Review! Wet N Wild Megalast Lipstick Review and Swatches - 13 Colors!

My first review of Wet N Wild Megalast lipsticks, which swatched out 11 shades, has been hugely popular.  I love these lipsticks, and hauled in a bunch more colors!  So, without further ado, here are 13 more colors!

The Wet n Wild website has this to say about their Megalast Lipsticks:

Lips take center stage! This 4-hour, longwearing lip color leaves a semi-matte, crème finish in one stroke.  Glides on easily with rich, velvety color that doesn't cake, feather, or bleed.  Made with hydrating skin-care ingredients: Hyaluronic Microspheres provide extraordinary adhesion to lips, an exclusive polymer complex offers cushion-like feel and texture, and natural marine plant extracts Coenzyme Q10 and Vitamins A & E help smooth lips.

 How do they look out of the tube (clockwise in the above pictures, starting with the bottom left)?

These lipsticks range from 99 cents to about $3, depending on where you buy it.  

Megalast lipsticks are full-coverage and long lasting.  These lipsticks will completely conceal your natural lip color, so you won’t need a lip concealer to achieve the color in the tube.  What you see is what color your lips are going to be.  There is no shimmer or sparkle in this line.  They are matte, but I didn’t experience any drying of my lips.  The formula doesn’t dry to a flaky sheet on the lip, so you can keep on rubbing your lips together throughout the day, and it won’t destroy the application.  

This formula feels like a cream, although it gives that matte look.  If you want a shine to it, top it with some lip balm or lip gloss.  The color will still stick around for quite some time.

Prior to applying on the lip, though, make sure you wipe off a thin layer from the lipstick in the tube.  That top layer on the tube DOES dry to a flaky almost-sheet thingie, and you need to get that off before you put it on your lips.  I wipe it with a lint-free tissue first, then I rub it with my finger until it warms up, and if any little clumps are on there, I wipe it off again with the tissue.  Once you wipe off that layer from the tube, you will notice that the lipstick now looks more like a cream than a matte.  If it doesn’t look creamy, take of some more from the tube.  Once it looks more like a cream, go ahead and apply it.  You can use a brush or go straight from the tube.  You can also lightly pat your lips with the tube and it will give you a much more sheer look.   

Be warned that these colors stain.  If you are trying out one of the darker colors for the first time, maybe try it out on a night you are planning to stay home.  Let me put it this way, when I did the color swatches on my arm, I first used a wet cloth to wipe at it… and my arm is still very pink, red, and purple.  Observe:

Even after some warm water and soap, my arm is still pink.

Pros:

CHEAP!!!

These lipsticks are known to be dupes for many high-end brand colors.

Full Coverage

Long Lasting

Non-drying

Excellent Availability

Cons:

Stigma attached to the brand can be hard to get over.

You have to prep the color in the tube before every application.

Sometimes the tube falls apart, check yours in the store before buying by turning it upside down to see if the lipstick falls to the end of the cap.

The lipstick does not fully retract into the tube, so you might want to be careful putting the cap back on so you don't nick the lipstick with the cap.

Here are the colors swatched in this post, which are shown above:

900B – Pink Suga  -  SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

909D - Coral-ine - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

913C - Sand Storm - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

914C - Mocha-licious - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

915B - Spiked with Rum - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

917B - Cinnamon Spice - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

918D - Cherry Bomb

919B - Vamp it Up

965 - Cherry Picking - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

967 - Dollhouse Pink - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

966 - Don't Blink Pink - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

969 - 24 Carrot Gold - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

970 - Purty Persimmon - SEE THE LIP SWATCH HERE!

MULTI Review! Smash Cosmetics Mineral Eyeshadows in 10 shades!!!

I found Smash Cosmetics on Etsy, and they had a sample sale at $1 per sample.  I picked up 10 colors:

Canary
Fuchsia
Haliai
Hot Damn
Nirvana
Shiva
Sunburst
Sunset Orange
Vivid Copper
Vegas

First of all, these samples come in little jars, which I love!  They are like tiny sifter jars, without the sifter.  This packaging makes it very easy to use the sample.  The jars easily fit in with the rest of my makeup.  Plus, the sample amount (1/4 teaspoon) is very generous.  I knew it would be a lot of eyeshadow (the listing says how much they send in the sample), but my brain didn't connect the written amount to the visual amount, so I still thought "whoa, that's a lot of eyeshadow".

I really like these colors.  They can be used wet or dry.  Using them dry will give a softer look, while wetting them will bring out the shimmer and make them much bolder.  I chose a lot of bright colors, and the pigmentation did not disappoint.  The only color I wasn't thrilled with was Sunset Orange, because I expected it to be much brighter and not have as much brown in it.  It is still a very pretty color, just not what I was expecting.

The consistency is very soft and finely milled.  I didn't feel any grit with any of the shades.  They do have a powdery feel to them, but no more than I usually experience with loose powder eyeshadows.  Smash has made a few palette collections in both sample sizes and full sizes, and I'm hoping to see a neutral collection soon.  I'll be first in line to try it out!

