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A Black British Beauty Blogger

Monday 21 August 2017

MAC Lip Pencils Redd, Cherry, Brick & Beet swatches on Dark Skin

Disappointingly I have had a fruitless search this weekend when seeking lipstick swatches on someone of my skin tone (or even just non white). This really hit home for me, WOC need to continue posting swatches and providing reviews where possible on the internet so that we can be represented. 

I recalled that I hadn't posted these shades of my MAC Lip Pencils. I am now including swatches of MAC Lip Pencils Redd, Cherry, Brick & Beet to add to my previous post. 

Redd, Cherry, Brick, Beet







I have written the descriptions MAC uses below and I have suggested complimentary lipsticks in brackets: 

Redd      Clearly red                    (Russian Red)
Brick       Intense golden red       (Diva)
Cherry    Vivid bright bluish-red   (Ruby Woo) 
Beet        Vivid reddish pink         (Rebel)

Saturday 24 June 2017

MAC Lip Pencils - Swatched on Dark Skin: Chestnut, Magenta, Nightmoth and Ruby Woo



This is a continuation of my posts on lip pencils / liners that I love. There was no way that MAC couldn't get a mention.  However, whilst getting the photos together for this series I started to change my mind and want to include other pencils swatches, not necessarily my favorite but shades I struggled to find swatches on the internet on dark brown women.  Confession time - I quickly became lazy and so swatched the reds below quickly. 

Chestnut is a must for every dark black woman as it is an excellent shade of brown, pigmented to the gods and blends in perfectly with any lipstick or gloss. 

Magenta I like to wear alone as I adore the blue purple shade. 

Nightmoth - she is my b***h right here! I love the vampy, deep purple shade and her ability to  switch up my pinks, reds and purple lipsticks alike. 

Ruby Woo is a hard one as I hate the dryness of the lipstick and so refused to purchase it (I go through phases where I go in store to purchase it but leave with something else).  I bought this shade to try and circumvent the lipstick and am disappointed as it is not as pigmented as I expected and find that it drags when applying it. Nice blue- red tone but I will not be repurchasing.

The price point for the lip pencils is an issue, specifically as there are comparable (credible) dupes by other brands (NYX), however the pigmentation on some of the shades such as Chestnut have me running back for a repurchase.


What are your favourite MAC lip pencils? Let me know as I need to expand my collection.  


Thursday 22 June 2017

Makeup Revolution Highlighter & Bronzer: Rock On World, Golden Lights & Rose Gold Lights


Rock on world, Rose Gold, Golden Lights




Makeup Revolution Highlighters and Bronzers are a great low cost option, with exceptional colour pay-off. I picked mine during one of Superdrug's 3 for 2 events, £4 each.

Rock on World
I was instantly drawn to Rock on World as it was a hyped dupe for MAC's MSF Gold Deposit. The shade did'n't disappoint at all.

Golden Lights
Golden Lights was a interesting highlighter as it looks scary white (I swatched it heavily)  but pretty on - light hand is required.

Rose Gold Lights 
I adore this rosy tone highlighter. Again a light hand is required as the shades are all pigmented.

Black women, Woc, Rock on world, Golden Lights, Rose Gold Lights



Have you tried Makeup Revolution's Highlighter / Bronzers? What are your thoughts 

Monday 24 April 2017

NYX lip Pencils: Swatched on dark skin


NYX produce some of my favourite lip pencils hands down! 



The colour range is excellent and overall, the pigmentation is on point for this black woman.  I have a mixture of the long, slim and auto lip pencils.

When I was making my decision online of the shades I wanted to try I found it depressing that I couldn't really find the shades on someone with my skin tone and so thought it useful to swatch them in this post. Hopefully helping someone else #playitforward, 

I originally ordered the pencils from an American seller on eBay a few years ago when there wasn't a NYX presence in the UK. I fell in love with Current, Bloom, Dark Brown and Deep Purple.  I found myself re ordering my favourites and adding to the collection each time. 



Of course the main reasons for the popularity of these pencils are the fact that they are relatively cheep, accessible and credible dupes to MAC's lip liners. Unfortunately I have picked up a few duds: Pumpkin, Tangerine, Brown Cafe and Dolly Pink - all too light / patchy for my lips. That said I have  used the nib out of the overs, using them to alter lipstick shades that were slightly off (especially the purples / browns).  Expresso, Dark Brown and Cocca are my ride or die among the browns. I thought swatching MAC's Chestnut would be a useful point of reference for any dark skinned woman who, like me, love the bones of this shade (although not the price!). 
Nutmeg is also useful when used with peachy shades that are too light for me and I want to alter it so that I can wear the lipstick. 






Wednesday 22 March 2017

Make Up Academy (MUA) Lip Liners


WOC, Swatch,


This is the second in my mini series on lip liners I am currently loving at the moment. I recently told you about the hyper pigmentation on my lips  resulting in my need for a good lip liner to support my love of lipstick. I could have jumped strait to my MAC collection but thought it best to go from the the cheapest to expensive. 





MUA has been doing good things for make up lovers in the UK. I love how they always seem to come out with new products to keep up with the Jones, sometimes surpassing them. Their lip primer is the business, eyebrow pencils darn good and their palettes are often good dupes for the current palette being hyped in the blogsphere.

These lip liners are pigmented, long-lasting and a steal at £1 each! I pick mine up at Superdrug.

I'm a firm fan of MUA. 



Sunday 26 February 2017

Amazon (Random) Lip Liners - Surprisingly quite good

I'm always on the look out for lip liners that perform on my lips as I have dark pigmentation around the outside and a lighter shade in the middle. I can find that I have two different shades appearing on my lips as a result. With the colour variation on my lips I really need my lip liners to be pigmented. I often use the lip liner as a base for the lipstick, colouring in my whole lip and then applying lipstick, this has two benefits.....to keep the colour on for longer and to act as an almost colour primer for my lips, allowing the lipstick colour to appear as uniformed as possible. This post marks the first ina series for lip liners I am currently loving at the moment.



There had been a lot of chatter about a set of lip liners from Amazon that were both affordable and pigmented for a ridiculously cheap price.

Initially sceptical, I decided to try them as they were under £2 for a pack of 12. I was not expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised. I know that there has been some people complaining that they has received a poor colour mix in their order but I felt my order had a decent variation.

I received 12 lip liners in total, one black eyeliner and 11 were pigmented  lip liners. The funky lilac colour (no 4 along from the left) was the only drawback.

They lasted whilst I was eating or drinking; when I went to sharpen them they didn't flake or create a mess.

For the colour pigmentation, price and availability via Amazon I have to give these liners two thumbs up.