city color – Byte of Beauty

The dream of the 90’s is alive in makeup trends. Brown, grey, and dusty rose shades are popping up everywhere, from the drug store to the high end counter. The easiest way to dip your toes into this trend is by starting with a beautiful, matte, mauve lip.

Mauve lips are all the rage this season, and for good reason. The color, ranging from warm, to neutral, to cool, can flatter anyone, and is very easy to wear. A matte finish adds to the grungy appeal and creates a long-wearing low maintenance lip look that is perfect for every day wear, from the office to happy hour. Below our my three favorite mauve shades that I am loving right now. All three are a matte or semi-matte finish, and all three are very affordable!

From left to right: Wet n Wild MegaLast Lip Color in Bare it All, City Color Be Matte Lipstick in Cappuccino, and Colourpop Lippie Stick in Tootsie

1. Wet n Wild Megalast Lip Color in Bare it All | $2

A semi-matte, creamy opaque warm brown-toned mauve, with dusty rose undertones. This formula is a bit stiff at first, but warms up on the lips and provides a long-wearing, opaque finish. This $2 drugstore lipstick is also a dupe for the cult favorite MAC Velvet Teddy!

2. City Color Be Matte Lipstick in Cappuccino | $5

Ok, this one might not be a true mauve, but it’s in the same family, so I had to include it. This is an uber matte lipstick. It can be a bit tough to apply, due to this, but once applied this baby is staying on. The color is very warm, which is perfect for fall, and the pigmentation is phenomenal. I got this lipstick in my Ipsy bag a few months ago, and I’ve been loving it since.

3. Colourpop Lippie Stick in Tootsie | $5

This mauve leans into “greige” territory, but that is one of the reasons I love it. It’s so beautiful, creamy, and long lasting. It’s cool toned and just lovely. Colourpop also sells a matching lip pencil for $5 as well, and pairing the two, I have had the color last (even with eating!) for around 5-6 hours! These lippie sticks are such a good value, and I highly recommend them all, but in particular this color.

| My Trick for Flawless Matte Lips |

Matte lips can be a bit intimidating, because the show off every single line, crack, dry piece of skin, ect. Believe me, I know the struggle. My lips chap at just the mention of winter. The biggest secret I have is not really much of a secret… Moisturize your lips generously every single day. Especially at night. Give your honey a kiss goodnight and then slather on a moisturizing lip butter, balm, or mask, and when you wake up your lips will look plump and nourished. And when your lips are especially dry, use a gentle sugar lip scrub to slough away the dead skin before putting on your butter, balm, or mask. My current FAVORITE for both day and night is the Nivea Lip Butter. This stuff is thick without being sticky, smells amazing, and has drastically improved the appearance and feel of my lips. Even better? I got this full sized tin for ONE DOLLAR at Dollar Tree! It is also available at Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, Target. ect. Looking for a splurge? Try out Youtube Celeb Nichole Guerriero’s Best Damn Lip Mask for supreme moisture and nourishment!

There you have it, my top three mauve-ish lip colors for fall and how I prep for matte lip colors. Have you found a stunning fall lipstick or killer lip balm? Let me know in the comments!

I’ve been trying out a lot of new drugstore products lately and wanted to share a few of them and what my thoughts are. Drugstore makeup quality has been improving so much in the past couple years, and now more than ever there are amazing, affordable drugstore products. My favorite place to get drugstore makeup is Meijer, which is a big box retailer similar to Target or Wal-Mart, but I think they are exclusive to the Midwest. Target also has a stellar selection, including exclusive brands like Sonia Kashuk and Boots No. 7, and Walgreen’s also rocks and has sales ALL THE TIME. Walgreen’s also has the widest selection of Wet n Wild that I’ve found, and you guys know how much I love Wet n Wild.

Below are five affordable products I’ve been trying the last couple weeks. Suprisingly, I like them all, so check out the reviews to see if they might work for you!

1. Wet n Wild Tame & Define Clear Brow+Lash Gel – $2

I’ve been needing to pick up a new brow gel, since the one I had been using was pretty old and getting a little gross (don’t judge me, you know you have makeup guilty secrets too). This is marketed as a clear mascara AND brow gel, but I only use it to set my brows. The wand is pretty big and it picks up a bit more product than I’d like, but the formula isn’t too goopy or hardening. It didn’t change my life, but it didn’t suck either, and for $2 you really can’t complain.

2. City Color Contour Kit – $8

I got this on Amazon, not from the drugstore, but it’s so affordable that I had to lump it into this post. I had my eye on this for maybe six months before I finally decided to buy it. This kit is perfect for fair skin tones. The palette has three pans: a contour shade, a bronzer shade, and a highlight shade. All three pans are very large and very pigmented. The contour shade is cool toned, which is perfect and hard to find in cheaper contour palettes. The bronzer shade is light and warm, and the highlighter has a very nice pearly sheen. All three blend like a dream. I really like this and recommend it if you have a fair to light skin tone!

3. Maybelline Baby Lips Lipgloss – $4

I have a mixed opinion of the Baby Lips collection of products. I think the lip balms are garbage. The primer, on the other hand, I love (it reminds me a lot of the Smashbox primer), so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the lip gloss, but I actually really do. I got the shade Taupe With Me, which is a neutral nude. This particular shade isn’t super pigmented, but I’m not mad about it because the formula is A W E S O M E! The texture is more like a lip butter than a lip gloss and is SO comfortable to wear. I will definitely be getting more shades, especially the more pigmented ones, and highly recommend the formula even for people who don’t usually like glosses.

4. Maybelline Fit Me Dewy + Smooth Foundation – $6

I have been hearing a lot of great things about the Maybelline Fit Me Matte + Poreless foundation, but I have dry skin, especially on my forehead, so I knew that the matte formula just wouldn’t work for me. I saw they had a dewy option for dry skin, and picked it up because it was cheap and I figured, hey why not? This foundation has medium coverage, but is buildable, and has a dewy finish as the name suggests and does look very smooth. I always powder my face to set it, and with setting the foundation lasts me all day. The longest wear time I had was 9 hours, and it still looked pretty great, with a little bit of separation in the corners of my eyes and around my nose, which is totally understandable. I am loving this foundation and will repurchase once I finish this one. The only con is that there is no pump, so you have to pour it out on your hand or onto your sponge or brush. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.

5. Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge – $7 (or get a 2 pack for $10!)

I am probably the last person to jump on the Miracle Complexion Sponge bandwagon, but I finally bought one and it is just as good as it was supposed to be. First, it’s so affordable, especially compared to the Beauty Blender that sells for $20 for ONE sponge. Mama ain’t got that kind of money, so I will stick with cheaper alternatives, and the Real Techniques sponge is the best affordable makeup sponge I’ve found. It is super pointed on the end for precise concealer blending, the side is big enough to easily blend my foundation, and the flat edge is great for concealer around the eyes and nose, as well as for use with a powder to set the under eye area. I have been using it for almost two weeks, and I noticed a few micro tears on the flat side, but nothing that inhibits its job, so I am pretty satisfied, and for the price, I will definitely be buying more!

What drugstore makeup have you been loving lately?

Tag: city color

Fall 2015 Trends | MAUVE LIPS: Top Three Favorites & My Trick for Flawless Matte Lips

| My Trick for Flawless Matte Lips |

Mini Reviews: A Handful of New Drugstore Products I’ve Been Trying