Maychiri's Thoughts

Wet n Wild Megalast Stained Glass Lip Gloss [1111447E - Kiss My Glass] Review

August 09, 2023

And now for one freebie, the Wet n Wild Megalast Stained Glass Lip Gloss, shade 1111447E/Kiss My Glass!

Man, I love the names of the shades, and this one in particular! What a good pun! Anyways, I got this lip gloss as a GWP at BIPA; they have, so far, given it out twice as a gift... and I got it both times! So I’ve now got two – both this exact shade! I saw this lip gloss on the shelf but I didn’t pay much attention to it; I already have plenty of lip glosses, and besides, if it is called stained glass, I thought it would end up staining my lips, and I have a burning hatred for that! But if I already got it as a gift, I may as well do the courteous thing and try it out, right? The colour seems nice anyways, I’ve always loved a good magenta lip product. In researching this lip gloss I found out that Wet n Wild promise a million things, how much is true and how much is false promises? Is it really like stained glass? More importantly: does it stain lips??? Please tell me it doesn’t! Well, there’s only one way to find out! Let’s check it out!

Wet n Wild say the following about this lip gloss:

“The first transfer-proof, kiss-proof lip gloss on the market that delivers up to 8 hours of wear time. The innovative formula combines the comfort and shine of a gloss with the lasting power of a stain. A blend of polymers in this stain delivers intense, vibrant color with zero transfer. Long-lasting, moisturizing formula provides mirror-like shine and intense glossy color that melts into the lips.”

Quite a few promises there, we will see just how true they are!

Packaging: a simple black tube with a black cap. White text to make sure it stands out. But there is one very nice detail that I like: the bottom of the tube is the same colour as the lip gloss! And the gradient really makes it look like stained glass! It also gives it this 3D quality that I quite like! The cap closes pretty tightly. The stopper inside is pretty tight, so that you have the perfect amount of pigment on the applicator each time. It’s a more modest, but still modern design, I like it!

Ingredients: nothing nourishing and no parabens. Hmm, I wonder if it will be drying since there’s nothing to keep the lips hydrated? The scent is very intense and not really good, I am afraid. It smells terribly chemical, almost a bit like metal or chlorine. It smells like you are putting a disinfectant on your lips, not a lip gloss. But there is something sweet in the scent, too, something that makes it sickeningly sweet at times. Since there’s no perfume, perhaps it could be alcohol? It is quite high up the list, and rubbing alcohol does smell somewhat sweet. I don’t know, but it’s not a good scent to me, it’s just too chemical and synthetic. The expiration date is 12 months after opening.

Applicator: well, it broke the first time I used it! I pressed slightly harder to get an even, thick layer of pigment and it just snapped off! But before it decided to snap off, it was a relatively small flat applicator. It was really soft and nice on the lips. It picked up quite a good amount of pigment, more than enough for both lips. And since it is flat, it can both coat a large portion of the lips in vibrant magenta, and be precise enough to line the lips. And it applied a really even and rich layer of pigment, too! Such a shame that it broke off, because it really seemed like it would be a great applicator. I honestly don’t even know how that happened, it’s not like I applied too much pressure or anything. And the fact that it’s already broken, when I haven’t even used it twice yet, is very concerning in terms of build quality.

Honestly, this is a phenomenal colour! It’s like magenta, or a magenta/hot pink mix. A super bright, vivid colour that is a great summery colour, but it fits with any season! It’s shockingly vivid pink (like the saturation slider had been turned all the way to 11 in PS), which is especially surprising in a lip gloss! You know, traditionally, lip glosses tend to be less vividly pigmented than lip stains/lipsticks. But this one is a superstar in this regard!

One layer and you’ll have intensely magenta lips! It’s crucial that such a bright, extremely pigmented lip gloss be even, and thankfully, it is! So don’t worry about having uneven patches! I feel like this colour looks even brighter and more saturated on my pale skin! It’s almost neon!

The formula is extremely thick and creamy and greasy. It feels almost like a liquid lipstick with how rich the formula is, but it’s also very heavy. Thankfully, at least it’s not tacky at any point. Although, it tends to collect in little bunched up pieces that end up being stringy and unpleasant. It’s not the most comfortable formula to wear, not at all. You’ll see why in a sec. Also, it is a bit drying. Not as much as I thought it would be, especially with alcohol present, but my lips did feel drier and a bit chapped after 8 hours of wearing it.

Particularly on the centre of the lower lip, that's where they were the driest.

