New Product: Wet N Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color

Hello lovelies! While walking through CVS a few days ago, I spotted a small WnW display on a shelf and just had to have a better look at the assortment of color that was bombarding my eyeballs. Upon closer examination, I saw that the megalast lipstick that I know and love so well, was now in liquid form!!! YAY!!! And if it was in my power to do so, I would have gladly done back-handsprings through the store once I saw that they are only $3.19 AND they came with a $1.00 OFF coupon. Yes, that was NOT a typo... I got these bad boys for $2.19 a piece!!!

Now, the new Megalast Liquid Lip Colors come in 13 shades that range from nice, universally flattering nudes, to deep, rich wines. I kid you not when I say I was in the store hovering over the display like I found the crown jewels sitting on a diamond encrusted gold tray waiting for my perusal. After some serious consideration, I only grabbed 5 of the 13 shades, since a lot were already sold out. The shades I grabbed were: Click on my Hyperlink, Back to the Fuschia, Red my Mind, Cherry on Top and I Can Bare It.

Wet N Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color

Top to Bottom: Cherry on Top, Back to the Fuchsia, Click my Hyperlink, I Can Bare It, and Red my Mind.

Now here's my take on them. The pigmentation is sssssuuuuupppppeeeerrrr!!!! I mean you have full coverage in one swipe. and what you see is exactly what you get. Some might have a problem with the applicator, which is broad and flat, but I actually like it. I was able to use the broad part to distribute the color quick and even, and then turn it on it's side to get a pit of precision to line the edges. And they took the idea of Megalast to the next level with the formula for these! They apply very wet, similar to the OCC Lip Tars, and dry down to a nice matte or satin finish. And once set, these things are HELL ON WHEELS to take off! I had to scrub with a textured baby wipe for a couple minutes to get the color off, and the lipstick peels off in little balls as you remove it. I must mention that they also left my lips really dry was well; walking through the desert without water for weeks dry... severely parched is an understatement. You need some heavy duty exfoliation and a great lip balm for these.

What I didn't like was the feel of the finish. While I dig the idea of the ElastiSilk technology, I hated the feel of these lipsticks on my lips. While fairly matte, they dried to a sticky finish, that made me cringe every time my lips touched. I really wanted to love these, but the finish could use a bit of a tweak! But honestly, for about $3.00 a pop for some fabulously pigmented lip colors, I'm going to find something to dab over the lipstick to make the finish not so tacky.

Overall, I'd say these new Wet N Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Colors are a no brainer as far as bargain and quality. I have some high end lipsticks that WISH they could pull off the intense pigmentation of these babies!!! Definitely worth the price, regardless of the finish.

Has anyone else tried these new lippies? I'd love to hear what you think!

-Miss Brina

30 Rainbow eyeshadow palette review/ Swatches + GIVEAWAY

been a little MIA since the last post, but trust, I have not forgotten about you guys. Quite honestly, once you've seen what I was testing out all will be forgiven lol

Look at this beauty! I had been stalking this bad boy for a few months, not really knowing who it was by and what it was called, but me being the "google queen" that my honey likes to call me I found it on ebay and snatched it up! Now, when I bought this palette, I couldn't find many swatches or looks with it. Don't get me wrong, there were pictures of the palette for days... just hardly any swatches. After some extensive instagram hawking, I found a few companies who were selling this "rainbow" palette for 3-5X more than I paid on ebay, and my excitement over this palette (and my GREAT deal) grew that much more!

As with all of these  palettes, certain shades tend to swatch better and more pigmented than others. When I first opened it and swatched on bareskin, I surprised by the adhesion. Now, not every single color was super pigmented, but they ALL passed the rub test WITHOUT any base or primer. That being done, I noticed a bit on fall out from the shadows, but for the price and having dealt with similiar palettes, it was too be expected.

Color me impressed overall, I decided to do another swatch test, this time with a beige base underneath, just for comparison. And while you get a decent, and at times slightly chalky payoff without one, adding a base underneath these shadows made them come alive! A base will be your best friend with this palette. Check out the side by side comparison pictures, the photos on the right were done WITH a base.

  

 

 

 

 

 

If you want some great shadows, and don't mind a palette without all the neat packaging and bells and whistles, then you can go here to purchase this palette. But ONE lucky & loyal follower won't have to, because I am offering one of these LOVELY palettes as a celebratory THANK YOU GIVEAWAY. It's just my way of saying thank you for your support ;)

To enter, you simply have to be a follower of this blog and leave a comment on this post telling me what you'd like to see more of on Beautifully Flawed. One comment per person, but you can earn TWO (2) additional entries by blogging about the giveaway and linking back to this post, just leave the link in the comment section and let me know "I mentioned your giveaway."

