A Long Lost Lipstick Tag

I was looking through some old saved links recently and rediscovered this lovely lipstick tag I originally saw on the blog Auxiliary Beauty. This particular post comes from all the way back in 2014. (I wonder how long it has been forgotten in my saved links.)

1. How many lipsticks do you own?

I currently have 10 lipsticks, though I can easily think of two that I'm leanings towards parting with. In alphabetical order...

• Burberry Lip Velvet in Nude (mini)
• Burberry Lip Velvet in Oxblood (mini)
• Clinique Plum Pop (mini)
• NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Do Me Baby
• NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dolce Vita
• NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Consuming Red
• NARS Audacious Lipstick Jane
• Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Blushed
• Stila Matte'nificent Lipstick in Papillon
• Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Amulet

2. What was the first lipstick you owned?

My first lipstick was Maybelline Truffle Tease. I remember being quite nervous when I first started wearing makeup in 2013. I did not want anything noticeable, so when Maybelline came out with the Buffs collection at the end of that year I was convinced that a nude lipstick from that line would be perfect for me. There was no way I was going to wear a red or bright pink back then. Even now, I lean towards more subtle shades on a daily basis. Would I ever buy Truffle Tease again? I highly doubt it.

3. What is your favorite lipstick brand?

Looking at my current inventory, I would have to say NARS. I have three Velvet Matte Lip pencils, and they really are one of my favorite formulas. The Audacious lipstick in Jane I am not as much of a fan of; I much prefer the dry matte feeling of the VMLPs to the creaminess of Jane. (It's the main reason I will probably never buy a Bite Beauty lipstick.) I do miss the Pure Matte Lipstick line NARS had when I first started getting into makeup. Tonkin was my one of my first non-drugstore lipstick purchase, the first lipstick I ever bought after swatching for myself in store. I do also thoroughly enjoy the Burberry Lip Velvets, but now that they are no longer sold at Sephora, I don't see myself purchasing them again (or ever, since technically they were received via add-on codes to my online Sephora orders).

4. What is your most worn lipstick?

I have only ever finished two full-size lipsticks: NARS VMLP in Dolce Vita and NARS Pure Matte Lipstick in Tonkin. Though I was close to doing so, I never actually repurchased Tonkin before it was discontinued. I have used up about one and a half sticks of Dolce Vita though and am looking forward to wearing it a bit more once spring comes. At the moment, I have been alternating almost exclusively between Revlon Blushed and Stila Papillon, as I'm half-determined to finish up at least one of those this year.

5. What is your favorite finish?

Matte lipstick is easily my favorite (but not liquid lipsticks of course). It was all the rage when I began my makeup journey, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. I have been intrigued by a pearl finish lately too, but for now Revlon Blushed satisfies that desire.

6. What was the last lipstick you bought?

Revlon Blushed was my last lipstick I purchased, and I even bought it on a whim, which is highly unlike myself now. I remember browsing the makeup aisle in Target last year for no particular reason and noticing that the Revlon lipsticks were on some sort of discount. It ended up being less than $5, and since it had been so long since I had done anything for myself (hello fourth trimester), I just went for it. I was enticed by the name and the color of the sticker on the package. After about two minutes of browsing swatches online, I bought it and have been pleasantly surprised by it ever since.

7. How many lip products do you currently have in your bag?

None. After having to switch between a purse for work and a diaper purse for outings with my toddler, I have become pretty well versed in emptying out my personal contents when I return home.

8. What is your favorite red color?

Burberry Oxblood and NARS Consuming Red are essentially the same color; Oxblood just has a bit more of a creamy finish to it than Consuming Red does. If I had to choose, I would pick Consuming Red just because of the finish. (Side note: I find it fascinating that Auxiliary Beauty also chose a NARS VLMP, though in Mysterious Red instead.)

9. How do you store your lipsticks?

Right now, all over the place. Some are in a makeup bag in the living room. Some are next to my bathroom sink. Some are on the kitchen bar. And some are in the plastic lipstick holder in my closet where they all are supposed to be. I need to get better about placing things back in their designated spots. Well, truthfully I need to figure out a better spot than in my closet where my toddler can reach them, as that's often how they travel out into the living room in the first place.

10. Which lipsticks are you currently lusting over?

I have been considering repurchasing the Lorac Pro Matte Lip Color in Pink Taupe. It was a near dupe for Tonkin, and I have been missing that color dearly lately. I also have been eyeing NARS VMLP in Intriguing ever since it was released two years ago. It just never has felt unique enough from I already own though. Once I finish Stila Papillon though, I will likely purchase it.

Types of Makeup I Won't Buy Anymore

Yesterday on her YouTube channel Elle S posted a video about types of makeup she wouldn't buy anymore. (It was a collab video with Zeyn San.) I so badly wanted to post a video response, but I don't have a YouTube channel and don't see myself comfortable starting one anytime in the near future. Then I remembered that blogs exist, and since I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing more often, I figured this would be the perfect medium to post what otherwise I would have posted to beauty YouTube. So here we go...


