Update on Project UIOLI

I'm halfway through Project Use It Or Lose It (the two week mark), so I thought I'd do a bit of an update. I have to admit, this past week I haven't been wearing much makeup as I've been sleeping badly and getting up late, so for a few days it was just tinted moisturiser and a swipe of mascara. However, on the days I have worn makeup I have stuck faithfully to only using the items from Project UIOLI.

Project 'Use It or Lose It'

I've done a bang up job of reducing my stash in the past few months by either selling, giving away or throwing out a ton of stuff. I don't own near as much as I did this time last year - in fact probably less than a quarter. Way less. However, I still have a tendency to just head to the same products over and over each day and there is quite a bit that is hovering around being ignored.

Therefore, I've decided to undertake what I call Project Use It or Lose It. For the next four weeks I am going to use only these products (as colour, still using my same foundations and concealers as always as I don't have any of those being particularly neglected). If after the four weeks is up I don't love the products, or I'm likely to shove them back in a drawer and forget them again, I'll get rid of them. If I do love them, they can go in the regular rotation and I'll make sure I use them. So here are my products for use for the next month (the links are to swatches and/or reviews if I have them)...

NYX Matte Lipstick: Angel and Perfect Red

No matter how much beauty crap I have, and no matter how much I swear that I am not going to buy anything no matter what for the next 25 years, I cannot resist a new NYX product. Actually, that's not entirely true - I have little interest in their face products (foundation, primer, concealer, etc). I cannot resist their coloured products - lips, eyes, cheeks. So even though I've been on my alleged No Buy for some time, when I was idly checking out Cherry Culture with no intention of buying anything (why do I do that?) and saw that NYX has new matte lipsticks, I had to try them.   

From left: Angel and Perfect Red

As usual, the swatches on the site are pants, so I Googled around and found one that looked like my kind of shade - Angel. Unfortunately, the swatches I looked at are either not true to life, or my computer screen has gone awry (more likely explanation), as it's not quite what I was expecting. The colour reminds me a lot of their Round Lipstick in the shade Fig, which I always wanted to love but could never quite make work on me.  

I deliberately chose a red shade for the second one, even though I don't wear red lipstick (my lips are too thin). That sounds ridonk, but I find that matte lipsticks are good for applying a 'stain' so I thought it might be a nice way to get away with a red shade on my angry little Nelly Olson mouth. 

These are modelled (as usual) by Noodle Arms - for reasons outlined above. 

Top - Angel, Bottom - Perfect Red

I wore Perfect Red around the house on the weekend to test out the feel of it and the staying power. Like all matte lipsticks, it is a little drying, though I didn't find it too bad - I've definitely had worse. It's got great staying power - it even lasted through brushing my teeth!
Aussies can buy these from the US via Cherry Culture or Nonpareil Boutique (and as always with those two stores, I recommend waiting for one of their many sales to get more bang for your buck and make up for the shipping a little - the next one will no doubt be Hallowe'en). Most of the range is also available at Crush Cosmetics, if you want to pay more but get them faster. 

Swatches: Shiro Cosmetics

Everyone's been talking about Shiro Cosmetics lately, particularly the Intertubes, lip tint/lipsticks named after internet memes.

This isn't a review as I haven't really used any of this stuff properly, I just thought I'd show you the swatches and give my initial impression, which to be honest isn't much.

Wet'n'Wild Mega Last Lipstick

I'm a fan of the Wet'n'Wild eyeshadows and I decided to branch out a while back and test some of their other products. I bought two of these Mega Last lipsticks from Nonpareil Boutique - 902C Bare It All and 904B Rose Bud. Bare It All was horrible on me - it was one of those nudes that just washed me out immediately. I gave it to Jacquie, as it was much more her kind of colour. So the pictures here are only Rose Bud.

