Rimmel cream gel, Revlon whipped creme... it all sounds like desert to me!

UPDATE: Revlon Colorstay Whipped Creme Makeup is now available in Australia and retails for $34.95

Revlon Colorstay Whipped Creme Makeup has come out in the US recently, but knowing how long things take to get to Australia, I'm thinking we might have a while to wait. So me being ever impatient and reading glowing reviews about this foundation and thinking "oh yes that sounds amazing for me" after reading each one, I just ordered the damn thing on eBay. I know that Buff is a pretty good colour match for me in the Revlon Colorstay Normal/Dry so I crossed my fingers and ordered. Thankfully the colour match is near perfect. Lucky for everyone, I couldn't help making comparisons to Rimmel's Match Perfection Cream Gel foundation. This is great news because it's available in Australia and retails for a very reasonable $17.95.

Here's my comparison:

L-R: Rimmel Match Perfection Cream Gel Foundation in 100 (Ivory), Colorstay Whipped Creme Makeup in 150 (Buff)

Both of the foundations come in glass tubs. I hate this kind of packaging. I'm definitely a squeezy tube or pump kind of gal. OK so once we've come to grips with the breakable, messy, unhygienic and annoying to travel with glass packing, I can't help to notice the difference in size between the two. For reference, the Rimmel foundation is 18mL and the Revlon is 23.7mL. Soooo there is 25% more foundation from Revlon, but the tub is at least twice as big! It is huge. I don't know if I could ever justify putting it in my makeup bag for travel, it's about the same size as a Clinique moisturiser jar.

Annoying little plastic lids you have to take off and try not to put them on your counter foundation side down. The Revlon one fell and landed vegemite side down on bathroom floor yesterday.

Revlon describes the texture of their foundation as "whipped". I like Rimmel's "cream gel" description more as it makes more sense to me. The textures are almost identical. They're gel-like, creamy ("cream gel"), siliconey foundations that definitely sit somewhere between a liquid and a cream foundation. I find Rimmel's is notably smoother whereas Revlon's is thicker. This is evident when you use them and explains why Revlon just beats out Rimmel on the coverage stakes, whereas Rimmel's finish is more natural.

L-R: Rimmel and Revlon

Blended out, L-R: Rimmel and Revlon

For me, Rimmel loses out the most in colour choice. There's only a handful of shades so it might be hard to find your perfect match. As you can see from the swatches above, Rimmel's "Ivory" is much darker and peachier than the Revlon Colorstay. It's not as much of an issue when it's blended out, but if I layer Rimmel to increase coverage it's definitely too dark. On the topic of coverage both are are medium to medium/full coverage. They cover minor redness but acne and scarring does show through. They also both have a similar soft matte finish, which is my favorite kind of finish and feel lightweight on the skin. If you have oily skin you will definitely want to use a mattifying powder with both these foundations. To get a day's wear out of either of these foundations I need to use some form of powder on my combo skin - for most days MAC MSF Natural is great.

Unsurprisingly, Revlon Colorstay wins out in the long-lasting stakes. Both get through a full working day no worries with small amount of fading, but the Rimmel foundation can get slightly patchy around my oily T-zone if I do a lot of running around and I'm not sure how well it will hold up in the summer. Because of this I think the Rimmel one works well for dry through to combination skin, whereas I see Revlon working for all skin types. I read reviews where people noted the Revlon foundation clinging to dry patches, but I haven't found this. On me, neither foundation accentuates dry patches and even seems to smooth them out. No breakouts from either of these foundations - thumbs up.

So all in all I like both foundations. When I'm after more natural coverage that makes my skin feel outta this world smooth I like Rimmel's Match Perfection Cream Gel Foundation - if the colour match was better I think this might be a clear winner for me. For heavier coverage or if I'm after a 7am-10pm (workday to dinner) kind of wear I'll use the Revlon.

Have you tried either of these foundations? And what are your favorite neutral foundations if you have fair skin?

