Review: Rimmel London Show Off Lip Velvets!

Purchased by me.

Good Tuesday morning lovelies! Have you all had your coffee yet? As you read this I am currently at work, most likely dealing with people and or sitting at a computer working on some training that I am trying to complete.

Today I bring you swatches and a quick review of the Rimmel London Show Off Lip Velvets! That is a very long name for a product if I do say so myself.

These lippies came out I believe last fall, which puts me way behind on the game of reviewing them, but I just saw a Youtuber I follow recently review these and so I thought if she can do one so can I!

I am a huge fan of matte lip products. I don't do lip gloss much and sometimes a glossy lip just doesn't look good on me. A couple of years ago I fell in love with wearing a matte red lip pretty much all the time. I haven't worn one in a while, I should probably get on that! So it was no idea that I wasn't going to be picking these up when they came over from the UK.

I snagged two colors, Meteoric Matte and Burning Lava. I do want to pick up Atomic Rose, which is a lovely pink nude color.

Meteoric Matte is my favorite amongst the two I own. Dark, blue toned red/berry colors are my favorite next to a good nude color. Burning Lava, while not my favorite is a close second, it comes very close to duping my all time favorite matte red lip color; Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Standout. God forbid they ever get rid of that color.

The formula on these are smooth, and feel nice when applied on the lips. They are not streaky at all because obviously they're super pigmented. They look slightly glossy when first applying them but they soon dry matte.

Rimmel Sweetie Crush Texture Polish: Candy Floss Cutie and Sherbert Sweethearte

Good evening lovelies! How are you all? I am doing great I am proud to say that I have been made an honorary aunt twice in the last two weeks! One of my best girl friends, (well I only have like 3 anyway) just had her first daughter who is named Sophia, and my bestest friend Stephanie, her sister just had her second daughter TODAY! Her name is also Sofia but spelt differently. Both babies are happy and healthy and the most precious ever! I can't wait to meet both of them soon!!


Today I have for you swatches of two new polishes that have popped up at the drugstore, or in my case at lease Rite Aid. (That's where I got them from.)

So let me ask you all this? Are you guys done with the whole textured polish craze? If not then Rimmel London  may have the next set of polishes you want!

I love the texture polishes I own with the exception of the China Glaze ones, I like them but I don't like the way they texturize, if that makes sense. However so far of all the texture polishes Rimmel is definitely one of my favorite brands by far.

This line is called Sweetie Crush and includes five colors I believe, a light purple, a pastel green, a sky blue and the two colors I picked up, a pastel pink called Candy Floss Cutie and a pastel yellow called Sherbert Sweetheart.

I picked colors that I thought I didn't have from any other brand.

Lets take a look at Candy Floss Cutie. The pastel pink color kind definitely makes me think of Easter and coloring Easter eggs and having that fake Easter grass in the bottom of your Easter basket.

The formula on this was sheer but very buildable, it took about three coats to get to opacity, where as with other texture polishes like the Julie G ones sometimes you can get away with one coat. Although those textures I find to be thicker and a little gloopy. These Rimmel London ones are not.

What I love the most about these polishes is the feeling they have once they have dried. There not super texture-y, these feel more of a soft texture, even with three coats.  Oh and to top it all off there sparkly!!! Who doesn't love shimmer and sparkle???

Now lets take a look at Sherbert Sweetheart. I definitely feel the name fits the polish on this one. Its a pastel yellow that makes me think of lemons and sherbert but also those marshmallow Peeps! I haven't had a Peep in forever! Did you know they even make birthday cake peeps???

Anyhow, this texture just doesn't do it for me. I used three coats like with Candy Floss Cutie, but the yellow is more sheer, so my visible nail line is still slightly visible.

I think I might use this over a yellow polish so the texture pops more like how its concentrated in the bottle. I so wish that it transferred to the nail that way.

The formula on Sherbert Sweetheart is the same as CFC its thin and the texture finish is the same. I'm thinking if I can go back to Rite Aid I might just pick up the rest of the collection to see how the rest fair.

