MAC Staunchly Stylish Pro Longwear Lip Pencil Review, Photos and Swatches!

MAC Staunchly Stylish Pro Longwear Lip Pencil 

MAC Staunchly Stylish Pro Longwear Lip Pencil ($19.50) is a soft, rosy-beige long-wearing and transfer-proof lip pencil with a creamy, "fluid-like" texture that glides to the lips with rich, saturated color.

Lip liner is one of those things that I neglect to use every day, even though I prefer the look of my lips with lip liner. I suppose it's mainly a convenience thing - I like a simple daily routine, and most of the time I just apply what I find is necessary. I do love lip liner though, especially MAC Lip Pencils. It's pretty much the major brand I use, with Oak, Stripdown and Subculture being my go-to shades. I became curious about their Pro Longwear line of lip pencils that launched late last year, as often times I only apply my liner in the morning and it's gone within a couple of hours, so finding a lip liner that will last me for several hours would be wonderful!

The formula of these pencils are pretty nice. They are no doubt creamy and glide easily across the lips. The liner doesn't tug or pull at the lips - just smooth sailing. They dry down to a budge-proof matte finish.

Alone on the lips, the pencil makes my lips look dry and crackled, as the formula really "clings" to the lips. So, I wouldn't wear it on it's own (or this shade anyway). I like wearing it as a base for my lipstick, or simply applied lightly on the outline of my lips and blended in. I don't find it to be drying when combined with another lip product. I also notice that when it's on my lips, it feels the slightest bit tacky - kind of similar to some formulas of long-wearing lipsticks.. dry, but somewhat sticky? Very minor, though.

MAC doesn't give a length of time that these lip pencils should last, but I find that it holds up really well throughout the day. It holds up well after my morning coffee, and partly goes away with a meal (which typically would be completely gone). If I don't eat or drink, it doesn't budge. It's hands down the longest wearing lip pencil I own.

Pink with Glitter Reverse French Nails of the Day.

I've been wanting to try a reverse french manicure with glitter for a while now after seeing several photos on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a shot today. I've tried the regular reverse french and liked it a lot, but I thought adding glitter would be a fun twist since I love glitter tips in general. 

I used french manicure guides that I purchased from my local beauty supply store, but you can use tape if you'd like (just make sure to cut it so it's rounded) or garage sale stickers, reinforcement stickers, etc.

It's that easy! You just have to be sure that your glitter is completely dry, otherwise the sticker can pull the glitter off. As an alternative to glitter polish, you can actually apply a clear coat of nail polish to the bottom portion of your nail, and spill some loose glitter on top. 

For the glitter, I used Maybelline Color Show Sequins Nail Polish in the shade Gold's Night Out with Milani Silver Jewel FX on top. 

The color on my nails is Essie Lion Around. I picked it up recently at my local TJ Maxx.

Winner of the Physician's Formula Boost Your Beauty Giveaway!

The WINNER Announced!

I sincerely appreciate your participation in my recent Physician's Formula Boost Your Beauty Giveaway, and as always, your participation in each giveaway hosted on my blog. I love reading through the entries, and receiving feedback of what I can do to change or add, to make my blog better for all of you! Thank you so, so much!

There were 86 entries in total, and the winner was picked at random using random.org.

And, the winner is...

Jess

Congrats! I'll be contacting you shortly.

The Physician's Formula Boost Your Beauty Contest is still running on the Physicians Formula website until Dec. 16th. Make sure to enter for your chance to win a pair of diamond earrings worth $4,000 and lots of Physicians Formula Cosmetics! Entering is easy. Click here to enter.

Nars Penny Lane Cream Blush Review, Photos and Swatches!

Nars Penny Lane Cream Blush

Nars Penny Lane Blush ($28) is described on the Nars website as a nude pink. It's a very soft and delicate bridal pink with neutral undertones. If you look closely, it has a little bit of a white pearl, but it looks mostly matte on the skin. It's a great every-day blush that you can't really do wrong with. It's very subtle, yet it gives your skin a hint of color that your cheeks need to look healthy and lightly flushed. It's very similar to the effect MAC Cubic Blush would give me (one of my favorite neutrals).

Nars Cream Blushes are a cream to powder formula, and are very soft and creamy to the touch, but they blend into a seamless powder finish on the skin.

For Penny Lane in particular, I've used a few different methods - a small stippling brush, a foundation brush and my fingers. Because the color is so light, it's not a shade that you can easily overdo. So, I don't find a stippling brush to be necessary, as it doesn't apply enough color to the cheeks unless I pack it on the brush. Although I rarely like using my fingers for application of makeup, I find that the fingers give me the best control and color.

To be completely satisfied with the color, I usually apply two layers. I think this blush is best suited for light skintones, but can also work well for light-medium and medium skintones. I'm around the MAC NC35 coloring right now, and I can tell if I were any darker, it may start to show up ashy. If you're darker than the MAC NC40 coloring (medium-dark/tan), you may want to skip, otherwise you can use Penny Lane as a base for a neutral blush that suits your skin better.

Wearing Nars Casino Bronzer all over my face, with Nars Penny Lane on my cheeks and MAC Superb across the top of my cheekbones.