Beauty Squared Round-Up - August 25, 2013

Hi lovelies! 
Here is your round-up for August 25. Enjoy!

• Tips for wearing a nude lip from start to finish. Perfection! (New Beauty Magazine)
  
• Eye makeup ideas for Asian eyes. So cool! (Buzzfeed)
  
• Photographer Nir Arieli's portrait series place men in traditionally feminine poses to challenge what we see as being female traits. See the photos here. (Huffington Post)
  
• Have you given up on finding button-up shirts that'll fit your bust and your waist? This story might be of interest to you. (PSFK)
  
• Some crazy good beauty hacks that you've got to check out. Got to, hear me? Click! (Buzzfeed)
  
• Down with diet culture! Hurrah for embracing the body you have now! Five Ways to Appreciate the Body You Have Now. (Buzzfeed)

Happy Sunday!

NARS Pure Matte Lipstick in Bangkok Review and Swatches

A Twitter friend recommended NARS' matte lipstick to me recently and I picked up a tube while in New York City in March. 

NARS Pure Matte Lipstick comes in 12 shades. I chose Bangkok, a soft rose, which unbeknownst to me was selected by InStyle as a Best 2011 Shade for Fair Skin. NARS Pure Matte Lipstick retails for $25 US and is 0.07 oz. 

Here's what the NARS website has to say about their pure matte lipstick.

Bright. Bold. Perfectly matte. This super-rich lipstick provides high-impact payoff: an ultra-pigmented, long-wearing formula that glides on effortlessly with comfortable wear.

• contains wild mango butter, known to provide advanced moisturizing properties to repair dryness and scaling.
• Long-wearing application
• Enriched with Vitamin E and açaí oil for antioxidant benefits

Bangkok is certainly not bright or bold but I'd say it fits the rest of the description. It goes on smoothly and feels like almost nothing on, due to the matte texture.

The texture is very creamy and it looks creamy with the slightest glow to it. In the below photos, my skin has more shine to it than the lipstick!

I love the way Bangkok looks, like my lips but better (mlbb). It's polished and natural and very easy to wear. This is not a dry matte lipstick. My lips can feel dry very easily and a heavy lip balm or lipstick texture is most comfortable to me. Matte lipsticks often can be very drying but the newest formulas I've tried (this one, and MAC's Matte Lipstick and MAC's Pro Longwear Lipstick) are very comfortable to wear and as long as my lips are well moisturized when I apply, I can wear these matte lipsticks for hours very comfortably. 

Bangkok is a very pretty, soft pink with a hint of gold. It's very soft so it'd look best on fair skin and lighter skin with cool undertones. On me, it looks very close to my natural lip tone and the natural pink tones in my skin.

I've been wearing this for my daytime work look when I am wearing a slightly smoky eye. It'd work for a nighttime smoky eye look as well. It's soft and sophisticated and more classic than trendy.

What do you think of NARS Pure Matte Lipstick? Do you have a favourite shade? What colour should I check out next?

C.

LUSTING No More: NARS Cruising Lipstick vs MAC Mellow Mood

Around this time last year, I was lusting after the lipstick in NARS' spring collection, inspired by Catherine Deneuve in La Chamade. I'd tried it on and swatched it a few times but I'd never bought it. I'm very, very good at deciding I don't need to buy things. To a fault. Cruising always beckoned to me for some reason even though it was very natural on me, almost the exact shade of my lips. But there I was at Sephora a few days ago, swatching it once again. I had it in my head that it was time to own the darn thing when it occurred to me that I might already own a nearly identical shade.


Before Christmas, I bought one of the MAC A Tartan Tale lip bags - Vain and Glorious - and the lipstick it came with, Mellow Mood, was a very natural pink, almost the same colour as my lips. I wore it quite a bit and had it in my bag, so I swatched it next to Cruising. Lo and behold they were nearly the same colour, with Mellow Mood being slightly more pigmented. 


And with that, my lusting over Cruising came to an end. Problem solved!

I still should see La Chamade though.

C.