Kat Von D: Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick Review and Swatches

The last time my sister and I had a chance to run into Sephora, we also accidentally ran into a Kat Von D signing. Unfortunately the wristlets required to see her up close in person were already "sold out." Sephora was having a promotion that day, that if you bought some Kat Von D makeup products they would give you a wristlet for free, but by the time we arrived they had already given them all away. As you can imagine at such a high profile signing, Kat's makeup line was heavily featured in all sections of the store. I've bought some products from her before, but they were nothing to write home about. However, her new "liquid lipsticks" piqued my interest, especially following my intense obsession with YSL's Glossy Stains and the "opaque liquid lipstick" trend. I bought two colors: Berlin (warm rose) and Outlaw (brick red). 

Top: Outlaw, Bottom: Berlin

The packaging is pretty characteristic of the rest of Kat Von D's line, lots of black with silver tattoo enamel accents. Unlike the Painted Love Lipsticks, these Liquid Love Lipsticks are not rubberized and instead are just hard plastic. The tubes were narrower than I thought they would be, but have an elegant thin shape that allows you to easily slip them into a handbag or a clutch.

The applicator for the Lipstick is a traditional doe foot applicator, that are primarily used in lip glosses, and I think it applies the thin, watery formula of the Liquid Love Lipstick well. However, because of the shape of the applicator, I think it's difficult to really get into the corners of your lips to clearly define your lipshape, without really taking one's time. The formula is so thin, once you apply any little bit of color on your lip it sets immediately and is there for the rest of the night. In the photos below, I really took my time with Outlaw, as opposed to my slathering approach with Berlin, and I think you can really tell the difference in application. The Everlasting Liquid Love Lipstick isn't really one of those lipsticks that you can apply on the go, but requires a mirror for the initial and touch up application.

Berlin to the left and Outlaw to the Right

Like a mentioned before, the formulation of this lipstick is quite watery and applies as such...just like a thin layer of acrylic paint. Although it applies glossy it dries down to matte. The colors appear as they appear in the tube, so no surprises there. The staying power is impressed me, when I drinking and talking no color transfer happened, but be warned...when eating all the lip color comes of in a weird "ring" around your mouth. It's as if you only applied lipliner by the time you've finished eating. Lots of lip products never pass the eating test, but because of the intense pigmentation in Kat Von D's Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick the effect that you get on your lips after a meal is almost clown like. Reapply immediately!

I'm sorry. My face is really gross, but I think these sort of lip swatches are the most informative. Please ignore my volcanic wasteland face.

Outlaw

Berlin

In certain lighting, the two lipsticks look very similar in color. However, you can tell the difference in the photos below and in person. I believe in darkness and twilight light levels, the two hues of Outlaw and Berlin can sort of resemble each other. I liked the color opacity of both lipsticks, the application and texture for both lip colors, and the matte dry down of both lipsticks. It was actually the matte finish that originally drew me to purchase these. However a huge con of these lipsticks is the fact that they are so, so, so drying. The matte effect looks nice, but it seems like they actually like wick moisture away from you lips and the end result is super dry, craggy, dead skin lips. Joker lips. Or dry lakebed lips. I added on a balm to re-moisturize,...but when I kissed boyfriend the color smeared both on him and me. It looked like we shared some sort of terrible disease. 

I would say that the "staying power" of the lipsticks really depend on whether you add a balm or not. With the addition of a lip balm, not only does the color pigment slide all over your lips, but the durability of the color drops intensely. Most recently on a night out, I wore Outlaw without any balm (I had forgotten it) and it stayed without any reapplication or slipping. Surprisingly that time my lips didn't look like a dry lake bed, but they felt really dry.

Ultimately, I don't think I'll repurchase these again. Although I really like the colors, the drying sensation isn't very fun to deal with.

Pros:
- Opacity/Pigmentation
-"Staying Power"
- Beautiful matte red and a dainty "rose pink"
-Price $19 dollars compared to other "high end" brands at Sephora

Cons:
- SO Drying
- Can transfer
- Thin formula (It was a weird texture for me)

Purchase: Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Love Lipsticks

Thanks for reading!
+Love

XOX Betsey Nail Polish Review and Swatch

XOX Betsey

This is somewhat new! Haha, I know I've done many a restaurant review for my blog, but never anything really regarding to beauty. However, much like food and fashion, I am also obsessed with makeup. I'm still pretty amateurish about it, but I think I can tell the difference between good and bad. =) Anyway, this XOX Betsey is a limited edition nailpolish, exclusively for Sephora, that was designed by Betsey Johnson.

The color, although described as an opaque sandy nude, is a nude that reads just a touch lavender and when applied it dries down to the color inside the bottle. No surprises there. ;) The bottle and the brush are the usual to OPI and it was very easy to apply the polish to the opacity that I had wanted. Although I needed two coats of nail polish to get to this level of opaque, I was genuinely surprised at how pigmented the color of one coat was. I've tried many, many nudes before and I've always needed four or five coats to reach a state of color that wasn't sheer and see through.

As usual I've been lurking on the internet and using my keyboard a lot and for the most part XOX Betsey hasn't chipped at all. The only "chip" that you can see on my pointer finger in the photo above is probably most likely from painting over my cuticle which is more my own fault than the polish's.

As for a more personal note, this polish is actually "my" perfect nude. The nudes that I've tried before this have always read "too warm" or too similar to my own skin tone so instead of a nicely manicured nails, it looked like I was a mutant whose skin grew over my cuticle bed. The lavender color within it just really sets it apart. Also....when applying this nail polish I didn't apply a base or a top coat. >< Not because I have anything against it, but because I couldn't justify purchasing more base and top coats when I have perfectly good bottles at home. I just forgot to bring them down to California. *sigh*

I recommend XOX Betsey for its opacity, wearability, and price. It retails for $9.50 at Sephora and although it's not the cheapest...it's pretty cute.

Purchase: XOX Betsey

Thanks for reading!
+Love