Morgana Cryptoria Vegan Lipstick~ Review

T-B: Absinthe, Rose Plum

If you haven't heard of Morgana Cryptoria Vegan Lipsticks yet it's time to check these babies out! Morgana Cryptoria's Lipsticks are cult favourites across the indie cosmetic market for a bunch of different reasons. I'll go into the greatness of the formula later but for now I want to talk about the colours. The variety and intensity of these are AMAZING! From neutral to exotic there is literally a colour for everyone so don't get scared away by the super bright punk shades.
Here are all the current shades from Morgana Cryptoria sorted by colour:

Reds and Pinks

• Mistress- Deep plum toned brown-red cream
• Twinkling Rubies- Red with shifting sparkles of pink and gold
• Very Cherry- Rich medium red cream
• Azalea Blue- Hot pink with a blue sheen
• Fire Coral- Bright and warm red cream
• Love Lies Bleeding- Deep medium red cream
• IT Girl- Warm and bright red
• Cat's Pajamas- Brick rose-red
• Speakeasy- Creamy raspberry
• Flirtatious Flapper- Very dark red cream
• Very Strawberry- Pinkish red with subtle metallic red highlights
• Gilded Cerise- red-pink with gold sheen
• Dianthus- Pink with a pink sheen that shifts to silvery-green
• Roses and Violets- Light pink with a violet sheen 
• Totally Tubular- Hot pink cream
• Gilded Ballerina- Pale pink with intense gold sheen (NOT VEGAN)
• Metallic Maiden- Bright red with slight metallic sheen

Berries and Purples

• Amethyst- Eggplant
• Shifting Violet- Bright purple with red undertone and a shift of blue-green to silver
• Plumeria- red-plum with shifting blue-green sheen
• Plum Crazy- Muted plum with slight metallic finish, gold and pink shifting sheen
• Blackberry- Blackened plum with hint of a red undertone
• Sangria- Cool tones rose cream with hint of purple
• Ravenna- Deepest red-black cream
• Shrieking Violet- Bright violet cream

Greens and Blues

• Absinthe- Deep metallic green
• Brilliant Lime- Bright green with a yellow under tone and a duochrome of bright green and coppery-pink
• Enchanted Emerald- Medium green with light green highlight, changes to dark grey-green with a slight coppery sheen
• Fire in the Sky- Medium sky blue with a pink-red sheen that shifts gold
• Enchanted Sapphire- Deep blue with of blue to blue-green to blue-violet
• Sub Zero- Bright neon medium blue
• Medusa- Olive green with gold tones

Browns and Golds

• Goldrush- Metallic gold
• Cocoa- Beige brown cream
• The Charleston- Deep red-plum brown
• Gilded Brown- Warm brown with very intense gold sheen
• Platinum Chocolate- Deep brown with grey undertone, silver shine and some silver sparkle
• Mocha Blast- Brown with hints of red sparks
• Clay Bakin'- Peachy Brown cream
• Lust After Midnight- Blackened red with a brown undertone and slight metallic sheen

Oranges, Peaches and Yellows

• Bee's Knees- Warm light pumpkin orange
• Shrieking Orange- Bright orange cream
• Sunset Peach- Light peach with a gold and pink shift
• Tangerine Twist- Orange metallic
• Violet Banana- Vivid yellow with a pearly violet sheen and chartreuse shift
• Coraline's Kiss- Coral-peach

Greys, Blacks, Silvers

• Silverwitch- Metallic silver
• Licorice- Matte black with cream finish
• Lysette- Light grey
• Gargoyle's Glance- Dark grey with gold, copper and red tones

Full Sun- Rose Plum

Natural Outdoor Light- Rose Plum

Bright Sun T-B: Absinthe, Rose Plum

Shade T-B: Absinthe, Rose Plum

The most interesting thing about these lipsticks is the formula. They go on slightly dry but after a few minutes they seem to almost melt into your lips and they become almost more fluid. They seem to transform into something you can barely feel on at all. On top of that the lasting power and pigmentation of these is phenomenal. Honestly, I've never tried another lipstick formula that lasts half as long and that I know will make it through a meal.

