NYX Swatches: My Round Lipstick Collection

I cherish my little collection of NYX Round Lipsticks. I decided to post some swatches and my thoughts on the colors I own. Below is a picture of them all. Feel free to click them for a better view of colors. For reference, I am around NC20-25.

L-R: Strawberry Milk, Narcissus, Power, Christie, Femme, Louisiana 

Upclose shot of Strawberry Milk, Narcissus, Power

Upclose shot of Christie, Femme, Louisiana

Swatches without flash. L-R: Louisiana, Femme, Christie, Power, Narcissus, Strawberry Milk

Swatches with flash. This picture accurately shows their true colors. Same order as above.

These lipsticks are very creamy. Almost too creamy. These lip swatches may be painful to look at, just because I used no lipliner. I didn't want to affect the color of the swatch. They're so creamy that they get all over your lips. If you don't have a lipliner, I'd suggest cleaning up edges with some concealer. They feel really nice on and they have never dried out my lips. These lipsticks sort of temporarily stain your lips after they wipe off. I really like that because you still have some color even after its faded. All lip swatches were taken with flash. Now on to the colors. 

Above is Louisiana. It's a really pretty bright pink/coral with blue undertones. I truly believe that it will fit all skin tones. It is a cream finish (no shimmer) but it looks glossy because it's that moisturizing. I've heard it's a dupe for MAC's Chatterbox but I can't vouch for that since I don't own it.

Above is Christie. It's a medium blue-tones pink with a frosty finish. I usually avoid frosty lipstick because I just feel like they look very odd but this one is not overly frosty. If you compare it to the other swatches, it doesn't look that much difference in terms of finish. It's a fun color and it's a nice daytime color.

This is Power. It's my only "different" lipstick out of my whole collection (not just NYX). Basically it's a pale lilac color with a cream finish. I never wear this lipstick because it looks strange on my skin tone. It might just be the color of my lips, but when I wear this I feel like my lips look brownish. I look I have frostbite or something. I think this is a color for darker skin tones. I'm going to see if I can pull it off during summertime when I get tanner. 

This is Narcissus. It's my favorite color out of my NYX lipsticks. One of my favorite colors in general. It's a true barbie pink color. It's almost neon pink. It looks great on all skin tones as well. I get complimented every time I wear this. It's a cream finish. It's a very sexy color. You'll probably feel great with it on.

This is Femme. I'm going to admit that I haven't gotten much use out of this one. It's a bright orange-reddish color. Cream finish. It's very intense and very daring. Great night time color. I feel like it's a bit too strong for me. I prefer to pair this with a lipgloss.

The last color is Strawberry Milk. There is a lot of hype around this color. It's a very pale milky pink color with a cream finish. This is a very difficult color to wear. It completely washes out light skin and looks a bit garish on dark skin. With a nice lipgloss, it's a great base color. This is definitely a color that looks best with smokey eyes at night. 

I hope you enjoyed my review and swatches! xo

Product Smackdown: Sigma F80 vs. ELF Powder Brush

So, there has been a lot of hype around flat top makeup brushes for foundation. Personally, I love them too.  I have both the Sigma Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki F80 and the ELF Powder Brush. Let's start with ELF.

The ELF Powder Brush is first and foremost very, very soft. It feels great on the skin. You can buy it online at the ELF website or at Target for $3. That's an excellent price for a brush. I find that it works better with liquid-y type foundations. Forget trying to blend, let's say, Revlon Colorstay with this. Even if you apply dots of foundation on your face and then blend, you're going to have slightly patchy foundation. Never a cute look. It works better when you stipple the foundation into your skin and then swirl. The brush is dense but it's not extremely well packed. It can be a little flimsy and it almost feels like your pushing the foundation more into your brush than into your face. It's excellent for powder. I even use it for blush sometimes. Another con however is that, over time the bristles get a little "raggedy" looking and you'll have to keep buying them. The more you wash, the worse it gets. I compare it to trying to wash synthetic hair extensions, it just looks bad. The bristles come loose as you wash as well. It's tempting not to wash it because you don't want it to get messed up, but re-using a brush over and over without washing can lead to a whole slew of problems.

Next up is the Sigma F80. This brush is extremely packed. The bristles are stiff and sturdy to blend the thickest of foundations. This is great but also causes a bit of a problem for me. I have a dry skin and the brush is so stiff that it tugs on my skin a bit and lifts all my little dry patches and makes them visible. My way of avoiding this is stippling only. No swirling. This creates more of a heavier coverage. I'm okay with it, however. It gives a pretty flawless look. No shedding almost ever. Sucks up a whole lot of product. And the product is very difficult to remove from the brush. Other than that I think it's worth the money you pay. For $16, you get a great brush and you won't have to repurchase like the ELF brush. My true opinion is that both brushes are great brushes to anyones collection. F80 for foundation and ELF for powder. I'm still searching for the perfect foundation brush.