Let's get to the swatches!  The swatches on the left are dry, on the right are wet.  I did not use any primer.  These colors have good staying power, resisting being cleaned off my arm with a baby wipe.  I eventually used some almond oil to remove it.

Review! Lip Swatches! - Chanel Glossimer

The Chanel website says this about their Glossimers:

Gorgeous shimmer and a high-shine glow is delivered effortlessly to lips with just one stroke of this best-selling lipgloss. A wide range of shades, from sheer and natural to sparkling and rich, look beautiful on their own, or over your favorite CHANEL lipstick. Equally beautiful: the conditioning formula's comfort and long wear.

Chanel Glossimer lip gloss makes three appearances in my lip product collection.  I have it in Unity, Spark, and Force (discontinued).  These colors don't look nearly as pretty in the tube as they do on the lip, so I recommend swatching out the colors at the Chanel counter.  For example, Unity looks like it would be very drab, but once you swatch it out, it becomes luminous and juicy-looking.  Force looks like it would be very dark and dreary, but once swatched, it is shimmery and unexpectedly multifaceted at once.

Here are the colors swatched out on my arm, Force, then Spark, and then Unity.  It took a thick layer to make the colors this dark, and look how shiny they are!:

Unity is a peachy copper color, with matching shimmer.  On my lip, it cancels out much of the pink, and turns up the peach, turning into a very pretty nude color. 

Unity:
Half lip (it is on the left):

Full lip:

Spark is a beautiful strawberry jam shade, with copper shimmers.  On my lip, it turns up the pink and red, and is a year-round wearable color.

Spark:
Half lip:

 Full lip:

Force is a deep burgundy plum with copper, red, and gold shimmer.  I only wear this color in fall and winter, and the gloss is so pigmented that just a little goes a long way.  So, even though this color is discontinued, I'm not going to run out of it any time soon.  I'm including it in this review, even though it is discontinued, because it shows the range of color depth that Glossimers have; from the sheer nude of Unity, to the traditional pinky-reds of Spark, to the unexpectedly deep Force.

Force:
Half lip:

Full lip:

The Good:
The colors are very pretty, and they do a great job of matching the shimmer to the undertones the gloss will compliment best.  Generally, if you are warm-toned, just try one that has copper shimmer; cool tones can pull off the silver shimmers. 

The color lasts for hours.  Eating a meal will remove it, but otherwise, this stuff sticks around.

The Bad:
It's sticky.  I'm sure that helps it wear for so long, but I don't like the feel of it.  If I wear it on a windy day I make sure all my hair is pulled away from my face, or I'll be picking hair out of my gloss all day. Yuck.

The tubes can get messy and leak.  I've lost some product due to it seeping out of the tube.  If I keep them upright and in a cool location, they do fine.  On their side in a hot car or indoors in winter heating, not so much.  The product also tends to pool around the top of the tube.  If the funnel opening was smaller, I think a lot of this problem would be eliminated.  To try to avoid the buildup, I use the first swipe out of the tube, and then if I need more I take it from what is already in the funnel area.

The Verdict:
I do like these glosses.  They look very high-end on the lip, and you get enough product to feel like you are getting your money's worth.  However, I like to change up my lip products very frequently, usually every day, so I can't justify buying these in any trendy colors.  I'll replace Spark and Unity when they run out, but I don't think I'll buy other colors in the full-size.  If I could get my hands on a mini-size, though, I would definitely buy more colors.

Review! Wet N Wild Silk Finish Lipstick - 9 colors with swatches!

Wet n Wild's website is pretty darn sparse when describing this lipstick line:
"SILK FINISH^® LIPSTICK

Enriched with conditioning ingredients of Vitamins A & E and Aloe Vera for moist-looking lips."

Seriously, that's it.  Which is unfortunate, because this is actually a pretty nice formulation.  There's no funky smell, and to me it smells very, very, very faintly of a minimally scented soap.  It glides on smoothly, and feels light and soft on the lip.  It is not overly moisturizing, but it is not drying, either.  I usually have a bit of lip balm on my lips before putting on my lipstick, but I can go without it and not have to worry about my lips drying out.  

The shimmer is nice, and not gritty.  I like shimmer and shine (but not frost) to my lipsticks, and these fit the bill.  There are two colors on here with "Frost" in the name, and they are leaning towards frost, but to me they don't quite make it there.  In other words, it doesn't feel 80's to me, it feels like a more modern "frost".  When I think of "frost", I think of white glowy shimmer, and this is more like a clear white sparkle.

The lipstick is sheer with a light swipe, but all of the colors build easily without getting clumpy.  It has a nice pigmentation.  Wear time varies, but I usually get about 2 hours with the lighter colors, and about 4 hours with 552A - Just Garnet.  The darker colors do stain a bit.  Because the colors start off sheer, your natural lip color will affect the tone unless you put on a heavier application, or wear a lip base.

The packaging is cheap.  There's no other way to say it.  The lipstick does not swivel all the way (not even mostly) down the tube, so you have to be careful with the cap or you'll gouge a chunk of it out.  

