Category Archives: NYC

NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Color Crayons Swatches & Review

NYC Ballroom Blush & Riverside Rose City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Colors

NYC has released a few new products for 2014, including the Expert Last Lipsticks which I reviewed a little over a week ago. I had intended to post this review of the new lip crayons the next day, but somehow it fell off my radar. So, today I have swatches and a review of two of the shades of the lip crayons, which are called the City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Colors (quite a long name).

The lip crayons come in -->twelve colors --> and retail for $3.99 each. They are housed in a plastic casing with a clear lid that looks and feels a bit cheap, but that’s okay with me given the price. They are fairly slippery feeling – more like the Hard Candy All Glossed Up pencils and Wet n Wild Megaslicks Balm Stains than the Revlon Balm Stains or Jordana Balm Stains. They’re less sheer than the NYC Sweet Splash Gloss Sticks from last summer – these are quite opaque. Unfortunately, they have a fairly strong sweet-chemical smell that I find quite offputting, though it does fade quickly.

Ballroom Blush // Riverside Rose

The good news is that both colors are really lovely and the product looks, I think, very nice when applied – the texture doesn’t feel great to me (though it’s acceptable), but it does look nice!

Ballroom Blush

Ballroom Blush is an opaque bright pink. I don’t have any similar lip crayons, but I don’t buy pinks very often.

Riverside Rose

Riverside Rose is a rosy neutral. It’s quite close in color to Wet n Wild Rico Mauve (swatched), but since the Wet n Wild has no scent, I prefer that.

There has certainly been an explosion of chubby pencils / lip crayons lately at the drugstore – probably due to the success of the Revlon balm stains (which I bet were influenced by the Clinique Chubby Sticks & Tarte LipSurgence pencils). Are you a fan of the lip crayon trend, or do you prefer traditional lipsticks?

NYC Gold Flake Topcoat Swatches & Review

Purchased – No Affiliate Links

I am in the process of moving (almost everything is packed, including most of my makeup & nail polish) so today I have a very short post for you. NYC recently released a new gold flake top coat called Top of the Gold – it’s on the -->website -->, so I think it’s permanent. Note that it’s not a real-gold-flake type topcoat – more of a gold-colored flakie topcoat. It looks to be a dupe for Zoya Maria Luisa – but I don’t own the Zoya to compare.

Above, I have two coats alone on the left and one coat layered over two different polishes in the middle / on the right. The polish is a bit thick/goopy, and I found that unless you allow it to dry completely, you can’t do a second coat – it will be uneven. I think it would be fairly opaque in three coats, but I didn’t have the patience for that!

However, when layered, it looks best (I think) applied in one thin layer – and a single thin layer is easy to apply evenly.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty! For $1.99, I’d definitely recommend it!

NYC Expert Last Lipstick Swatches & Quick Review

Purchased – No Affiliate Links

NYC Expert Last Lipsticks:
Blue Rose // Creamy Caramel // Traffic Jam // Berry Me // Coralista

NYC has released several new (and permanent) products for 2014. They’re all viewable online at -->newyorkcolor.com --> now, but I can’t find a way to view all the new products together. So far I’ve noticed the following products which I think are new:

-->Expert Last Lipstick -->
-->City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Color --> (jumbo lip crayons)
-->Skin Matching Luminizer --> (a foundation)
-->Smooth Skin BB Cream -->
-->Smooth Skin Mousse Foundation -->
New shades of several products, including nail polish, eyeshadow, and eyeliner.
A new gold flake -->topcoat -->, which I have and will review soon.

Today, I have five of the new $1.99 Expert Last Lipsticks – there were ten in the display, and there are -->twenty shades --> listed online.

Blue Rose // Creamy Caramel // Traffic Jam // Berry Me // Coralista

The lipsticks are packaged in coordinating colored plastic; note that some of the plastic casings are shimmery when the lipsticks are not and vice versa. The lipsticks, unfortunately, do not retract fully into the tubes, so you’ll need to be careful not to nick them with the lid.

In terms of texture, they lipsticks are fairly creamy and apply smoothly, but feel very faintly gritty to me. It’s not noticeable enough to be a problem, but they don’t feel luxurious either. The have a faint fruity-chemical scent, which is light enough not to bother me.

Blue Rose // Creamy Caramel // Traffic Jam // Berry Me // Coralista

The lipsticks are moderately pigmented except for Creamy Caramel, which is noticeably more sheer. Above, I’ve done three swipes of Creamy Caramel and two swipes with each of the others.

Blue Rose is a bright fuchsia with a very slight blue sheen. I don’t usually go for this type of color, but I quite like this one.

Creamy Caramel is a creme finish nude/brown; in addition to being sheerer than the other shades, it’s slightly more emollient and has a better texture. It’s a really nice nude on me – this is my favorite of the bunch.

Traffic Jam is a creme finish bright red. It’s fine, but nothing to write home about – there are several other options for a sub-$3 red lipstick that I prefer.

Berry Me is a creme finish berry – mauve. It’s a really nice color.

Coralista is an orange with a strong white base and silver glitter, though the glitter is not particularly noticeable when applied. This one clung to the dry patches on my lips and looked terrible in person – much worse than in the photo.

Overall, I’d say that these are decent but unremarkable. For $2 – and frequently on sale – they’re worth the price, and are a good option if you want to try out a color you don’t usually like. However, even in this price range, there are better options – I prefer the formulas of Wet n Wild’s lipsticks (MegaLast, Perfect Pout, and Silk Finish), ELF’s Moisturizing Lipsticks, and of course I love the formula of Black Radiance lipsticks.

Black Eyeliner Swatches, Comparisons, Wear Test

Purchased Items & Press SamplesAffiliate Links

eyeliner overload!

I’ve done black eyeliner swatches before, and even did a post with a wear test way back when my blog was new, but I have different eyeliners now and I wanted to see how they compared.

Instead of trying to keep track of which swatch was which, I wrote an abbreviation for the brand on my arm. The follow table has the abbreviation, name of the eyeliner, and type of eyeliner. Continue reading →

NYC Nail Polish Swatches – Long Wearing

Purchased

This is Part Two of my NYC Nail polish mega-swatch posts! Part One, which has swatches of 17 of the $1.99 Quick Dry polishes is here. This post has swatches of 12 of the $.99 Long Wear polish line. Several of these polishes are really excellent – beautiful colors and a great price.

You can see a list of all the available colors on the -->NYC website --> – 26 colors plus a clear.

Continue reading →

NYC Nail Polish Swatches – Quick Dry

Purchased

This year, NYC added several new shades of nail polish to its lineup in both the 99 cent Long Wearing nail polish line and the $1.99 Quick Dry nail polish line. They’re some of my favorite polishes – uniformly good quality, not to mention cheap! During various sales, I’ve purchased quite a few polishes from each line. Today, I have swatches of 17 of the 28 permanent Quick Dry polishes for you, and I’ll have swatches of the other line in a separate post.

You can see a list of all the available colors on the -->NYC website --> – 27 colors plus Grand Central Station, which is clear. It’s my favorite inexpensive topcoat – I’ve gone through a couple bottles.

First, the bright cremes:

NYC Quick Dry polish – bright cremes

This is a very image heavy post – the rest is behind the cut!
Continue reading →

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