Sneak Peek of the New L'oreal Spring 2016 Line

October 28, 2015, 3:39 pm

≫ Next: New Amope Pedi Perfect and Nail Care System

≪ Previous: Wet n Wild Reserve Your Cabana Review and Swatches (Hourglass Ambient Dupe)

I have some exciting sneak peeks for you guys of the new L'oreal Spring 2016 line, which is due out iin February (although the drugstores normally put these out near the end of December so you can start looking then). I grabbed these screenshots from beautylogicblog on Snapchat...she's the Senior Beauty Editor of Cosmo for Latinas and has the best sneak peeks from all her meetings with brands, so if you're on Snapchat, definitely follow her!

So the first new product is the True Match Lumi Cushion Buildable Luminous Foundation. It comes in 12 shades. I say it's about time a drugstore brand launched a cushion foundation! I've used Laneige's version that I bought at Target last year and I love it but it's $34! I've also tried a few from Etude House which are more reasonable but need to be ordered from Korea. So it'll be nice to have a cheaper option that can be purchased right at the drugstore.

loreal true match lumi cushion foundation

Here's a shot inside the compact...it looks just like other cushion foundations I've tried, where the sponge sits on top of a little tray.

Then the tray lifts to the side to reveal the foundation-saturated sponge.

Next up is the Infallible Pro-Contour Contour & Highlight Palette, which will come in three shades. Each one has one highlight and one contour shade and I'm not sure what's in the bottom part of the compact, but I'm guessing it's either a sponge or brush. I guess we'll see!

They're saying that these Infallible Pro Matte Glosses are new, but they were actually launched for Spring 2015 (I reviewed them here). I don't know if this is just a re-promote or if the formula has changed...or if these are ten new shades? Hmm...inquiring minds want to know!

Here are swatches of four of the matte glosses. Haha...matte gloss sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it?

I'm super excited about these new ColourRiche eyeshadows! They've been out in Europe for a while and I've seen swatches on other blogs and YouTube and they look amazing... and very highly pigmented.

Here's a swatch of that bright blue shade...sorry it's blurry but the picture was moving and I tried to grab a screenshot as best as I could. :)

Finally, the Advanced Haircare line is launching an Oil Complex shampoo (and I'm guessing conditioner?) that's a nourishing formula with Argan, Chamomile, Coconut, Amla, Soja, and Sunflower oils. It claims to give you lustrous, soft hair in 1 wash.

So there you have it! A bunch of new stuff to look forward to! What are you most excited about? Anything that doesn't interest you?

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New Amope Pedi Perfect and Nail Care System

October 29, 2015, 6:01 am

≫ Next: My Favorite Drugstore Highlighter

≪ Previous: Sneak Peek of the New L'oreal Spring 2016 Line

If you love the Amope Pedi Perfect as much as I do, you'll be excited to know that they've just released two new products to their line...an extra coarse electronic foot file and an electronic nail care system. Let's take a look!

The new battery-operated nail care system features three attachments for filing, buffing and shining nails and has two speed settings. The system has also been designed for portability, able to fit in a purse or bag.

The new Extra Coarse foot file comes in pink and now features a rotating head with diamond crystals for buffing away hard skin. The head is also interchangeable with the original blue Amope Pedi Perfect.

I'm really excited to try both of them!

The Nail Care System is $39.99 and the Extra Coarse Foot File $39.99 are both available at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

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My Favorite Drugstore Highlighter

October 29, 2015, 6:50 am

≫ Next: Spotted: New Physicians Formula Extreme Shimmer Disco Glam Collection

≪ Previous: New Amope Pedi Perfect and Nail Care System

I love highlighters and hoard them like crazy, and while there are tons of affordable options from brands like City Color, Colourpop, and L.A. Girl, they're not usually sold in stores and the drugstore brands really haven't jumped on the strobing bandwagon just yet. But what if I told you that you that there's an affordable highlighter that's available pretty much everywhere... at your local Walgreens, Target, CVS, or Walmart?

I shared this little tip with my Instagram followers last night, and I wasn't sure how it would be received...an eyeshadow as a highlighter? It sounds a little crazy, but the Maybelline Color Tattoo Metal eyeshadow in Barely Branded is the perfect champagne gold shade for highlighting! And you may already have this in your makeup stash.