1. Doe-Foot Products

This was honestly the first thing that came to mind when I saw the video title. I didn't buy my first liquid lipstick until 2017, even though I had been watching them be hyped around YouTube for at least year prior. In March 2017 I received a sample of Tarte Birthday Suit thanks to the Sephora birthday gift and Stila Patina as a Sephora add-on code. Three weeks later I bought ABH Kathryn, followed by Smashbox Out Loud one week after that.

In less than a month I had gone from zero liquid lipsticks to four.  I threw out Birthday Suit almost immediately because the color just did not agree with me. I convinced myself that Out Loud was much more of a fall color. Why I bought in April when I did not anticipate wearing it until October I don't understand either. (I have gotten better about that though.) How often did I wear Kathryn and Patina in the next few months? Maybe five times total. I was very careful with choosing Kathryn. I was drawn to it because of the name; that spelling is a family name quite meaningful to me. But I told myself I wouldn't buy it unless I liked the color in person. (Spoiler alert: I did.) So why didn't I wear these liquid lipsticks, or at the very least Kathryn, the one I had chosen so carefully?

I just could not get comfortable with the applicator, and it didn't matter which type it had. Applying it was so different from a bullet lipstick I can easily swipe on without staring into a mirror. With these though, not only did I had to be extra careful to create a smooth line, but I also felt like I needed to apply concealer to clean up the lip line. Once that was applied I felt like I needed to be balance out my face and apply foundation as well. It felt like a never-ending process just because I decided to wear a lipstick I didn't even like all that much in the first place.

Even now, I don't see myself wearing other types of products that utilize a doe-foot applicator. I've stopped wearing concealer, and I've never been interested in lip gloss. I've found it easier instead to just distance myself from considering purchasing doe-foot products in general.

2. Automatic Pencils

Be it lip or eye pencils I would much rather have one that needs to be sharpened like an old-school Ticonderoga. My first eyeliners were the Stila Smudge Sticks. I bought six or so of them and loved them, how smoothly they applied, how beautiful the colors were. But over time I became more and more frustrated with how the little nib would crumble off halfway across my eye.

I remember going to look for a purple eye liner one day and being disappointed that the purples in the Smudge Stick line were not the kind of purple I was looking for. Eventually I found my perfect purple in Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar. However, I was so disappointed that it was a pencil that had to be sharpened because I was convinced, even never having tried such a pencil, that automatic ones were inherently better. Gradually I realized that I actually much preferred the Urban Decay one and have since converted to using them almost exclusively.

What solidified my dislike for automatic pencils was Chanel Eros. At the time it was the only red eyeliner I could find, and I was determined to love it. I thought that since, unlike the Stila Smudge Sticks, this one was able to actually twist back down I wouldn't experience the same frustration with the nib breaking off mid-application. Instead a whole new annoyance arose. I guess it was how I held the pencil, I'm not really sure, but somehow I had a habit of twisting the product back down into the pencil tube as I was applying it. I ended up using all of Eros because, after all, it was a beautiful color, even if it did have an inconvenient applicator. But I vowed to never purchase an automatic pencil again.

3. Products I'm Told I'm Supposed to Like

Maybe I will still buy some of these products, but I'm definitely more skeptical of these not-so-subtle suggestions than I was when I was first getting into makeup. My first eyeshadow palette was the original Lorac Pro. I joined YouTube soon before Naked 3 was released, so I missed the initial Naked craze. Instead, Lorac Pro was the new kid in town, and the one that was currently being encouraged by nearly every YouTuber as a perfect everyday palette. Did I get a lot out of use from the Lorac Pro? Definitely. As a newbie I felt extremely appreciative of the recommendation and felt comfortable pairing the different shades together to create easy beginner eye looks. If I had been told to go make a custom palette my first year into makeup I would not have understood how to make one I would actually wear.

Now that I am more comfortable and confident in choosing my makeup I don't need to rely on the opinions of others. In fact, all the constant bad publicity about ABH Subculture was what put that palette into my mind. After seeing it for the umpteenth time I realized that over half those colors were ones that I would put in a custom palette, and I got so much joy out of using that palette even though I was told that it was horrible.

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Over the last few years I've become increasingly more selective with the types of products I have been choosing to purchase. So while there are only three items on this list, there are more that I don't buy currently. I already have a face trifecta that I love (blurring primer + luminous primer + finishing powder), so why would I add a foundation to that mix? That doesn't mean I wouldn't ever buy it again though. Sure I would love to comb those three products down to one or two as they get used up, but right now I haven't found (or desired to find) a foundation that does that. Then there are other things that I just was never interested in the first place, like bronzer, contour, and liquid and felt-tip eye liner.

I found this topic so intriguing, and it was interesting to reflect on how my mindset around makeup has changed since I first began delving into the beauty world. I think it's important to recognize your own interests and desires instead of just going with the flow of what's being talked about around you. I found Elle's video especially quite inspiring and hope that it inspires you to consider how you would answer this topic as well.