Wearing Absinthe

The packaging for these is good too. The lipsticks come in tubes made of black plastic which is sturdy and easy to wind up and down.

There are little stickers on the bottom that list the company name and the shade which is nice because you can't tell the shades apart in the tubes otherwise.

You get one full size lipstick tube for $10-12 USD depending on the shade. Both of the colours I've worn (Absinthe and Rose Plum which is sadly now discontinued) last a minimum of four hours on me which is fantastic since I'm often drinking or eating. If you layer them they'll last even longer (i.e. more than one coat of the shade you want), subtly staining your lips too. 

To see lip swatches for current and past Morgana Cryptoria Lipstick shades You HAVE to check out this awesome collection of blogger swatches! Just click on the description of the shade and the pictures will come up underneath. So useful don't you think?

Morgana ships fairly quickly and shipping isn't too expensive, within the USA it's $5 USD and international I believe is around $7 USD. However, if you're like me I'd order more than one so that the shipping cost is spread out a bit :D

Overall I love these lipsticks! Though they can feel slightly drying when you first apply they last and last and last. Plus there are so many wonderful unique shades! The price is great, the customer service is good, and the formula rocks. You can't get much better than these in my humble opinion. It should be noted however that these do feel quite different (much drier) upon application than any normal lipstick however. That is something to be aware of going into it then I think you'll be able to enjoy them to the fullest.

Sprite Rating: 10/10 I've never found anything better and I doubt I will any time soon. Holy Grail.

Would I buy these again? YES! In fact I recently made another MC haul, a lipstick was included :D

NOTE: I have found the darker shades better consistency than the lighter ones, Peach Sunset tends to apply patchy for me unfortunately.

Sephora OPI Fall~ The Garden of Good and Evil

Sephora OPI has done it again, releasing yet another cool themed collection for fall. Named the Garden of Good and Evil, I like the brightness of this collection. Though there are some darker more fall normal shades there are more lively colours too, which is a nice touch. The shades as always cost $9.50 USD. Anyways here is the shades and their descriptions.

Designer Fig Leaf: Metallic Olive Green

What's Your Poison?: Cranberry Red with Chunky Glitter 

My Personal Serpent: Dark Teal Cream

Tempted By Teal: Metallic Teal

Frankly I Don't Give A-Dam: Light Grey Cream

Eve-y On The Eyes: Metallic Grape

Sin-cerely Violet: Metallic Lilac

Mini-Set! Includes the colour: Frankly I Don't Give A-Dam, Completely Fern-ished, Eve-y On The Eyes, and Tempted By Teal. The mini set costs $18 USD.

Completely Fern-ished is a Jelly-Cream Army Green shade.

I've found a couple people that have swatches up for this collection! Here are the links:
- Lacquered Lover has swatches for the entire mini set up
- Manicure Mommas has a bunch of them up here is all her pages
- Manicure Mommas What's Your Posion?
- Manicure Mommas Designer Fig Leaf
- Manicure Mommas Some Bottle Pics
- Dizzy Nails has My Personal Serpent swatched with a gold crackle on top

Rescue Beauty Lounge Firebird Pre-Sale Collection

48 Hour V.I.P. Pre-Order
Starts Friday July 29th at 11am EST
Ends Sunday July 31st at 11am EST

This is a fantastic looking collection, I'm absolutely loving the story and the theme behind it. You can read all about it from Ji's view below. Enjoy!

"Finding a home away from home is not an easy feat, but my husband and I located ours in St. Barts. In the off-season, sans jetsetters, this is a serene island—pure paradise. Last August, we rented a villa and indulged in our outdoor grill obsession with a zesty appetite we lack at home. We cooked insouciantly, ran to the early morning local fish market, devoured our books, enjoyed leisurely swims, and walked the tranquil empty beach while watching the sunset.

