I knew I'd be swimming home. *Gradient Lips*

Hi Lovelies!!

Earlier on today I was doing my make up, and I got to the lipstick and I was so unsure as to what colour to wear. I remembered I was wearing a tie dye top and the idea of gradient lips suddenly became very appealing. I've seen bits and pieces about gradient lips dotted around the internet, but I wasn't sure as to how wearable it would actually be.
I have to say, I love it. So much so, I thought I should share it with you!

    

The inspiration (in my trusty harem pants as well!)

To achieve the look, I started off by getting rid of any dry skin on my lips by using the Bubblegum Lip Scrub from Lush (tastes super nice too!) 

For this particular look, I used the following shades: 

Outer shade- Corrupt by Illamasqua

Inner shade- Sounds like Noise by MAC

This was really so simple to achieve. With a small brush I lined my lips with Corrupt and used the same brush to blend it into the middle of my lips. I then used Sounds like Noise on the centre of my lips. Just like that, it blended together nicely. Just to perfect it a little bit I used the same brush to blend the two colours together. By doing so, the statement orange has become more of a coral colour making this look even more subtle and wearable. 

Have any of you tried the gradient lip look? I'm officially a fan of it!

-K
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Sounds Like Noise

Hi lovelies!

I'm back with a quick sort-of review. I previously mentioned my excitement at the announcement of Hayley William's MAC range, and after (a very small small) debate I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the 'Sounds Like Noise' lipstick.
I was going into this completely blinded to be honest, as I've never purchased a MAC lipstick before and I've very quickly fallen in love with orange, so this could either have been the greatest purchase or a complete waste of money.
I have to say, I'm very happy I bought it- and though orange lipstick doesn't appeal to everybody, I'm a complete fan!

It appears quite a lot darker in this photo, lighting was not in my favour as I've just sat through a freak storm of thunder and hale (my favourite!) You can see in this swatch just how vibrant it really is, 

It's most definitely a very true orange, so it might not compliment all skin tones but as I'm the kind of pale that has no tone to it, I think I can just about pull it off...hopefully, maybe. 

It's a matte formula, so if you suffer from dry or chapped lips it's not at all forgiving. I've since purchased a Lip Scrub from Lush in order to combat this issue, and it works like a charm!
As far as longevity goes, I find it hard to comment on. I'd say you can get a good 5-6 hours of wear if you're just going about daily business, perhaps knock a couple of hours off that if you're drinking. I don't use Lipcote or anything like that so I'd say that's really not too bad. I'm so used to topping up lipstick regardless of if it needs it that much, and as long as it doesn't smudge all over the place (this doesn't!) I'm happy with it. 

Now, on to how it actually looks!

I love that it's bright and vibrant but not too garish. 

I find it important to see how it looks whilst smiling, this is a huge debate I had with myself over black lipstick, but I'm fairly certain the orange doesn't look completely awful. Some times, things look great for the purpose of a photo, but I want it to look good for the purpose of day-to-day wear, makes sense I think. 

(I love that I constantly have a vague looking head tilt going on. ahem.) 

For today, I thought I'd go one step further by adding some further orange, in the form of nail varnish. I've been wearing this colour a lot, but as I'm wearing orange lipstick too I thought I'd tone it down by going for that 'Accent Nail' look. 

Maybelline Color Show- 182 Solar Flare

Also wearing:
Barry M Hi-Shine Gelly- Lychee

(Can we ignore how badly painted my nails are, it's a skill I don't possess, especially after the copious amounts of coffee I've consumed today!) 

So, what do we think? Am I alone in my love of all things orange? What other MAC lipsticks would recommend as a must-have in my lipstick collection?

-K

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