How to wear bright coral and orange lipsticks

So this is the little sister post of my favorite bright coral and orange lipstick one. Wearing bright lipstick can be daunting, particularly vibrant orange shades. The key is to keep the rest of your face muted. The other issue for me with wearing bright lipsticks is that I have big red splodges all over my face from some recent, horrendous breakouts. You don't want your lipstick competing for bright coloured attention with those.

So for me, rule #1 is to start with a flawless base, a good medium-full coverage foundation and some heavy duty concealing to get rid of the redness.

Secondly, neutral eyes. During the day, I  quite like nude with bright lips, so for me that's a little bit of brown or black pencil in the outer corners of my eyes and some mascara. For night time I might get jiggy with some neutral eyeshadows of the bronze or peach persuasion and/or a basic black winged eyeliner.

Lastly, I go for vibrant blushes but use them lightly. On me, blue based or baby pinks look awful with orangey lips - I don't know if this is across the board, or just me, but it's just so bad. My two favorites are Stila Convertible Color in Petunia and Benefit Coralista. Petunia is a vibrant bright pink, almost coral shade. As it's a cream blush that doesn't really dry down so to mute it I like to apply it before a light dusting of MAC MSF Natural, that also helps to set it. Coralista just works. Gorgeous coral blush that I can apply lightly for a coral glow. The other thing that works well is just using bronzer and skipping the blush.

L-R: Stila Convertible Color in Petunia, Benefit Coralista

Daytime, bright coral look

Rimmel Match Perfection Cream Gel Foundation in Ivory

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer in Fair

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch in Ivory

Collection 2000 concealer in 1 (Light)

MAC MSF Natural in Medium

Stila Convertible Color in Petunia

MAC Prolongwear Bronzer in Nude on Board

MAC Eye Kohl in Teddy

SHE Mascara in Rich Black

Chanel Crayon Sourcils Sculpting Eyebrow Pencil in #10 Blond Clair

Clinique Long Last Lipstick in Runway Coral

And lastly, if in doubt as to how to match it with your outfit, wear black. 

I really need to get me some Bobbi Brown Corrector - look at those bad boys! My dark circles are bigger than my eyeballs....

How do you like to wear bright lipstick? And what's your favorite one? I'm always on the look out for more vibrant colours!

Bright coral and orange lips feat. Clinique Runway Coral

So with corals and orange being pretty big right now, I thought I'd tell you how I like to wear these amazing lip colours. When it comes to make up, I'm not a big believer in there being a right way or a wrong way. I just muck around until I figure out what's right for me. I also don't know how these tips would apply to darker skinned people, but I think paler types are often the ones to shy away from bright colours - so maybe this will help all the little caspers out there like myself.


I'll start by showing some great coral and orange shades that I think should be very wearable.

L-R: MAC Tendertone in Purring, Clinique Long Last Lipstick in Runway Coral, Revlon Super Lustrous in Coralberry, Topshop Lipstick in Infrared, Revlon Lipgloss in Firecracker, L'oreal Nutrishine in Nuddy Coral

Lip balms and glosses
I've included a couple of sheer lip balm products in the mix because I find when I wear these long-lasting and bright colours I like to keep them a little bit glossy and hydrated. The MAC tendertone in Purring is a really nice super sheer orange that works great on top of coral and orange lipsticks. Unfortunately the tendertones are limited edition... but yay if you managed to get one - I love the fruity scent and SPF. I find the L'oreal Nutrishine in Nuddy Coral a great alternative. The light colour on your lips is so similar to the tendertone and it has a similar hydrating feel but in the convenience of a lipstick style package. Definitely recommend it. No fruity scent though :(

The Revlon Lipgloss in Firecracker is definitely my favorite high shine lipgloss for wearing over corals and oranges to deepen the orange. It looks red in the tube, but it's definitely a deep orange on the lips. It has no shimmer, just a high gloss finish. The scent is kind of like plasticky vanilla. I like it some kind of sick way - you know how you like mac & cheese from a packet even though it's totally fake and not real cheese - yeah, like that. The texture is thick but not too sticky as well.

The Lipsticks
Here are the lipsticks arranged from pinkest to pure orange.

