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Product Focus: Laura Mercier Stickgloss

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Hi guys! I’ve been meaning to do this post for a long time, actually, but I kept accumulating stickglosses so I never had a complete picture! LOL! Anyway, today I want to bring you a special review on one of my favorite cosmetics products EVER – the Laura Mercier Stickgloss. As you can see, I have 7, which easily makes the Stickgloss my most purchased/swapped for product in my entire collection.

Laura Mercier Stickglosses in Baked Earth, Peach Sorbet, Poppy, Cranberry, Black Orchid, Sugar Plum, Rosewater

The Stickglosses aren’t necessarily a unique concept – lots of brands have glossy finish lipsticks that are supposed to be like a gloss in a tube. For me, what makes Laura Mercier’s so special is the formula.

First, the texture is just incredible. They have a light balm-like texture that has, in my opinion, the perfect amount of slip. They are very comfortable to wear and are the only lipsticks I have ever found that I don’t have to wear balm under. They are advertised as hydrating and they are the only lipsticks that do actually lightly condition my lips and leave them better off than when I first put them on. (For reference, I have stupidly dry, sensitive lips and I find both the MAC Lustre finish lipsticks and all the Burt’s Bees lip balms to be drying.) Furthermore, the Stickglosses look beautiful. They are incredibly forgiving to deep vertical liplines and dryness, and they never sink, feather or bleed.

Second, the pigmentation is excellent. Unlike other brands, I find the Stickglosses to all be buildable to opaque. While they may not necessarily photograph this way because of the glossiness, they can definitely be full-coverage, even on my pigmented lips. I have struggled finding sheers that show up true to tube in other brands (*coughDIORcough*), but I’ve never been disappointed by a Stickgloss. That being said, they can easily be worn sheer as well. In this regard, I think the Stickglosses are some of the most versatile lip products out there since they wear equally well no matter how you wear it.

Aside from that, lasting power is decent, a good 4-5 hours on me with no eating though some of the darker colors easily last through some light snacking as well. Considering I have very dry lips, and most lip color billed as “long-lasting” causes an entire layer of my lips to flake and peel off within half an hour, I am very happy with the lasting power of the Stickglosses. I also think Laura Mercier has done a phenomenal job formulating colors that are truly easily wearable by a very wide variety of skintones. I don’t feel like I have to work to wear any of the colors I have (which is about half the line and I’m eyeing more!).

Laura Mercier Stickglosses in Baked Earth, Peach Sorbet, Poppy, Cranberry, Black Orchid, Sugar Plum, Rosewater

Here are the swatches – I do apologize the lighting makes the colors run a little yellow. I’ve linked each name to all the FOTDs I’m wearing the color in, so you can see how they actually look. Like I said, they don’t swatch or photograph that well on the arm, but they do build up to opaque on my lips in real life. I personally think most of the Laura Mercier website color descriptions are inaccurate and their color swatches are horrid.

Baked Earth is a warm brown red with very subtle gold shimmer. It’s my favorite to throw on everyday because it’s MLBB for my pigmented lips. Peach Sorbet is probably my new favorite lip color ever – it’s a very bright, satin-finish medium peach-coral that really lights up my face. Poppy is a bright orange-red with silver and red shimmer. Cranberry is a glossy cream that is muted medium berry pink when applied sheerly and builds up to a true neutral red when layered. It’s the only red I have that doesn’t pull pink or orange on me. It also really brings out the natural flush in my cheeks (this is pretty impressive considering it’s basically nonexistant) and doesn’t make me look sallow. Black Orchid is the sheerest Stickgloss I own, and is a medium purply plum-berry cream. It’s what I think Clinique Black Honey should have been (Black Honey is totally a sheer red.). Sugar Plum is probably the most versatile Stickgloss I own. It’s a slightly-warm medium pink cream that pairs really well with practically any combination I have ever tried to pair it with. Rosewater is a high shimmer, satin finish peachy pink, leaning on the pink side.

Unfortunately, Peach Sorbet is discontinued, but I think Tiger Lily is similar.

Here are the ingredients, from Sephora:

Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Isostearyl Isostearate, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Lanolin Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Polybutene, Polyethylene, Pentaerythrityl, Hydrogenated Rosinate, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Isostearyl Isostearate, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Lanolin Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Polybutene, Polyethylene, Pentaerythrityl, Hydrogenated Rosinate, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax Palmitate, Fragrance (Parfum), Dipalmitoyl Hydroxyproline, Silica, Tribehenin, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Retinyl Palmitate, Vitis Vinifera (Grape ) Seed Oil, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Sorbitan Isostearate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Mica ( CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491), Red 7 Lake (CI 15850). May Contain (+/-): Iron Oxides (CI 77492, CI 77499), Carmine (CI 75470), Bismuth Oxychloride (CI 77163), Manganese Violet (CI 77742), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 19140), Yellow 6 Lake (CI 15985), Red 6 (CI 15850), Red 21 (CI 45380), Red 22 Lake (CI 45380), Red 27 (CI 45410), Red 28 Lake (CI 45410), Red 30 Lake (CI 73360), Red 33 Lake (CI 17200), Red 36 (CI 12085).

