Maybelline Holographic Effect Polishes – Spotted at CVS

Lavender Lustre // Alluring Rose

Yesterday, I spotted a display with five new Maybelline Color Show polishes – called the Holographic collection. Unfortunately, it turns out that they aren’t holo – or even meant to be holo! There is a description of the collection on Maybelline Canada’s website, and it says that they “shift from shade to shade depending on the angle” – that is, they’re meant to be duochrome (they are not very strong duochromes, though).  If you’re not familiar with the difference between holo and duochrome polishes, Nihrida has a guide to nail polish finishes.

However, as disappointing as this collection is, I still have information about all the shades & swatches of two of them.

Here’s a close up of all the bottles in the display:

Lavender Lustre // Mystic Green // Alluring Rose // Bold Gold // Blue Blaze

And Maybelline Canada has images of the bottles online that are reasonably accurage as well:

Lavender Lustre

Mystic Green

Bold Gold

Note that Maybelline also has a nail polish in the permanent line named Bold Gold, but this one appears to be different.

Alluring Rose

Blue Blaze

I purchased two shades – Lavender Lustre and Alluring Rose.

Lavender Lustre // Alluring Rose

Lavender Lustre is fairly pigmented – it covers well in two coats – but I found that it really emphasized the lines on my nails.  It also is quite frosty and not really duochrome at all. I don’t like this one.

Alluring Rose is on the sheer side – it takes about three coats to become opaque.  It’s a little streaky too, but not nearly as bad as Lavender Lustre, and it does have a slight duochrome effect. I don’t love this polish, but I don’t dislike it either.

Here’s Lavender Lustre on my nails; just an iphone shot because I disliked it and removed it immediately!

Lavender Lustre

Overally, for me, this collection is definitely a SKIP. It’s advertised as holographic and it isn’t, and then the polishes are barely duochrome. There are tons of way better duochromes out there – don’t waste your money on these!

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post.   This post does not contain any affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Maybelline Holographic Color Show Polishes Information Plus Quick Swatches, Review is a post from Project Swatch.

A little while ago, I promised a comparison of Essie Naughty Nautical (from Essie’s summer collection) and NYC Short Shorts, from NYC’s limited edition Rooftop Party collection.  And, I have good news for those seeking a cheaper alternative to the Essie – the NYC polish is extremely similar!

Whether you consider these dupes will depend on your own definition of dupe. The base color is very, very close. The shimmer is slightly different; the Essie has small flakies, while the NYC has regular shimmer.  I can see the difference in the swatch sticks when they are side by side (especially in person, and in good lighting), but if I have one polish on my nails, I can’t tell just from looking at it which it is.

Essie Naughty Nautical // NYC Short Shorts

Essie Naughty Nautical // NYC Short Shorts – with flash

You can see a mani I did with Naughty Nautical on my instagram, here.

Essie Naughty Nautical is available online at Nordstrom (free shipping!), Beauty.com, Amazon, and many more online retailers, as well as in drugstores. You’ll have to search for the NYC collection – thus far, I’ve only seen it at CVS.

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post.   This post contains one or more affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Dupe Alert! Essie Naughty Nautical and NYC Short Shorts is a post from Project Swatch.

Honeymoon Honey // Coral Oasis // Pink Escape // Getaway Red // Berry Bliss // Poppy Paradise
- click to enlarge

I was at Sephora a few days ago, playing with all the new items, and I was very intrigued by Josie Maran’s Coconut Water Cheek Gelee blushes. They come in a small pot, and they have a really interesting consistency – a solid gel that melts into your skin.  I swatched them all because I wanted to see all the shades, then figured I might as well take a photo for the blog!

Here’s Coral Oasis alone, to demonstrate how buildable the color is. On the left, I have several swipes, and on the right I have a blended out swatch. It can easily be applied even more lightly than the blended out swatch, but I thought that might not show up in the photo.

Josie Maran Coral Oasis

I’m definitely considering buying one of these blushes – though I’m not sure which! – but haven’t yet, so I don’t have a full review.  Tiffany over at Will Work for Makeup has a great review of Poppy Paradise, here.

The Josie Maran’s Coconut Water Cheek Gelee blushes sell for $22 each at Sephora.

This post contains one or more affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Quick Swatches: Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelee is a post from Project Swatch.

I’ve been hearing about Rimmel’s liquid lipstick, Apocalips, for months – it’s been available in the UK since January or so – and hoping Rimmel would bring it to the US. And, it’s finally arrived, under the name Show Off Lip Laquer! I believe the formulas are identical, but I can’t find the UK ingredients to confirm (the US ingredients are listed on Drugstore.com, here - you can also puchase all the shades there, though most are out of stock at the moment).

 The UK has eight shades available, and the US has 14 shades (all eight UK shades plus six more shades). I prefer cremes to shimmers, so I bought both of the US-exclusive cremes, plus a couple of the UK/US shades that appealed to me.

