 Valentine's Day is around the corner guys, and what better time to discuss some lip balms and lotions for the body. You could pamper yourself, be a nice valentine for a friend, or both. I love giving valentines to my best gal pals, it's almost like our official "girls night tradition" and it makes the "holiday" much more fun in my opinion. Fun fact: aside from Halloween, Valentine's Day is my 2nd favorite holiday.
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 This post is long overdue. I feel like I have enough products from this brand to give you a well rounded review. Before we go any farther though, I am an affiliate with Mellow Cosmetics. So I do have a coupon code: "Erin" which I will earn commission off of if you use it. This post isn't sponsored though, I was never asked to make a blog post or anything for them. With that out of the way let's get started. I've basically just cherry picked a few of my favorites because we'd be here all day if I discussed each and every product they had.
 I wanted to get on here and post after I'd done a little test with a company. You know one of those "you'll see results in x amount of days" type product. Mainly, because Algenist had sent me a product that had a claim of seeing a difference in 10 days. So challenge excepted.
 This will be short and sweet hopefully. I now have a new favorite liquid lip. It's very surprising as well but it's Flower Beauty's Miracle Matte Lip. My friend Savannah turned me on to these. So I went to Wal-Mart and got two.
 "Its the holiday season (the holiday season) so whoop dee doo and"......ok I'm obviously in the Christmas spirit! I thought it would be fun to do a quick round up of my fave red lip colors and formula that suits the Holiday season. I'm really in love with red lips right now so I think I'm gonna keep it going into 2018. Red is my new neutral. Ok maybe not, but I do love it right now.
Lets get into it. I'm going to include liquid lips, lip glosses, lip toppers and lipsticks. So hopefully there will be something for everyone.  Exciting announcement! Allure has decided to give 4 of my followers the July Allure Beauty Box. The giveaway is up now on my Instagram which I will link here. Rules are: you have to follow me and follow Allure and leave a comment on the Instagram post about what product you'd like to try! Super easy, super fun. Inside the box you get:
So there's the run down. You also get a booklet with tips from Allures Beauty Experts, promo codes exclusive to Allure, and where you can buy these products. The promo codes are awesome. If you want to sign up for a monthly beauty box from Allure you can go here: www.allure.com/thebeautybox Go to Instagram enter the giveaway and win one of the July boxes! Goodluck!   I've had the pleasure of using an awesome lip duo from Preventative Measures 101 for the last couple of months. Honestly, I almost forgot to talk about them because they had become such a staple in my skin care routine both in the morning at night. Just another routine step. For the record for those of you disregarding taking care of your lips.....how bout you stop doing that. It's a new year so, fresh start, why don't you start paying as much attention to your lips as I hope you do to protecting your skin.
Here's why: Skin Cancer is the most common cancer. As statistics stand right now, 1 in 5 Americans will get skin cancer at some point. The lips are not uncommon to skin cancer, but you don't often here awareness about them. Turns out most people who develop lip cancer is usually occupation related, and then tobacco and alcohol related. Also males are "3-13 times more likely to develop lip cancers" because of those reasons. So while you should be protecting your skin make sure you're protecting your lips. So this duo of lip balm from Preventative Measures is really cool. Firstly, a portion of the proceeds go to skin cancer research. Then here is the clencher.... "After 20 years of experience as a chemist in the skincare industry, Anjani Singh was inspired to create her own line of unisex skincare products. Concerned with the growing population of skin cancer she set out to create a unique, preventive SPF 30 by incorporating the technologies of a time-release moisturizer. Lips 101 has reinvented the ordinary lip balm with innovative technology and a SPF 30 protection. Made with shea butter, safflower oil, jojoba oil, vitamin E, chamomile and a medley of "super fruits" (pomegranate, red grape, grapefruit, apple) for anti-oxidant properties. Lips are protected and hydrated throughout the day and receive ultimate moisture throughout the night!" So let's start with the time-release moisturizer. It's so cool. I just don't have better words than that, so lets just be real. The idea is you smack your lips together to get the release of more anti-oxidants and more hydration to the lips. Which in turn will help heal them and get consistent doses of hydration to keep them more plump and not cracked or chapped. I'm fascinated by this cause you can feel it. It's really really innovative and I haven't seen anything like this out. The ingredients in the SPF 30 are: Active Ingredients (Purpose: Sunscreen): Benzophenone-3 (Oxybenzone) 5% Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate (Octinoxate) 7.5% Homosalate 6% Meradimate 4% Inactive Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Cetyl Alcohol, Flavor, Hydrolyzed Corn Starch (and) Isomerized Safflower Acid (and) Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit (and) Palmitoyl Tripeptide 5 (and) Hydrated Silica (and) Resveratrol (and) Matricaria Recutita (Chamomile) Extract (and) Zea Mays (Corn) Starch (and) Punica Granatum Oil (and) Menthyl