The Stickglosses are widely available wherever Laura Mercier is sold (Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, Laura Mericer.com) except for Sephora which only stocks 4 of them (Courtisane, Black Orchid, Brown Sugar and Peony). I adore the Stickglosses. I rarely wear other lipsticks these days (and when I do they’re usually my Tsumori Chisato Rouge Unlimiteds!) because these are so low maintenance and comfortable!

Disclaimer: The products featured in this post were either purchased by me with my own money or swapped for on MUA with products I bought with my own money. I am not affiliated with Laura Mercier and have never received anything except the regular subscription emails from the company.

Tags: Laura Mercier
Posted in Cosmetics, Just for Fun, Reviews | 56 Comments »

MAC Spiced Chocolate FOTD & Birch Aquarium Pictures

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Hi guys! The post I have today is totally out of schedule, but I was so excited about this find I just couldn’t resist! I was recently able to score MAC’s coveted Spiced Chocolate Quad from the Cult of Cherry Collection!! I “got into” makeup around the end of November 2008 so I missed MAC Cult of Cherry by a couple months and of course Spiced Chocolate was LONG GONE by then. I’ve been interested in tracking it down for what seems like ages now but with it going for ~$80 on Ebay and always so quickly snatched up on blogsales, I had just about given up on ever finding it. My heart almost stopped when I saw it on Tammy‘s blogsale and I seriously couldn’t believe I was the first one to email her about it! It arrived safely a few days ago and it’s everything I wanted it to be. Thank you so much Tammy!!! :D :D :D (All pictures are clickable for the full-sizes.)


MAC Spiced Chocolate Quad	Swatches: Nanogold, Brash, Sweet Chestnut, Spiced Chocolate

Here’s a picture of the quad and some swatches. I’m quite impressed by the eyeshadows. I am not a huge fan of MAC eyeshadows and I actually swapped away my MAC 6 Smokey Eyes from Holiday ’08 (incidentally, my first eyeshadow palette EVER). I think Spiced Chocolate is overall much higher quality though. Nanogold is a really light almost-exactly-my-skintone vanilla shimmer. It’s very sheer and kinda chunky, but it makes for a decent brow highlight. Brash is a metallic orangey rust. It has the best texture out of all the shadows – almost as buttery as my Shu Fleur de Source ones. Sweet Chestnut is a dark metallic cranberry. I don’t have MAC Cranberry to compare, but from swatches I think Sweet Chestnut is darker and less bright than Cranberry. It didn’t swatch as well as Brash but it layers and blends well on the eyes. Last is Spiced Chocolate, a matte medium warm brown. It also didn’t swatch as well as Brash, but it layers and blends just fine too.

Eyes: MAC Spiced Chocolate Quad, UD Baked; Cheeks: LM Nectar & MAC Nuance; Lips: Tsumori Chisato for Shu Uemura Jupiter Brown

Here’s my first FOTD with the palette. I wanted to use the whole quad, so I used Nanogold as the highlight and then put Brash almost all over my lid, Sweet Chestnut in my outer corner and crease, and deepened my outer corner with Spiced Chocolate. I did cheat a little and add UD Baked for highlighting my tear duct though. It’s the first time I’ve ever used a warm red/pink, but I actually really like it! It took a few attempts, but finally I figured out I just had to blend Sweet Chestnut out a little above my crease so that I didn’t look weirdly ill (damn my small lid space). I paired the eye look up with warm cheeks and lips. I used LM Nectar and MAC Nuance blushes, and Shu Jupiter brown lipstick.

There’s also a picture of my outfit of the day (OOTD) since I’m wearing one of the pieces I got from the YesStyle store and Innerchild was interested in seeing what I bought (I’m slowly collecting OOTD pics). The navy jacket that I’m wearing is from Dampoppo? I paired it with a light blue grecian style tunic dress which is just barely peeping out under the jacket, a denim skirt my mom got me from who-knows-where which I’ve had since high school, grey thigh high socks and black suede slouchy flat boots from Target. The hat that I’m carrying actually belongs to SO’s mom – she forgot it at our place so we were bringing it back to her on our trip to the Birch Aquarium!

And here’s SO and I outside the Aquarium. (This was on Sunday, the 3rd. And yes, I positively love living in San Diego. :D :D :D) I’ve been wanting to go to the Birch Aquarium forEVER, and SO has been promising to take me there forEVER, so I was so excited we finally got to go!! It’s sort of an outgrowth of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and it’s a pretty small aquarium, but a very nice one. I took a ton of pictures. Unfortunately I don’t remember the names of most of the sea creatures… and I am way too lazy to label the ones I do remember. But if you have questions, feel free to ask them. =)