My Blue Gloss Collection

I have a bit of an obsession with lipgloss. That's no secret, especially if you've ever seen inside my purse. But, there's an obsession within the obsession, and that is the obsession with blue lipgloss. Most people I know go, "Ewww, blue lips? Freak!" but it's really not as funky as it sounds! Most blue glosses are rather sheer; instead of making you look cyanotic, they only add a cool hue to your lips and make your teeth look whiter.

Whenever I see a blue gloss or lipstick, I have to get it. I've missed out on a few that I wish I had (MAC Peacocky, waaah) but I'm always on the lookout for them.

Here's most of my blue gloss stash (I'm missing at least one Lancôme, maybe a few others):


Left to right: Milani 3D Glitzy Gloss in Movie Star, MAC Dazzleglass in Comet Blue, MAC Blue Memory, MAC Greenhouse, Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Dreamworld, Philosophy Snow Kiss, Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Blueberry Burst, Cover Girl Wet Slicks AmazeMint in Happy Hour, Too Faced Sparkler Glamour Gloss in Sapphire Spark, Simply Sweet Flavored Lipgloss blue/purple swirl (no name), Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Caribe, Victoria's Secret Sweet Talk in Blueberry Shimmer.

Most of the blue glosses follow the same theme. They're either duochrome/glass fleck/crazy iridescent sparkle or clear gloss with a blue tint and/or slight shimmer.

Milani Movie Star, MAC Comet Blue, MAC Blue Memory, MAC Greenhouse, Lancôme Dreamworld, Philosophy Snow.

Maybelline Blueberry Burst, Cover Girl Happy Hour, Too Faced Sapphire Spark, Simply Sweet no name, Lancôme Carïbe, Victoria's Secret Blueberry Shimmer and just for fun, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Rx Lip Tar. Really stands out, doesn't it?

I recommend enlarging those swatch pictures so you can see all the pretty sparkle. Some of these are just gorgeous beyond belief. A quick description of them, in case the pictures don't speak for themselves:

Milani 3D Glitzy Gloss in Movie Star is a sheer blue tinted base with tons of duochrome sparkle. It reflects gold, pink, blue, violet, and at some angles, even a little blue and orange. It has a brush applicator, a somewhat thin texture and a soft orange creme scent.

MAC Dazzleglass in Comet Blue is also a sheer blue base with tons of duochrome sparkle, but it's even sparklier and more duochromey than the Milani. The blue sparkle is very bright and shiny and the dominant reflect color is purple. It has a more smooth and uniform sparkle and it reflects every color of the rainbow. It has a thick, sticky texture, a brush applicator and MAC's amazing creamy vanilla scent.

MAC Blue Memory Lipglass is a pale frosted blue with a slight greenish tint. It's on the sheer side, but it does stand out on the lips. It has the signature MAC lipglass texture and scent and the standard doe foot applicator.

MAC Greenhouse Lipglass is more green than blue, but it's definitely a blue-green. It's similar in finish to Blue Memory and has all the same features as your standard MAC Lipglass.

Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Dreamworld is a sheer blue gloss with a subtle silvery shimmer plus a small amount of blue glitter particles. It has a thick texture, a strong sweet spearmint scent and a slanted tip applicator.

Philosophy Snow Kiss Lipshine is a clear gloss with fine glowy blue shimmer. It's extremely subtle, but when the light catches it just right, there's a bright blue reflection and sparkle on your lips. It has a smooth but sticky texture, a sweet cool citrus scent and flavor (pretty much identical to Philosophy Senorita Margarita) and a slanted tip applicator.

Maybelline Fruity Jelly in Blueberry Burst is a sheer blue gloss with sparse blue/green duochrome glitter particles. This is the most subtle of all of them, it provides the least blue tint and the least glitter. It has a sticky texture, a weird sharp chemical fruit scent and a rounded tip applicator.

Cover Girl Wet Slicks AmazeMint in Happy Hour is a sheer blue-green gloss with subtle silver shimmer and a violet flash. It has a thin, slick, oily texture and a doe-foot wand applicator. The scent is a horrible combination of plastic/gasoline/chemical, weird vanilla and toothpaste. To be quite blunt, this is the worst one. Cover Girl Wet Slicks are some of the worst gloss I've ever used, I can't believe I even bought this one. They smell rancid even when they're brand new and they slide off your lips like pure oil. Guh-rosssssss!

