theNotice: a beauty blog

Okay, so: I know I haven’t been the best about posting recently, but I’m trying to be better, I swear. I think I still need a couple weeks to really get back into the swing of things, but I may as well start now!

Here’s a quick, springy look to start off the week. Created by Hannah Murray for Topshop AW13 at the last last London Fashion Week, the look is “a bit Brit pop, a bit Eighties, a bit New Wave with an urban edge,” according to Murray. Backstage artists paired fresh skin with almond-shaped pastel blue eyes, and — I don’t know. It’s a bit of a “look,” isn’t it? Super-easy, but still not something I could ever see myself really loving.

Read Vogue’s backstage report for the show here, and catch a full tutorial here.

Topshop recommends using their Eye Crayon in Kingfisher to get this look, but it’s not actually what was used backstage. Rather, Murray put down a green eyeshadow base (I’m guessing a cream eyeshadow), then topped it off with a pale blue eyeshadow.

I went with a more direct approach, layering a white primer with a matte blue eyeshadow, but I would have liked to have used something with more intensity — the soft “glow” was lovely in real life, but I think the way it photographed left a little something to be desired.

You win some, you lose some, I guess!

Start with a blank canvas

& add a little colour. (Pre-blush & mascara)

The cool thing about this look, though, is that you could honestly sub in whatever shade you wanted to. I love the look of a matte finish for an eye like this, but I’m not crazy about bright blues — I think I’d have loved to do a lilac or a cobalt instead (both of which happen to be part of Sephora’s current ColorVision forecast, handily enough!)

Here are a couple springy shades that caught my eye:

Shiseido | Sephora | MAC | Stila

Keep reading! »

A launches from the past few weeks…

More importantly, Clinique just launched their Cinique ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Nail Color ($16 USD). I think I speak for all of us when I say, “excuse me, but what?!” because I honestly did not see this one coming at all.

I don’t know if I should be incredibly pleased or extremely freaked out, but these 21 shades are available now alongside an ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Top & Base Coat (also $16 USD).

Clinique 70s and Sunny, Really Rio, & Juiced Up

Clinique Fizzy, Indie Rock, & Made of Steel

See the rest of the shades! »

Oh, corals. The taupes of the lip colour world, coral hues are almost as hard to identify as Nemo in a sea of tiny clownfish. One person’s coral is another’s apricot, or peach, or pink — they sit just in that lovely spectrum between peach and pink, making them wonderfully flattering but oh-so-hard to define.

That said, though, this month’s Lipstick Bandit collaboration features just that: corals.

I don’t actually own a proper coral lip product (that I know of) at the moment, so I layered two products to get something in the neighbourhood. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough — and it’s comfortable and long-wearing, to boot.

This lip features a thin layer of a YSL Glossy Stain in Corail Alla Prima, a new permanent Vernis à Lèvres from this Summer’s Saharienne Heat collection. Despite being described as a “dazzling coral” (and being named accordingly), I wasn’t crazy about this new permanent shade’s orange-heavy intensity — it’s gorgeous, but it still kinda feels too early in the year, you know?

Anyhow; after blotting (to get rid of the high-impact gloss but keep the medium-sheer stain of colour), I added a layer of–what else?–a Clinique Chubby Stick to tone down the shade. This pinky beauty is Mighty Mimosa, and despite how sheer the original-formula Chubby Sticks tend to be, it did a great job toning down the warmth of Corail Alla Prima.

I think the Glossy Stain would make a great coral on a darker, warmer skintone, but without the Chubby Stick to pink things up a little, it was just a bit too much on me. I’ll definitely give it another try with my “summer goggles” on (they’re like beer goggles, but better beauty), but I might just be a little too cool-toned for it!

See the other Bandits’ picks!

• Beauty Reflections
• BellaChique‎
• ChloeAsh‎
• Eye Heart It
• Getting Cheeky
• Glitter Geek
• Makeup Morsels
• Messy Wands
• Mostly Sunny‎
• Musing on Beauty
• My Funny Valentine
• My Women Stuff

Products Used / Shop the Look

SKIN

theBalm timeBalm Concealer in Lighter Than Light, $18 USD

Clinique Gradient Powder Blusher in Black Honey (review & swatches)

EYES

Anastasia Beverly Hills Bold & Beautiful Kit: Vol. 2 Beautiful Eyes, $36 USD

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Trio in Nude Eyes (glitter black only), $11.99 USD

Annabelle Expandable Mascara, $10.99 CAD

LIPS

YSL Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain in 31 Corail Alla Prima, $34 USD/$36 CAD

Clinique Chubby Stick in 13 Mighty Mimosa, $16 USD/$19 CAD

The product: Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm

↳ in 01 Curviest Caramel, 02 Chunkiest Chili, 03 Mightiest Maraschino, 04 Heftiest Hibiscus, 05 Plushest Punch, 06 Roomiest Rose, 07 Broadest Berry, and 08 Grandest Grape.

Psst: before you start in on this one, have you read our Chubby Stick Intense posts with full-face swatches & shade name mockery coverage?

The formula

Now, the shades and packaging of these are super-cute (of course), but what actually has me head over heels for them is the formula.