It has a beautiful metallic shine but it's not overly glittery or sparkly. It just gives a beautiful sheen to your skin and brings light to the high points of your face. It also lasts all day.

One tip though...this formula dries really fast, so you have to work quickly or it'll dry all stripey on your cheeks. I like to use my fingers because it warms up the product and I just press it into my skin and blend quickly in a light layer, then build from there if necessary.

Here are a few articles I found from others that are actually using this product as a highlighter (I had to Google it to make sure I wasn't crazy)!

This makeup artist uses it on all the models at fashion shows.

Alle from xoVain recently discovered it at Fashion Week

If you already have it, try using it as a highlighter the next time you do your makeup. Don't have it? This one is a must-have, even if you're just using it as an eyeshadow, it's gorgeous!

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Spotted: New Physicians Formula Extreme Shimmer Disco Glam Collection

October 29, 2015, 3:01 pm

≫ Next: Spotted: New Almay One Coat Mascara and Intense I-Color Gel Liners

≪ Previous: My Favorite Drugstore Highlighter

Yesterday, I posted a sneak peek on my Instagram page of the new Physicians Formula Extreme Shimmer Collection, which I saw on beautylogicblog's Snapchat. Her captions said this would be out in February, so imagine my surprise when I saw this display at Bed, Bath & Beyond today! There were no prices on anything yet, because they were just putting it out (and there are still more products to come) so I don't have that information just yet. But I did notice that they don't have those little coupons on the boxes like they usually do, so that's kind of a bummer. Let's take a closer look...

The Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner is described as a "highly pigmented liquid powder eye shadow with ultra-brilliant pearl pigments." It comes with a flat eyeliner brush, so you can use these to line your eyes, or as eye shadows. This display has four color combinations, so here's a closer look at each one:

Gold Nude

Bronze Nude

Copper Nude

Glam Nude

Next up are the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Pencil + Smudger Trio in Glam Nude. This set includes three "shockingly shimmery" long wearing (up to 24 hours) eyeliner pencils that include a smudger on one end. This set includes gold, brown and black shades.

Finally, the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Kohl Kajal + Liquid Liner Trio in Glam Nude. This set also contains gold, brown and black shades in an ultra-shimmery formula. These aren't full-size kajal pencils...they unscrew about a third of the way down where that gold band is and that becomes a liquid liner brush, while the bottom part of the tube is a shimmery liquid liner.

I tried to enlarge this part of the display photo so you can see what I'm talking about...you can kind of see how the black tube has the Kajal pencil tip on one end and the liner brush on the other.

What do you guys think about this so far? Is there anything you're dying to get from this collection or will you be passing on these? I'll post more photos when they put out the rest of the new products...there's also going to be a Super BB InstaReady powder and blush/bronzer tubes that look like dupes of Benefit's Fine-One-One. Stay tuned!

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Spotted: New Almay One Coat Mascara and Intense I-Color Gel Liners

October 29, 2015, 3:35 pm

≫ Next: The It Cosmetics Most Wished For Holiday Palette is Here!

≪ Previous: Spotted: New Physicians Formula Extreme Shimmer Disco Glam Collection

It's not often that Almay launches new products, but there were two new offerings at Bed, Bath & Beyond this afternoon...a new mascara and gel eyeliners! Even though I don't always find Almay to be the most exciting brand at the drugstore, I'm pretty excited about these. Maybe it's the mascara junkie in me that just can't resist a new formula, but it also sounds like it could be pretty great. Let's take a closer look...

The new One Coat Multi-Benefit Mascara claims to be a lash-loving, non-irritating formula with keratin that builds the ultimate lash look with volume, length and definition while conditioning your lashes.

I'm all for mascaras that do-it-all since I love that false-lash look. I'll definitely be picking this one up to try!

Next up are the Intense I-Color Gel Smooth Liners. They come in four eye-enhancing shades and claim to have 12 hour wear in a soft, silky formula that glides on smoothly and evenly. There are four shades...Black (for brown eyes), Navy (for blue eyes), Charcoal (for hazel eyes) and Espresso (for green eyes).