If you want to get your little nails on these affordable textures they retail for $2.25 at local Rite Aid stores!

Thats it for today! I'll catch you guys on Wednsday!! <3 Nicole

Don't forget you can follow me on social media to find out about everything on the blog or just to come and see my randomness on twitter and so forth! Links are up in the top right corner! Hope to see you all there! <3

Free For All Beauty Friday: July Favorites!

Hello!!!

So amongst the 45 Days Of Untried Challenge I have felt a need to start to get some beauty post out there.

In continuing with Free For All Beauty Fridays, today I have my July Favorites to share! I did a favorites post back in May, but skipped June because my favorites really didn't change so much.

July's Favorites are a mix of make up and some skin and body care products! Lets get started!

These favorites are in no particular order by the way!

My first favorite to show you is an eye shadow palette that I am so freaking happy I invested in. While I was watching my favorite YouTube video's Emily Eddington from EmilyNoel83 uploaded a video of high end beauty products worth trying and out of all the high end palettes out their she chose the Lorac Pro Palette.

As for me in desperate need to place a Sephora Order I decided on purchasing the palette. I have always wanted the Urban Decay Naked Palettes but I am so glad I didn't get them.

Please excuse the dirty outside of the palette, the packaging attracts dirt like crazy!

You get 16 beautiful eye shadows, eight are matte and the other eight are shimmery! You get a lot of neutral shades but some fun shades like the Garnet and deep purple shades on the bottom row.

You also get a small eye shadow primer with this palette too, so for the cost which is $42, (which to me  is a lot) you do get your money's worth. I have used this palette EVERYDAY since I got it. With that said its worth a try if you want to start a high end makeup collection, or even just invest in a few key pieces.

My next favorite is more eye shadow products, beside the Lorac Palette I have become obsessed with the Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo Cream Eye Shadows. I only used to own two and they were the normal pink and skin toned shades, I believe they came from the metallic collection that Maybelline put out.

The three that I have picked for my favorites for July are pretty awesome although one is L.E. but I hope that they would put something like it in the core line.

I have found these cream shadows to be so versatile, I can definitely wear them alone or place a powder shadow on top to change it up or increase the intensity.

My two absolute favorites that I picked are Pomegranate Punk and Lavish Lavender.

This beautiful macro photo is of Pomegranate Punk, it is a gorgeous cranberry shade that goes on the eyes a little darker than in the photo. I feel its going to be one of the main colors I wear this fall when back at school.

Next is Lavish Lavender. This shade was a limited edition shade, it was released as a summer collection but I believe it hit store in the spring time. It was part of a collection that had a few duo-chrome color tattoos but none of those stood out to me.

I got this on clearance believe it or not, it was originally $8 bucks and I scored it for $3.99! I would check your local Rite Aid clearance bins to see if you can snag anything left from the collection.

Something I became slightly concerned about back in July was my skin, I noticed it was looking haggard and just overall not good. We all know nowadays that protecting and taking care of our skin is something that we should be on top of, there is nothing wrong with being preventative. I think in my case I just got lazy!

Anyway when I started making myself take care of my skin again I noticed I was out of my nighttime moisturizer. So I was going to repurchase my Simple Skin Care Vital Vitamin Night Cream, which was my go-to for a long time but I couldn't find it anywhere so I was on the hunt for a new brand.

While staring awkwardly at the skin care isle in my local Wal-Mart, I found the brand CeraVe.

I had heard about this brand but not too much. I began to read the packaging and then notice this night cream had an ingredient I was looking for; Hyaluronic Acid. Now your probably thinking, that won't acid be bad for your face? Its not what you think, its a humectant that helps the moisture in your skin and the moisturizer you just put on to keep you as hydrated as possible. I started using it right away and with in the first week I notice a big improvement in my skin.

So I went out and bought the AM version of the moisturizer as well to keep everything together so to speak.


