Products I love: NARS VELVET MATTE LIP PENCILS

You might have heard about them, or maybe even you already own some of them, but NARS Velvet matte lip pencils are life-changing for me. Why? For starters, I am a lip junkie, and I own dozens and dozens of lipsticks, and many of them have similar colors, although I do try to vary a little when buying new ones. 

I love reds, you must know, but I am not a red-wearing person. Maybe I don't have the perfect red for my skin (very pale with yellow undertones) or maybe I'm wearing them in a way I shouldn't. The thing is, I mastered eye makeup and I didn't bother too much with dark lipsticks (and I'm referring to any kind of tones different to nudes) which was a BIG MISTAKE.

That said, I love these lip products because they're so easy to apply and there are a wide range of colors to choose from. I am now going to show you the ones I own and some swatches.

These are all five of them:

(Left to right:) Damned, Cruella, Sex Machine, Dragon girl, Belle de jour.

(Left to right:) Damned, Cruella, Dragon girl, Sex machine, Belle de jour.

(I apologize for the bad conditions some of these are in, because some caps have been peeling some plastic off, and my bad, I haven't sharpened these for the pictures. PLEASE, do excuse me.)

Damned

My "Damned" lip swatch was really really bad, but I would describe it as a really toned down reddish fuchsia (sort of purplish), which isn't bright, but dark and dull. I actually, don't like it too much, I made a mistake when I picked it up at the NARS counter. I do believe people's recommendations are always nice to check out, but I shouldn't have NEVER bought this color.

It does look nice on darker skins, but not on my very pale one. Period.

Cruella

See? This is what I meant when I said "not in good conditions." It's the second color I picked up ever from Nars, just after Sex machine. It's a really nice brick red, which does work quite well although it somewhat clashes with my skin tone again, but it looks way nicer than Damned, that's for sure. It's a dark red, but not reddish brown sort of dark, and it can even look kind of bright in some flash pictures. (Really quick application in the next picture, I am aware it's a terrible mess, I'm sorry.)

Dragon girl

(a.k.a my love at first sight)

It looks like a bright fuchsia, right? But it isn't, I assure you, it's a pinkish bright red, that's perfect both for summer (sooooo many months to go) and for winter (it gives a punch of color to all those neutral and dark clothes, doesn't it?). I totally recommend ANYONE to try this color, because it looks amazing on all sorts of skin tones and types. It's my favorite red of the bunch (or even of my whole lipstick collection) because it's lively and BEAUTIFUL.

Sex machine

This was the first NARS velvet matte lip pencil I bought. I was 16 or so, and my mother and I were shopping and she thought this dusty pinkish color would suit me well. As you can see, it's quite nice with pale skin, I have never seen it on darker skin tones but I would highly recommend you to go to a NARS counter to try them out, whatever your skin tone. It does look good on the picture, but in my opinion, it's way too dusty and dry, and it goes on a little chalky, so I don't think it looks that flattering (on me, at least.)

(And last but not least)

Belle de jour

This lip pencil is a nice caramel-nude tone, which looks quite nude on the lips, as you can see, although I do have quite pigmented lips, so maybe a paler lip will see an orange-brown tinge in the pencil's undertones (you can clearly see it's a light caramel brown in the product itself.) It's a pretty color, although, I have noticed that all lighter colors look chalky on the lips (on mine, at least) and that's something I don't really like.

(Tips: for correct application, you should exfoliate your lips and put some chapstick (or vaseline) on before putting these lip pencils on, because they ARE MATTE, which tends to mean that they dry your lips after some time on. They don't bleed, though, so you need no lip liner underneath this product.)

That said, I hope you check the full collection out, because it is A-MOH-ZING. 

Good night ladies,

Maria.

My reading blog addiction.

I am a serious blog addict, especially since I discovered Bloglovin' and I started adding all my lovely blogs, and following some more... and more... and more.

Nowadays, I have unfollowed some of these, which stopped blogging all together, or who didn't blog about anything that interested me anymore. But I am currently following:

• 1 Editorial blog (Fashion Rogue, I totally recommend it, does give some awesome ideas, but it blogs way too much for me to catch up, so I put it in a category of it's own so that I could read it separately from the rest.)
• 6 fashion blogs (I know, right? Not ENOUGH, I'll have to look out for more.)
• 15 cooking blogs (I'm a sucker for lovely cupcakes and simple recipes, although I don't usually recreate them at home or anything, but.. just in case, you know.)
• 22 makeup blogs (Were you even doubting it?)
• 16 unrelated blogs (lifestyle, personal blogs, etc.)
• 13 photography blogs.