Giveaway ends at 11:59 PST on June 21, 2013. Winner will be picked at random and announced on June 23, 2013.

Hope you all enjoy the post, and good luck!

-Miss Brina

Review: Sonia Kashuk Flat Contour Brush (MAC 163 Dupe)

Man... they almost got me! Who? Why, MAC of course... them and their limited edition brushes! I was all set and ready to drop the $35 for their 163 contour brush, figuring it would make my life a whole lot easier, when lo an behold.... Sonia Kashuk swooped down and stole the sale LOL

I was a bit early meeting a buddy at the mall, so I decided to pass some time walking around Target when I spotted this brush... and my mouth hit the floor. I said to myself, "Dang that looks like the MAC brush I'm about to get," then myself answered back and said, "Girl, does that say $12.99?" So I promptly picked up the LAST one and hurried my behind to the check out feeling like I hit some kind of jackpot.

Now, at first glance it's identical to the MAC 163 brush, but there are a few minor difference in them (which I discovered when I whipped that bad boy out at the MAC store). After ignoring the side eye my friend was giving me for pulling out the "competition" in the MAC store, I proceeded to examine the SK brush against their 163... and amazingly SK came out the winner.

They are both flat Contour/Sculpting brushes with surprisingly dense bristles, making for fool proof contouring and blending of products, but the SK brush head is slightly smaller in width than the MAC 163. I happened to like this, figuring it will cut down on mistakes and help out my product placement and control.  The second was that the SK brushes bristles were a lot softer than the MAC 163. Now, I am not in any way saying that the bristles on the  MAC 163 were super hard or anything, but I had to note that I did notice a small bit of scratching as I rubbed it over the back on my hand. I experienced none of that with the SK brush. Also, the 163 is synthetic and the SK has natural bristles. I'd have LOVED if the SK was synthetic (personal preference) but something's gotta give, right?

In the end, I am OVER THE MOON with my accidental dupe discovery. And at well under half the price of the MAC 163, you just can't beat the price or quality. I'll be picking up a few more backups in the off chance it becomes unavailable in the near future.

Have any of you picked up the MAC 163 or Sonia Kashuk Flat Countour/ Sculpt brush? What are your thoughts on either?

P.S- I know it's late, but I had to throw in a random Halloween shot. Excuse the meltdown/smudges... it was the end of a very long day :)

-Miss Brina

Not Your Mother's Hair Care Review

I was in walmart not too long ago picking up some christmas decorations for the house and ended up in the hair aisle... like I always do... and stumbled upon a new brand of products called NYM (Not Your Mothers). Everything in the line retails for under $5 at Walmart, so it's certainly affordable... but is it actually any good? Hell to the yes... go grab you some lol

I picked up four of the 6 items that my local walmart had (passed on the thickening spray and the tease me hairspray... I don't need any thicker or teased hair LOL). I have not used the KINKY MOVES curl cream yet, so I'll have to review it separately when it stops raining and I can go back to my standard wash 'n wear curls... but here's the rest of the review for ya'll.

All of the items have a GREAT scent to them. I'm usually rather sensitive to scents, and while it's fairly strong, the raspberry smell did not bother me when I was using the products. And it made my hair smell great even after heat styling. I started out by applying the SMOOTH MOVES cream to just washed, damp hair and combing through before spraying my entire head with the BEAT THE HEAT protectant & blowing my hair dry. Neither product left any stickyness or waxy residue on my hair like alot of the blow dry lotions/creams do. I noticed that my hair got pretty darn straight in a shorter amount of time than usual (as my hair holds water something awful)... which was a plus! 

Next, I parted my hair into 4 sections and used my brazilian heat flat iron to straighten my hair, freshly applying more BEAT THE HEAT protectant spray as I went along. Again, NO sticky feeling or white residue on my hair... and for ONCE my hair smelled of raspberries and NOT hot hair (you know what I mean?). I ended up pin curling my hair for the night and  set it with the ALL EYES ON ME hairspray and wrapped it up for the night. When I woke up in the morning, I had beautiful, shiny, bouncy curls that still had a hint of raspberry smell to them LOL. 

I so LOVE this line and the products I've tried and will making them a staple in my haircare routine from now on. I know walmart tends to switch out lines pretty often (or at least my store does), so I will be going back and grabbing multiples before I can't find them anywhere else. I did a search for this line and came up with some ridiculous prices for these products, which were being sold in salons, so your local walmart is the best bargain for these amazing products.

Had you ever heard of the NOT YOUR MOTHERS hair care products before? If you've tried them, what do you think about them?