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| Nyx "Enamored", "Temptress" // Essie "Sable Collar" // Essence "Time for Romance" |
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| Nyx "Enamored", "Temptress" // Essie "Sable Collar" // Essence "Time for Romance" |
Temptress
"Temptress" is a rich royal plum that adopts different personalities in various lights; a deep currant indoors, nearly violet (much more blue) in shade, and a true reddened plum in the sun. Daringly glamorous, dangerously alluring, and delightfully wicked; "Temptress" is a fearless shade for your darker side. Fallen angels, sexy witches, dark fairies: meet your match.
I think "lip cream" is actually a pretty good description of this thing. The consistency of the new Simply line (Vamp, Nude, Pink, Red) by Nyx is simply incredible, across the board. Butter smooth, and with swoon-worthy opacity, this an amazing product to rival my favorite Clinique Chubby Sticks and Revlon products of a similar profile. While other companies have added matte to gain this magnitude of opacity (which is fine, except for its drying quality), the Simply Lip Creams are just pure pigmented lush majestic-ness. The minute these go on BOGO they are all coming home with me. All of them, I say.
I must say, photographing lips is much harder than I expected! This is my first shot at it, so bear with me here :) While striking, purple lips are definitely not the easiest to pull off. This isn't an afterthought you can just tack on with your beloved sweatpants. This lip means business. So I thought I'd try my hand at creating a look that can deal with the formidable force of the purple, and drew up some guidelines that will hopefully make this unconventional hue more wearable!! Yay, beauty roadmap!
DARK GLAMOUR: Laws of the Plum Pout
1. Nothing but neutrals. Your lips are your color accent. You might introduce a jewel tone accessory (i.e. purse or pumps), but other than that I would stick to the elegant, timeless drama of blacks, ivories, camels, and charcoals. The idea is to look classic, not clown-ish (unless you're going to a Halloween party, in which case do yo' thing).
2. Clean, tailored lines. Avoid fussy; the clothes should provide the structure and canvas for the flamboyant lip. I think a purple kisser would look unbelievably chic with a sleek black pencil skirt and architectural ivory top. Essentially: let the lips stand out (they will regardless) and make everything else quiet but quality.
3. Classic, matte eyes & cheeks. I love the chemistry between a glamorous black cat-eye liner and The Lips (va-va-voom!) but that's about as sexy as it gets before it becomes, uh, something else... I went with nude matte tones for my eyes (Stila "In The Know" palette) and cheeks (Stila Convertible Color "Camellia"). I'm a total glitter girl, but even I would recommend holding off on the shimmer for this. I think matte shadows just look so polished with this daring lip color.
4. Gold-tone accessories. This is more of a suggestion than a rule, but I dare you to come up with a look that is more chic and fierce than silky black and/or white with little glimmers of gold. Just sayin'.
5. No apologies! When you put on the plum, you blow yourself a kiss and never look back. Remember, your best accessory is always, ALWAYS, confidence and a smile. It can be a sassy, sultry smile (work it, bombshell!), so long as it's a smile :D
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| * Dark Glamour * |
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| Nyx "Temptress" ("Enamored") |
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Enamored
"Enamored" is a seductive deep mahogany gleaming with a romantic rosewood sheen. Perhaps because "Enamored" reminds me so much of A England's "Briarwood" from the outstanding Sleeping Beauty Collection of autumn 2013, but I find "Enamored" to be such a romantic shade. It brings to mind walks through reddening woodlands, holding mitten hands and capturing breathless kisses between trees. And it is a sweet-talker, too; I can imagine that candy-coated words come only too naturally from chocolate-glazed lips. |
| Nyx "Enamored" |
Because of the fine shimmer, "Enamored" goes with more of a satin finish, and thus will react more with dry lips than "Temptress". A sweep of lip balm before application helps immensely. When I first applied it, "Enamored" reminded me of the time when my auntie gave me the Clinique Chubby Stick "Portly Plum". See, I wasn't aware that there was now a Shadow Tint For Eyes version of the original Chubby Stick for lips, and, excitedly thinking I had just acquired my first purple lip color, I immediately smeared the shadow stick all over my lips. Such fails. Incidentally, "Enamored" does have much more glide than "Portly Plum", as appropriate for lips versus eyes; I guess the Shadow Tint incident was just a very vivid and memorable surprise haha.