During our last week on our own patch of azure, we drove to the supermarket for a routine shop, but something was in the air. There was a frantic energy that we had never before witnessed. I felt the scattered chaotic rhythms of energy throughout the island. The line at the gas station was alarmingly insane. There were speeding cars everywhere. The supermarket parking lot was overflowing and carts emerging from the store were fully loaded with cases of wine, cartons of cigarettes, wheels of cheese, and spears of baguettes. Indoors, the fracas continued and we were informed that Hurricane Earl was coming. We both said in unison, "Here?"

At that very moment, I envisioned scenes from CNN: boarded-up plywood, evacuations, and my husband and I clinging to the top of a roof somewhere. I am the epitome of a cowardly Manhattanite and my inner dramatic stage director’s heart started to beat to the rhythms of Igor Stravinsky's L'Oiseau de Feu (The Fire Bird). The opening of his riveting ballet has a hypnotic syncopation of unpredictable beats with the trilling of flutes and piccolos coupled with a chatter-like string section. The honking brass section mirrored the hysteria of this once peaceful island. I had to curb my dramatic imagination as our survival mode kicked in and we joined the fracas to shop like the French.

Once back at the villa, the owner greeted us with emergency necessities and instructions. Clearly, we were lucky to experience the hurricane in St.Barts because they are the hurricane specialists. All the metal gates in the villa were on a remote. We only had one exit door from the kitchen where the electricity was out. The wind started to howl irksomely, just like Stravinsky’s French horns and bassoons. Sheepishly, I peeked out the door and the beauty of the storm startled me.

I was mesmerized by the colors of a romantic and moody sky, the exotic rhythms of the wind, the nuance of different cadences as well as the unpredictable tempo of the raindrops. In my mind, a serenade by The Firebird kept me company. I stood for hours just absorbing the perpetual metamorphosis of colors that changed in the sky."

You have to see Piu Mosso up close! My god gorgeous! All Lacquered Up, Scrangie, and Also Known As... have beautiful close up swatches of these shades. I'm now really lemming Piu Mosso! Stunning and so unique!

Make Up For Ever Full Cover Concealer Review

Though I don't have a full tube of this product I have been using a sample of it from Sephora for a little under a year now. Make Up For Ever is a brand that is big on making products for High Definition video and this is one of those. Full Cover is supposed to be waterproof as well as being highly pigmented.

Dab of Full Cover Concealer #2

Full Cover Concealer #2 blended

Personally I do like this concealer. I like that it's a very thick cream consistency that even when heavily blended doesn't lose all of it's pigmentation. It doesn't lose it's creaminess over time either which is a bonus. I also really like the fact that MUFE has made it buildable and that it works well under other make-up. I'm also fond of the fact that you hardly need any to get the coverage you desire. I find that this is the best concealer that I've found to date for covering pimples as it tends to stay were you place it and blend well while retaining colour, unlike creamier options (such as TheBalm TimeBalm concealer which I prefer for under-eyes). I've not had any acne issues from this concealer either which is always good too.

There are a couple of issues with this concealer though. It really needs a primer or moisturizer underneath it as I find it sinks into pores without one. Also although it is buildable it tends to look cakey rather quickly if you apply too much finishing powder. It's much too heavy and almost inflexible for the under-eye area in my opinion sinking into fine lines there very quickly. In addition to this it doesn't last all day on me, I wish it was longer lasting though I do get decent wear out of it. 

The price of this is very steep for a relatively small amount of product which also is a shame. If you can try to get a large sample like mine to give it a thorough run-through and see if it's worth the hefty price tag for you. It costs $30 USD or $36 CND for 0.5 oz of product. 