What do you think? Will you be trying either of these new products from Almay?

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The It Cosmetics Most Wished For Holiday Palette is Here!

October 30, 2015, 9:28 pm

≫ Next: Spotted: NEW Revlon Colorstay 2-in-1 Compact Makeup and Concealer

≪ Previous: Spotted: New Almay One Coat Mascara and Intense I-Color Gel Liners

I'm a huge fan of IT Cosmetics and have reviewed a lot of their products here on the blog, so I'm really excited about their Special Edition Most Wished For Holiday Palette($49.98 at QVC). This is a perfect opportunity to try a bunch of IT Cosmetics' best sellers and it's also the perfect gift for the makeup lover in your life! It even comes gift-wrapped with a beautiful silver bow, complete with a blank tag to fill out, so it's ready to go! Let's take a closer look at what's included:

In this palette, you'll receive:

18 Eyeshadows

Four Bye Bye Under Eye Correctors

Three Bye Bye Pores Pressed Blushes

One Matte Bronzer

One Bye Bye Pores Pressed

One Hello Light Creme Luminizer

One Hello Light Powder Luminizer

Six Blurred Lines Lipsticks

This is a universal kit that's perfect for women of any age ! Right now, it's also available on 2 Easy Pays, and if you've never ordered from QVC before, I'll just tell you it's one of my favorite features! You don't need a QVC card or anything like that, you can use your own Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, or Discover and they'll charge you half when you buy it and then you'll see one more charge for the other half next month, so it's like putting it on layaway except you get to have it right away. There's no extra fees associated with Easy Pay...they just take the cost of the item (plus shipping and tax) and divide it by 2! I don't always use it, but sometimes it comes in handy for more expensive items.

You can find this now exclusively at QVC.com!

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Spotted: NEW Revlon Colorstay 2-in-1 Compact Makeup and Concealer

October 31, 2015, 4:26 pm

≫ Next: Spotted: New Revlon Mascara Bar

≪ Previous: The It Cosmetics Most Wished For Holiday Palette is Here!

Happy Halloween, I hope you guys are having a great day! I was at Bed, Bath & Beyond this morning and spotted this new Revlon Colorstay 2-in-1 Compact Makeup & Concealer. I absolutely love Revlon foundations, I've always had good luck with them, especially the Colorstay line, so I have high hopes for this one. Let's take a look...

revlon colorstay 2 in 1 compact makeup concealer

There's no information available about this online as of this posting, but the display offered a little bit of information. Basically, this is a cream foundation in a compact that houses a coordinating concealer. The compact also includes a mirror and an applicator, so it's really an all-in-one convenient face compact.

There are 12 shades, ranging from Ivory to Cappuccino. I'm wondering if the concealer is an exact match to the foundation or if it's slightly lighter...it was hard to tell just by looking at it- they looked very close if not exactly the same.

I'll be posting a review on this in the next couple of weeks! What do you guys think about compact foundations (or Revlon foundations) are you a fan?

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Spotted: New Revlon Mascara Bar

October 31, 2015, 4:58 pm

≫ Next: Revlon Not Just Nudes Eyeshadow Palette Review & Swatches

≪ Previous: Spotted: NEW Revlon Colorstay 2-in-1 Compact Makeup and Concealer

Today while I was at Bed, Bath & Beyond, I saw a brand new Revlon display with 5 brand new mascaras! When I reviewed the Ultimate All-in-One formula a few weeks ago, I had no idea that there would be 4 more formulas! The original display I saw at Rite Aid only had that one, so it's pretty interesting to see even more showing up in stores. Let's take a look at what these claim to do, plus I'll show you what these look like on an actual person!

I found a great article on PopSugar Beauty about these new formulas and they actually tested them all on one person so that you can see the differences in her results. So I'll re-post those photos here so you can see what they look like on real lashes.

First, there's the Ultimate All-in-One, which is supposed to give Volume, Length, Definition, Lift and Intense Color, and the Ultra Volume Formula which is supposed to create "massive lashes".

Here's the Ultimate All-in-One results:

Revlon Ultimate All-in-One Mascara
Photo Credit: PopSugar Beauty

Here's the Volume Formula:

Revlon Ultra Volume Mascara
Photo Credit: PopSugar Beauty

Next is the Super Length formula, which claims to give "long, lush lashes" and Volume + Length for "mega amplified lashes".

