have a glossy christmas

the holidays are the very best time to stock up. yes, there are sales and limited-edition products. but the very best part (at least to me) are the gift sets!

i love sets for three reasons. one, it gives you a variety of products that you can created several looks from. two, i'm obsessed with tiny products. three, if you are going the economic route, you can bust the set apart and use them as gifts for several people or as stocking stuffers.

i'll try to do a few blogs based on the sets that are calling my name this christmas, but i'll start with a buffet of my favorite type of set-lip gloss!!


Mirror Mirror gloss from Two-Faced. tastes and smells great, not sticky, and super shiny!


Kat Von D's glosses come in great colors, but most appealing is "stormy", which looks black but goes on a dark silver. it would be gorgeous over a plum lipstick!


Lorac's mini Mocktail set is very glittery and smells just like the drinks each gloss is named after. plus, each tiny gloss has a mirror on the side so you can admire your lips!


NARS, gorgeous and pigmented as always.


ten glosses for less than 25.00? sign me up!!




i love smashbox. i especially like their nude neutral glosses!



stila's mini glosses have their trademark brush so you can glaze to your heart's content.

all of these gorgeous, portable gloss sets are available at sephora.com. buy them for yourself or for somebody else who loves a lacquered lip!

product crush.....Buxom Babes Diamond Lips

i have the biggest crush on Buxom Lips. They are the perfect gloss for every mood. if i had a boatload of money, i'd have every single one. i'm working on it.

in the meantime, they keep coming out with more to choose from.

Buxom Babes Diamond Lips are versatile and portable, and perfect for the holidays because they are sparkly! like the other Buxoms, they make your lips look full while tasting and smelling good.

they come in four festive colors: April (pink kiss), Starr (raspberry ice), Celeste (soft peach), and Clair (moonlit mauve). these are beautiful alone or over lipstick or stain!

as far as i know, these lil beauties are not available individually or in a larger size, so get 'em while you can!

product crush.....mirror mirror gloss by two faced

i think a lot of people overlook Two-Faced, and i think it's the marketing. it definitely appeals to a younger crowd, because their packaging is, in a word, juvenile. however, if you can get past it, they really do have some great products.

i'm really excited about their Mirror Mirror Gloss. they have a bunch of fabulous, sheer color options that aren't sticky, and they are also scented with a fun burst of fragrance!

per sephora.com, "The deliciously-flavored colors are scented: Envy Me with currant, I Love Myself with grapefruit, I Know You Want Me with Apple, Damn I'm Hot! with Cherry, I'm Perfect with Banana, and Don't Hate Me with Strawberry".

i've been wearing "I'm Perfect" (sheer beige) over Naked by Urban Decay, and i've also tried "Damn, I'm Hot" (sheer red) and "Envy Me" (sheer currant). they are all long-lasting and very shiny, and the scents are a really nice touch!

i almost prefer "I'm Perfect" to the "Girls on Film" Glamour Gloss, simply for the shine. "Envy Me" helps create a look similar to Smashbox's Wicked/Lovely dark lips when paired with Urban's Rockstar liner (made for eyes, but fun for eggplant lips, too!) and their Apocalypse (blackberry/sheer cream) lipstick. then again, i'm prone to a good cocktail.

try these lipglosses-they'll put a little perk in your pout!

product cocktail.....urban decay liner and two faced gloss!

i'd much rather do up my eyes than my lips.

ask my favorite stylist friend, Beauty Queen, and she won't miss a beat while telling you that my lip line is not for the faint of heart. it's hard to get right. most days i don't even fight that battle. in addition, my lips don't take color well. nearly everything turns to sheer boring pink on me. it's strange....things that would normally would be very dark on one person just mellow out on me, almost like i just put on a transparent gloss.

it's not very often that i get fanatical about a lip look. lip products, yes. i can talk up gloss, stains and plumpers all day. truth be told, though, i don't have high hopes for a big difference. i've learned to be content with something that looks nice, and to expect a certain result.

yesterday, quite by accident, i combined two products that created a lip look that i could not keep my eyes off of.