UK & US shades:
- Big Bang (creme) *swatch below
- Apocaliptic (creme) *swatch below
- Stellar (creme) *swatch below
- Nova (creme)
- Galaxy (shimmer)
- Celestial (creme)
- Luna (creme)
- Nude Eclipse (creme)

US-only shades:
-Aurora (creme)*swatch below
-Comet (creme)*swatch below
-Light Year (shimmer)
-Stargazer (shimmer)
-Out of this World (shimmer)

Big Bang // Apocaliptic // Stellar // Aurora // Comet

Big Bang

Big Bang is a true bright red.

Apocaliptic

Apocaliptic is a bright cool pink. I love this kind of pink!

Stellar

Stellar is a bright warm coral pink.

Aurora

Aurora is also a warm coral pink, but it’s not as bright as Stellar – it’s much more toned down. I think this one is my favorite.

Comet

Comet is a pink/brown. It will be a my-lips-but-better on some, and a nude on others. This is probably my second favorite – it’s surprisingly flattering!

As I think you can see, all five of the shades I purchased are incredibly pigmented. They can go on a little bit patchy, so I found the best way to apply them was to apply one layer, blot, and apply a second layer for even color.  If I did this, I had no trouble with patchiness, and the color looked good for several hours. I did find that after a couple hours (3-4), these had a tendency to look very matte in a not-great way, and some lip balm or gloss really helped refresh them.

Show Off Lip Lacquer Applicator

I like the applicator shape; it has a little hollow that holds product, which makes it easy to get just the right amount on my lips.  The applicator is also fairly pointed, which helps to get a clean line around the edge of my lips.

Note that these do have moderately strong artificial fruity scent. I don’t like it, but it’s not something that will prevent me from using the product, and it fades quickly. It’s not nearly as bad as as the scent of Rimmel’s Kate lipsticks, which are so strongly scented that I avoid using them.  Still, if you’re particularly sensitive to smells, you might want to skip these.

Overall, if you are a liquid lipstick fan, I would definitely recommend picking up one of these to try out! They’re available online already (though sold out at the moment), and thus far I’ve only seen them at Walgreens stores. However, I believe they are a permanent product, so there is no rush to buy them, and they should eventually show up in Rimmel displays at all drugstores.

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post.   This post contains one or more affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer (US Apocalips) Swatches & Quick Review is a post from Project Swatch.

 As promised, here is my review of NYC’s Sweet Splash Gloss Sticks! These are from the Rooftop Party display and they are a new product.  According to NYC’s facebook page, they are limited edition. They were $3.99 each at my CVS.

First: packaging. These are twist-up gloss sticks, which is good, since they’re far too soft to be able to sharpen. You can twist them up and back down again easily.  They come shrinkwrapped (yay!) and have the color name printed on the plastic wrapping, but the name is unfortunately not printed anywhere on the actual permanent packaging – so you’ll need to label them yourself if you care about the name.

Mango Punch // Pink Spark // Revived Berry

There are three colors available and I purchased all of them. They all have a mild fruity smell and feel somewhat slick, but not uncomfortably slippery. None have any sparkle or shimmer.

No lip product

Mango Punch

Mango Punch is a sheer peach – it doesn’t show up very well on me (it’s actually more noticeable in the photo than in person).

Pink Spark

Pink Spark gives a sheer hint of pink – it’s a very natural and easy to wear color.

Revived Berry

Revived Berry is a sheer berry – and is of course my favorite!

Note that unlike the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains, these do not leave a stain – they really are a lip gloss stick, just as advertised. If that’s what you’re looking for, I would recommend them – especially the pink and berry.

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post.   This post does not contain any affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

NYC Sweet Splash Gloss Sticks Review & Swatches is a post from Project Swatch.

Hi everyone! I just wanted to give you all a status update, since it’s been a while since I posted.  I went out of town over the weekend and thought I’d be able to update while I was gone, but I wasn’t able to.  And then I got sick, and I’m just getting over it now.  I am hoping to get a couple posts up later today (including the promised review of those NYC Sweet Splash Gloss Sticks!). Thanks for your patience!

(The photo is a franken-polish I made quite a while ago.)

Quick Update – new posts coming soon! is a post from Project Swatch.

NYC has a new collection out, called the Rooftop Party collection. I found this today at CVS.  The display contains one totally new product, called the Sweet Splash Gloss Sticks ($3.99), and several new nail polishes which come packaged with a topcoat ($1.99 for the duo).   It’s a great topcoat by the way – one of my favorites. There’s no information on the display as to whether any of the products are limited edition or permanent.

The Sweet Splash Gloss sticks come in three colors: Revived Berry, Pink Spark, and Mango Punch. I purchased all three, and they’re quite sheer – I’ll have a review up for you soon!

Pink Spark // Mango Punch // Revived Berry

I saw seven nail polish shades in the display, and I believe all are new.  I think you can tell which two I bought! Unfortunately, due to a large bar code on the shrinkwrap, I wasn’t able to read the names on the bottles I didn’t purchase.

Pool Time – pale teal

Short Shorts – deep teal

I currently have Essie Naughty Nautical on my nails, and it’s very close to Short Shorts – I’ll be posting a comparison when I can!