Keeping with skin care for a little bit I have finally found a cleanser that I an use day and night and NOT dry out my skin! Every single cleanser I have tried, whether it says it won't dry out your skin or not always leaves my face tight and feeling like I have to slather on mountians of moisturizer.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser came into my life the same day that I got my new moisturizer. This cleanser is highly fragrant so if you don't like that then this may not be for you. To me it smells like strong baby powder.

I have also noticed that besides improving my skin this cleanser has helped any acne on my face. As of this post I had a small pimple on my chin and I washed with this last night and this morning and the pimple is gone! So I am most definitely in love with this!

My last skin care favorite is a body butter. When I ordered from Sephora I also got a Soap & Glory product. I got The Butter Yourself Body Butter. It smells amazing and five different types of fruit in it. I have used it every night since getting it in the mail. It keeps my skin soft and the fragrance last forever on the skin! I love using it right after I take a shower.

For $20 bucks you get 10 ounces, which doesn't sound like a lot but you do not need a ton of this to slather yourself up with.

I love Soap & Glory products I have used two shower gels from them and just keep falling in love with every other product I try. The first shower gel I had called Clean On Me lasted me a whole year!


Transitioning back into make up for the rest of this post, I have some amazing lip products to show you and a foundation!

So first up the foundation. Maybelline recently introduce a new gel stick foundation into their Fit Me line. When I first saw this at CVS I was intrigued mainly because I had never tried a stick foundation before. I purchased it at CVS for almost 9 bucks but because I had $3 in extra bucks I got it for $6 which is what I saw they sell it for in Walmart anyway.

It also clams to be shine free but using this in the summer I am never shine free, so I will have to update this when the weather cools down for the fall to see if that claim is true. For the price point you do not get a ton of product, you get just under half an ounce of product.

The one you see in photos is my back up that is brand new, the one that I have been using is almost all gone, I've had hit for a little over a month and its almost gone, that makes me sad. I guess that what you get when you use it every day!

With that said though I really like the way this foundation makes my skin look, it doesn't make it flawless but it evens out my redness and dries to a powder feeling. I think that is due to the anti-shine core that also has powder in  it.

I know it looks dark in the photo but I assure you its not that dark in real life.

Last but certainly not least in this favorites post is the lip products I have been loving!

First up are the Rimmel London Show Off Lip Lacquers, if you know about these already then you know the U.K. had them first as Apocalips and they were such a hit that we over here in the states practically demanded they be brought over for us. Rimmel made it happen for us, keeping the same packaging and all but changing the name slightly and adding on additional colors. I hunted my Walgreen's for weeks when these were first sighted in the states.

Today I bring you my two favorites Aurora and Apocalyptic.

In the photo above Aurora is the lip lacquer on the bottom and Apocalyptic is on the top. I know they look the same in color but Aurora is more orange toned and Apocalyptic is more of a hot fuchsia color.

This is what the applicator looks like, just a doe foot one that has a tiny well in it to help control the product, because a little does go a long way with this and you can apply too much and look like a clown. These feel nice on the lips and are not drying. They don't last too long on the lips if you eat or drink anything so if wearing this out to dinner be prepared to reapply.

The last and final favorite that I have is two lipsticks also from Rimmel. These are from their Moisture Renew line, this line isn't new but they have added I believe six new colors.

I got two over the course of July, a lovely nude and what I think is the lipstick version of the Show Off Lip Lacquer Apocalyptic.

The lovely nude color  I have is called Lets Get Naked. I love the name on that one it just so saucy!

The bright berry fuchsia one is called As You Want Victoria

I love the way these feel on my lips they are very moisturizing but the bright color of As You Want Victoria you have to watch because if you accidentally  wipe your mouth with out realizing it you might look like a clown.


So that is it for my July Favorites, I hope you enjoyed and maybe you will find something that you like and will give it a try!

What I reach for...makeup Part 2

Okay in part one I talked mainly face products that I use. Now what works for me may not work for you and I  completely understand that. What I hope these post do are give insight to these product so if someone has seen and read reviews on something and is still on the fence about it.