Nyx Intense Butter Glosses and High Voltage Lipsticks

I'm super late on this review as I bought all of these months ago when they were new for the spring season, but I figured I'd review them anyway for anyone out in the interwebs who've never tried them and were thinking about doing so.

Nyx Intense Butter Glosses are described on their site as having the same scent and texture as the original Butter Glosses, but with even more color payoff.

Berry Strudel is described as a "violet with a blue undertone," which I'd agree with. It's a bright purple that doesn't have any pink or red tones so it's a purple tent to gravitate towards. The lighting in my apartment is slightly yellow, which did make my swatch appear slightly pink-toned. It applies nicely, but it's not as opaque as the other two shades I have with only one layer. I'm not a big gloss lover, so I pretty much never do more than one layer.

Berry Strudel

Chocolate Crêpe is described as a "deep beige." On me, it's a deep neutral brownish color with some warm tones. It's not brown enough to be called a straight-up brown. I really like these darker neutral shades on myself. It's definitely opaque all in one layer and feels comfortable on the lips throughout wear.

Chocolate Crêpe

Tres Leches is described as a "nude". It's a light-to-medium beige shade with some pinkish tones. Very pretty neutral color and just as comfy as the other two.

Tres Leches

I'll probably sound biased in reviewing these glosses just because I don't wear gloss often. That being said, I do find these very comfortable to wear and they don't feel too thick or goopy in one layer, which is all I ever wear. Layering more than that on feels too thick for my preferences. These glosses are also not sticky at all once they're settled onto the lips, but they do start to feel tacky if the product wears or is blotted off.

Intense Butter Glosses retail for $6 each (8mL/0.27oz of product) on Nyx's website and are also sold at Ulta and probably other stores like Target or similar, where they may go on sale. Ulta does BOGO half off all the time with Nyx stuff.

Nyx High Voltage Lipsticks claim to give a "vibrant color with a super-rich finish." The ones I have are all highly pigmented and apply really smoothly and easily. They don't have very good lasting power at all, but it's a trade-off since they're so smooth and moisturizing. The product general reapplies well over itself (I'll mention otherwise for individual shades).

Flutter Kisses is described as a "soft pink mauve," which it indeed is. It's pretty similar to my lip color but still looks like I'm wearing something so I like wearing it on days when I'm not wearing much makeup at all for a little something. It applies smoothly and doesn't feel thick or settle into my fine lines.

Flutter Kisses

Beam is described as a "pink peach with blue undertone." It's a bright, peachy-pink-almost-coralish color with some subtle silver glitters. This one is thicker than the other shades I have and it settles into my fine lines. If I rub my lips together, I can feel the glitters.

Beam

Stone is described as a "beige". It's a neutral-to-cool toned beige on me that's a bit darker than my skin tone. This one is smooth, not too thick or heavy, and fades fairly quickly in a few hours, but reapplies fine.

Stone

Play Date is described as a "bright lavender." On me, it's a cool, almost grey-toned lavender and I love it! I wore it constantly all late winter and spring. It's pretty unique and so comfy to wear. I love the color enough that I don't care about having to reapply a few times throughout the day.

Play Date

Free Spirit is described as a "clean orange." It's definitely a straight-up orange, which makes me happy because a lot of orange shades I find in drugstores are more orange-red. This is the thinnest and longest-wearing out of all the shades I have. It's a beautiful, bright, legit orange and I'm happy to have found one for such a good price because it's not a color I wear all the time.

Free Spirit

High Voltage Lipsticks retail for $6 each (2.5g/0.09oz of product) on Nyx's site or at Ulta, maybe Target, etc. These are definitely a better value in terms of product quantity compared to ColourPop lippie stix (which are $5 each for only 1g) and are slightly less good of a value than Nyx's tube lipsticks like the Matte or Butter lipsticks.

Nyx does not test on animals, but I have seen animal-derived ingredients listed in their products, including the High Voltage lipsticks, which have beeswax in them.

ColourPop Ultra Matte Lips Review and Swatches

ColourPop has been pumping out a ton of new shades and new products over these past several months and their new Ultra Matte Lips had been something I wanted to try out because I love liquid-to-matte lipsticks. I decided to start with four shades before jumping into getting too many of a brand new item, just in case I didn't like them.

I picked up Trap, Kapow, Jellies, and Dr. M.

From left to right: Jellies, Dr. M, Kapow, and Trap

Trap is described as a "dusty greyed-out beige ("greige")," which has seemed to be a bit of a popular king of color recently. I see it as a greigeish color with some mauve tones. For a light shade of liquid lipstick, this color has amazing longevity. I do get that weird looking ring around the center of my lips after wearing it for many hours, but it's not as noticeable as with lighter beige lipsticks. I put this on my lips at around 9:30am and then drove 7.5 hours home from vacation while snacking and drinking soda and this color didn't fade whatsoever. I can't say I have any other lipsticks that hold up quite as well.

Trap

 Kapow is described as a "muted grey taupe," which I'd agree it has those tones, but it looks pretty brown on my lips (which I love!). This one has pretty much the same lasting power as Trap does. It does transfer onto eating utensils and drinking straws, but hardly any of it transfers onto my hand when I do the "kiss test."

Kapow

Jellies is described as a "rich cobalt blue," which it indeed is. This one is pretty runny compared to the other ones. All four of the shades I have are thin and more liquidy rather than creamy, but Jellies is almost watery. This is the only shade out of these four that doesn't dry to a truly "ultra matte" finish, also. It feels matte once it dries, but it looks like it has kind of a vinyl sheen. This and Dr. M are really hard to apply evenly and my swatches show it. I recommend using a liner you can see to help guide the application. When I try to apply this on its own, it's a hot mess.

Jellies

Dr. M is described as a "deep blackened green," which I agree with. I really love this color, but it's almost as hard to apply as Jellies. I'm going to have to get a green pencil to use with it to make application easier. This one dries completely dry-matte and I can feel it on my lips more than Kapow or Trap. I can definitely feel these darker shades have a different texture.

Dr. M

There are definitely some great pros to these guys, but also some strong cons for me:

PROS:

- Extremely long wearing

- Very minimal color fading

- Very affordable: $6 each for 3.2g/0.11oz, which is the same amount as Anastasia's liquid lips (which are $20 each)

- Fun colors! It's nice to get to try colors you may not normally wear for a low price

CONS:

- Very dry. If your lips are already dry or you don't like liquid-to-matte lips, you'll hate these

- Difficult to apply. I find Jellies and Dr. M particularly challenging. Liner will be necessary, IMO

- Dries too fast. There's no play time with these and you need to apply quickly or else the finish gets weird

- Not beginner friendly. I'm used to liquid lipsticks, but I'm still having a hard time getting these to apply evenly since they dry so fast.

- Not buildable or possible to reapply. All four of these are good for one layer only. I've tried reapplying the product over itself and it just flakes and falls apart on my lips after that. If I mess up my application, I need to fully remove it and try again.

These liquid lipsticks all retail for $6 each on ColourPop's site and the brand does not test on animals.