Unknown name – sparkling wine

Unknown name – peachy orange creme

Unknown name – bright yellow creme

Unknown name – hot pink creme

Unknown name – Pale blue creme

If you have the names of any of these polishes, or know whether any of these items are limited edition or permanent, please leave a comment!

Spotted: NYC Rooftop Party Display is a post from Project Swatch.

Earlier today, I spotted this display at Walgreens. It has two different baked eyeshadow palettes (each comes with a Megawear mascara), and two sets that consist of a Megalast nail polish, Megashield lipstick, and a clear gloss – all permanent products.

However, upon a closer look, it turns out that these eyeshadow palettes aren’t new – they’re repromotes from the Holiday 2011 collection, Bake Off Contest.

Baked, Not Fried

Baking A Cake

Both palettes are unnamed in this display, but the blue palette looks identical to Baked, Not Fried, and the pink/purple palette looks identical to Baking a Cake – both from the limited edition Holiday 2011 Bake Off Contest collection. There was a third palette, called Bake Off Contest (neutrals) – but it wasn’t in the display I saw. You can see more photos plus swatches of all three palettes, from the original release, on Vampy Varnish.

Did you buy the baked palettes during the original release? Are you glad for another chance to pick them up?

Spotted: Wet n Wild Baked Eyeshadow Palettes (Holiday 2011 Repromote) is a post from Project Swatch.

While at Walgreens this morning, I found a brand new endcap display with the Summer 2013 Limited Edition Wet n Wild Fergie collection.  I have photos of all the new/LE products. The mascara, gel liners, and shimmer palettes (which are swatched here) are all permanent.

The collection includes two Photo Op eyeshadow palettes, Shades of the Hamptons and Newport Nights. Given my poor previous experiences with the Fergie Photo Op palettes, I decided not to buy either.

Shades of the Hamptons

Newport Nights

There are two glosses –  Fergaluscious and Hot Hot Haute. I purchased Hot Hot Haute – it’s very sheer and smells fruity. I imagine it’s the same formula as Wet n Wild’s Glassy Gloss lip gel, as they are packaged the same way (and as Black Radiance’s Perfect Tone lip gloss, which has the same packaging, consistency, and scent, but a couple shades that are very pigmented and lovely.)

Fergalucious

Hot Hot Haute

There are several new nail polishes as well; I’m not completely sure if these are new permanent colors, or if these are limited edition.

Bronze Bombshell

Cabo Cruise

Cabo Cruise has very pretty shimmer in it – I purchased this one.

Purple Polka Dot Bikini // Caribbean Coral

Summer Spritzer // You Know I Gotta Shine

Tasty Tasty // Tropical Sunset

And finally, a set of mini nail polishes:

I did not see any names on these minis.

And coming soon, yet another Wet n Wild “Spotted” post!

This post contains one or more affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Spotted: Wet n Wild Fergie Limited Edition Summer 2013 Collection is a post from Project Swatch.

I was up very early this morning, and just about nothing was open but 24 hour drugstores. So, I went to Walgreens and found several new displays, including one for Maybelline’s new mascara – The Falsies Big Eyes. It’s double ended, with one brush for the upper lashes and one brush for the lower lashes (photographs of both brushes are below!).  Given that the back of the package lists only one list of ingredients, I believe both the upper and lower lashes mascaras are the same formula.  The display had the following shades:

- Blackest Black (washable only)
- Very Black (washable & waterproof available)
- Brownish Black (washable & waterproof available)

I’m not sure if there is no waterproof version of Blackest Black, if it had sold out, or if it’s just not available yet. Please let me know in the comments if you’ve seen it! I purchased Very Black in the waterproof version – I can’t imagine a washable mascara lasting very well on my lower lashes.

Upper lashes brush // Upper lashes brush again (different angle) // Lower lashes brush
- click to enlarge

The upper lashes brush is kind of a twisted shape – longer in some areas, shorter in others. I found it very easy to use.

The lower lashes brush is very tiny – from photographs, it looks to be very similar to Maybelline’s Lash Discovery mascara brush, but I don’t own that mascara to compare. I very, very rarely wear mascara on my lower lashes, but this brush seems to work well – I just don’t have much to compare it to. It’s also great for getting the small (upper) lashes at the inner and outer corners of the eye.

The Falsies Big Eyes – immediately after application

Of course, I have no idea at all whether this mascara is long lasting, whether it smears/ flakes/ runs/ etc. I usually like Maybelline’s waterproof mascara formulas though, so given that I like the brushes on this one, I expect that this mascara will work out fairly well for me. I would usually wait until I had actually tested a product to post about it, but I thought that since this was just released, you all might like to see the brush photos and an initial swatch now – I will update this review later if my thoughts on the mascara change!

Is The Falsies Big Eyes something you will be looking for?

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post.   This post does not contain any affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Spotted: Maybelline The Falsies Big Eyes Mascara – Plus Photos, Quick Review is a post from Project Swatch.