The minute I swiped on the Lime Crime Velvetine, I was strongly reminded of the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream, which I first tried a few years ago. They are both in liquid form and have the same cushy, slightly powdery texture that dries into a matte finish. They even smell alike! Good thing I recently got a new NYX Lip Cream around the same time as the Velvetine. Great timing, huh? 

I even managed to get two shades that are similar - Lime Crime's Red Velvet and NYX's Morocco. These liquid lipsticks are both richly pigmented but they do differ in many ways. Here are swatches and comparisons of the two!

Beauty savings tip: you don't have to spend more than P500 for a crazy good eyeliner. Sure there are exceptions to the rule (I love the Kanebo Kate Gel Eyeliner and Majolica Majorca Automatic Liner) but even then you don't have to go beyond P700, tops! 

A recent crazy good eyeliner find is the NYX Slide On Pencil (P360 at Digital Traincase). I got it in Purple Blaze, a deep yet electric purple shade that has a bit of glimmer. 

Why I love the product

• This eyeliner is extremely creamy and glides like butter on the lids. No tugging or pulling on the delicate skin around the eye area.
• Doesn't smudge or budge during the day. It's water and rub-resistant.

This is what my vanity table looks like right now. I know, it's messy! Even though our helper cleans it up immaculately, I always trash it after putting on a full face of makeup. I need more space or I need to get rid of my stuff. Leaning towards the former, I love my stuff!

You can see One Day by David Nicholls there. I read it last Sunday, and all I can say is if you haven't read it yet, you should! It's one of the best books I've had in a while. It's a story about two people's paths crossing in a span of twenty years - like 500 Days of Summer, it's not a love story, but a story about love. The ending is quite painful, but I love how the author made it bittersweet.

So anyway, moving on to the kikay stuff! I did my nails today because I'm going to a dinner tonight. I only intended to wear the NYX Girls nail polish in Pacific Blue, but I suddenly had a brilliant (though not-so-original) idea: what if I do a French tip using another color?

During the SuperSale Bazaar at Rockwell a couple of weeks back, I got a chance to chat with Sol of Digital Traincase about our favorite topics: makeup and nail polish! That aside, I find her to be one of the most inspiring businesswomen in the online beauty niche. Even with a hectic job at an international organization, she managed to start her online store selling NYX cosmetics, a venture which later on proved to be a major success. Even celebs like Pia Magalona buy from her!

So anyway, while I was at her booth at the bazaar, I was browsing for some NYX Girl Nail Polishes to buy. She said that she didn't like these polishes before, but the revamped version, which she has, really impressed her when her supplier offered her to try samples. That coming from a nail polish fanatic who has Dior, Chanel, and other expensive brands in her extensive collection, I was sold.

I got three NYX Girls Nail Polish bottles: Luscious Green, Fire Amber, and Pacific Blue. Did I say these are only P150 a pop? It's pricier than local drugstore brands, but I swear, the quality and finish is similar to high-end polishes! The formula is smooth, easy to apply, extremely pigmented, dries fast and has pretty good staying power. I've been wearing them for the past two weeks so I can say with conviction that they're awesome.

I tried Pacific Blue first.

I'm not an addict, baby that's a lie! Says K's Choice in their iconic song. I have dozens of tubes of lip products, but I still keep on buying a few here and there. I can't help it. I blame it on my curiosity! It doesn't help that most lip stuff are cheap and easily accessible, what with all the online resellers out there. NYX is one guilty pleasure of mine.

The NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream is one of the brand's newest lip color lines. It promises to be "nothing you've experienced before" - and I agree! It's certainly unique, defying the definition of what lipstick or gloss should be. I love the color payoff and how it feels on my lips, but I find that it dries in a rather unflattering way. Here's a quick run-down of the pros and cons!

Antwerp

What I love about the product

• Pigmented. One dip is enough to make the whole lip opaque with color.
• Dries quickly enough.

I love purple eyeshadow. Its different variations seems to suit the Pinay skin color best, which is why aside from neutrals you will see me wearing purples a lot. So when I heard about the NYX Purple Smokey Look Kit from my favorite blogger Karen, I was immediately hellbent on procuring one for myself. Aside from the palette being all about purple, the $11 price tag is just calling my name!

Well, since we don't have NYX in the Philippines, the $11 price for this palette is just a dream. I asked Armie of Carefreeshopper if she had the palette so she immediately reserved one for me. I only spent P725 including shipping - not bad, not bad at all! 

The palette has a small drawer containing the applicators and lip gloss

So how was it? Well, I am sad to say that I am disappointed. I really wanted to love this palette, but there were some things about it that I thought made it a "meh" product. 

What I love about it

• The bloggers weren't lying when they said that this palette's eyeshadows are extremely pigmented. One layer is all you need to get a good color payoff.
• Compact and nicely packaged. The sleek black plastic looks quite classy.
• Has a mirror, very useful for retouching on the go.
• Travel-friendly

Perhaps the most common complaint about NYX Round Lipsticks is their lack of staying power. NYX attempts to solve that problem by providing a slightly more expensive line called NYX Lips.

So how different is Lips from the Round lipsticks? For one, it feels smoother, creamier, and thicker. It is also more opaque and pigmented, and that's saying a lot since RLs are already pigmented as they come. 

Black Cherry and Love Angel

The staying power of this line is definitely better than the RLs. The RLs tend to fade and get wiped out as soon as you eat or drink, but Lips keep their color for at least four hours. Eating and drinking will remove them, but there will be a stain left. In the case of Black Cherry, a very, very strong stain.

When you Google for NYX Round Lipsticks you will find that two of the most popular shades are Thalia and Tea Rose. Every makeup enthusiast worth her salt has these shades in her arsenal! They're cheap, plus they're extremely flattering on most skin tones. The swatches were very tempting so I decided to snag these lipsticks when Carefree Shopper's next shipment came in.

Thalia and Tea Rose. They look the same in the picture, but Tea Rose looks a lot pinker in person. Swatches up ahead!

I'm sure you're tired of seeing the NYX Round Lipstick everywhere! It's that awesome. I mean, where can you find cheap-ass, good-quality lipsticks that have an insane range of colors? Each lipstick is extremely pigmented, creamy, and has a decent staying power. The price is too nice at P160 (the cheapest I know of here in the Philippines). I got my loot from Carefree Shopper. 

Rea, Pumpkin Pie, Power, Fig, Louisiana, Electra

Rea makes my lips look gray. I think this nude is too beige! Still, I enjoy using it. This will look awesome with heavy smoky eyes.

Pumpkin Pie is a nice peachy nude. I'm not a huge fan of the frost finish but I can live with it.

I have long wanted to get my hands on the NYX Concealer in a Jar because of the rave reviews online. Of course, the price is too good to be true for the promised quality - $5 or only around P300 from resellers. I had to wait two months after paying to get my hands on it, but I didn't mind because I thought it would be worth it.

It's not.

It's my fault really. I got the one in Medium, which I read was for NC35 skintones. Imagine my disappointment when I opened the jar, swatched it, and found that it's too dark and too beige for my skin! The horror. I waited for two months and it was all for naught.

So yes it's basically as good as trash to me. There's just no way I can use it becaue it's really obvious on my face - like dark patches. More pictures and serious review after the jump!