Urban Decay's new 24/7 Glide On Lip Pencils are a loooong time coming. their eyeliners are already above the curve in my mind-creamy, highly pigmented, and long-lasting. these lip liners are the same.

i covered my entire lips with Naked, which is a neutral pink. then, i topped it all off with Two-Faced Glamour Gloss in Girls on Film, a pink-nude beige shimmer.

when i stepped back and looked in the mirror, i didn't immediately gasp that my look was all about lips. what i was impressed with was that i had found a lip look that made my face look polished....dare i say it? the perfect nude for me! it's a hard task to find one's perfect naked lip look.

i need to buy these two products in bulk.....i can't see myself living without them!!

hopefully i'll be able to post pics of this new look soon.....

product lust.....bare escentuals buxom lips full color

i love when a company has the brains to improve upon something that's already good.

take, for instance, Bare Escentuals. i loved Buxom Lips before, with it's shimmery sheer color and it's minty tingle. i loved to wear it over stains and lip pencils. but now, there is Buxom Lips Full Color. it's fuller color coverage in a formula that you already love....yay!!

it promises "intense sheen and color opacity with no sticky or tacky feeling". i promise that i'll definitely end up buying some.

product confessional.....my lip glosses

i have my cosmetics divided by type in bags. one day i'm going to buy a massive trunk to house it all, but for now my bathroom counter is littered with a zillion bags.

i have so many lip products that i have one bag for lipsticks, and one bag for glosses. just for fun, i'm letting you invade my lip gloss bag and see what's inside.

disclaimer: i also use my lip gloss bag for my plumpers, stains and chapsticks. ready for the tour?

-<2> C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shine
-Benefit Lipscription (Buffing Lip Beads/Silky Lip Balm)
-Caboodles lip gloss in strawberry cream
-Smackers Lip Frosting in strawberry
-Sephora lip gloss in rosy glow
-Maybelline Shinylicious in sugarplum
-Maybelline Shinylicious in raiz'n razzle
-Squeezy Lip Smacker in Strawberry Limeade
-Victoria's Secret Sweet Talk in sensual strawberry (disc)
-Cinnabon Lip Balm
-Smackers Lip Frosting in buttercream
-Lancome Juicy Tubes Cherie Ultra Shiny Lip Gloss in Coral Rush
-Temptations Cooling Lip Gloss in Tropical Colada
-Temptations Cooling Lip Gloss in Frozen Daquiri
-Lancome Juicy Tubes in tickled pink
-Cargo Lip Gloss Duo in chattanooga
-Dior GlossShow in 715
-Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips in trixie
-DuWop Lip Venom lip plumper
-Patricia Wexler No-Injection Lip Plumper
-Urban Decay Big Fatty Lip Plumper
-Bubble Yum Lip Balm in cotton candy
-American Girl Conditioning Lip Shine in sheer strawberry (lol it was a gift)
-<2> Bourjois Lip Stain Pen in framboise bonheur
-Chanel Glossimer in constellation
-Victoria's Secret Sweet Talk in very cherry vanilla (disc)

whew! not enough days in the year to wear them all, but i try. and there are so many mroe that i want. what's in your arsenal?

product cocktail...cupid's bow and trixie

i am notorious for combining product lines in a completely irreverent way. today's little experiment was courtesy of my personal stylist, beauty queen (who also happens to work for...a place where i can buy all this stuff. how lucky am i?)

first, she applied benefit's cupid's bow lovely lip-shaping set, highlighting the outline of my lips as well as inside the lip line. then, she applied bare escentuals buxom lips in trixie.

cupid's bow might be a little tricky to self-apply at first, since you are basically contouring your lips as you would your cheeks or eye area. blending is the big key to pull it off...you don't want to look like an early 90's latinesque drag queen.

this is one of my favorite lip looks i've ever had put on me. it's a pretty, polished look that lights up your face, instead of putting your lips on center stage. perfect for warm weather!

buxom really does plump my lips, has a nice tingle and it smells like the beach!

i bought the gloss, but they were out of cupid's bow. it figures. i WILL be back to buy it when it's in stock.