 Close ups:

Colors Swatched:
552A - Just Garnet  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
547A - Breeze  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
528A - Pink Ice  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
525D - Retro Pink  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
521A - Fuchsia with Blue Pearl  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
520E - Hot Paris Pink  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
516C - Sunset Peach  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
505A - Light Berry Frost  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!
502A Dark Pink Frost  ----- SEE LIP SWATCH HERE!

Review! Wet N Wild Megalast Lipstick Review and Swatches - 11 Colors!

The Wet n Wild website has this to say about their Megalast Lipsticks:

Lips take center stage! This 4-hour, longwearing lip color leaves a semi-matte, crème finish in one stroke.  Glides on easily with rich, velvety color that doesn't cake, feather, or bleed.  Made with hydrating skin-care ingredients: Hyaluronic Microspheres provide extraordinary adhesion to lips, an exclusive polymer complex offers cushion-like feel and texture, and natural marine plant extracts Coenzyme Q10 and Vitamins A & E help smooth lips.

These lipsticks range from 99 cents to about $3, depending on where you buy it.  I remember Wet n Wild from when I was a teenager… I tried their stuff once, threw it all away, and bought more expensive drugstore brands.  This year, when the nude lip was getting popular, I wanted to try out the look without spending a fortune on all the different shades, so I figured I could try them for the shade, then find a high-end color dupe, and toss the cheap stuff.  Except… I didn’t need to toss the cheap stuff.  I went back and bought more colors.  I bought more formulations, I bought in to Wet n Wild.  Believe me, I was shocked.  For a makeup addict, these lipsticks help satisfy the urge to buy into every new trend, and it won’t break your budget.

Megalast lipsticks are full-coverage and long lasting.  These lipsticks will completely conceal your natural lip color, so you won’t need a lip concealer to achieve the color in the tube.  What you see is what color your lips are going to be.  There is no shimmer or sparkle in this line.  They are matte, but I didn’t experience any drying of my lips.  The formula doesn’t dry to a flaky sheet on the lip, so you can keep on rubbing your lips together throughout the day, and it won’t destroy the application.  

 I have stayed far away from matte lipsticks since I used Revlon Colorstay back in the 90’s.   Remember that stuff?  It was dry, drying, flaky, clumpy, dull, and a pain to re-apply.  I wasn’t expecting this formula to be so different, but it almost feels like a cream, although it gives that matte look.  If you want a shine to it, top it with some lip balm or lip gloss.  The color will still stick around for quite some time.

Prior to applying on the lip, though, make sure you wipe off a thin layer from the lipstick in the tube.  That top layer on the tube DOES dry to a flaky almost-sheet thingie, and you need to get that off before you put it on your lips.  I wipe it with a lint-free tissue first, then I rub it with my finger until it warms up, and if any little clumps are on there, I wipe it off again with the tissue.  Once you wipe off that layer from the tube, you will notice that the lipstick now looks more like a cream than a matte.  If it doesn’t look creamy, take of some more from the tube.  Once it looks more like a cream, go ahead and apply it.  You can use a brush or go straight from the tube.  You can also lightly pat your lips with the tube and it will give you a much more sheer look.   

Be warned that these colors stain.  If you are trying out one of the darker colors for the first time, maybe try it out on a night you are planning to stay home.  Let me put it this way, when I did the color swatches on my arm, it took 5 baby wipes and some very firm scrubbing to get it off… and my arm is still faintly pink, red, and purple.

Pros:

CHEAP!!!

These lipsticks are known to be dupes for many high-end brand colors.

Full Coverage

Long Lasting

Non-drying

Excellent Availability

Cons:

Stigma attached to the brand can be hard to get over.

You have to prep the color in the tube before every application.

Sometimes the tube falls apart, check yours in the store before buying by turning it upside down to see if the lipstick falls to the end of the cap.

The lipstick does not fully retract into the tube, so you might want to be careful putting the cap back on so you don't nick the lipstick with the cap.

Here are the same colors, in dimmer lighting.  So this is what you might end up with in nighttime lighting:

In the photos below, you'll notice a few things.  One, some of the tubes have lipstick on them.  That is from either the interior tube falling out of place, or the cap nicking the lipstick as I put the cap back on.  Be sure to turn your tube upside down in the store to see if the interior tube falls out of place.  It won't hurt the lipstick if you get a tube that does that, but you will end up with a messy tube.  Two, you will see a white-ish film on some of the colors.  That is where the lipstick dried and made the little sheet thingie.  That's what you want to get off the top of the lipstick before you apply it to your lips.

Ok, so here are the colors I currently have, which are swatched out above:

901B – Think Pink - See lip swatch here!

902C – Bare It All - See lip swatch here!

903C – Just Peachy - See lip swatch here!

904B – Rose Bud - See lip swatch here!

905D – Smokin’ Hot Pink - See lip swatch here!

906D – Wine Room - See lip swatch here!

908C – Sugar Plum Fairy - See lip swatch here!

910D – Red Velvet - See the lip swatch here!

911D – Stoplight Red - See lip swatch here!

912C – In The Flesh - See lip swatch here!

916D – Ravin’ Raisin - See lip swatch here!