Too Faced Sparkler Glamour Gloss in Sapphire Spark might just be the best out of all of them. It is a sheer base packed with glass-fleck style duochrome shimmer. It's the most multichromatic and sparkly of all and the packaging is really interesting. It shimmer is predominantly light blue, but slight changes in angle cause it to reflect every color of the rainbow. It has a thinner, less sticky texture than MAC Lipglass, a subtle citrus scent and a really unique twist-up tube with a plastic slant-tip applicator. I highly recommend the entire Sparkler Glamour Gloss line if you're into amazing duochrome glittery things like I am.

The nameless Simply Sweet swirl gloss (it's from Dollar Tree), is a sheer cobalt blue shimmer swirled with a very sheer light purple shimmer. The shades mix together on the lips and provide a light blue tint and subtle shimmer. It has a thick, smooth balm-like petrolatum-heavy texture (which I do like despite the cheap ingredients), a chemical blueberry scent and a slant tip applicator.

The Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Carïbe is a sheer medium blue gloss base with opalescent glitter. The glitter flashes pastel shades of yellow, orange, blue, green and pink. There isn't a lot of glitter, but there's two or three times as much as in Dreamworld. It has a thick sticky texture, a sweet, fruity, artificial blueberry-ish scent and a slant tip applicator.

The Victoria's Secret Sweet Talk gloss is a sheer green-blue base with frosty silver shimmer. It can look a little murky. It has a thick, slick texture and a terrible acidic/sour chemical blueberry scent- reminds me of some type of bubblegum, the big square kind... Can't remember what it's called. This was part of a set that came with an awesome sheer green shimmer.

And Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Rx? The bluest of the blue. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with this one. It has a thin, dense, dry texture- it's all pigment. No shimmer or shine once it's set. It has a rounded tip applicator and a dry peppermint scent and flavor. This can be worn alone, but you can also add it to other lip tars to make your own color or to tone down some warmer shades. Very versatile, and nothing beats Lip Tar in the pigmentation department. Still haven't finished my Lip Tar review... I need to just buckle down and deal with the swatch-stained arms for a day! Those things are so hardcore!

Tell me I'm not the only blue gloss lover out there! Any of you guys have a blue gloss stash? Recommend me some more blues and tell me about your favorites!

Playing with China Glaze Crackle Glaze again...

I did this mani that I really hated, but I didn't feel like taking it off and starting over. No matter what I layered over it, I still hated it... So I figured, why not add one more layer just to see what it looks like? I didn't necessarily love what I ended up with, but it was at least better. I photographed the evidence:


Here's me playing with China Glaze Fault Line and Broken Hearted. I don't remember everything it's layered over, but it included Milani Magenta Metal as the base and Sally Hansen HD in Byte on top of everything. I liked the subtle crackle effect of Fault Line with little glints of duochrome sparkle from Byte peeking through. Fault Line still doesn't crack as well as the other shades, but I did get it to crackle more this time by applying it over completely dry polish and waiting 5 minutes before applying topcoat.



This one I actually liked. It's China Glaze Lightning Bolt over the random pink polish mess. I love the way the glass fleck sparkles in Byte shine through the cracks of the white polish. White crackle is really neat. I want to do it over neon yellow... think I'll try that soon.


So, there's that. Just thought I'd share a few more layering combinations with the crackles. I'm still a bit obsessed with crackle. I don't think I've done more than one or two manis in the past month that haven't had crackle on them...

Milani Lip Flash Pencils

One of the newer items on the Milani display are these awesome little gems called Lip Flash. Well, I'm assuming they're seen on the Milani display because I've never actually seen them locally as every Milani display in my area is chronically empty... But nevertheless, these things are completely awesome. They're like a cross between a lip pencil, a lipstick and a gloss and they come in eight gorgeous shades.

From the bottom up: Lip Flash, News Flash, Flash Light, Photo Flash, Hot Flash, Flashy, In A Flash, Star Flash.

01 Lip Flash. Bronze-plum metallic with gold duochrome.

02 News Flash. Raisin with duochrome shimmer.



03 Flash Light. Bright coral orange shimmer.


04 Photo Flash. Magenta red shimmer.



05 Hot Flash. Orangey red shimmer with gold duochrome.


06 Flashy. Hot fuchsia shimmer.



07 In A Flash. Bright purple shimmer with blue flash.



08 Star Flash. Pastel baby pink shimmer with blue flash.

Left to right: 01 Lip Flash, 02 News Flash, 03 Flash Light, 04 Photo Flash, 05 Hot Flash, 06 Flashy, 07 In A Flash, 08 Star Flash.