Sprite Rating: 6/10

Overall, although this concealer is a good one- one of the best I've been able to find I think it can still be improved. The wear, the price and the cakiness are all issues that I'd rather not have to deal with. However, it doesn't break me out and it is the best coverage concealer I've found to date that will actually stay on my pimples and conceal adequately. 

Would I buy this? I might. It's better than anything else I've tried and the amount it conceals is great. Really depends on how desperate I am for concealer and whether or not I can get this on sale.

NOTD: Nubar Reclaim

In Shade

I finally got my bottle of Nubar Reclaim and I must say it is amazing! Such a gorgeous bright grass green with the most awesome holographic rainbow shimmer. The formula is wonderful and long-wearing, it needs 3 coats to be fully opaque, though 2 is almost good enough. I'm on day 2 and no chips or major tip wear yet.

Bright Sunlight

Look at the amazing rainbows! And the colour itself is just awesome!

In Sunlight

In Sunlight

Overall- This polish is about as perfect as you can get on the market in my opinion. The formula is amazing; easy to use and long lasting, the colour is wonderful and the holographic aspect rocks! The price is rather inexpensive for such a good product, I bought mine off Amazon for around $10 USD including shipping.

Would I buy it again? Yes. I love this polish so much and is I think my favourite green polish in my collection (which is big because Green is my favourite colour!)

Sprite Rating: 10/10 There is nothing more I would ask from this polish except that Nubar be more readily available! Holy Grail Polish here people!

Too Faced 15% off Today!

Just a quick update for you all. Too Faced is having a sale today only for 15% off. The code is JETSETTER.

Click here to be taken to the site. :D Enjoy!

Morgana Cryptoria New Items!

Image from Morgana Cryptoria

If you aren't familiar with Morgana Cryptoria's lipsticks you should become familiar as soon as possible! They are vegan and super pigmented and long wearing. I've got two already Rose Plum and Absinthe and I love them both muchly :D. You can see my first impressions post here and I'll most likely be doing a formal review of Rose Plum lipstick soon. Morgana has introduced a brand new line of them the 1920's collection with awesome names like Speakeasy and Bee's Knees. Really awesome looking shades- very classy! You can check them out here and can see the full photoshoot of the collection done by Glitter is my Crack for the collection which is amazing. (Also she's having a giveaway of the whole collection which you can enter from that link too!)

Spellcaster Lip Balm
Image from Morgana Cryptoria

New Lip Balms! And oh my god are they amazing! There are SOOOOO many to choose from and I want them all!!!! My favourite (and on my ordering list of things I want reallllllly badly) is the one pictured above Spellcaster. Isn't it amazing? My words can not even justify how much I want this. Purple and blue! Ahh!

Also she's got a bunch of other things in the works and coming soon too! Gel lipsticks, lip glosses, a couple new shades of vegan lipsticks Metallic Grape being one of those (plus some new shades she just released to the regular line- Lysette, Gargoyle, Medusa, and Totally Tubular which are already available). And in an eyeshadow collection that matches the lip balms called doppelganger lip balm shadows. So exciting! Morgana Cryptoria is just churning out the awesomeness isn't it?

Nars Fall 2011 Overview

Images from Nars website

Nars has released yet another colour packed collection for fall! Currently only available on the Nars website I'm sure it'll show up on the Sephora one soon. Anyways here is an overview for you, enjoy!

All Images from Nars Website

Madison Ave (Image from NARS site)

"Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner takes liner to the next level. Rich, creamy color that glides on smoothly with a completely budgeproof finish. Incomparable 12-hour wear with no smearing and no caking. Deeply dramatic shades named for the most iconic streets in the world." Nars goes on to clain that the liners are long-wearing, are intensely coloured and include built in sharpeners.

There are 9 shades of pencil in this release of the Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner pencils and some really lovely colours have been included! I'm really excited about this one because if they last as long as they say I may have to get the nude one and the grey one for my waterline. Having a twist up mechanism makes me really happy too! Plus I love that the names of the shades are all named after famous roads in major cities, such a neat idea (and way classier than sex names). If you're interested Karla Sugar's Swatches are up for the majority of these shades. I must say they are looking pretty nice so far! They are $23 CND and only available through the Nars site to my knowledge.