Quickie

For those of you who like looking at NYX lipstick swatches (and considering that's how most people find my blog, I'm assuming that's quite a lot of you), Baroque In Babylon has swatched a buttload of them here. It kind of makes me want to buy a whole ton more of them even though I just got rid of loads through my blog sales...

NYX Lipstick Swatches: Random Ones I Forgot To Include Elsewhere

These are lipsticks that should have been included in other categories but for one reason or another I forgot. The only one of these I ever wear is Heather, which I quite like - it's a nice shade for Winter.

NYX Round Lipstick Swatches: Browns

Mars, Hades, B52, Peony

Face of Australia Mineral Lip Shine Fairy Floss

The Face Of Australia Mineral Lip Shine is one of those products that's somewhere between a lipstick and a lip gloss. It reminds me of the Stila High Shine Lipsticks, without the glitter.

NYX Round Lipstick Swatches: Nudes

Or as I like to call it, The Corpse Lips Collection...

Lipstick Tag

I do have a few posts in the pipeline but I need pictures to go with them and I haven't had a chance to do that yet, so in the meantime, here's a lipstick tag I stole from Vintage Makeup.

NYX Round Lipstick Swatches: Corals

Some of these are probably more pink than coral, but I think they cross both shade groups, and we're here now anyway. This is one colour group I find really difficult to pull off - people always say that coral suits everyone but it really doesn't.

Swatches: NYX Round Lipsticks - Pink

Harmonica, Narcissus, Eucalyptus, Spell Bound, Chloe, Fusion

I must admit, I find the pinks in the NYX round lipsticks really hard to wear. The lighter ones are quite streaky, and the brighter ones are HI LOOK AT ME I'M A BRIGHT PINK LIPSTICK! It's a shame, because I really like some of these colours.

My ELF collection - part two (pic heavy)

The blushes and lip products are what I mostly like when it comes to ELF - the majority of their eye products are a bit meh.

Luscious Liquid Lipsticks

Bark, Cherry Tart, Pink Lemonade, Baby Lips.

 
I love these - for $1US, you can't go wrong. The colours are sheer and don't last a hugely long time, but I find that with any lip gloss. They have a twist up doodad that releases product via the sponge, like Stila Lip Glaze does with the brush. I've reviewed them before - you can read that here if you're interested.

Milani HD Advanced Lip Color

The Milani Advanced Lip Color appears to be a pretty blatant attempt at duping the Dior Serum de Rouge lipsticks, which personally, I have no issue with. I can't speak to the difference in quality though, as I've never tried the Serum de Rouge, and it's doubtful I ever will.

NYX Black Label Lipsticks: Swatches

It wasn't until I swatched these yesterday that I realised I have three of these NYX Black Label Lipsticks that are virtually the same shade. Oops! Be warned, this post is very pic-heavy.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream: Addis Ababa

Saved the brightest for last! I think a lot of people will really love the colour of this one - it's a real "look at me" shade. Ten years ago, I'd have been all over it. It's a bit bright for me these days, sadly.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream: Stockholm

This is the third of the four sets of swatches I'm posting for the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams - it appears someone finds these useful, as I've been getting a ton of hits from people searching for swatches of these. I might try to get the last one up today as well, just to get them out of the way. Although Antwerp is my personal favourite of the four I have, it sucks on me - Stockholm is the one that looks best on my lips. I've talked about the finish, texture and so on in the previous posts so I'm not going to go into that. I'll just post the pics!

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream: Antwerp

Antwerp is my favourite of these lip creams - it looks lovely on Noodle Arms. Unfortunately, it looks pants on me - it has a weird orange look about it that doesn't happen with her.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream: Tokyo

This is the first of the lip swatches of the four NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams from yesterday's post. When I first looked at Tokyo, I thought it was that hideous medicinal pink, but it's kind of grown on me. These swatches were all done in a fairly slapdash manner - it was a hot day and I didn't want to make Noodle Arms do any more work than necessary. If I were wearing these, I would definitely apply a lip balm first and use a lipliner.