The texture and finish of these is like a mix between MAC Digi Dazzle lipsticks and MAC Dare To Wear Lipglass- it has tons of bright color but it's intensified with this large particle, semi-flaky metallic shimmer. Most of the shades have some duochrome to them. Instead of being matte or glossy, it's in between. There's a bit of shine but the texture is more like a lipstick. The shine wears off after a while leaving you with a matte shimmer finish, which I like, or you can add gloss to make them even shinier and more sparkly. They're actually really nice layered with the Milani 3D Glitzy glosses, and the colors in both lines even coincide with each other.

They're quite long wearing due to the lipstick-like texture of these. The fact that they're in pencil form gives you a more precise application without having to use lipliner. They have no detectable flavor or scent.

I absolutely adore the shade range. There's not a bad color in the batch. They're all bright and colorful and most importantly, interesting. Even the brownish-bronze shade, which is a color I'd rarely choose for lips, is beautiful- the duochrome on it makes it very wearable and not at all boring.

The only downsides I can find with this product are fairly minor. First, the packaging. Since it's in pencil form, you will have to sharpen it. Keep that in mind when carrying them in your purse. The caps also tend to come loose and this could be a problem, so also be aware of that. Secondly, the formula is very lipstick-like and long wearing so it can be a drying after a while. I'd recommend applying balm in between applications. Other than that, these things are awesome.

I really, really like these, especially the vibrant purple In A Flash shade. I only wish they were scented!

I've been out of the drugstore makeup loop for a while, but I'm really impressed with all these great quality and fun colored items cropping up lately. Brands like Milani and Wet n Wild have really changed my opinion of drugstore makeup and now I find myself being really excited to check the cosmetics aisle every time I go shopping.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Milani Fall Collection - HD Lipstick, Baked Bronzer and Lip Flash Pencil

Milani recently sent me some items from their fall collection to review. I'm still pretty new to Milani as a cosmetics brand. I already know I love their polish, but I haven't used much else from them besides their eyeliner, which, by the way, they do incredibly well. The Milani cosmetics displays in my neck of the woods are always empty and sad looking, with maybe one or two items left on the shelf... that usually have been opened by someone wanting to 'test' them. (Note to people: Stop opening the makeup and nail polish in the store and desecrating it! If it doesn't say 'tester', it's not a tester! Someone like me might have actually wanted to buy that eyeshadow you just left your dirty fingerprints all over.)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say with my endless rambling is that I'm always excited to try something new, and I have found that I really enjoy everything from Milani that I've tried so far. Here are my thoughts.


Here are the new items from the fall collection. Baked Bronzer in Golden and Soleil, HD Advanced Color Lipstick in Lovely Rouge, Rich Caramel, Sweet Grape and Vivacious Fuchsia and Lip Flash Pencil in News Flash.


The Baked Bronzers. Golden on the left, Soleil on the right.

This angle shows the baked texture and the gold sparkle veining. You can click all of these to enlarge and view more detail.


Closeup of Golden. You would think with a name like 'Golden' that it would be lighter and more neutral than Soleil, but it's the opposite. Golden is darker and a little blush-toned. Makes a good 'bronzer-blush' type color on my fair skintone.


Closeup of Soleil. It looks darker than Golden in this lighting, but it's lighter in real life. This one is more of a traditional 'Golden' bronzer shade. On the light to medium side with veins of gold sparkle running through it. Aren't they pretty?

Golden and Soleil, swatched over dry skin (no primer) and not blended. You can see the shade difference here.

Neat secret to the packaging:
The bronzer portion flips up to reveal a mirror and a fan brush. I actually really like the included brush for application of these. Normally the brushes included in drugstore cosmetics are completely useless, this one isn't.

My thoughts? These have a really light and flaky texture to them. Sounds like I'm describing some sort of pastry. They're both baked, I suppose... But anyway, when you touch them with the brush, the product has just a really light fine flake texture. The gold shimmer becomes very fine and doesn't appear as glitter, more of a sheen or a frost mixed with the bronze color. I'm not a fan of shimmery bronzer or blush unless my skin is absolutely perfect that day, but I noticed that if you blend and buff these enough with a brush, you can eventually blend away most of the shimmer. The little brush compartment under the product is pretty cool.

