Dose of Colors Dare to Dazzle Metallic Liquid Lipstick Trio - Review, Swatches, and Photos

When I started getting into makeup, probably around Spring semester last year, I turned to YouTube and beauty bloggers for what products to buy from what brands in what color. The first time I walked into an Ulta, I ended up wandering into the high-end makeup section without realizing it, simply because there were a lot of brands there I'd never heard of that had pretty stuff.

YouTube also helped me stay on top of makeup trends, like baking and strobing, and of course liquid lipsticks. Once liquid lipstick caught on, there wasn't a brand--high-end or drugstore--that wasn't coming out with their own take on it. Thankfully, there are individuals on YouTube who turn makeup into both a hobby and a career who will wade through the sea of new releases for you and tell you what's worth your time.

Beauty guru KathleenLights came out with a video where she went through all of the liquid lipsticks she owned and how they ranked. In the top three was Dose of Colors. Once I watched this video, I started noticing Dose of Colors in more places. Lots of people were hyping the formula and colors. Plus it helps that they're a vegan/cruelty-free brand based in the United States. Months later, I realized I love liquid lipsticks, and it was time to give Dose of Colors a try.

The holidays brought around a trio of limited edition metallic shades called the Dare to Dazzle trio. And dazzle they do. I first fell in love with the colors when I saw swatches on Instagram. I purchased the set in February, which surprised me since it had already been out since before the holidays but was still in stock. Lucky for me, huh?

The set sold for $58 for three 1.6oz liquid lipsticks. Individual lipsticks cost $18. When you do the math, the set actually costs more than if you were to buy three stand-alone liquid lipsticks, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Maybe you're paying the four extra dollars for the packaging or the limited edition-ness. But I just couldn't say no to these colors.

After doing some research in the way of reviews and pictures, it turns out that these three actually have a different applicator than their permanent line. The permanent line uses a traditional doe-foot applicator, while the Dare to Dazzle trio uses a flatter paddle applicator.

Applicator for permanent line

Applicator for Dare to Dazzle 

Not sure what the reasoning behind the change is. The flat side of the paddle applicator fits great against my bottom lip, but makes it a little difficult to carve out my cupid's bow since the tip isn't pointed.

The set comes with three colors:

• Teddy is a metallic copper brown
• Scarlet Lace is a blue-based red that gets its shine from pink glitter more than a metallic finish
• Corset is a metallic burgundy plum

My favorite shade is probably Teddy. It's just so perfectly opaque and metallic. I didn't think I would ever get into the brown lip trend, but I am loving how Teddy looks on me. Scarlet Lace is a very nice color, but is more glittery than metallic. Corset is gorgeous, but goes on a bit patchy. I usually wait until it's dry before attempting to apply another layer. Two layers of Corset will give you an even application of color.

The formula is top notch. They wear incredibly comfortably on the lips, to the point where you forget you're even wearing anything. They last all day and barely transfer. I've been wearing Teddy the entire time I've been planning and writing this post, and kissing my hand bears practically no transfer. That being said, putting your lips on skin versus a cup of coffee yields different results.

The second cup of coffee I had after this had less transfer on it, but the color still looked flawless on my lips. These lipsticks have a pretty solid formula, if I do say so. If you're wondering about the formula of the metallic lipsticks versus the regular matte line, I hear that they both feel the same on the lips. And since I love how these lipsticks feel, I just might pick up a matte shade or two.

Have you tried any liquid lipsticks from Dose of Colors? Share your thoughts below!

OFRA Four Shades of Romance Liquid Lipsticks - Review, Swatches, and Photos

Matte lipsticks have never been my favorite. Since I have combination skin, I find that I lean towards matte foundations and shimmery eyes and creamy lips. Some of the first lipsticks I bought were from ELF's moisturizing lipstick line, and they're amazing. But I always thought that matte lipsticks were too drying, too flat.

But 2015 was the year of liquid lipsticks. I don't think I even heard of liquid lipsticks until halfway through the year when YouTube beauty guru KathleenLights got into them. It sounded like an interesting idea--a lipstick in liquid form that you apply with a doe-foot applicator. Smooth finish, precise application, all-day wear...