L-R: Revlon Super Lustrous in Coralberry, Clinique Long Last Lipstick in Runway Coral, Topshop Lipstick in Infrared

... and swatches!!

1. Revlon Coralberry

2. Clinique Runway Coral

3. Topshop Infrared

4. Revlon Firecracker

5. MAC Purring

6. L'oreal Nuddy Coral

This blog post was inspired by the limited edition Clinique Long Last Lipstick in Runway Coral. You can still get it on the clinique website, and it's online exclusive (here). It a great, vibrant shade of coral that's on the pinker side so easier for the orange-o-phobes to wear. It's super long lasting, without a drying formula. The only thing I don't like is how it dried down matt after an hour or so. I can get over it by applying balm or gloss, but it would be perfect if it stayed a beautiful satin finish. I would definitely recommend this lipstick.

Clinique Runway Coral

If you are just toying with these brighter orange-ish shades then you can't go to far wrong with the Revlon Coralberry. The shade is a pretty close dupe for Clinique's Runway Coral, but a tad lighter and pinker. It doesn't have the pigment punch that Clinique's offering does, but for the lower price and easier to wear shade I think it's hard to pass up.

Revlon Coralberry

Now if you've toyed with the corals and think you're ready for the big guns, I L.O.V.E. Topshop's Infrared. It's $15.... yep that's Australian dollars, waltzing into Topshop and grabbing it off the shelf, not on special. I am so impressed by the formula. It reminds me a lot of MAC Cremesheen lipsticks . This is a bright orange that wears for hours and doesnt fade patchy. I am definitely going to get my hands on more of the shades. Just look at that pigmentation!

Topshop Infrared

I was going to make this a post on how to wear bright corals and orange but this has turned into a monster thesis. Stay tuned and I'll post up how to avoid clown face next time.

REVIEW: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains

I've been hearing about the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains (we'll just refer to them as "the revlon stains" from now on shall we...) all over the net for a month or so. They've been released in the US but not other markets yet I don't think. As always, we'll probably be waiting ages for these in Australia, we did only just get the Revlon Lip Butters. So behind the times! I ordered mine off eBay at about $10 each.

These are the three colours I got:

Romantic - lovely brick red

Honey - mauvey, pinky, brown

Sweetheart - gorgeous fuschia

L-R: Sweetheart, Romantic, Honey

The problem I have with almost all lip products is that my lips are super dry. Even when a lipstick is "moisturising" I'm still slathering on half a tube of lip balm underneath to keep my lips hydrated. My lips will still dry out and after a few hours the lipstick has clung to my dry patches and me lips go all flaky and feral and the flakes are super pigmented with lipstick. It's gross. Anyway, all this "T.M.I." is for a reason - and that's that these revlon stains don't do that. They are really weightless in feel and although the gloss only lasts an hour or so the stain lasts for hours. I don't know if it's because there's less product on my lips but the revlon stains don't tend to give me the flakies. I also love that they don't have shimmer! I hate shimmer in lipsticks because it often turns out like previously mentioned flakies with sand in between. Anyway, so the texture and lasting power is great. Onto the colors....

Front-Back: Romantic, Honey, Sweetheart

I like Romantic, it's the kind of red I would wear as a statement lip. I haven't tested this, but I think one day I will try layering a red lippie over the top and kind of using it as a lip liner. I'll keep you posted. It's not a pure red, it's on the brick side of reds so makes my teeth a little yellow. But it's not the worst I've seen.

Honey is an amazing everyday colour. You'd think from the name that it's brown. But it's not. It has a bit of brown in there somewhere, but is mainly a light mauvey pink. On my light skin tone this is so wearable as it isn't that obvious but adds a touch of colour. It's great because I'll reapply after lunch and it pretty much lasts the day.

Sweeatheart is another favorite of mine. It's a bright fuscia, the first bright fuscia lip product I've owned and let me tell you I am going to buy more! Photo below. More words on the colour not needed. Winter go away and bring on spring!

I will definitely be purchasing more of these. They are the best lip product I have tried in a long time.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Sweetheart