What didn't I like about these? The packaging. The main problem is that the sticker that seals the product and tells you the shade name on the front (see the tabs that say "06" and "05"? Those stickers.) is connected to the label on the back with the shade name and ingredients. It's difficult to open the product without either leaving a lot of sticker on the compact or messing up or removing the ingredients label. The other flaw in the packaging is that the clear windows on the lid seem to cave in easily. Mine arrived with the clear lid actually inside the bronzer package, it had gotten pushed in in mailing somehow. So, be careful when removing the safety seal and also try not to put too much pressure on the top of the compact.


HD Advanced Color Lipsticks. Vivacious Fuchsia, Sweet Grape, Rich Caramel, Lovely Rouge.

Opposite order, different lighting.


Swatched! Vivacious Fuchsia, Sweet Grape, Rich Caramel, Lovely Rouge.

As you can see, these are more of a sheer lipstick than a full coverage lipstick. What strikes me about these is their slick, moisturizing texture- not what I think of when I think 'lipstick'- they're totally non-drying and not tight or dry feeling at all. They're actually more of a colored balm than a lipstick. You can build up the intensity of color by applying more, or you can wear them sheer (like they are on the back of my hand above). These are scented with a more traditional lipstick scent, though. You know... kinda vaguely perfumey-flowery-sweet? These have a floral candy smell. Not unpleasant. Brings back all kinds of memories of playing with "grown-up" makeup when I was really little.

And look at the packaging! It's so 80's fabulous. It's so retro, I kinda love it. The long tube, the shiny black with the metallic gold...

I'm trying to think of what I didn't like about these, but there's not much coming to mind. I guess that maybe Sweet Grape is a little frosty for me. The packaging is definitely bigger/longer than it needs to be, so they take up more space in your purse. I don't see what's particularly 'HD' about these. That's about it.

The Lip Flash pencil. This is what I was most looking forward to trying because they look so freakin' amazing in all their promo pictures. They are amazing. I have more colors to post, but Kelly just posted her review so I'll wait a couple days to post mine. Wow, I really get off topic easily, don't I? This is the Milani Lip Flash pencil in News Flash.


Closeup. Feel free to click any of these pictures, I leave them huge for a reason.

Swatched. It looks more brown in the tube, but against my skin it's more of a purple raisin color. Check out all those little purple and red sparkles. Note the glossy finish.

These are not lipliners. They are a full pigment gloss in a stick. They're really more of a lipstick with a glossy finish than a gloss, or maybe a fusion of both. They seem to be unscented and have only a slight lipstick flavor. They're not moisturizing- they do have more of a traditional lipstick texture and they're slightly dry feeling.

I like the precise application that the pencil provides. I love the great full coverage color accented with beautiful iridescent shimmer. I love the matching color of the tubes and all the little sparkles in the packaging.

The only downside I see to these is with the packaging. For one, they have to be sharpened, so if you keep them in your purse you might need to bring a sharpener with you. I can also see the cap getting loose over time and coming off in your purse. They fit pretty tightly, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Overall, I think these are all really nice, especially at drugstore prices. Drugstore makeup seems to have improved a lot over the years. The Lip Flash pencils are amazing and come in great shades, the bronzers are almost identical to a MAC Mineralize Skinfinish and the HD Lipsticks are smooth and non-drying. Aside from the products I showed here, Milani also has some of the most amazing eyeliner I've ever used. If my store would ever re-stock their display, I'd permanently switch from Urban Decay 24/7 to Milani Liquif'Eye pencils. They're that good. Well, they must be good because the display is ALWAYS EMPTY :(

Now I might have to try out some eyeshadow from them...

(These were sent to me for review.)

Milani Rockstar Heavy Glitter Collection - One Coat Glitters and Jewel FX

Since this collection is out already at certain CVS locations, you'd think this would be a Winter 2010 collection, right? Apparently it's a Spring collection that won't be released until February.... And that's all I know about it! I'm confused by this... But all is well because there is purple glitter on my nails.


Blue Flash. Every single polish in this collection impresses me, but this one especially. There are a lot of medium blue glitters out there, yet this manages to be unique. The different tones of blue glitter combined in this polish give it incomparable depth and interest.


