Nyx Liquid Lipsticks Collection & Swatches

So Nyx announced last year that they were coming to the UK and I was straight onto the bandwagon. I knew I wanted to pick up a few shades of the soft matte lip cream but had heard the odd mention of the liquid suedes too and was eager to pick a few of those up too. They've since announced they're making another lip product called the lip lingerie which I am definitely getting my hands on as soon as they're out, as they look absolutely stunning.

(l-r) Athens, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Antwerp, Prague, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen, Transylvania.
So originally I only picked up four shades but have ended up with nine different shades as I just couldn't cope with a few. After using these for a bit I've noticed that the darker the colour, the more pigmented they are. The shades from Prague onwards seem to last a fair bit longer which is unusual but hey ho. Nyx have released some new shades including more purples and even a bright blue, which I wouldn't normally go for but I need to try it out. 

Athens, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Antwerp.

Prague, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen, Transylvania.

I have lips similar to Prague naturally, so these shades show up darker on my lips than on my pale hand. Shades like Buenos Aires and Tokyo don't really suit me that well but I'm keeping them for any ombré lip looks I may do in the future as they're gorgeous shades for that purpose. Overall I have to say that the bottom five shades swatched are my favourite and they're pretty pigmented to say the least. They don't drag on the lips, they last for a hell of a long time without the need to reapply and they don't flake off when you eat.

(l-r) Sandstorm, Amethyst, Cherry Skies, Vintage.

The main difference between the soft matte lip creams and the liquid suedes is the texture. The pigmentation is just as good if not slightly better. In the UK they're a pound more expensive but as you can see from the photos, you get a larger product. The applicator for this is larger that the soft matte lip creams and ideally I'd prefer the smaller applicator as it's easier to get into the corners. I've seen some reviews online claiming these crack easy and are quite streaky but I've not found this for all four colours I have, and personally I think there is less chance of these cracking than the lip creams. The online reviews I've seen saying that they are 'complicated' to use seem like a load of rubbish as they're so easy to work with which is one of the reasons I'm encouraging more people to try them.

Sandstorm, Amethyst, Cherry Skies, Vintage

The finish of these is a satin or semi-matte which looks stunning and you could definitely use this on top of another lipstick to boost the colour and finish. They lasted all day and the Amethyst colour is so bold and beautiful, the swatch doesn't do it justice. I've found Sandstorm the hardest to work with considering I have pale skin and blonde hair but that's literally just down to the fact that I'm not used to having a brown toned nude on my lips. I think 'Soft Spoken' would have been a better choice for my complexion and Sandstorm is probably more suited to brunettes. It works a hell of a lot better than the nude lip creams though which you can probably see with the swatches. I'm not sure how the Lip Lingerie will compare but I'm excited to try them when they're released over here.

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What I Got For Christmas

First of all I have to say I've been so lucky this year. I didn't create this post to brag, simply to show you what I received this year as it's honestly made me so excited! There are some things not photographed, like the huge bag of chocolates and the clothes and shoes I bought with vouchers since this post would be so long and I may have eaten some of my chocolates already...

I made a list and distributed it amongst my family and boyfriend since they spend the most amount of money and like to get me things I'll really love. They then sent the list to everyone else which is why I don't have anything the same. Usually from my Dad and Stepmum they give me money and then a stocking, but since I never usually spend money at this time of year on makeup, I said to them that I'd rather open presents instead of sale shopping. On my birthday I received a ton of Mac makeup so decided now to focus on Nars and some other brands I hadn't really tried out. I had no idea I'd recieve the Dual Intensity Palette or the Steven Klein lip trio so that was so exciting to open. The Too Faced chocolate bar palette surprised me and oh my gosh it smells like hot chocolate inside! I was excited most at the Vice 4 palette from Urban Decay since I hadn't used a Vice palette before and Andy must have really understood that I had my eye on it. I received the Nars Creamy Concealer in Vanilla which the perfect match to my skin tone, along with two Audacious lipsticks in Liv and Charlotte.

