Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella, Review & Swatches

Today I'm reviewing the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella. This is a popular formula from Nars and now upon trying it I can see why. I'm kicking myself for not trying them sooner.

It comes in a standard pencil format meaning you have to sharpen it in order to get to more product. I personally love twist up pencils so the packaging is a bit of a miss for me. There is 0.5 g or 0.01 oz of product in the full-size pencil for $33 CND or $27 USD.

The formula itself is fantastic. It is matte but I'd say it's one of the best matte formulas I've tried. It stays matte and doesn't smear easily but it will transfer. It won't bleed into lipliner either. The Velvet Matte Lip Pencils are still fairly comfortable on too, unlike the way I find most liquid matte lipsticks that dry down these days. The colour glides on smoothly and it's richly pigmented. And best of all it's long lasting. So long lasting it made it through a dinner of soup and four hours of wear until I had another snack.

As for the colour itself, Cruella is a beautiful blue-based almost neutral red. It's so gorgeous on for me, a statement but not so loud that it's too much. I love the depth of the colour too. It's just so classy. 

Have you tried the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil formula?

Ingredients: c12 13 Alkyl Ethylhexanoate, Candelilla Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera Wax), Polyethylene, Cyclomethicone, Phenyltrimethicone, Silica, Dimethicone, Sucrose Acetate Isobutyate, Hydrogenated Coco Glycerides, Di Calcium Phosphate, Quaternium 18 Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, Aroma (Flavor), Lecithin, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Citric Acid, May Contain ( /-): Mica, Iron Oxides (CI 77491, 77492, 77499), Yellow 6 Lake (CI 15985), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090), Manganese Violet (CI 77742), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 19140), Red 30 (CI 73360), Yellow 10 Lake (CI 47005), Red 6, Red 7 Lake (CI 15850), Red 28 Lake (CI 45410), Red 22 Lake (CI 45380), Carmine (CI 75470), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Bismuth Oxychloride (CI 77163)

Sprite Rating: 9/10

Could be less expensive, and a tad less dry, but otherwise it's a great formula, and it really lasts a long time.

Disclaimer: The widget at the top of the page is an affiliated link. I get five whole cents if you click it, but mainly it's there for the professional photograph done by the company. I received this lip pencil as part of Sephora's Beauty Insider Program for my birthday. The Beauty Insider Program is free for anyone to join.

No Bleeding Lips Review

Image from the No Bleeding Lips website

I so wanted to love this. I read a bunch of reviews about this clear lipliner and how it lasted and lasted. Plus I needed a clear lip liner. I have issues sometimes with my super dark lipsticks not staying within the lines ever-so-slightly. In addition I wanted a clear lipliner for the much raved about OCC lip tars which I am hoping to review soon. They will have to wait however as I seriously cannot use this.

The reason isn't because it doesn't work, it does but due to the ingredients and my super sensitive skin I can't suffer through wearing this for more than a couple minutes. You see the thing is it itches like crazy. I feel like I need to claw it off my lips with my nails. In fact I have to scrub it off with a face cloth. Asking some others the reason for this is due to the plethora of many evaporating ingredients in the pencil. I've listed the ingredients below if you are interested. 

Silica, Synthetic Wax, Isododecane, Hydrogenated Polydicyclopentadiene, Polyglyceryl-10 Pentaisostearate, Hydrogenated Poly (C6-14 Olefin), Hydrogenated Polydecene, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Polybutene, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Polyethylene.

On my (awkward looking) hand to show size

For those of you who don't have sensitive skin though this may work. It goes on easily and the thin tip makes it easy to line your lips. Though it looks white it is completely transparent, you can even layer it slightly to ensure you have your lips completely outlined and they say that it can help fill in lip lines. It has a nice twist up mechanism. Plus it's a good consistency it glides nicely but isn't so soft that it smooshes or comes off in chunks. No Bleeding Lips is also waterproof and said to be long-lasting.

The nicely sized tip

These are $15-$20 CND (I bought mine at Shopper's Drug mart for $20 where I can't return it and yet Sephora started selling it after this for only $15. Needless to say I'm not too thrilled.) You can check out the website here.

So for me and other sensitive skin girls this is a fail in my humble opinion. For more tough ladies (and gents) out there it may fit nicely into your make-up stash. And though it doesn't really count I don't like the name of it, all I can picture when I hear the name is chapped, sore, bleeding lips. Those hurt!

Hebridean Sprite Rating: 3/10. It does have an easy application and nice consistency but isn't a good formula for me.

Would I purchase this again? No, in fact I tried to return it but couldn't as I'd used it and I don't have the receipt any longer. Boo.

Bite Beauty Contour Lip Liner~ Swatches and First Impression

I apologize for the blurriness and boringness of the above photo the display for these guys almost passed me by completely because of this! These new Contour Lip Liners from Bite Beauty retail for $28 CND and I've never seen them before- in fact they aren't even on the Sephora website. I figured I's swatch them anyways and let you see these funky shaped liners.

The inside is slanted and colour-coded 

These come in five shades and seem to be very matte. There is a nice range here, something I think to fit everyone. I had a bit of a crumbling issue when I was applying and had to use a couple swipes to build up the colour for the swatches but I do think these would last a decent amount of time considering how they weren't easy to remove. Not too hard but not easily budged.

T-B: Wine, Cabernet, Chestnut, Nutmeg, Cashew

T-B: Wine, Cabernet, Chestnut, Nutmeg, Cashew

Wine is a medium to medium-dark red, Cabernet is a berry- fuchsia, Chestnut is a rose pink with a slight yellow undertone, Nutmeg is a brown nude with a slight pink undertone and Cashew is a brown nude with a slight yellow undertone.

Anyone else seen these before? Any idea why the website doesn't have these up?