Gems (one coat over black). I didn't manage to get a picture of it alone, but I think it looks best layered anyway. This is one of the two Jewel FX glitters in this collection and I believe they're meant to be topcoats. Right away you'll notice that this looks a lot like Deborah Lippmann / Lippmann Collection Happy Birthday, and it does, with a few minor differences:

Left to right (pinkie to index):
One coat of Milani Gems over black
One coat of Lippmann Happy Birthday over black
Two coats of Milani Gems
Two Coats of Lippmann Happy Birthday

The main difference is that Milani Gems is missing the pink glitter that makes Lippmann Happy Birthday so pretty. The pink glitter really does make a difference in the end result. The second major difference is that Milani Gems doesn't have the small square glitter that Happy Birthday has. Despite these differences, they do look really similar on the nail. I slightly prefer Lippmann Happy Birthday, but if you don't want to shell out $18 for chunky clown puke glitter, then I'm sure Gems will satisfy you. Just for reference, here's Happy Birthday over black:

Gold. That's right, just Gold. Simple name. The second of the two Jewel FX topcoats in the collection. This is the hardest to apply polish in the collection but the results are really cool. It's quite difficult to get the large gold plate hexagon glitter to lay exactly right, but when you do, it looks crazy awesome. Armor plated! Great for layering, if you can distribute the glitter evenly:



Here's one coat of Gold over Purple Gleam. So disco. Love it. I've also worn this over Revlon Royal and it looks equally nice over a creme.


Gold Glitz. A mix of warm and cool gold glitters accented with a little red-copper. I love the depth and complexity of these glitters. The color mix makes them so nice. It's not just all one color in these and it makes a world of difference! This one also looks pretty familiar:


Doesn't it? This is the new OPI Ulta Exclusive Gift of Gold... which I was told wasn't happening this year... but then it was... Yeah, more on that later... But it does look a whole heck of a lot like Milani Gold Glitz!


Purple Gleam. Yeah, it's pretty much completely awesome. As if you expected me to say otherwise about a purple glitter. But, seriously, this purple glitter owns all. It doesn't look like any purple glitter I've ever seen. It's a lighter red-toned purple, almost more of a dark fuchsia, with some true purple and some BLACK (!!!) mixed in to give it depth. Really, there's nothing else like it and I'm considering buying 2,394,875 backups. The lighter purple really pops against the black microglitter and it sparkles like mad. The waitress at dinner last night flipped out over it, too...


Red Sparkle. A unique red glitter! No, it's not a Ruby Pumps dupe, either! Yes, I'm excited about this. Light and dark red glitter with what looks like some extremely tiny black microglitter. If it's not black, then it's really dark red. This looks so awesome in person. I almost skipped this one because I thought it would be just another plain red glitter. It's not. I'm glad I got it.


Silver Dazzle. This isn't really as much of a silver as it is a grey. It's silver and grey glitter with black microglitter. Yes, black glitter. And it looks incredible. Polish companies, are you taking notes? Black glitter is awesome. This polish has a definite blue tint to it. Very shiny and sparkly with all the sliver in it. And, oddly enough, I think it looks way better at night in low light than it does in sunlight.

The formula on these was great. They claim to be one coat coverage, but I found that I needed two. They were really opaque for a glitter and if you did a thick enough coat I think you could settle for one, but I'm not a fan of super thick coats. All of these are two coats of glitter with topcoat. They do really need topcoat, too. They dry very gritty and semi-matte. You can get these completely smooth and glossy with two coats of Gelous plus a topcoat of Seche Vite (or whichever thick quick-dry topcoat you prefer). I've worn these as full manicures like that and they remained perfectly smooth for three days. After the third day it seems like it absorbed the topcoat and became less smooth. Isn't that weird? The dry time on these is really fast so you don't have to worry about doing extra coats of topcoat. I had no application problems.

Removal is a pain just like any other glitter, but if you have one of those scrubby acetone jars, you won't have any trouble removing them. The glitter in them is very fine and not chunky so it doesn't stick to your nails as strongly. You will probably have little glitters stuck on your skin after removal, though, so just go over your nails again with a remover-soaked cotton ball or scrub your hands in the sink.

If you couldn't tell by my gushing review, I'm totally in love with these. I am really absurdly excited about these glitters. I could go on and on about them. I almost didn't get a few of these because they looked so normal under the store lighting, but once I got them on my nails I knew I was wrong. These aren't normal. They are AWESOME. The varying tones and intensities of the glitter in each polish makes them very special and so much better than a plain single-tone glitter. Really, just look at them! They look like treasure chests full of jewels, or piles of rhinestones. Soooo goooooood. *drool*

So, yeah, these completely rock. Way to go, Milani!