I am not a Glossier rep and I bought the products below with my own money, but I do have a Glossier affiliate link, which will take 10% off your purchase and give me $10 in store credit. Lidstar liquid eyeshadow seems to be one of Glossier’s most divisive products. Personally, I’m a Lidstar loyalist, and… Read More Glossier Lidstar in Branch and Bun
Note: I have a Glossier affiliate link, which will take 10% off your purchase and give me $10 in sweet, sweet store credit. I bought the items below with my own money, though, since I blew through the store credit from my pre-2019 blogging days long ago! After releasing Skywash liquid eyeshadow in early 2020,… Read More Glossier Ultralip in Ember and Trench
A perennial—possibly too perennial—topic on r/muacjdiscussion is that of the “white whale”: the product or collection that you missed out on and will forever pine after. My white whale is unquestionably MAC’s Give Me Liberty of London collection from spring 2010, released less than a year before I got seriously into makeup. It might as… Read More Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Dramatic
Product: Bite Beauty Crystal Crème Shimmer Lip Crayon in Molten Chocolate Date Purchased: April 2020 Grade: A- Can someone tell me what the hell happened to Bite Beauty? For close to a decade, everyone knew them as the brand that produced food-grade, food-themed lip products. Then it was like we collectively glanced away for a… Read More 2020 Lipstick Chronology #5: Bite Beauty Molten Chocolate
Before I start my review, let me welcome you to the new home of Auxiliary Beauty! After years of swearing to migrate my post archive from Blogger to WordPress and purchase my own domain, I’ve finally followed through, and I’ll be making my old blog private in a week or two. Please bear with me… Read More ColourPop Lilac You a Lot Palette
When I first got into makeup, in the early 2010s, blush was an afterthought in the Western beauty community. Everyone had a couple of blushes, generally a warm pink and a cool pink, but beauty bloggers often fretted about the prospect of looking tacky or clownish or old-ladyish (never mind the ageism and internalized misogyny… Read More The Great Blush Inventory of 2021
Product: Urban Decay Wired Vice Lip Chemistry Lasting Glassy Tint in X-Ray Date Purchased: Mar. 1, 2020 Grade: B Let’s take a time machine back to the United States on the first day of March in the year 2020. After a shaky start to his primary campaign, Joe Biden has just emerged as the presumptive… Read More 2020 Lipstick Chronology #4: Urban Decay Lip Chemistry Tint in X-Ray
Last summer, I got rid of my Illamasqua cream blush in Zygomatic, one of my all-time favorite beauty products, which I’d bought in the UK in June of 2014. I hadn’t noticed a change in its appearance, smell, or performance, but I felt increasingly uncomfortable smearing a six-year-old cream blush on my face. Unfortunately, Illamasqua… Read More Tower 28 BeachPlease Luminous Tinted Balm in Magic Hour
This week I’m diverging from the 2020 Lipstick Chronology in order to review my first new lipstick of 2021: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Red Square! I spent much of my January no-buy scouring the web for a replacement for Topshop Matte Lipstick in Rio Rio, which I bought and reviewed back in June… Read More A Red for Citrus Season: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Red Square
Product: Revlon Super Lustrous The Luscious Mattes Lipstick in Shameless Date Purchased: Feb. 15, 2020 Grade: A Revlon has made some truly bizarre marketing decisions in the last decade. The brand built its reputation on lipstick and continues to produce such heritage shades as Cherries in the Snow and Fire and Ice, yet it went… Read More 2020 Lipstick Chronology #3: Revlon Luscious Matte Lipstick in Shameless
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