LIPSTICKS
i'm not an avid lipsticks-user, i tend to go for subtle colours and finishes that are easy to wear and flatter many different looks. they should just let my lips appear fresh and healthy instead of dominating and directing the overall look.
gold medal - Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in #54 Boy, the universally flattering, and #57 Aventure, lovely for the summer. i like the sheer pigmentation, the glossy finish and the hydrating formula.
silver medal - Dior Addict in #343 Miss Dior, a juicy peach colour and #564 Model, a fresh summer-pink. the packaging and extensive colour selection are amazing, but the formula is not as moisturizing as Chanel's.
bronze medal - SUQQU Creamy Glow Lipstick in #06 Umegasumi and #12 Hiwada. these are amazing lipsticks, but i don't own them long enough to push them onto the throne. will review them soon!
LIPGLOSSES
gold medal - Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in #52 Génie and #56 Imaginaire. i highly enjoyed the semi-opaque, non-shimmery colours, the creamy texture, the great finish.
silver medal - Essence Stay With Me Longlasting Lipgloss, all 7 of them. reviewed here and here. these are fabulous drugstore alternatives to the Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss. super affordable (makes trying out the more striking colours much easier ;)), great consistency and lovely colour selection. they all are shimmer-free and semi-opaque, just like the Chanel version. i love the half balm, half gloss finish.
NAIL POLISHES
i have been loving the unusual pearl shimmer effects in my polishes, out of my whole collection i loved these the most:
gold medal - Estée Lauder Surreal Violet. i love love love this polish! it's a dusty lavender with copper pearl. i'm so glad that i bought a back up of this LE colour since i'm almost out of my first bottle. do you know of an affordable, high quality exact dupe for this? i'd feel weird to start my back-up-bottle without having another secured ;)
silver medal - Essence frankenpolish of VIP Appeal (i wanted to dupe Chanel Riviera). i loved how this frankenpolish turned out. too bad it's almost used up and i don't remember the "recipe" anymore, plus the base polish itself has been discontinued.
bronze medal - Rival de Loop #51. a neutral greige with gold pearl. it's a boring-but-not-so-ordinary-colour that goes with everything. i love this colour!
nominee - P2 Rich & Royal as representative for all my grurples.
nominee - Yves Rocher Taupe Grise the perfect taupe/greige. i love this colour but hate the micro-bottle and -brush!
special mention - fast-drying top coats. my top picks are Seche Vite (which i have stored a huge family-size bottle of) and Essie Good To Go (i'm on my 2nd or 3rd mini bottle of this).
now i'm almost through this series, stay tuned for the last episode on brushes and tools!
I'm all about fast drying topcoats. I absolutely love essie GTG, but when in New York I bought a bottle of Sally Hansen's topcoat and that's also very nice. No polish without fast drying topcoat.
ReplyDeleteNice picks! Gonna check out Surreal Violet because it sounds so interesting :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I really love chanel and dior lipsticks and I'm tempted to get these shades.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the brush post!
I've only tried two of the polishes, the Rival de Loop and the P2 and like them very much, esp. the first.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
the essence lip glosses you mention have indeed very nice formula.
ReplyDeleteFrom your mentioned products I have only used Seche Vite top coat :D It was pretty good, but now I found China Glaze Fast Forward top coat and I love it!
ReplyDeleteFor the EL Surreal Violet dupe, you should try Rimmel Play Fast Nail Polish: Hit That. It's an older Rimmel np line, so it might be harder to come by, but I have both and they are certainly close enough to be dupes.
ReplyDeletegreat picks for 2011. like how you grouped them into fav lipsticks and lipglosses =) wishing you a very exciting 2012 x
ReplyDeleteLove your picks!!! I'm a massive lipstick lover, so I should check Boy by Chanel... Right? xx
ReplyDelete[And I finally managed to track down an Essense counter in my country, boy am I going to rummage it on 2012! hehe]
First of all, can I just tell you how much your comment brightened up my day? (((hugs)))
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I bought the Essence stay with me l/g based on your review/swatches and haven't looked back. You are one of my favorite reviewers/bloggers out there. I feel like I can always trust me. Keep up the great work. Happy New Year!
I'm going to buy all the Essence lip glosses now under your super high placing of them. Now I can't wait to try them out !
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what drugstore gems you find in 2012 :D
Hi, a very close dupe for EL Surreal Violet is a Anny nailpolish, No 332 Star of the Day (see the Douglas site). Slightly more red-toned (only slightly) and about half the price of the EL. Funny enough, I put it on before I discovered your blog tonight :D
ReplyDeleteo wow i'm surprised how many of these i actually own. i totally agree that they're really good products though! :D definitely gotta try out essence products too :)
ReplyDeleteLetztes Jahr hatte Alessandro für 4,95€ ein exaktes Dupe für den Surreal Violet Lack, den ich mir dann auch direkt gekauft habe. Hatte beide Lacke auf den Fingern und konnte keinen Unterschied feststellen. Aber wie gesagt, war leider auch LE. Von Anny gibt es aber derzeit noch einen ziemlich ähnlichen Lack...hab nur leider den Namen vergessen. Ist aber im aktuellen Sortiment. Zur Qualität von Anny kann ich allerdings nicht sagen, habe noch keinen Lack davon. Alessandro jedoch kannich generell empfehlen.
ReplyDeleteLG
*chen
Den Alessandro Lack hätte ich auch als Dupe genannt, wobei es für mich schon kleine Unterschiede gibt (EL ne Spur heller und der Schimmer ist anders, wenn auch nur bemerkbar, wenn mans daneben hält und die EL Textur ist nicht so zäh). Hab Surreal Violet im Sommer in einem US Outlet (glaub Woodbury Commons) noch bekommen. Vielleicht verkauft es jemand auf eBay?
ReplyDeleteSomeone made a dupe of EL surreal violet by layering OPI's Parlez Vous Opi? with CND Copper Shimmer. I have no idea, however, if those brands are sold here in Germany, I'm. ot a nailpolish person. ;-)
ReplyDeletehi rosencrantz, thanks for your suggestion! i just bought CND Copper shimmer (or was it copper pearl?) a few weeks ago and am layering diligently over all my muddy polishes - i really love the effect! i also have found quite a good dupe for Surreal Violet in the meantime, it's KOH Crash! nail polish. the latter is a bit darker than my beloved SV, but i can live with that, knowing there are some fairly good alternatives existing and still have one back-up bottle of the original left ;)
Delete