Around this time was also when Kathleen promoted OFRA Cosmetics as being her favorite brand of liquid lipsticks. Not too much later, she collaborated with OFRA to create the shade Miami Fever, a gorgeous burnt terra cotta color that I immediately had to buy. I'd already been intrigued by the OFRA brand, and more so because of this unique color. As soon as I put the lipstick on, I was completely sold and already buying other colors.

OFRA came out with a collection this year for Valentine's Day called their Four Shades of Romance collection. It featured three permanent colors and one limited edition color exclusive to the set. The four lipsticks purchased individually would set you back $80, but were available in this collection for $39. And as it would turn out, every YouTuber ever has a 30% off discount code with OFRA, making the collection a mere $27.30. I'd been eyeing the three permanent shades anyway, so of course I needed this set.

The packaging is adorable, first off. The card that comes with the four lipsticks shows the artwork for the collection, and a sweet Valentine's message on the back. And also a discount code. What a great Valentine's gift, OFRA.

Treat yo' self, my friend. You deserve it.

The collection comes with one limited edition shade, but also all four lipsticks come in limited edition packaging. They're much shorter than the regular lipstick tubes, and come with silver caps instead of black.

Left: Permanent packaging. Right: LE packaging

Though the limited edition packaging appears to be smaller than the regular packaging, both tubes come with the same amount of product: 8 grams.

The limited edition shade, Paris Rendezvous, is a very wearable bright pink, perfect for the spring and summer.

Santa Ana is a beautiful rosy pink color for when you're not feeling so bold.

Venice is a vivid orange-red.

Atlantic City is a classic blue-based red.

All four shades are gorgeous and perfect for the Valentine's season, and for the spring and summer in general. I know I'll be getting a lot of use with these colors, with warm weather steadily returning (It was in the low 70s today. California, amirite?).

I did not expect that I would like Paris Rendezvous as much as I do. I have never been one for bright pink shades, and there weren't many swatches of this available when the collection was launched. But I knew I wanted the other three shades, and I need to get out of my comfort zone more, so why not? Paris Rendezvous, to my surprise, was a very pretty shade on me, and not nearly as bright as I thought it would be. 

These lipsticks smell like vanilla cake frosting and are not the least bit drying. OFRA liquid lipsticks are some of the most comfortable liquid lipsticks I've ever worn. They have a moussy texture that goes on very smooth and very opaque. Given that I'm not terribly dehydrated and my lips aren't super dry, I can put one of these lipsticks on and forget about it. I have actually forgotten I have lipstick on while wearing these. They last basically all day, but with any lipstick, can get uncomfortable after 10+ hours. I've eaten whole meals with these, and drank from cups and glasses with limited transfer. But if I were to kiss my hand, I would see some transfer. I've actually been wearing Atlantic City while writing this, and I just kissed my hand, and only a little bit of lipstick came off. Not bad!

Bottom line, I'm a fan. I love love love OFRA's liquid lipsticks. They're comfortable, long-wearing, gorgeous, and they come in over 40 colors. OFRA's a local brand, too--their factory is in Pomano Beach, Florida. I feel good supporting an honest, local brand that uses natural ingredients. Even more so because I love their products. I also have a foundation and highlighter from OFRA, both of which are absolutely amazing.

As of right now, the Four Shades of Romance collection is still available for purchase. If you're looking to try out liquid lipsticks or anything from the brand OFRA, this collection is a great way to start. 

Have you tried this collection or any of these liquid lipsticks? Let me know your thoughts!

Dupe Alert - Benefit Roller Lash vs. Maybelline Lash Sensational - Comparison and Photos

I haven't had a drugstore mascara in my collection for a while. The last one I used was the Colossal Lash mascara from Maybelline. It was old and waterproof, so it was difficult to remove, and I ended up throwing it out once I started accumulating high-end mascara samples.