ROGUE ROMANCE: Tips for a Chocolate Kisser
1. Unless it is your objective to appear trapped in a time capsule from the late 80's-90's, thou shalt forgo all of the following: chunky highlights, blocky platform sandals, chalky blue eyeshadow, pasty pale foundation, tube tops, spiky hair fluffing, "tattoo" chokers, ill-fitting slouchy drab anything (most especially if it has spaghetti straps), entirely denim or velour ensembles, crimping for chrissake... I feel (hope) that these things go without saying, but just needed to make extra extra sure. Am I forgetting anything, fellow survivors of the 1990's?? If any more ideas occur to you, shout them out in the comments; this list needs to be exhaustive and iron-clad!!!
2. Modern silhouettes with feminine detailing. I was inspired by the charged dynamic between richly sensuous mahogany lip and sweetly innocent blush silk, plus a few gemstones for some requisite sparkle. I think the magic happens when that balance is struck; it's all about the sugar and the spice. A piece with a hint of vintage, a dash of glamour, and laced with ladylike grace makes an ever so sophisticated match with a lush chocolate pout.
3. Light, delicate eyes & cheeks. To offset the impact of rich brown lips, brighten it up with soft neutral hues on the eyes. I'm sporting the same maquillage as with "Temptress" here, but I think you could beautifully introduce some pearlescence to your shadow provided that it is sweet and subtle.
4. Rosebud elements. I was all about the ivory rose earrings for these looks; I love the juxtaposition between the bright purity of the rose and the dark romance of the lips.
5. Get your flirt on! XOXO
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| * Rogue Romance * |
Who would have thought that a brown lip color could feel so polished?? I think that this is what I've been looking for to add some refinement to my ultra-girly, vintage flower print Miss Me skinnies. Here I compiled a wardrobe palette inspired by the classical Sleeping Beauty of the A England collection (and along with it, the Burne-Jones paintings), where sugary sweetness is edged by brooding twilight tones. Featured is my only polish from the Sleeping Beauty Collection (well THAT needs to be rectified), the heartbreakingly beautiful "Briar Rose".
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| A England "Briar Rose" // Nyx - Simply Vamp "Enamored" |
Essie "Sable Collar"
At the same time that I picked up "Enamored", I found "Sable Collar" at TJMaxx, and I couldn't help but notice that they are incredibly similar in shade and shimmer. "Sable Collar" is a dark chocolate stricken with a marron rose shimmer, and it applies like a ganache dream in two coats. I added a glitter gradient of Essence "Time for Romance" because, what the heck, it matched perfectly too. My boyfriend actually commented that this manicure was very sophisticated, glitter and all, and it did feel very elegant, which pleasantly surprised me.
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| Essie "Sable Collar" + Essence "Time for Romance" // Nyx "Enamored" |
Well this has been quite tangential. Anyways, in these pictures I wore "Temptress" & "Enamored" over my Nyx "Lip Primer", which I love for its pigment-grabbing texture. Do note that "Temptress" stains, though for me it was a muted light berry pink that I loved so I thought it was great. The boyfriend wanted me to make sure you know that he does not like these; I actually had to seize onto his head and hold it steady in order to get a kiss out of him while I was wearing "Enamored", and he very sourly trudged over to the mirror immediately afterwards to address the damage (just a little chocolate kiss, really no big deal). I don't think his aversion is to the aesthetic quality of the dark lip; he just really doesn't care for color transferring. Interestingly enough, glitter glosses seem to amuse rather than dismay him (dating me, he's gotten used to being covered at all times with spontaneous sparkles), but he will fall over himself to get away if I come after him with highly pigmented lips. So there you have it: vampies not appreciated by significant others. Ah, shucks.
The new Nyx Simply Vamp/Nude/Pink/Red Lip Creams may be found at Ulta and Nyx Cosmetics; part of the Nyx line can also be found at CVS and Nordstrom Rack, but I'm not sure about these being available there. I'm looking forward to picking up Bewitching and Covet ASAP, plus like all of the nudes and pinks. I love Nyx so much, they have such outstanding quality for their modest price points (and frequent sales, whoot!). I hoard their lip products like you wouldn't believe, so I'm both delighted and slightly terrified that they've released this fantastic line. No idea if it's permanent or not; anyone know?? I certainly hope so!! The Lip Creams retail for $6.49 each.
How do you flaunt your wicked lip colors??
XOXO
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