I still managed to receive some Mac goodies in there from my Uncle and best friend. There are two eyeshadows to add to my pro palette in White Frost and Woodwinked, the Miley Cyrus Viva Glam II lipstick and Lady Danger which are some pretty vibrant shades. The Nyx lip suede and matte lip cream are also pretty daring so I'm excited to try them, especially Transylvania which is so similar to the Revlon Black Cherry lipstick. For when I'm wanting a more natural lip I now have Charlotte Tilbury's Bitch Perfect from the KISSING range, with a lip pencil to match. There are so many products here that I'm so excited to try out, including other bits from Nyx, Sleek and The Balm, and a lighter shade of Double Wear for the winter months.

I laughed so much when I opened this 1kg Family Size jar of Nutella. I'm still yet to open it but definitely want to try making a Nutella hot chocolate with it. Along with the Lindor I've got some fabulous chocolates such as Guylian, Ferrero Rocher, Thorntons and all the rest but I'm trying to eat them in small doses. I was so happy to receive the One Line A Day book as I saw tons of bloggers get it last year and I'm a big fan of documenting things that it seemed too good to miss. The Babyliss Diamond Waves intrigued me as I've never used this type of hair styling tool before but since I have curly hair and have to straighten my hair to reduce frizz, then curl with tongs then brush it out, I'm hoping these make life a little easier. I've just picked up the chopstick tongs by Lee Stafford in attempt to recurl any natural bits that aren't still curly so I'm heading into 2016 with high hopes for my hair.

My best friend bought me this adorable rose gold candle which I squealed at in front of her because she knows how much I love copper and rose gold. My boyfriend's Brother and his girlfriend bought me a similar looking copper mug but I may have drank out of it and forgot to take a photo. To match the candle I have this adorable copper lantern which is just too pretty for words. I want to put a little tealight in it but I don't want to open it just yet. Also from my twinny I have this gorgeous Ted Baker makeup bag from Boots. I worked there over Christmas and was so tempted to pick it up for myself (because I bought her the same one, coincidentally) and was told to wait just in case someone happened to buy it! It is so pretty and I'm not normally a fan of smaller makeup bags but I will happily not bring some makeup with me just to use this whenever I can.
I'm so genuinely surprised at the gifts I received this year and did leave some out of photos because they were personal or because they were too big to fit onto my makeup table such as bags, hats and other items. Hopefully I'll get better at makeup to really make use out of these new products that I have! If you've done a similar post feel free to link it in the comments - I'm just as nosey and love reading haul posts.

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Nyx Soft Matte Lip Cream Collection

So I fell pretty hard on the Nyx bandwagon in the last month. I heard a product was good and I bought as many as I could afford. And I'm so happy that I did. The shades I have here are Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, Prague and Tokyo. As you can tell, I went for a complete mixture of shades to attempt to have one for every occasion. I ordered them off Boots (where you can get 10% student discount from, so make the most of it!) so the photos weren't exactly true to what the website shown. If you shop on Boots.com regularly you'll know that the images are so tiny for the colour selector, and with being an American product only recently entering the UK, it's hard to get photos to see true shades.
Nevertheless, once I placed my first order of four, I wanted more. See what I did there? I wanted a dark shade so went for Copenhage, a fairly neutral shade so went for Anterwep and a baby pink in the shade Tokyo. They all seem to be pretty pigmented, with an even finish, lasting a hell of a lot longer than the MUA Luxe liquid lipsticks. The MUA ones last fine until you eat where they all come off which is a real shame so went for Nyx this time. They lasted through a meal and drinks and I touched the colour up once just to make it a bit more creamy. Sometimes with matte lip products they severely dry your lips out, but this formula doesn't affect your lips at all. 
I aimed to do swatches of these but I don't think it will be worth it until my next order of colours arrive and I can do an updated post. I know that in America they cost around £3 and here they're £5.50 but they're so worth the money, especially if you're wanting drugstore alternatives to the ABH and YSL alternatives that will really break the bank. The shade I'm most excited to try out in the future is Transylvania which appears to be a really dark purple shade, perfect for this time of year.

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