So... you can definitely feel this lip gloss on your lips at all times. Even when it’s fresh, it is thick and greasy and very creamy, which could have been nice, if it wasn’t so heavy and occlusive. About an hour later it changes, becoming more dry creamy, almost waxy, and a tiny bit tacky. It still feels ridiculously thick, but I am not sure how much I prefer how it feels now compared to how it felt at the start. It does become dry in certain places, too, adding to the discomfort of wearing it.

The texture is pretty glossy, but not exactly like glass. It’s more of a jelly, wet look. I don’t know that I would call it stained glass-like honestly. Still, it’s nice that it’s got a fair amount of shine!

As for how it applies, well, pretty easily, actually. Or it would be easy if the damn applicator didn’t break... anyways, it’s even from the very first layer, which was a nice surprise to me! I though that it would, for sure, be uneven and require a ton of fixing to get it to look decent. But no, it actually applies evenly and even if it is a bit uneven in one spot it is easy to fix that. It does not pull or tug at the lips, no surprise with how greasy, slick, and creamy the formula is. It would honestly be much more of a surprise if it did tug, because it is really smooth! It also doesn’t collect in the creases of the lips.

However, remember that this lip gloss is extremely intensely pigmented! That means that any mistakes you make in lining the lips are going to be hell to fix. Add in the fact that it stains like crazy, and you’ve got yourself some real trouble if you mess up. So, be careful how you apply it! Now just imagine the hell I went through to apply it with my finger, after the applicator broke... well, to be fair, I managed to be precise enough not to mess everything up, so maybe I got off easily!

Longevity is this lip gloss’s strong suit, definitely. Unlike most lip glosses, it survives for hours with barely any changes in its pigmentation. What does change, however, is the texture. While it is quite glossy at first, it changes into a more velvety texture that looks more like a lip stain. Oh, indeed, lip stain is the appropriate term! Because it stains the lips so badly that nothing can remove it fully! I tried with micellar, oil-based remover, olive oil, Vaseline, like, there isn’t a thing that I haven’t tried, yet there’s still at least some staining left! That’s also why my pinkie finger was fuchsia coloured for hours! I just couldn’t get rid of it, despite rubbing my finger with hand soap multiple times!

Now, while this is absolutely a negative thing (you never want to have stains that you cannot remove), it also speaks of how durable this lip gloss is. It truly doesn’t budge, no matter what. That also means that food doesn’t bother it, either. Indeed, it is in pretty much the same condition now as it was when I applied it (at least in terms of pigmentation), it’s like I haven’t eaten anything at all! While it does feather a bit on the edges of lips over the course of a few hours, it doesn’t smudge or collect in the creases of lips; it does fade a little bit over time, though, which is most evident on the upper lip. I never expected it to keep its shine, so I am not bothered by that, but if you do want to keep your lips looking wet and shiny, you’ll have to reapply it every few hours, leading to more and more staining.

So, as good as the longevity is, there’s also a big negative to it as well, which ruins the impression.

Annnnnd here comes the hell that is removing this lip gloss. Ahh. Words cannot describe properly just how much of a nightmare this lip gloss (lip stain??) is to remove. I throw everything but the kitchen sink at it and yet it still remains, to some degree, at least. Micellar water does nothing, and even an oil-based remover isn’t strong enough. I had to scrub so vigorously that my lips felt sore and dry afterwards, which is so great when you have naturally sensitive lips. As if that wasn’t bad enough, this lip gloss also left a pretty noticeable stain on my lips! Which then meant that I had to scrub some more to remove that! I somehow managed to remove it almost completely, but I am sure that I caused some pretty major damage to my lips in the process. How miserable!