Sulfonyl Menthane (and) Glyceryl Stearate (and) Glycerin (and) Ceramide (and) Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Mineral Oil, Ozokerite, Petrolatum, Sucralose (and) Polysorbate 80 (and) Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax (and) Zea Mays (Corn) Starch (and) Hydrolyzed Corn Starch, Titanium Dioxide, Tocopherol. Here's their statement on the 101 SPF 30: "Our goal was to create a lip balm product to prevent and limit the amount of damage from UVA /UVB rays to the lips. We incorporated the cutting edge technology with SPF 30 for maximum protection for the lips. A point of difference: not JUST a lip balm! SPF 30 with an encapsulated time release formula. When you smack your lips together you release the super fruits to moisten and keep your lips hydrated!" The After Hours formula is something I refuse to go without. I love it. It's not super waxy or thick and greasy like a balm that comes in a pot (these are sticks). Your lips feel nice but not like there is product just sitting on top of them. It's like you feel the moisture sinking in. It's almost like water being poured on your lips cause it works that fast and feels that refreshing. The scent is lovely and light. Doesn't have a weird taste in my opinion. It's just all around good. The ingredients for After Hours are: Petrolatum, Paraffin, Mineral Oil, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Butter, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Retinyl Palmitate, Zea Mays (Corn) Oil (and) BHA (and) Propyl Gallate (and) Citric Acid, Hydrolysed Corn Starch (and) Isomerized Safflower Acid (and) Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit (and) Palmitoyl Tripeptide 5 (and) Hydrated Silica (and) Resveratrol (and) Matricaria Recutita (Chamomile) Extract (and) Zea Mays (Corn) Starch (and) Punica Granatum Oil (and) Menthyl Sulfonyl Menthane (and) Glyceryl Stearate (and) Glycerin (and) Ceramide (and) Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Sucralose (and) Polysorbate 80 (and) Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax (and) Zea Mays (Corn) Starch (and) Hydrolyzed Corn Starch, Flavor. Here's a statement from the company about the 101 After Hours: "We created Lips 101 After Hours with the same extraordinary technology and innovative ingredients without the SPF 30. We increased the moisture ingredients to maximize its benefits to the lips. In Lips 101 after hours, we have formulated the product to intensify the benefits to relieve cracked, wrinkled and dry lips. Increasing the anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory delivery system technology." The products house some of my favorite ingredients which are: Cocoa butter, shea butter, jojoba oil, Chamomile, Aloe, etc. These are awesome not just for hydration but for soothing effects as well. So in my experience this has been like "neosporin" for my lips kinda. I know that's an odd comparison but the way Neosporin heals a cut or wound faster, this is what this does for my lips. I tend to bite my lips sometimes out of nervousness or they'll crack from time to time and bleed this heals them really fast for me and protects them all at the same time. So while this is kinda short and sweet, I gotta say I really like this product. I would totally recommend them to anyone and I have because I feel like it's doing more than any other lip balm out on the market right now. This duo was $28 but it's now $21. You can of course buy them seperately but I say get them both. Here's the link: https://preventivemeasures101.com/ **These were sent to me complimentary but these are my own opinions**  I am determined to find something from the new KVD launches that I like. We all know I didn't like the MetalMatte palette but I really think that it was just my palette. I've seen where plenty of people did like theirs. So I decided to get the liquid lip set above. I knew that I already liked the formula, and these are mini's which I prefer to full size actually. I think they have more control. You get 8 liquid mini's and 2 new shades. What actually sold me was that these were shades I hadn't really seen much before. Like you always see Lolita, Lolita 2, Vampira, Exorcism, etc from the liquid lip line. Those are the ones most talked about and usually included in "best of" sets or as point perks and deluxe samples. This one had completely different shades and it also included Echo which is a Navy shade that is kinda popular, but not seen that much. I had also wanted Echo but couldn't justify buying the big dog. So I seen this set and jumped on it. This set also comes with 2 new shades: Plath and Roxy. Plath I love, Roxy is good in theory but a bit patchy which you will see in the swatches. So the 8 shades you get are: Plath: deep russet red ( a red/brown with brown being the strong undertone it.) Santa Sangre: Poison Apple (a bright neutral classic red) Mother: Dusty Mauve Pink (a brighter mauve not dusty in my opinion) Lovesick: Mauve Nude ( a cool toned pink nude) Backstage Bambi: Vivid Hot Pink (accurate description) L.U.V: Rich Violet (vibrant, bright, violet fuchsia) Roxy: New shade. Bright Grape (accurate) Echo: Satin Navy Blue (accurate again) So those are the shades in Sephora's description and then mine. Below I'm gonna give you swatches of all 8 on the lips. Same great formula in all of these. Didn't expect nothing less. The only one that was troublesome was Roxy and that sucks cause it's new, but I truly think it's because it's a true purple and purple is the hardest shade in powder form, cream, or liquid, to pull off and make perfect in every way. I still think it could be built up more and made a bit more even. I had around two coats on in the swatch. Echo has two coats as well. The rest are just one go. Plath, the other new shade, is gorgeous. It's essential for fall. I freaking love it. I love the other shades as well but I'm a sucker for brown undertones. My fave shades out of this are: Echo Mother Plath Santa Sangre The others are great too, but these are my picks.   