Review: A Surprisingly Awesome Lipstick

On a whim I caved and bought NYC (New York Color) Ultra Moist Lipstick in Wild Orchid. Reasons I caved on a cheap Walmart lipstick?

1. It was purple and gold

2. I have a need to own just about everything with the word Orchid in it (favourite flowers of all time, so it's not my fault!) and

3. It cost less than two dollars Canadian. Pretty much unheard of.

So I bought this expecting it to be a super dry weird smelling lipstick that would likely sit in my Make-up collection because it looked horrible on. Oh how joyously wrong I was!

This lipstick glided on with startling ease, leaving a creamy sheen of colour across my lips. Easily built up, I found the colour flattering and not at all harsh like other purples of a similar tone due to the gold. In fact once on my lips it seems to morph to an almost rose colour with a hint of purple and a frost gold finish. The gold in it is not a glitter nor a shimmer, but instead a duochrome that shifts and changes with the light. When first applying you get a lovely burst of fruit scent. This quickly fades, but every time I open it I smile and think of fruit juice boxes I drank as a child. The packaging isn't fancy but it is serviceable, with hard non-flimsy plastic and a smooth twist mechanism. I also particularly like that the lipstick is visible through the container, making it easy to identify exactly the shade I'm looking for without opening. Upon wearing it is fairly average in lasting power (i.e. its gonna last 3 hours if you don't eat or drink) and it does keep it's creamy feel for almost the entire wearing period.


The top swatch is only one swipe, whereas the bottom is multiple swipes.

The only cons of this lipstick is that it will feel drying to your lips if you're planning on wearing it by itself all day. A clear gloss can easily fix this though. Another thing to mention is that you need to handle it with a little more care than the average lipstick as it scarily looks like it could happily snap off at the base.

However, overall I have to say this is an excellent bargain for an great quality lipstick.

Rating: 8/10

An Introduction

Welcome to Hebridean Sprite Beauty Blog. Here my goal is to provide anyone interested with good quality make-up turn to items, that will hopefully make the world of cosmetics and beauty a little more clear. All items I feature will be from companies that do not test on animals. I hope to make make-up a fun, artistic outlet that everyone can enjoy- no matter their age, sex, or colour. At the very least I will try my best! And of course hopefully both you and I can learn some useful tips and tricks along the way!

Who is Hebridean Sprite?
Hebridean Sprite is me, the one at the keyboard typing away about whatever happens to capture my attention. My real name is Krista and I'm a 20 year old Zoology student based in Ontario, Canada. I'm 5'1 (and a half!) with dark red hair and super pale skin (on the Mac scale I'm NC15; this means that I have a slight warm undertone to my skin and I'm pretty darn close to being as white as a human can possibly be!). I have hazel eyes, and oily acne prone skin (bleh!) with large under-eye circles (double bleh!!). Lets not forget my excessive love for animals- which explains my major. My favourite colour is Hunter green, accented with a fondness for purples, and silvers. I spend much of my free time reading, whether it be novels, makeup blogs, other peoples reviews or something that I'm required to do for my courses. I am also a large fan of photography, in particular landscapes, wildlife and plants. A hobby that happily ties into both my major and this blog. I love history and mythology; particularly the medieval age, the renaissance, the Victorian age and anything to do with the Celts, Picts, Vikings, and Scots.

Where the heck did "Hebridean Sprite" come from????
Hebridean Sprite springs from not only my height and love of mythology, by my love of Scotland and the Hebrides where my family originally comes from. Pronounced Heb- reh-dees (or in the case of my name Heb-reh-dee-ann) they are a chain of islands bordering the mainland of Scotland on the western side. They are also one of the places on earth I feel completely at peace. Not to mention their fascinating history, spectacular views, ancient monuments, wonderful people and abundance of sheep.

Why only certain brands? What about all the others?
I'm a firm believer that beauty shouldn't be cruel- whether that be humans to each other or towards animals. In relation to this, when I really started paying attention to this issue, I made the decision to only buy and support cruelty free companies. Those being companies that do not do animal testing, nor ask other companies to do testing for them. I'm also not going to include any brushes made of animal fur. However, some of the products featured do contain animal by products like beeswax and carmine; so please keep that in mind if you are a vegan beauty buyer.

Do you get paid or sent any items for free?
I don't get paid and I've not been sent anything for free. I'm not in this for money. And in the future if I am ever sent anything, it will be noted in the post so anyone who reads this will be aware. I want this to be a place you can trust what your reading is my honest opinion on something, and if I recommend it, I am willing to spend money on it.

This policy is valid from 06 June 2010 onward

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact Krista at dolphins_dream_too@hotmail.com.

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