner.

I also carry around some very important GLITTER. Because I freakin love glitter. Urban Decay's heavy metal called "midnight cowboy," a lovely gold liner. And LORAC's "3D liquid lustre" which is pretty much liquid glitter you can put wherever. I tend to use it as an eyeshadow but it is in a cute little bottle with a little tincture and so very very versatile.

 Onto another obsession... Eyebrowz. So my general look is blonde hair, red lips, and dark brows. So I carry around three different products solely for my brows. First ! All time favorite: Benefit's "browzings" in deep. It is a wax and powder. The wax gives the brows their shape, and allows something for the powder to adhere to. Then you throw on the powder and you've got yourself some brows! Then I have MAC's brow pencil on "stud" that I use to get a really sharp line for under my brows, this I also sometimes use to draw on a fake mole (shhhh, secretsss.) And a newby to my collection: Makeup For Ever's "waterproof eyebrow corrector" Now this is an interesting one. This is a gel for the brows. And I am still trying to get the hang of it, because it can be purrrrfect, or completely tragic. For people who actually have brows this probably wouldn't be an issue.

Now for da face! Right now I've been using Givenchy's "photo'perfexion" as my foundation, which blends beautifully but gives medium coverage. My skin is still in a state of recovery, so when I'm out of this I think I will try out this oil free foundation by "LORAC" that my coworker uses. And by that I mean we only use Benefit products all the time and stuff. Then I throw some of MAC's "studio fix" powder on top. And if I'm feeling particularly tired or broken out, I use Stila's "perfecting concealer"

Cheeky time! One of my favorite times :) I'm currently packing NARS "super orgasm" as my blush. Always a beautiful color. And constantly I have (well mini versions) of the tie for my favorite Benefit product: "high beam" and "watts up" both fantastic highlighters. Because I like to look luminous rather than bronzey, as I am the palest person in the world.

Others: I have quite the collection of mini things from Benefit: all three cheek and lipstains: cha cha (coral,) posie(pinky) and the classic benetint(rosy.) I also have "sun beam" a beautiful bronzey highlighter that looks absolutely beautiful on everyone except for me and "stay don't stray," which is a fantastic shadow primer.







And once again, keep in mind this is excluding lipsticks. Because I carry like ten hundred with me at all times. And they are all completely necessary.