As you well know, I'm a fan of indie brands. Especially hidden gems on Etsy. So recently my friend Lexie (@militaryandmakeup) started up her own brand of cosmetics called The Wicked Beauty. I'm so beyond proud of her. She was one of the first followers I had to support me and my blog and I'm beyond pumped to support her and her company. So what we have is some grease paints, 2 shadows and 2 pressed glitters (in bottle caps I might add!) to talk about. Lets talk about the grease paints first. I think these are so cool. You know the NYX Cosmic Metals I reviewed not long ago? These are better. They are full pigment, they're beautiful colors, and an awesome metallic finish. They do have a fragrance so bear that in mind if you're sensitive to that. Now, the packaging your seeing above for the grease paints are just sample size. You get 5ml of each full sized grease paint for $9 or you can get a sample which is 2ml for $2. Obviously there will be transfer with these because they're more of a thicker gloss, that is loaded with pigment. I apply mine with a lip brush and it works wonderfully, you don't need much either let me tell you. My personal fave is Poppies. I'll leave some lip swatches down below.  The next thing that makes me so beyond happy is her pressed glitters. I LOVE pressed glitters as you know. I think they're easier to work with as opposed to loose glitter and they're more opaque. You still need a glitter glue to use them but that's fine with me. I apply these with my finger and I'm set. These do not disappoint. I have shades Troll Sweat and Mermaid Scales. Mermaid scales is my fave and I've never seen a color combination like this one. I love Troll Sweat too though because it's so bright and I love bright glitters. I mean go big or go home. Plus it's in a bottle cap, how cute is that? These work perfect in a z palette as well. These are $7 and have 1.3g of product in them. I use NYX Glitter Primer as the base for these.   I'm wearing Mermaid Scales in this picture above. It totally changed the entire look. I just can't explain how much I love this pressed glitter. Next is the eye shadows. These are super soft and nicely pigmented. I only see one shade right now on the website and I don't know the shade names of the two I have. So they may not have released just yet. They are very nice though especially the mauve one, it's a gorgeous neutral shade. The mint shade, I will totally use that not just as eye shadow but as highlighter as well.  So I think she done a great job. I truly recommend the Grease Paints for sure, if you aren't sold on them fully then get a sample size and just see how you like it first. Obviously the pressed glitters are amazing too and she has quite a few shades to choose from as well. So definitely check her shop out. I linked it at the very beginning of the post.
 NYC Cosmetics just launched their Cosmic Metals Lip Creams. There are 10 shades on the Ulta website but I think there is actually more because one of the shades I'm going to talk about isn't on the website anymore. These are lip creams and not at all like liquid lipsticks. So these transfer, they're heavier, and act more like a super pigmented gloss. Which is fine by me because they are very metallic so I don't mind that they fade away and I'd rather them transfer or fade as opposed to rub off or crumble like a liquid lipstick. These run for $7.49 and if you're lucky sometimes you'll catch it buy one get one 50% off. Plus Ulta always has a $3.50 off coupon. Which is what I done. What I like about this line is that there are odd colors, bright colors, and bold colors. What I don't like so much is that they don't have really good wearable everyday shades too. Like I'd like to see a dark red, a dark berry, a cool toned brown or a taupe maybe. Packaging wise they're really nice and heavy. They're obviously affordable and they don't seem to have any smell to me. They're really pigmented and opaque with lots of shimmer.  This shade is "Speed of Light" which isn't on the Ulta site right now. I got this hoping it would be a bit more bronzey and darker. It's more like a rose gold bronze color that's actually quite bright. Still though it's very pretty and different.   This shade is "Extraterrestrial". Again it wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be like a dark gunmetal. It's close to that but it has some green in it in my opinion. I really like this because it's soooo different from anything I have. I like how dark it is. As you can probably tell these look very glossy and they kinda feel that way too. So once again, if you're looking for a metallic liquid lip then this is not your bag.  So all in all I think these are really nice formula wise and as far as a lip cream goes. I do wish they had some more wearable shades like I said earlier because these aren't something I'm going to wear that often. That's about the only con I can give you on these.
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ErinI'm from Tennessee. I'm a makeup and skincare lover. I have always enjoyed creating looks but I love to help people with product knowledge and application even more. I've been able to start blogging and do these things I love because God has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! 
  
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