Happy Lipstick Day! (very belatedly)

(This is another one of those things I hadn't gotten around to posting.)

I didn't know there was such a thing as National Lipstick Day, but apparently there is (it was July 29), and Ulta had a sale when it rolled around, which is how I came to buy a whole bunch of lip products. Ulta also had a little bonus package if you spent some certain number of dollars ($25? I'm not sure), which was this:

This is, as you can probably see, an assortment of lip treatments. I've tried most of this and I like it fine, also though trying to get the lip masks to stay on my lips was pretty comedic. (Yes, there is a selfie, but no, you're not going to ever see it. It's really not a pretty sight.)

I only bought one thing that was higher-end, because it was about half-price and that put it more into my price range. This is Urban Decay Lo-Fi lip mousse.

This looks like it would be the kind of color I like, but on the lip it's awfully neutral-looking. I've been wearing it some, though, and I do like the texture of it - I don't think it feels very much like a mousse, though. Note that the thing sticking out on the right side is an applicator, which retracts back into the package when you close it - kind of cool.

All of the lower-end stuff was marked down as well, so I just tried a bunch of different things. Here we have a Nyx Lip Lingerie, and three Maybelline Super Stay products, two of the Matte Ink line and the other one an Ink Crayon.

I'm not worried about showing swatches for these four, because you can see the colors quite clearly from the packaging and it's pretty accurate. Mostly I think the top two are too neutral for my taste. (I was determined to try the Lip Lingerie because I kept seeing people talk about it, but this was the least neutral color they had, and, guess what, it's just not me! I should know better than this by now, since it's what I always end up thinking.) The matte ink in the pinker shade is okay but I inevitably like the red-violet one much better. I actually like the ink crayon most of all - I need to go back and see what other colors they have but I still like the less-purple fuchsia very well. The colors here are Treat Yourself, for the Ink Crayon; on the Matte Ink the more purple one is Creator and the pinker one is Inspirer. (I don't seem to have the Lip Lingerie color name anywhere handy.)

While I'm on the subject of lips, here's the Tarte lipstick that I bought on sale at Sephora.

You can see that I've been using this a good bit - enough to wear down the shape of it, anyway. The color on this one is Sea Goddess.

Recent swatching

I bought some polishes lately from HB Beauty Bar (Nebula, which I showed yesterday, was also one of them), and I have some other assorted stuff I haven't previously shown swatches of. So here goes.

I still have Nebula on as I'm writing this, and this one was my mani last week and I really liked it: Morgan Taylor Sarong But So Right. (I think I called it Sarong So Right on Instagram, but I was incorrect.)

It's really very pretty and glowy. My only gripe was that it didn't wear particularly well, but I have that problem a lot so it may just be me and my very imperfect manicure prep skills, I don't know.

This one I haven't worn yet, but I'm sure I will soon: Essie You're A Gem, which is from a recent collection, Gorgeous Geodes - Essie calls them holographic metallics.

I'm not entirely sure why I picked this particular one, but it's very pretty. Sort of a pale-brown holo, which is not something you see every day. (I know I watched Jess's video about this set before I bought this, so I'll link to it down at the bottom.)

I bought a couple more of the Insta-Dri matte polishes, and I keep thinking I've already posted these, but actually I seem to have only posted the Crayola metallics and not these, so it's just me being confused as usual. This one is Smouldering Teal:

Half the time when I buy matte polishes I end up wearing top-coat anyway (see: Zoya Matte Velvets), but these are not that way. I like these the way they're supposed to be worn, with no top-coat at all.

And then this one is Molten Mauve:

Note that in the bottle it doesn't look at all like what I think of as mauve, but on the nail, it actually does.

Aaand a random LA Colors polish - this one is Teal Appeal.

I've got a couple of OPIs I haven't swatched somewhere, but this is enough for one day, anyway. (I also went crazy and bought a huge box of indies that will probably be here in a couple of weeks, but we'll talk about that one when it arrives.)

Nebula - NOTD + swatch

This is Orly Nebula, which is from last year's holiday collection.

It feels like a good fall color to me. It's purple (leaning towards blue-violet) with a lot of shimmery stuff.

Here's a swatch, as well: