New Bhcosmetics Products | Haul and Review | The Lipstick Hub

I did a little shop around Bhcosmetics recently and saw that they had some new makeup like the contour palette and the collaboration with Pride + Prejudice + Zombies. I picked some stuff up and I thought I do some swatches for you and give my opinion on the products.

I'll start with the contour palette. The packaging is pretty cheap but I do like that it's somewhat see through, though I generally only need that on an eyeshadow palette, not a contour palette. I like that you have to click a button in for it to open, which makes it really nice for travelling with, though it is pretty wide. When you open the palette, it has 4 highlighting shades and 6 contour shades which isn't too bad. The palette does come with the typical banana shade that everyone loves, but I do like that it includes an orange shade which is something not many other contour palettes include. I did swatches of the contour shades only and they are pretty nice. There's a lot of diversity between the different browns. Some are really warm toned and some are really cool toned. They are incredibly buttery and pigmented. The first contour colour wasn't too pigmented on the first swipe but it's definitely buildable. I'd say it's a great contour palette for darker skin tones rather than pale skin tones seeing as there's probably two, maybe three, colours I'll be able to use. I would say for the average makeup lover, you could probably do without this if you have other contour palettes, but if you're a makeup artist I would say this is perfect. So many different colours for clients and it's perfect for travelling in which the palette won't pop open at any time. Also the palette doesn't have colour names which can be annoying.

The only thing I got from the collaboration with Pride + Prejudice + Zombies collection was the palette, mostly because the only other thing they had was a lip gloss pack and I don't like lip glosses. It's an eye and cheek palette and again it doesn't have colour names so that's a little annoying. Inside it has 12 eyeshadow colours and 3 cheek colours, a mirror and a cute quote by Elizabeth Bennet underneath it. When I first got the palette I mostly got it for collectors purposes but the swatches quickly changed my mind about this palette. I swatched a bunch of random eyeshadows and then three of the cheek colours on the right. They are so pigmented my jaw dropped. The colours are so buttery and bright I'm in love. There are definitely more shimmery colours than mattes colours but that doesn't really bother me. This palette doesn't really speak zombies to me nor does it speak early 19th century to me. So I don't know what it has to do with the movie in anyway but I still think it's an amazing palette, especially since I got it for about $15 AUD.

I don't really have much to say about the Pop Art lipstick seeing as I've already got one but I do really like them. This time I got the shade Zap and I'm in love with it. It's a bright teal-ly green and it's absolutely stunning. It's hella pigmented, I swipe is all you need trust me. The lipsticks can drag a little on your lips but they aren't a really drying matte, more of a satin-matte.

I got two of the liquid lipsticks that Bhcosmetics came out with a little while ago. I got the shades, Serena and Clara, although I didn't order Serena, I actually ordered Princess because Serena was out of stock but I don't mind that I got Serena instead of Princess. I'll just order Princess next time. Both of the colours are variations of nude. Clara is a bit of a dark-ish brown nude and Serena is a more pink and coral based nude. The liquid lipsticks are really light weight, they don't feel heavy on your lips at all and they don't make my lips feel like the Sahara desert. I'd say they are pretty damn good especially for the price.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this haul, the P+P+Z palette really surprised and definitely stole the show. I'm in love with all the lip products I got, and even though I won't be able to use about half of the contour palette, I still look forward to using the other shades.

Appelles Apothecary & Lab | Brand Review | The Lipstick Hub

I would like to say first off, that this is not a sponsored post. I did buy all of these products with my own money.

Appelles is a brand I stumbled upon from after visiting some family and I instantly fell in love with them. To start off on some basic information on Appelles, it's an Australian skin and hair care brand, that's relatively pretty new. Appelles are a cruelty free brand and all the products are locally made.

The first product I ever tried from Appelles is the Wheat Protein shampoo, it is such a great shampoo that for one of the first times in my life, I felt like I didn't need to condition my hair afterwards. On the website it states that the Wheat Protein shampoo is ideal for normal to fine hair. I have pretty thick hair and it still worked great on me but if you are someone who fits into one of those categories, I would definitely recommend checking them out.

Around early-ish last year, a subscription box service (either Lust Have It or Violet Box, or a different one entirely) had featured Appelles in their box, which had the Blackseed shampoo and Tamanu conditioner. You can't actually get the 35ml sizes from their website, they are specifically for these kinds of services, like subscription boxes or hotel complementary shampoo and conditioner. The Blackseed shampoo and Tamanu conditioner have Rosemary, Ylang Ylang and Lavadin Super in them. The Tamanu conditioner has a very cream lotion type consistency and it definitely smells like when you walk into a new age store. I don't mind that though, it just makes me think that it has really good, natural ingredients in it. This duo is ideal for damaged and coloured treated hair, so since I've bleached and dyed my hair it's been a really good combination for me. The twist off lid can be a little difficult to open but its not too bad.

The other two products I have from Appelles are the Vitamin B5 skin lotion and the Comfrey hand and body wash. The Vitamin B5 skin lotion has Mandarin Peel, Rosemary and Cinnamon Bark in it. The Comfrey hand and body wash has Australian Lemon Myrtle, Sandalwood and Rosalina in it. When I first saw the ingredients of the skin lotion I thought the smell would really turn me off the product but I don't really smell the cinnamon at all. It has a really woodsy smell to it. The lotion itself is a quite thick formula so it can be a little difficult to get out of the bottle and it's a cream colour. Despite the thick formula, it applies really nice and evenly to the skin and does leave the smell on your skin. I haven't really noticed a huge difference in my skin after applying the lotion but maybe after a few weeks of using the product, you'd start to see a difference in your skin. The Comfrey body wash is probably my favourite product that I have. It's clear and is much more runnier than the lotion. It has a very fruity smell that I love, it's not quite as citrus-y as you think it would be because of the lemon, but it definitely makes me feel clean and fresh. If I could only repurchase one of these products I would definitely get the Comfrey body wash.

Appelles do have other products like bath fizzes, candles and essential oils but these are the products that I currently have. I do think that it is a bit expensive but for the beautiful packaging and amazing ingredients, I do think that it's worth the money. I would definitely recommend checking them out.

Hidden Gems #7 - Sephora Mattifying 8hr Pressed Powder | The Lipstick Hub

This week's Hidden Gem is the Sephora Mattifying 8hr Pressed Powder in the shade Clair Light 15. I'm fairly certain this has been in my favourite previously, maybe in a video or something along those lines. The Sephora collection isn't really makeup that I look at buying all that often but I really wanted a face powder that wasn't going to break my bank account. I'm fairly certain that it was around $20-30 at Sephora so it was a decent price. You get 10g of product in the compact which is 3g more than my Boe Beauty compact.

The packaging isn't anything too special, just a regular black compact. The lid is like an inverted dome shape, it dips in, there's no particular reason for that that I can see. Just an average standard click-close compact. Although on the packaging it does say 'Matifying' instead of mattifying like it does on the site.

The product itself is amazing, it gives better coverage, completely mattifies your makeup. It does kick up quite a bit of product when you dip your brush into it, so just be careful of that. It does smell like baby powder probably because the main ingredient is Talc but thats also something to just keep in mind.

Overall I do think it's a really great product, it's definitely the face powder I reach for the most out of all of them, I think it does a really great job of keeping my makeup stay matte throughout the day and helps give that extra bit of coverage when I need it. Definitely a product that needs more recognition than it gets!

Revlon Nail Art Shiny Matte Duo Review | The Lipstick Hub

The Revlon nail art shiny matte duo is something I picked up from Priceline ages ago but I'm fairly certain you can still get them in stores. The one that I have it in the shade 530 Emerald Suede which comes with a deep emerald colour with light green reflects and the other shade is the suede shade, a very light pink nude that finishes matte.

I really like the concept of this double ended nail polish and the colour combos that Revlon have are really nice. The colours complement each other perfectly. As for the nail polishes themselves, they are really good quality. They are super opaque, you only need one layer for it to opaque although you can build it up as well. I really liked the matte suede shade, it lasted about a week before I started to see any cracking and that was without a base or top coat. I did attempt to see if the American Apparel matte top coat would do anything to the nail polish even though it was already matte, all it did was make it glossy. So the two mattes kind of cancelled each other out and made it glossy which I wasn't happy about so I just reapplied the nail polish on top and it was fine.

These are fast drying nail polishes even if they aren't advertised as so, they do dry down quite quickly. Overall I love this polishes, I know I'm a bit late to the bandwagon with this one but I do think that these are spectacular, if I can pick up more I will for sure.

MOTD | Bold Bright Pink Makeup | The Lipstick Hub

Today my makeup was a bright pink look, pink eyes, pink lips and blush. If you don't like pink makeup then you probably will hate this look. I really enjoyed doing this look and just messing around with some new products that I had gotten. Criticism is welcome but this was just an experiment. Let me know what you guys thought of it. I didn't do a tutorial on this because I didn't really have a full face planned, I just knew what products I wanted to use.

The products I used, in order of use, were:
- Maybelline Dream Wonder Foundation in 10 Porcelain Ivory
- BYS Translucent loose powder
- Maybelline Fit Me concealer in 10 Light
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit in Vanilla to set my undereyes and then Fawn to contour
- Urban Decay Gwen Stefani blush palette in Cherry
- Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit palette using both Iridescent Light and Luminous Finish to highlight with
- Loreal Brow Artist Plumper
- Makeup Forever Brow Seal
- Benefit Stay Dont' Stray eye primer in light/medium and then set it with BYS Translucent loose powder
- For eyeshadow palettes I used a few, Be Indulged Summer Pop Eye Palette, Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons, Sleek Ultra Mattes V1 and finally Too Faced Sugar Pop
- Essence eyeliner pen extra long lasting
- Revlon Bold Lacquer mascara, this didn't quite do the job for me so I added Loreal Miss Manga black mascara
- Benefit They're Real mascara for the bottom lashes
- Chi Chi Glamourama lip liner
- Mac Tats lipstick