Here's the Super Length formula:

Revlon Super Length Mascara
Photo Credit: PopSugar Beauty

And here's the Volume + Length (to me it doesn't look like it adds any more volume than the Super Length formula above):

Revlon Volume + Length mascara
Photo Credit: PopSugar Beauty

Finally, the Dramatic Definition formula claims to give bold, clump free lashes.

Here's what Dramatic Definition looks like on, and it may be just me, but this one actually looks like her lashes are clumping together more than the others!

Revlon Dramatic Definition Mascara
Photo Credit: PopSugar Beauty

Overall, I'm still not sure which other formulas I'd want to try. The photos of the model wearing the different formulas made me a little bit more confused because some of them don't appear to match their descriptions. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on these!

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Revlon Not Just Nudes Eyeshadow Palette Review & Swatches

November 2, 2015, 11:18 am

≫ Next: e.l.f. Illuminating Palette Review & Swatches

≪ Previous: Spotted: New Revlon Mascara Bar

Last week, I spotted the new Revlon Colorstay Not Just Nudes palettes at Walgreens ($14.99 each) and even though I'm not usually a fan of Revlon eyeshadows, I grabbed them both because I knew you guys would probably have questions about these and would be interested to know what they're like. These come in two shades...01 Passionate Nudes, which has warmer tans, browns, gold and bronze and 02 Romantic Nudes, which has cooler browns, pinks, purples and grays.

In general, drugstore eyeshadow palettes have been largely disappointing for me (although the L'oreal La Palette Nudes were the best of the bunch) so I tend to just bite the bullet and buy more expensive ones, and I also look to drugstore alternative brands like City Color, L.A. Girl and Profusion because they're even less expensive than the drugstore and the quality is top-notch.

But that doesn't stop me from wishing that the next drugstore palette will be great, because for the sake of convenience, it would be an amazing thing to just walk into Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aid and pick up a great eyeshadow palette. So keep on reading to see if these new palettes finally get it right!

First of all, the name Not Just Nudes sounded familiar to me and then I realized that Revlon has already had a palette called Not Just Nudes...it was this one:

I bought this cream shadow palette when it first came out back in...was it the 90's or maybe early 2000's? It seems like a very long time ago! It came in other shades too, but the only one I ever bought was the Not Just Nudes one.

Packaging-wise, the new Not Just Nudes palettes look pretty similar to the Maybelline Nudes range, but they're bigger and a little bit more solid-feeling. The plastic feels a bit thicker and not quite as cheap, (but just a little bit). Here's the cooler-toned Romantic Nudes next to the Maybelline Blushed Nudes so you can see the differences. The Maybelline palette is smaller but has 12 shades while the Revlon one has 10...but the pans are larger in the Revlon palette. The Revlon palette is also more expensive at $14.99 vs. $11.99 for the Maybelline palette (I'm using Walgreens pricing for comparison here, you can probably find both cheaper at other places such as Walmart or Target, but the Revlon palette will likely still cost more).

Taking a closer look at each palette, lets start with 01 Passionate Nudes. This palette has a mix of matte and shimmer shades in warmer tones. I was pretty unimpressed with the pigmentation here. There was one standout shade that felt buttery and went on smoothly (with or without primer), and that was the bronze shade in the top row, 4th one from the left. The worst shade in the palette has to be the dark gray one directly underneath the bronze shade in the bottom row, 4th one from the left. It's a packed with glitter (although you can't really tell in the pan) and it just crumbles everywhere with tons of fallout and goes on much lighter than it looks. Plus, it easily wipes away from the skin.

The rest are just meh. As much as I didn't like the Maybelline Nudes palette, I felt that at least that one had a few shades that were buttery and pigmented while the rest were just ok.

I swatched these without primer first, and they just didn't have any intensity compared to what they look like in the palette. They were dry and powdery for the most part and didn't have much lasting power on my skin, wiping away pretty easily.

With primer, some of the darker shades came through a little bit better, but when layered over a base they became very hard to blend.

