NYC City Duet 2 in 1 Lipcolor in shade Café Cuties 429

Hello Everyone,
Hope February is treating you nicely and you’re having loads of fun shopping. Myself, I have been indulging in bits-n-bytes of shopping – both in-store & online. This is from a recent Walmart haul [though buying a single lipstick cannot be counted as a haul]- they were having a sales & I thought – why not!

NYC City Duet shades retail for around $2.99 CAD. The packaging is pretty flimsy and boring- but serves the purpose as the transparent casing helps in selecting shades easily. Also the label is printed in the dual shades so even though there were no testers, we can guesstimate if it works on not.

I was hunting for a regular work-wear lip color – somehow I associate brown and dark reds with office; probably a leftover from watching FRIENDS early seasons. NYC has come up with an interesting concept here – 2 shades that kinds matches. I don’t know if they were thinking of aOMBRE finish for lips but this can be used if you are interesting in that style.

Café Cuties has 2 shades of peachy brown colors- 1 darker caramel kinda color and a lighter butterscotch color. I tried both shades separately and used the tip to get a combined color [a medium caramel shade].  I prefer the combination better than the individual colors as it’s a very mellow peachy nude shade.

What I like about this shade is, it can even be used without a lip balm as it does not dry me out [not in winter though]. The lighter shade has some shimmers, but not very visible, which makes it a great daily wear.

What I don’t like –
- the scent is a bit stronger than what I would prefer but not to a turn-off level
- staying power is average [2-3 hours] ; fades off completely which is okay as it’s a nude shade
-packaging is a bit messy as the cap doesn’t stay that well

Overall, for around $2, this is a nice peachy brown shade and a fun lip product for your daily wear but nothing lip-tastic.

Review: ELF Studio Matte Lip color in Coral

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all doing great and having fun. I have been suffering a bit from Winter Blues [its been pretty bad here in Toronto] so like a good makeup lover I went and got some lippies. ELF has always been a favourite of mine - mainly cos they don’t test on animals and they have such nice prices, but I don’t always find ELF products here [sad!]. So when I saw this lippie at a dollar store here, how could I skip it?

ELF Studio range is marketed the higher priced and better quality versions of their regular essential line. They have sleek black casing and is usually around $3-$6 USD. Matte Lip colors are a not-so-chubby lip colors with creamy matte finish. Not many shades in this range, in fact no dark colors except for a bright red shade.

I like the elegant black packaging and the pencil-like casing. This makes it easy to apply the shade around lip contours. There is no strong scent or taste; staying power is okay- I got around 4-5 hours without any food.

Coral is a peachy coral, not a pinkish coral which is more flattering to our Indian skin tones. This gives a very creamy finish and sets to a satin-matte finish. Not a true matte effect but you can mattify this & increase the staying power easily by blotting over 1-2 times.

I am not a fan of this color as it kind of washes me out; this type of pastel shades are more suited to a paler and fairer skin tones. Also if you have pigmented lips [like me] then the color doesn’t show up really nice unless you conceal the original lip color.

If you like such colors, my suggestion would be to try and perfect your makeup as pale shades can easily show any uneven skin finishes.

Overall, this is a nice lip product for all you nude-lip lovers; if you are looking for a perfect matte, this may be tad disappointing though.