All in all, eh, idk, it’s both good and bad. I had absolutely no expectations going into it, because I legit did not know what to expect! It looked like a highly pigmented lip gloss, the name implying that it’s both vibrant and glossy like stained glass. But it turns out it implied that there would be one other thing, which is very obvious in hindsight: staining! First, let’s see how much of what Wet n Wild claim is actually true. Is it an intense and vibrant colour? Absolutely! It’s hella intense, with the pigment being so vibrant it looks almost neon. And that’s great for a lip gloss! Means you don’t actually need anything under it as it is pretty much opaque on its own. Next, does it have mirror-like shine? Hmm, yes, it is quite shiny, but to me it looks a bit more gelly than glassy. I wouldn’t exactly describe it as mirror-like though, compared to, say, Haus Laboratories’ Le Riot Lipgloss, now that’s mirror-like! Is it long-lasting and moisturising? This is the first one that’s false, albeit partially. While it is endlessly long-lasting, barely changing at all throughout the day no matter what you eat or drink or do, it is not moisturising at all. In fact, the thick, creamy formula only feels nourishing in the first half an hour or so, and from then on feels more tacky and slightly drying. My lips were dried out by it at the end of the day. Also, it loses its high shine an hour or two after applying it, making it look more like a lip stain. Indeed, it is 100% transfer-proof and kiss-proof, and it melts into every single tiny crevice in your lips it can find, but that’s not exactly a good thing. Let me explain. See, nothing can remove it completely, at least not without serious damage to the lips. I had to scrub my lips for ages before I managed to get it like 70% off, that’s literally the best I could do as it just wouldn’t come off. What was left is a massive stain that annoys me to no end! Horrible! And it also left my lips damaged! Oh, yeah, almost forgot! The applicator literally broke off during the first time I used it! The applicator is super soft and feels great in the lips, but it doesn’t seem to be attached properly. As soon as I bent it so that I could apply an even layer on my lower lip – it snapped off! Great craftsmanship there! I thought maybe it’s a one-off occurrence, but the applicator in the spare also seems fairly flimsily put together. Time will tell if that one will snap too. They say that this is an innovative formula that combines a lip gloss and a lip stain. My clown theory is that they originally set out to make a lip stain, but that would be boring, so they added some gloss to it to be able to market it as a lip gloss. Because it really is a lip stain at the end of the day! It behaves exactly like one, not like a lip gloss. I am not criticising them for this, it’s good to try and innovate, but this might lead people down the wrong path assuming it will really be as comfortable as a typical lip gloss when it won’t. Fortunately, I got both tubes of this lip gloss as a gift with purchase; had I spent my own money buying it, I would feel pretty salty right now ngl! Eh, I guess that not every innovation can be genius, this one for sure isn’t. It’s not a terrible lip gloss/lip stain hybrid, but there are so many others that are much, much better. Nope, no recommendations, just too many problems with it to warrant one.

Rating: 4/10

Would buy again? NO (staininnnng)

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Creamy

Wet n Wild Silk Finish Lipstick [E538A - Just Garnet] Review

August 09, 2023

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Brown

Wet n Wild Color Icon 5-Pan Palette [1114071E - Camo-flaunt] Review

August 09, 2023

Now that the eyes are primed with the Wet n Wild Primer, let's apply an eyeshadow! Maybe this lovely eyeshadow palette, the Wet n Wild Color Icon 5-Pan Palette, shade 1114071E/Camo-flaunt?

I had been thinking about buying this palette for a really long time before finally buying it. I like the concept of 5-pan palettes as they are designed to give you a complete makeup look with more versatility than eyeshadow quads. This shade in particular seemed like a great neutral choice with the option of applying the shimmer for a more glamorous look. And since BIPA had all makeup at a 30% discount, that was the perfect time to buy the palette. Let’s see how good it is!

Packaging: it’s really simple, just a white plastic case with a clear lid. The clear lid allows you to judge how the colours would look on your skin. It looks rather sleek and modern because of the white Color Icon stripe and the slim size of the palette. The lid closes very tightly and is pretty well made, not at all loose or squeaky.

Ingredients: jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) seed oil in every shade and no parabens. The scent is very subtle, smelling a tiny bit like plastic or pool floats. The expiration date is 24 months after opening.

This is a brown toned eyeshadow palette, with both cool and warm toned shades included. It’s beautifully coordinated for a smokey eye. You can make a subtle smokey eye with the matte shades or a glamorous one with the glitter. There are 5 shades: a more cool toned matte dark brown, a shimmery silvery cool light brown, a glittery brownish gold, a shimmery copper, and a matte buff warm brown. My favourites are the dark brown matte and the shimmery copper; the copper shade is really beautiful!

Every shade swatched

The pigmentation of every one of these shades is extremely intense! They all look super intense even with just one layer, but amazing with multiple layers! The most pigmented shade is shade 3, the glitter, naturally. Among the shimmer shades, the silvery brown is much more pigmented than the copper one. And the two mattes are equally pigmented.

Wearing Shade 1 + Shade 2 + Shade 4 + Shade 5

In more detail: shade 1 is super pigmented with one layer and looks great on pale skin. Shade 2 is super intense and pigmented and really sparkly and shimmery, especially with a couple of layers, and is perfect for the festive season! Shade 3 is extremely pigmented and just as excessively sparkly and intense with a single layer! Shade 4 is very pigmented and blends beautifully with pale skin, but is still really intense and noticeable and looks great with a single layer, but, of course, it’s so much better when you layer it on! And shade 5 has good pigmentation and blends very nicely into the skin, although it will probably need a few layers to reach its full pigmentation.