The 02 Romantic Nudes palette is full of cooler toned shades that I was really drawn to, especially that cranberry shade in the top row (2nd from left) and the purplish gray one all the way to the right of the top row. This one actually had better pigmentation that the Passionate Nudes palette for some strange reason, especially once I had used it for a few days. It seemed like once I broke through the top layer of these shadows they applied a little better (but that didn't happen with the other one).
In the bottom row, the pink shade 2nd from the left and the purple shade on the right were glittery shades that had major fallout and left glitter dust everywhere, swatching very light compared to their appearance in the pans. The rest of these applied ok...still not fantastic but better than the warmer palette.

revlon not just nudes romantic nudes palette

Looking at these swatches, there's definitely a difference between this one and the Passionate Nudes palette. Without primer, they swatched ok...not super pigmented but not terrible either. Over primer, these had a nice intensity for the most part, except for those two glittery shades I mentioned (in the swatch photos it's the purple one at the bottom and the pink one that's the 4th shade up from the bottom). But again, over primer, they became very difficult to blend.

So, do I think you should pay $14.99 for these? Nope! Maybe the Romantic Nudes one would be something to try if it was on sale, but I honestly think that I liked the Maybelline Nudes palettes better than these (and I wasn't a fan of those either).

If you're looking for affordable palettes with better pigmentation, I'd recommend trying some by City Color or the Beauty Bricks by L.A. Girl $9 (check out my reviews of them here and here.

Sorry I didn't have better news with these! I had my fingers crossed that maybe these were a new and improved formula or something but sadly, they just didn't pan out for me, especially at $14.99.

Have you tried these yet? What are your thoughts?

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e.l.f. Illuminating Palette Review & Swatches

November 3, 2015, 1:04 pm

≫ Next: Sneak Peek of the New Milani Spring 2016 Line!

≪ Previous: Revlon Not Just Nudes Eyeshadow Palette Review & Swatches

Recently, the e.l.f. Illuminating Palette ($6 at eyeslipsface.com) came back after a hiatus over the summer. When it first debuted in June, it was called the Ambient Palette and it disappeared pretty quickly leaving a lot of people upset and speculating that maybe they didn't have enough stock to fill the orders they received. But if I had to guess, my theory is that they had to pull it because the name was too similar to another famous "ambient palette"... and the reason I'm thinking that is because now that it's back, it has a different name but the palette is exactly the same. But I could be wrong!

So not only will I be reviewing this palette on it's own, I'll also compare it to the Hourglass Ambient Palette to see if this is a possible dupe. Let's get started!

elf illuminating palette review swatches

The e.l.f. Illuminating Palette comes in a box, and when you open it up, the palette itself is a square shape with a matte black finish on the top and shiny plastic on the edges and bottom. The bottom of the palette actually looks unfinished because you can see the outline of the pans... it kind of seems like it's missing a cover on the bottom or something. Maybe it's just me?

Inside, the e.l.f. Illuminating Palette has a large, full size mirror which is such a great thing to have, and four illuminating finishing powders.

These shades aren't overwhelmingly shimmery, they're much more subtle than your average highlight, so right away, that makes me think of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting palette! I tend to use the Hourglass powders more liberally than I would use a more shimmery highlighting powder and I've been using these e.l.f. powders in the same way.
The top left shade is a white shade with a slight yellow tint to it, while the top right shade is a pale pink. On the bottom left, is a beige shade and on the bottom right is a golden bronze shade.

These swatches may be a little hard to see because they sort of blend into my skin tone especially the middle two. But these are very pigmented, finely milled and soft and they blend beautifully into the skin.

Everyone will likely use these in different ways, depending on their skin tone, but here's how I've been using them:

The brightest shade on the top left is the perfect setting powder for my concealer underneath my eyes. I also take it up into the inner corners of my eyes to brighten the whole area.

The light pink shade has a little bit more shimmer and is great for highlighting my cheekbones when I just want a subtle, lit-from-within look as opposed to a full-on highlight.

I use the bottom left beige shade (which reminds me so much of Hourglass Dim Light) all over my face as a finishing powder. It's the least shimmery of all the shades in this palette, so I can do that without looking like a disco ball. It's close to my own skin color, but just adds a hint of glow and warms up my cool skin just a little without completely changing the color.