As I started exploring makeup more, I started learning about brands I'd never heard of before. I first heard of Benefit Cosmetics when they released their Roller Lash mascara. The next time I was at Macy's, I saw a Benefit counter, and asked the girl to put the Roller Lash mascara on me. I found the results to be awesome, but not worth the $24 price tag.

A few months ago, Sephora was giving out sampler bags with $25 purchases. The contents include eight perfume, makeup, or skincare samples and a makeup bag. I made my roommate create a Sephora account so I could claim two of the bags, and in the second bag was a sample of Benefit's Roller Lash mascara.

I'd been thinking of my first experience with Benefit at that counter inside Macy's, and hearing multiple beauty YouTubers rave about this mascara rekindled my interest in it. And indeed, I was wowed again by the results, even more so now as a fledging makeup enthusiast with a more well-rounded viewpoint. Roller Lash became the only mascara I used for a while.

But I had to consider--what would I do when I ran out? Shell out $24 for the full size? It seemed like a large jump to make. Fortunately, around this time, one of my favorite YouTubers, BeautywithEmilyFox, posted a massive mascara review on her channel. She's said multiple times that Roller Lash is her favorite holy grail mascara, so I asked her if she'd found a drugstore dupe for it. And she said the closest thing she's found to match it is Maybelline's Lash Sensational.

I've also heard positive things about Lash Sensational. I knew Maybelline made good mascaras, and at the recommendation of someone whose opinions I trust, I decided to give it a try.

I picked up Lash Sensational at Ulta for $7.24 with a coupon. The tube comes with 0.32oz and is $8.99 regularly. Benefit's Roller Lash comes with 0.30oz and is $24 full sized. What's more is that Lash Sensational boasts a "fanning brush." the same kind Roller Lash has.

The two brushes look remarkably similar. and I hoped the product inside would be similar as well. Right away I noticed that Lash Sensational was a wetter formula. Whenever I use it, I'm somehow able to get mascara on my eyelid, my tightline, the outside of the mascara tube, and on my fingers. But the results were pretty great.

Left: Benefit Roller Lash. Right: Maybelline Lash Sensational

Both mascaras lengthened, defined, and curled my lashes. But I found that Lash Sensational gave me just a little bit more volume than Roller Lash did. I think I prefer Roller Lash on the bottom lashes, though. Lash Sensational is wet enough to get all over my skin, and the brush is slightly too large for a precise application.

My lashes have been kind of naturally curly lately. They're not completely straight, but can curl with some encouragement from mascara. I applied these two yesterday at 3pm before I went to go run some errands. After errands, I met up with a friend and watched a really long movie. I didn't get home until almost 4am, so I'd been wearing both mascaras for 13 hours before finally removing them. Not entirely sure how that happened.

I checked the mascaras in a fitting room about two hours after I applied them and nothing had changed. At the end of the 13 hours, my lashes were still curled, and I had a similar amount of smudging under both eyes. There was no flaking or irritation or transfer onto my lids. On other days I'd been testing these out, I found that Lash Sensational was a little more prone to smudging and transferring than Roller Lash was.

For what they are and how they performed, I think Lash Sensational is a great dupe for Roller Lash. They both lengthened and curled my lashes and kept them curled throughout my entire day. If anything, I actually like Lash Sensational a little bit better for the volume and intensity it gives me. Both mascaras are great. If you can afford it, Roller Lash won't steer you wrong. But if you're looking to save some money, Lash Sensational is a great alternative.

I've still never worn a pair of falsies in my life (even though I have two unopened pairs in my makeup bag), but I don't think I'm missing out too much. I just throw on a few coats of either mascara and I'm good.

(Pro tip: if you have both of these mascaras, layer them. No really. It's awesome.)

Sephora Brush It Off Cleansing Brush Wipes - Review and Photos

For some reason, some of my favorite videos to watch on YouTube are the "What's in my travel bag" types from beauty bloggers. I really don't travel that much, but I want to. I'm planning ahead. Yeah, that's it.