Rich, moisturizing, and shockingly pigmented, the Intenses apply with buildable colour and settle well into the lips — I find the colour “sets” once applied, going on a little slippery but wearing with more of a satin-gloss finish (and without any colour displacement!) after 5-10 minutes.

(Ingredients behind the cut.)

The wear

I do find the formula of these varies a bit by shade, but not enough that I’d recommend some wholeheartedly and others not at all. Chunkiest Chili is a little gritty, for instance, and Grandest Grape is a little more slippery — I prefer a drier formula, which I found in Curviest Caramel, Heftiest Hibiscus, and Plushest Punch. (The latter two have much more opaque colour).

On the whole, however, the Clinique Chubby Stick Intenses last much longer than the original Chubby Sticks, starting off glossier and wearing into more of a stain, visually. I don’t find they really stain the lips, though — a bonus, if you want to be able to switch between colours through the day.

I would put the wear time of these at 3-5 hours; I can make it to five with most of these as long as I’m not eating or drinking (or talking a lot), but I prefer to touch up around the three hour mark for more even colour and added moisture.

The shades

Clinique Chubby Stick Intense swatches – hover for shade name labels

I’ve been getting the most wear out of 01 Curviest Caramel, a cream-finish natural lip shade with the perfect yellow-pink balance. It pairs well with both everyday makeup and a smokey eye (the sign of a truly great nude!) 02 Chunkiest Chili, on the other hand, gets almost no love; the the silver glitter adds a frosty finish to this understated, reddish base.

Next, 03 Mightiest Maraschino is a bright, shimmer-free red leaning more strawberry than vamp — perfect for both a lively holiday lip and a carefree summer pout. The real showstopper here, though, is 04 Heftiest Hibiscus. I hate most orange hues, but the pink-touched tangerine-hibiscus hues coming off on this one are so undeniable that I can’t help but pull it out again & again.

Clinique Chubby Stick Intenses, swatched L-R: 01 Curviest Caramel,  02 Chunkiest Chili, 03 Mightiest Maraschino, 04 Heftiest Hibiscus, 05 Plushest Punch, 06 Roomiest Rose, 07 Broadest Berry, 08 Grandest Grape

I think 05 Plushest Punch is going to fly off the shelves; a bright bold pink, it’s a vibrant shade that’s still easy to pull off, grabbing attention without verging on “obnoxious”. 06 Roomiest Rose is more subdued; darker, but still bright, it’s shot through with subtle shimmer that gives lovely depth (minus the frostiness of Chunkiest Chili).

For a much more subdued (but still very noticeable) shade, 07 Broadest Berry is the Curviest Caramel version of a lip with colour: with brownish berry undertones, it’s very wearable, but still gives a lovely, defined lip.

Finally, I found 08 Grandest Grape to be a little slippery at first (though, like the others, it does settle into the lips!), but it’s absolutely lovely — still very wearable; more of a crushed-berry stain than a theatrically purple lipstick.

Don’t miss this post for full-face & lip swatches of the Intense lineup!

The verdict?

The press materials for the Chubby Stick Intenses promise “the perfect marriage between a moisturizing lip balm and a full coverage lip colour,” and I think they absolutely deliver. Silly names aside, the shade range offers a gorgeous mix of brights with a couple great “everyday” shades to fall back on, and the formula is both intensely comfortable and high-impact.

(What, did you seriously think I was going to make it through this entire review without using the word “intense”?)

A few other things I love about these: the twist-up packaging (no product is lost to sharpening) and the scent-free, paraben-free formula.

Availability: $16 USD/$19 CAD at Clinique (US), Sephora, Nordstrom, & Clinique counters.

Additional photos, ingredients, & more »

I’m working on a Chubby Stick Intense review for tomorrow (finally!), but I just had to take a moment and say: seriously?! No one at Clinique could do better than these for names?

I say this as lovingly as possible, but as much as I adore Clinique, this is ridiculous:

• 01 Curviest Caramel
• 02 Chunkiest Chili, because that doesn’t make you think of chili that’s already been consumed
• 03 Mightiest Maraschino » this one, I love
• 04 Heftiest Hibiscus, seriously
• 05 Plushest Punch » this one, too!
• 06 Roomiest Rose
• 07 Broadest Berry when it could have been a fitting, relatable “Boldest”
• 08 Grandest Grape

I get that Clinique wanted to use big-sounding superlatives for the Intenses, but there is no excuse for Roomiest Rose. Or, for that matter, Chunkiest Chili!

Why couldn’t we have had a Cheeriest Chili? A Revival Rose? A Heidegger Hibiscus (yes, I am joking about this one, but this gorgeous shade is practically a way of being), or the aforementioned Boldest Berry? Boldest Berry, at least, should have been a no-brainer — why on earth someone would choose ”broadest” when you could go with boldest for such a gorgeous shade, I have no idea.

And for that matter, why is Oversized Orange not an Intense? It’s oversized!

If you have better names for these, come snark it up the comments!

Which names do you love, which do you hate? Can you think of any better names than these? I (and your fellow readers) would love to hear ‘em!