And that adds up to... 73 blogs.

I did warn you about my addiction. 

Hopefully, in time I will be able to lower this number by unfollowing those who I like the least, but it's so complicated sometimes to choose between them!

If you're a blog addict just as I am, please let me know what blogs you're following,

because maybe we can swap and you may be interested in some of mine!

Últimamente estoy siguiendo muchos blogs, hoy además, he decidido buscar por categorías, sin referencias de nadie, y gracias a Bloglovin' puedo seguir todos estos blogs, ¡y más!

Además, los divido en categorías: editoriales (1), moda (6), cocina (15), maquillaje (22), otros temas (16) y fotografía (13). En total, ¡SIGO 73 BLOGS!

Intentaré quitar parte de estos según vea que me van interesando más o menos sus entradas. 

Si sois adictos a leer blogs, y tenéis alguno que recomendarme, dejadme un comentario con vuestras sugerencias, e intentaré responder con algunas que os puedan gustar también a vosotros.

Maria.

Upcoming / Próximamente

In future posts, I will talk to you about my lipstick collection, which I am very proud of, and I will do swatches and maybe even a Youtube video to show you each and every one of the bits and pieces I have collected lately.

I am also going to include a Spanish translation of my blog posts, because it would be unfair and quite hypocritical if I didn't, since I am spanish.

¡Hola chicas! Os presento mi blog, siento no haber empezado con las traducciones pero no os habéis perdido demasiado, me he presentado básicamente. Me llamo María y vivo en Elche, al sudeste de España. Estudio Turismo y Administración de Empresas (TADE, un doble grado) en la Universidad de Alicante, aunque mi sueño era estudiar fotografía en Nueva York. ¡Pero no estaba la economía familiar como para tanto! Por ahora, se ha quedado en un sueño, aunque sigo haciendo fotos y podéis verlas en mi Flickr. Mi historia con el maquillaje empieza cuando yo era una niña y le robaba los pintalabios a mi madre, y los usaba tanto para los labios, como para los ojos y para el pelo (y mi madre odiaba mis arranques de creatividad a veces.)


Creo que he resumido un poco lo que había comentado en entradas anteriores, así que espero que a partir de ahora no tengáis excusa para no entenderme.


En próximas entradas del blog, os enseñaré mi colección de pintalabios, además del resto de mi maquillaje claro, e incluso es posible que haga un vídeo que colgaré en mi canal de Youtube (pero también lo subiré al blog, por supuesto), y así podréis disfrutar de las cosas que he ido recogiendo en mi búsqueda, además de la inversión que he hecho con la paga que tengo. 
Espero que os guste,


Maria.

About me.

I hope you don't think I am too self-centered, but I think it's important for you to know a little about me before you start reading about my makeup ravings.

My name is Maria, and I live in Elche, on the south-east of Spain.

(This was in New York, and it's not a makeup related picture, as you can see.)

I am 18 years old, and I'm a college student. I study tourism and enterprise administration (CEO) in the University of Alicante. This wasn't the career I intended to have, as my dream was to study photography in New York. But as many of you might already know, American colleges aren't exactly what you'd call inexpensive, and it was unaffordable for my parents to pay it. I won't give up on my dream though, I still take pictures every once in a while. Check my Flickr page if you want to see some of them.

My interest in makeup goes back to my childhood, when I used to take my mother's lipsticks and use them to paint my lips, my hair, my eyes... I was quite a creative little girl! (And my mother didn't like too much this aspect of my creativity. She even had to use bleach sometimes. Oh my!) When I was 13 years-old I started buying my own (cheap) makeup, and I started saving money for better products.
Since I am a student, I haven't got too much money available for buying makeup, but I have learnt to use all of it to buy many goodies!

Thank you for hearing me out, and letting me go on about myself.
Won't happen too often, I swear!

Maria.

The 1st of many.

Hello ladies!
This is my first blog entry, and I am quite nervous about it.

I always wanted to start a blog on makeup, but I had no time, or I thought I'd be a horrible blogger, but I finally had some inspiration coming my way, and decided to start one TODAY.

So this is it :) I hope you like my blog and comment on my entries.

Maria.