• Madison Ave: Matte steel Grey
• Abbey Road: Shimmery bright turquoise Blue
• Bourbon Street: Shimmery dark royal Purple
• Rue Bonaparte: Matte Nude
• Rue de Rivoli: Olive Green shimmer
• Rue Saint-Honore: Shimmery deep Navy
• Santa Monica Blvd: Matte White
• Via Appia: Shimmery warm chocolate Brown
• Via Vento: Matte Black

Oasis Lip Gloss

Next we've got the lippies. There are five lip products in this fall release ranging from nude to plum. Nothing too out there but lovely shades none the less. Here they are with descriptions.

• Oasis Lip Gloss: Sparkling Pink Champagne ($28 CND)
• Pago Pago Sheer Lipstick: Shimmering Pink ($30 CND)
• Mascate Pure Matte Lipstick: Bold Red ($30 CND)
• Montego Bay Pure Matte Lipstick: Rose Pink ($30 CND)
• Train Bleu Velvet Matte Lip Pencil: Deep Aubergine ($30 CND)

Train Bleu Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

Mascate Pure Matte Lipstick

Montego Bay Pure Matte Lipstick

Pago Pago Sheer Lipstick

And last but certainly not least is the three eyeshadow sets. One single, a duo and a trio of shades.

Delphes Trio

Outremer Single

Grand Palais Duo

• Outremer Eyeshadow Single: Bright True Blue, $26 CND
• Grand Palais Eyeshadow Duo: Silver Shimmery Taupe and Satin Dusty Rose, $38 CND
• Delphes Eyeshadow Trio: Sparkling Sheer Peach, Matte Dove Grey, Frosted Sage, $55 CND (Limited Edition)

Hard Candy Visibly Wet Glossy Lip Pencil~ Swatches and Review

Jezebel

Candy Apple

At my last trip to Walmart while I'm here in Vermont I stopped by the Hard Candy section and instantly fell in love with the glittery sparklyness that these fantastically pigmented Visibly Wet Glossy Lip Pencils. My friend bought one (Jezebel) and I got a different shade (Candy Apple). Jezebel is a purpled fuchsia and Candy Apple is a bold red. Both have the most fascinating glitter in them and they look awesome on- here are some swatches!

Dabbed off once on my friend (Liana) to sheer it slightly so you can see the sparkles in Candy Apple

Candy Apple in Sunlight

Candy Apple Lip Swatch

Candy Apple after stuffing face and 4 hours later

Jezebel

Jezebel

And here is my friend Paula wearing Jezebel Lip Pencil it looks so great on her!

Now onto the review. First off the good, these are amazingly pigmented, feel nice on, have no detectable taste or smell, and have a really pretty shimmer. They also tend to stain your lips underneath and the glitter stays well.

Unfortunately, these have quite a few bad points too. They are a pain in the ass to get on your lips, so difficult to apply. The formula on these makes it really difficult to keep the colour within your lip line. In addition it transfers like crazy- I had to clean my teeth off about three times before it finally stopped transferring. 

Another major issue is that for some people (both me and Paula had this but not everyone has reported it) they burn on application. Seriously my lips had this burning sensation which was unpleasant and weird as they are not supposed to be plumping or have this reaction. I found that if I blot it off a bit the burning goes away or at least dies down. If I wait it out it burns for about 5 minutes for me before it seems to go away. Honestly I've tried to find the ingredients for these and I can't find them, so I don't know what ingredient(s) are causing this reaction. 

These cost $6.00 USD. 

Would I buy it again? No. Not with the burning issue. If they fixed that I may be able to overlook the formula issues. 

Rating: 5/10 It loses major points for the burning issue and the formula issues. Which is a real shame because the colours and pigmentation is fantastic.