Wearing Shade 1 + Shade 2 + Shade 4 + Shade 5

All of the shades are super easy to apply, although the glitter and shimmer shades do have a lot of fall out. The mattes are best applied with a brush, while the rest are better applied with fingers than brushes, especially the glitter. The glitter is far too coarse to be applied precisely with a brush; you’ll get glitter everywhere but where you wanted it. I was a bit uncertain whether I really liked the finished look at first, but the more I use the palette, the more I love the look, and how easy it is to blend it perfectly into a vibrant brown smokey eye!

Wearing Shade 1 + Shade 2 + Shade 5 with Dirty Works Glamour Eyes Liquid Eyeshadow and Liner Eye Pencil

The textures are: matte (shade 1, shade 5), very shimmery (shade 2), glittery (shade 3), and shimmery (shade 4). The mattes are very soft and there is absolutely no fall out or smudging. It’s a very finely milled formula that blends into the skin beautifully! The copper shimmer is so soft and creamy and blends beautifully without any fall out. The silvery shimmer, on the other hand, is more scratchy and coarse but still very easy to use despite that; there is, however, a ton of fall out with this shade. Like, I always have a huge amount of shimmer under my eyes no matter how carefully I am applying it. So, that’s annoying. At least it is easily blendable. The glitter is, as expected, pretty difficult to use compared to the other shades; there is an absolute ton of fall out and it doesn’t really blend easily. So you really have to get it right the first try, because it is really difficult to fix it. Though Wet n Wild’s glitter always feel much more creamy than other brands’ glitter, so there is that.

The mattes and the copper shimmer feel weightless on my lids, they are so, so light! The silvery shimmer can feel a tiny bit scratchy, but it usually feels pretty comfortable. The glitter is a bit uncomfortable to wear, especially when it starts to fall out and starts to feel really scratchy. But that’s standard for glitter pigments, to be honest.

The longevity is excellent, in general, but there is quite a lot of creasing with some shades. The mattes don’t crease a whole lot and don’t fade one bit at all! The copper shimmer is super long-lasting but it does crease; the same holds true for the silvery shimmer. The glitter creases like crazy and tends to slide around the lids throughout the day unless you use glitter glue under it, which isn’t unexpected, but it is really annoying and is the primary reason why I rarely use glitters. Though the more creamy formula of Wet n Wild’s glitters makes it perform slightly better than other glitters. So, the worst performing shade is, what a surprise, the glitter. But all in all I am very pleased with how well these shadows perform throughout the day!

As far as how easy they are to remove, most of them (besides the glitter) are super easy to remove. The mattes take mere seconds to remove and don’t stain the skin, while the copper glitter takes a tiny bit more time to remove. The silvery shimmer is easily removed but leaves a lot of residual shimmer all around the eye area, which is quite annoying. And don’t get me started on the glitter, it is so incredibly annoying to remove as it will either explode all over the face when you swipe over your eyelids or you will have to spend ages carefully removing it. And even then you most likely won’t be able to remove all of it!

The most tolerable way to remove glitter is to actually take small pieces of sellotape and then patiently stick it to the glitter little by little. That way you minimise the chance that you will have residual glitter everywhere. It sounds weird, but trust me, it really does work!

In short, this is a fantastic eyeshadow palette! The colours are perfectly coordinated for a classic brown smokey eye whether with or without the glitter. I really love the shimmers and mattes, they are so intense and beautiful and just look incredible! Shade 2 is especially sparkly and intense and looks amazing during the holidays! The glitter is annoying to use and especially to remove so I tend to skip using it altogether, but it is extremely intense and vibrant and not at all for everyday use! The shadows are mostly very long-lasting, well, besides shades 2 and 3, which crease a lot! I would always advise using an eyeshadow primer, for multiple reasons, not just to prevent creasing. There is not a trace of creasing when I use a primer underneath. If I am not using the glitter, removing the shadows is quick and painless, even though the silvery shimmer does end up getting everywhere around the eyes. It’s only if I use the glitter does it become tedious and annoying, which, to be honest, is par for the course for glitters. All in all, I really love using this palette (minus the glitter), and how natural and neutral the default look is! It looks even better if you apply shades 2 and 4 in reverse, with the silvery shimmer on the eyelids instead of the inner eye and brow bone, and the copper shimmer in the inner eye. It’s even more festive that way! I often reach for this palette when I don’t know what kind of look to do, so I will, naturally, recommend it! It is really, really good!