But I did go home for a few weeks during the Christmas and New Year holidays. With work piling up before my trip, I didn't have time to thoroughly wash my makeup brushes. So I took my essential brushes home with me, along with this thing:

I bought these on a whim during a Sephora sale for $7. The video that accompanied the product description hyped these wipes up, but of course it would. 

It seemed like a great idea for travelling: individually wrapped, pre-moistened cloths that you swipe your brush on to clean them. The video says that natural hair brushes don't need as much vigorous cleaning as synthetic ones do. Natural hair brushes can be swiped back and forth, and synthetic you can swirl into the cloth in a circular motion.

Sounds like a cool idea, but I wanted to test them out.

Before (ELF Beautifully Bare blending brush)

The instructions say to place a wipe over a towel and swirl your brush in it until it's clean. It also claims deep cleaning, which I find hard to believe when you're just wiping your brush on a cloth, but...

After

That looks pretty clean to me. 

Once you've used the entirety of one side of the cloth, you can flip the cloth over and continue cleaning on the other side.

I ended up using two wipes to fully clean all of my brushes. I tried to flip the wipe over to use the other side, but I found that the backside didn't clean my brushes as well since so much product had permeated into it. I swiped my brushes on a clean paper towel afterward to dry them off, and I did see that some more product came off on the towel. I can't really expect a single wipe to clean my brushes as well as a proper deep cleaning would, but for what it is, it did a really great job. 

They were super convenient to take on my trip, and they could probably also be used to clean brushes in between applications to remove any color or product before using the same brush again.

Has anyone tried these Sephora brush cleaning wipes? Has anyone tried cleaning their makeup brushes on a regular makeup removing wipe? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Lorac PRO Metal Palette - Review, Swatches, and Photos

In my venture to explore the high-end side of makeup after many years of drugstore exclusivity, it seems reasonable to start out small. Fall 2015 brought us a limited edition palette from Lorac called the Pro Metal palette, which features a small cardboard compact of eight very shimmery shades. The mirror inside is an added bonus. The palette retails for $28 at Ulta, but I was able to grab mine during Black Friday for $18.

 

The palette comes with 4 grams/0.144 ounces of product, compared to Lorac's bigger palettes, such as the Pro palette (16 shades, 8.8 grams/0.32 ounces, $42) or the Unzipped palette (10 shades, 11.2 grams/0.39 ounces, $42). The Pro Metal palette is a little less than half the cost of a Pro palette with half the number of colors. That doesn't sound too shabby to me. The box even comes with two tutorials for your day and night needs. 

 I've heard a lot of hype and raves about the Lorac Pro palettes. I was very excited about receiving this palette in the mail, and probably checked the tracking number every day in anticipation of its arrival. When I opened the box, I was not disappointed, let me tell you .

The colors are gorgeous. They're very metallic, as their namesake implies, but the shadows have more of a reflective quality that gives them their shine, instead of a ton of glitter. When you put your finger in them, it feels as though you could stick your finger right through them. The colors are so soft and pigmented, though the softness does contribute to a bit of powderiness and fallout.

The colors swatched beautifully. For most of them, I had only to gently swirl my finger in the powder, and one swipe on my arm was all it took to get the color payoff. However, the darker colors, Onyx and Cobalt, went on a little bit patchy. They aren't as intensely shimmery as their lighter counterparts. In fact, Onyx looks like the only one with any actual glitter in it. Cobalt had to be built up just a little bit before the blue really started coming through.

The real test was wearing the shadows. I tested this palette out for three days with a different combination of colors. There was quite a bit of powder on my brush when I dipped it into the shadows, and for all the pigmentation they showed in the swatches, I found that I didn't get nearly the same intensity on my lids. They seemed to leave most of their color behind on my brush. My very powdery, glittery brush. Some colors seemed to fade right away, but the look lasted throughout my entire 8+ hour work day.

On day 1, I applied Rose Gold to the inner half of my lid, Amber to the outer half, and brought in Cobalt and Onyx for some depth. The shadows were not very pigmented and creased on me by the end of the day.

On day 2, I wet my brush and applied Gilded to the inner half of my lid, Amber to the outer half, and Cobalt and Onyx in the outer corner. The shadows were pigmented but creased again by the end of the day.

On day 3, I started with my Urban Decay primer and set it with a nude shadow. With a wet brush, Gilded went on the inner half of the lid, Clover on the outer half, and Cobalt in the outer corner for depth. The shadows were pigmented and no creasing was to be had.

I can usually get away with wearing eyeshadow and no primer, but I probably had to use a primer with these ones because of how soft they are. Dry or wet, they blended perfectly. Because the shadows are reflective and not glittery, the two colors I applied to my lid blended seamlessly and it was near impossible to see where one started and one stopped.

However, for all the hype surrounding Lorac and their eyeshadows, I don't feel like I should have had to wet my brush to get the full pigmentation and color payoff on my lid. The only other downside of this palette is that there are no matte shades, so this is not a complete palette. I did have to pull matte crease colors from another palette. But then again, I'm always mixing my shadows.

Alas, the colors are gorgeous, and I certainly have a weakness for shimmery eyeshadow. I lean towards neutral looks, which this palette definitely has, but it also has just enough muted bold shades to take me out of my comfort zone. 

I still love the palette, and if priming my eyes and wetting my brush are the only inconveniences I must face to use these colors, then so be it.

Welcome to Beautifully Noteworthy

When I tell people that I only got into makeup this year, their reactions are usually very surprised. To certain friends, I'm known as that one girl with the killer makeup game. My winged eyeliner elicits borderline fury out of another friend. I get excited talking about makeup and finding people I can talk about makeup with. My friends think I know a lot about makeup and that I have a lot of it, I guess I can see why they'd be surprised.

I actually started dabbling in makeup a year or two ago, but I wasn't an avid makeup user until this year. I remember some of my first products--L'Oreal cream foundation, Maybelline Great Lash mascara (everyone in their teen years uses that mascara), and a kohl eyeliner that smudged like crazy on my waterline. I feel like I've come a long way since then. I shop for makeup often, I watch tons of beauty videos on YouTube, I like experimenting with products and colors and looks, testing new brands...

But I also have quite a ways to go. I think of myself as newbie, still--a "makeup start-up," if you will. Most of my collection comes from drugstore brands. I only visited an Ulta and a Sephora for the first time this year. I only made a Sephora Beauty Insider account like a month ago. I lean heavily towards neutral eye looks. I've never even worn a pair of false eyelashes before.

But I love what makeup can do. It's so flexible and transforming, you can make yourself look any way you want. If I want to look like a Sunday-lazy bookworm who's only wearing makeup to go for a coffee run, I can. If I want to look like an ethereal goddess too good for this world, I can. There are so many brands and products I haven't tried that I've heard amazing things about, I just want to have them and try them. The last time I walked out of Sephora, I practically had swatches going all the way up my arm. I had a blast, but I can't say the same for the male friend that accompanied me (he's a trooper).

I want to continue exploring makeup, but in a more social way. I want to be able to tell people about the things I try and get excited about it with them. I want people to join me on my venture deeper into the world of makeup. I want to share what I know and hear your thoughts.

It's why I decided to call my blog Beautifully Noteworthy. I figure that if I'm going to talk about something, whether I like it or not, it's noteworthy. It deserves to be talked about, and I want you to know about it.

But this blog isn't going to be just about makeup. I also like books and cats, I want to share stories and advice, and talk about lifestyle and health. Makeup is beautiful, but there's a beauty to the world beyond it, and also to you. You're beautiful, too. Don't forget it.

I'm still playing around with this blog's template and contents. Might change the background and colors. But while I'm doing that, I hope to have actual content up soon. I'll probably start with reviews of products I've been trying out. I'll dig up my camera so I can post swatches. Stories and advice will come as I think of it (I'm a big believer of self-love, and more people should be, too). Book reviews may be more infrequent, but be assured, I really love books (recommend things for me to read!). I got a cat a few months ago that I just adore, so expect pictures of him periodically.

So that's my intro. Thanks for hanging out with me, and I'll see you again soon with something interesting.