I haven't really found a use for the bronzy shade yet, since pulls a bit orange on me. I'm so cool-toned, almost every bronzer tends to look orange against my skin. But even if I can't use this shade, I can't complain. The other three work beautifully on me and this palette is a bargain.

elf illuminating ambient palette swatches

So how does this compare to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting palette...is it a dupe?

Texture-wise, they feel a bit different than the Hourglass powders. When I swirl my finger into an Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder, it feels dry, but not in a bad way...the powder is very compact so there's no crumbling or fallout at all and they're super pigmented.

The e.l.f. Illuminating powders on the other hand are super soft and buttery but also have a tendency to crumble a little bit and cause fallout. Still, they are very pigmented (just slightly less so than the Hourglass powders).

Neither one is better or worse for me because the end result is still very similar. I just wanted to make you aware of the different textures, but for me, it's mostly about the end result. If I can get similar results from a $6 vs a $58 palette, I'll deal with a little bit of fallout!

Again, I'm sorry if these swatches are hard to see on my skin, but I was surprised to see how close these shades are to the Hourglass Ambient powders!

When compared to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting palette, the beige shade on the bottom left looks just like Dim Light, which is supposed to create a radiance that balances cool and warm tones. The pink shade on the top right of the palette looks very similar to Incandescent Light, which is an opalescent pearl shade to brighten your complexion.
The bronze shade on the bottom right looks a lot like Radiant Light to give your skin a sunkissed look. The only shade that doesn't have a match in the Hourglass Ambient Palette is the lightest shade on the top left of the e.l.f. palette.

Overall, I'm really impressed with this palette and have found it to be a great alternative to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette. I can use the e.l.f. palette in the same way and it's a fraction of the price! I definitely recommend getting this one if you can, and depending on your skin tone, you can use it in many different ways.

The e.l.f Illuminating Palette is available now at eyeslipsface.com.

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Sneak Peek of the New Milani Spring 2016 Line!

November 3, 2015, 4:29 pm

≫ Next: Sneak Peek of the New Stila Impressionist Spring 2016 Collection

≪ Previous: e.l.f. Illuminating Palette Review & Swatches

I have a ton of sneak peeks for you guys tonight! I got the scoop on Milani's Spring 2016 line that's coming out in January from Milly Almodovar Thompson (senior beauty editor of Cosmo for Latinas) on her Instagram and Snapchat accounts that I follow religiously. So let's dive right in!

First, this is the one you've all been waiting for! Milani is launching 10 new shades of the Amore Matte Lip Creams in addition to the original 8! They'll be $8.99...see any shades you like?

Next up are brand new eyeshadow palettes called Everyday Eyes. There appears to be 6 shades and they'll be $9.99. Sorry for the somewhat blurry pics, but I just did screenshots of these as the camera was panning back and forth.

The back of the palettes have step-by-step instructions for creating an eye look. This one happens to be that bright one in the photo above.

The pigmentation looks crazy! In the video, she just touched the pans lightly to get this amount on her fingers. She didn't have to dig in or swirl her fingers around at all!

Next up is a brand new foundation, or actually, it's a "foundcealer". It's called Conceal + Perfect and it's a 2-in-1 Foundation and Concealer and comes in 14 shades for $9.99 each.

Next is the Prep+Set+Go Transparent Face Powder, which will set and mattify your makeup.

The Moisture Lock Coconut Oil Infused Lip Treatment comes in 8 shades, including one that looks bluish purple. I'm sure these will be sheer but I still can't wait. I wonder if they have a lip oil type of feel!

So there you have it! I don't have a ton of information about these, but I'm left feeling like I want to try everything. Milani needs to just take all of my money right now! What about you guys? Are you excited for these?

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Sneak Peek of the New Stila Impressionist Spring 2016 Collection

November 3, 2015, 7:52 pm

≫ Next: Mally 5 Pc Shadow Stick Extra Collection Review & Swatches

≪ Previous: Sneak Peek of the New Milani Spring 2016 Line!

Tonight is all about the sneak peeks and I have some more to share with you! This collection includes a brand new foundation, concealer, new liquid lipstick shades and Convertible Color palettes! Let's take a look...