Rating: 8/10

Would buy again? Definitely YES

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New Stuff

New Stuff - Part 16

August 09, 2023

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Eyeshadow Primer

Wet n Wild Photo Focus Eyeshadow Primer Review

August 09, 2023

Here’s the first review for today, the Wet n Wild Photo Focus Eyeshadow Primer, shade E8511/Only a Matter of Prime.

I naturally have very oily eyelids that crease with everything, matte eyeshadows, shimmer eyeshadows, liquid eyeliners... you name it. So it is imperative for me to have a good eyeshadow primer. The last primer I had was a total disappointment and wasn’t good at all, so I needed to find a replacement ASAP. I found this primer in DM and, after reading what others on the Internet said about it, I decided to buy it. Were others right in recommending this primer? Let's see!

Packaging: it comes in cardboard packaging with lots of information about this primer. This packaging is sturdy enough for what it is. Inside you will find an opaque plastic tube containing the primer. It is black/white, with a black cap that fits perfectly. The tube is made of soft plastic that makes it so much easier to squeeze out precisely the exact amount of primer you want. The tube has a small nozzle that deposits the primer; it is really precise and doesn’t get clogged up! This is a really modern-looking packaging, very simplistic but also quite sleek!

Ingredients: bisabolol, sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum) extract, sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) stamen extract for nourishment. There are no parabens. The scent is barely noticeable; it is a somewhat chemical, plasticy scent. The expiration date is 6 months after opening.

The colour of this primer is light beige, just slightly darker than my skin. It blends seamlessly into my skin, and looks lighter when properly blended. It’s a great colour that makes my eyelids look brighter when I am not wearing eyeshadow on top of the primer. The formula is thick and creamy but quickly becomes more powdery and dry. It’s very easy to apply and blend while it is still creamy, but it becomes almost impossible to blend when it dries, and it dries very quickly! So I have to blend it quickly or I will have an unblended part that I just won’t be able to blend.

It is tacky after drying, but not extremely, more like a light tackiness that is just enough to grip eyeshadows. This primer doesn’t dry out the delicate skin of the eyelids. It dries ultra matte.

As for its performance, it is excellent! The primer itself doesn’t crease one bit, and neither do any makeup products applied on top of this primer! Even highly shimmery eyeshadows that usually crease like crazy don’t crease at all with this primer! And winged eyeliner doesn’t fade or crack if I am wearing this primer underneath. The colours of eyeshadows are also more vibrant with this primer. So, this primer makes eye makeup far more long-lasting and vibrant, and completely prevents creasing! How amazing is that?! And for such a low price!

Besides making eye makeup super long-lasting, the primer itself is just as long-lasting! It looks exactly the same freshly applied and 8 hours later. It seems to also be waterproof!

And it is also very easy to remove, using just micellar water. Of course, it goes even easier with an oil-based remover. There’s no need to rub a lot to remove it, that’s how easy it is!

All in all, an amazingly fantastic primer for a super affordable price! The only downsides to this primer are that it cannot be blended out after it dries and the tacky, drier formula can make it slightly more difficult to draw wings/graphic eyeliners with pencils/liners if they have a more waxy, drier formula; it can make them skip on the skin. And some eyeshadows might be a tiny bit harder to blend. However, given its positives, as you will see in a bit, this is a more than fair trade-off! This primer extends the durability of eye makeup significantly, so that there is no cracking of eyeliners or fading of eyeshadows. Best of all, it completely prevents creasing! No matter the type of eye makeup, it will not crease with this primer! And it makes colours pop more! Even 8 hours later, eyeshadows and eyeliners look exactly as when I first applied them. People praise Urban Decay’s Primer Potion, and I am certain it is awesome, but I definitely think that this is a perfectly suitable replacement! It holds eye makeup extremely well, preventing any wear and tear for hours and hours; even if you get your eyes wet, this primer is waterproof, so it will still keep your eye look in place! Rain, tears, sweat, this primer doesn’t care! So in terms of drugstore eye primers, I would definitely say that this is among the very best you could find, no doubt! If you need an eye primer, be sure to start with this one, you will not be disappointed, I promise! Absolutely recommend it!

Rating: 9.5/10

Would buy again? YES, absolutely (already on my 3^rd or 4^th tube as I am writing this!)