Spring Forward: A Small Haul + Some First Impressions!

     Spring is now officially upon us, it seems! Rain is aplenty, but those cloudy days haven't been overriding the days with sunshine, thankfully! Over the course of the past couple of months, yours truly has been scavenging Ulta drugstore sections and various other places for some spring beauty pick-me-ups (or, ahem, I guess cheap thrills is more like it). Bright vivid eyeliners, a poppy red lipstick (or two!), along with some neutral matte lipsticks, and some nice sweet-smelling balmy lip treats are the results of my attempt to change my makeup game a bit this season with some colors that may (or may not!) veer a little outside of my comfort zone! I've had the chance to try some of these items out as well, so you bet that some of these will include first impressions! Let's begin!

e.l.f. Products

e.l.f. Lock On Liner & Brow Cream in Light Brown, $4, e.l.f. Smudge Pot in Cruisin' Chic, $3

     Can I just say, e.l.f. has been killing it with their cream products as of late! I've been impressed with most of the things I've tried in that respect, and these two products proved that even further!

Liner & Brow Cream

I picked up the Lock-On Liner & Brow Cream in two shades, Light Brown and Medium Brown (there were no testers, and online swatches of these were non-existent at the time I purchased these, so I couldn't tell which of two shades would work best for me; swatches are coming soon!), and I could only find the Light Brown in my drawer for these pictures, but I figured that at $4, even if Medium Brown turned out to be too deep for my brows, I could always use it as a smoky shadow base or liner. And, ohhh yes, did it turn out to be way too dark. Light Brown, on the other hand, is perfection for my brows, in color and in formula. The consistency of the cream isn't too thick, although with the nature of these brow pomade/cream formulas, a little does go a very long way with these. The e.l.f. Brow Cream has a smooth glide, and the color never looks crusty or heavier in some spots than in others. The color applies evenly and never flakes off, and as long as I use a clear brow gel, it never melts off my brows throughout the day and stays perfectly intact until I wash it off. It takes a minute to fully set, but once it does, the color doesn't budge.

Smudge Pot in 'Cruisin' Chic'

As for the Smudge Pots, I decided to finally grab Cruisin' Chic after being so impressed with the previous two shades I purchased, and have already reviewed on this blog (link). Cruisin' Chic is a light cool-toned silvery taupe with a mousse texture and a somewhat sheer opacity that can be built up to a medium opacity quite nicely. It creased on me after about 5 hours in the one instance I wore it by itself, with no primer. The other two Smudge Pots that I have in Back to Basics and Brownie Points are much richer in pigmentation.

Wet n Wild Catsuit Liquid Lipstick in 'Missy and Fierce'

     The few Wet 'n' Wild Mega Last Catsuit Mattes I own have easily transformed into some of my most-reached-for lip products as of late, and it certainly helps that they're retailing for an insanely affordable price of $4.99! I had been holding off on buying the red shade in this lineup called Missy and Fierce for a while, due to assuming that it would be nearly identical to the limited edition red shade called How Fleek is Your Love, that they released in a collection back in the fall of 2016 under the Color Icon branding. Lo and behold, I was right in that assumption - they are nearly identical, but I had heard that the formula for their Liquid Catsuits was superior to the limited edition formula, so I went ahead and picked Missy up.

For comparison swatches above, the Color Icon one released last year is leaning as a bit brighter, warmer scarlet shade with a slight tinge of orange, and is a bit thicker in consistency than Missy and Fierce, which is a more neutral red, as I can't detect any blue tones outright with this one. Again, very subtle of a difference. Both are incredibly long lasting, both are a bit drying on the lips, and neither create that annoying ring on the edges of the lips as they fade, nor do they crumble and peel off. Even though the formula on the Color Icon one is a bit thicker than the Mega Last Catsuit, they perform almost identically, and neither is better than the other, in my opinion.

Revlon Ultra HD Matte Liquid Lip Colors

     Yes, it has happened: I finally found these on a decent sale! Walgreens was having a 40% off deal for certain brands with members of their loyalty program (loyalty? Sounds archaic and so Game of Thrones, now that I'm typing it out 😁), and Revlon was one of those brands, so these lip products were reduced to $5.87! The sale is still going on, as far as I know! The shades I picked up are HD Love, a vibrant, bold warm traffic-stopping fire engine red, HD Forever, a warm peachy brown neutral, and HD Kisses, a deep rosy pink with a slight brown undertone.

I have one other shade in HD Devotion, a light neutral rosy pink, that I've been wearing quite a bit, and the formula on these is like that of a whipped creamy lipstick. I apply them and the color payoff is strong and vibrant from the first swipe, and because of the gel formula, it stays glossy for five minutes or so before it dries, but it doesn't dry completely matte - it's more a demi-matte. After about 4 hours of wear, I can still rub my lips together and feel some slip with these. There are times when they unfortunately start to look a little cakey and crumbly when I wear them over a certain lip balm (it usually happens with Burt's Bees), so I tend to stray away from wearing that lip balm with these. Overall, I have pretty mixed feelings on these so far. 

Colored Liners, Oh My!

     So, I drank the Kool-Aid of these NYX Vivid Brights liquid eyeliners. This is the first one I've bought, and am really excited to test it out! I do hope I like it, because it's a moderately inexpensive drugstore liner (so, not necessarily cheap) at $6.99. The other two NYX Electro Liners were in the discount bin at Ulta for a mere 67 cents or so (have yet to try them out!), and Wet 'n' Wild MegaSlim Skinny Eyeliner in Black is becoming a fast favorite of mine for its beautifully rich pigmentation, the precision of application and the tiny felt tip applicator! There's nothing in the drugstore that's quite like it!

Lip Smackers - Spring Treats!

     Whoa, Lip Smackers - you've been off my radar for close to a decade, and you come out with something like this? Lemon Tart Surprise? Minty Macaroon? Chocolatey Adventure? I had not been intrigued for a while, but yep, you got me this time. And bonus: they actually hydrate my lips! All three scents and flavors are pretty solid, but I must say, Lemon Tart Surprise is my personal favorite of the three: a creamy lemon cookie scent with just enough tartness, and nothing reminiscent of plastic imitation vanilla, for which I'm most grateful. These are sweet little treats for the lips that are sold in a trio and are limited edition for this spring, I believe. I bought mine at Target.

That's all, folks! Thanks for checking out my blog! What products have turned into your spring must-haves? Have a blessed day, everyone!

💋 xoxo-Cailee