Palette Parade: Sugarpill Cold Chemistry

Hello! I'm sorry to have missed all of last week - things were a bit hectic and I'm not caught up enough to have posts queued in advance. I'm going to jump right back into this week with last week's Palette Parade check-in: Sugarpill Cold Chemistry. See my first post on the topic, Palette Parade, for guidelines and general information.

This week's palette was Sugarpill's Cold Chemistry.

At first glance, I was worried I wasn't going to get a lot of versatility out of this one and I have to admit, the first few days I was very heavy-handed with it it. This is a very pigmented set of shades - the lighter looks I did this week were a single tap of the brush to the shadow smoked out with a blending brush to create a lighter look. At this rate, I expect this palette to last approximately forever.

Definitely a keeper, this palette will create some very bold looks and some incredible smoky eye looks. I'm going to put my favorite two looks outside the jump and then the rest of the week behind the jump. 

This look was created using only Diamond Eyes (the white shade) and Soot and Stars (the glittery black shade.) One of my favorite daytime smoky eyes ever.

This heavy-handed purple look was early in the week and is only Diamond Eyes and Elemental Chaos.

Ellis Faas Milky Lips in L201 "Ellis Red"

Let me start off by saying I'm very picky about lipstick. I want it to either not smell at all or have a gentle or soft enough smell that I don't mind - soft mint sometimes works, vanilla is a safer bet. I want it to last most of the day, I don't like constantly fussing with my face when I'm out. I want the ingredients to be something I wouldn't mind terribly appearing in colored frosting for my kid's birthday cake. I want vibrant, versatile colors with nice pigmentation and easy application. I ask a lot from a lipstick. I want it to do all of that and generally be $20 or under - it's a tall order.

Ellis Faas had my attention because their Skin Veil foundation, while too dark for me, feels amazing on and lasts pretty well all day. I figured I'd try one of their lip products to see if they're worth the $35 price point - a Givenchy lipstick price point. The short of it? They're not.

Sleek packaging is great but you also need the color to be a reasonable approximation of the description (for this one, "blood red" - my blood isn't orange but maybe I'm doing it wrong.) It should also be able to last decently without transferring to everything in sight - this transferred to my hand, my phone, my face when my hair blew in the wind, my kid while we were shopping today, and every drinking vessel I came in contact with for the first few hours. As you might imagine, this meant that the lip... liquid? It's not really a stain if it doesn't last and it's not a lipstick. It's not a gloss, either. I have no idea what to call this stuff ... didn't last. It was a patchy mess an hour in and I sheered it out with my finger so that I didn't have to mss with reapplication and an hour later, that was a patchy mess again.

Here's a swatch on my arm:

Ellis Faas Milky Lips in L201 Ellis Red

On the left, as it applies.
On the right, what it looks like when you even out the application with the brush.

It's not what I'd call blood red once it's actually applied but it doesn't look terrible here, although the application is uneven by nature - you can't smooth this stuff out. Then I put it on and all of the orange tones came out to play:

Ellis Red on my face

Not what I wanted or expected from something described as "blood red." Worse, within ten minutes of taking this photo, I noticed feathering on the edges - even though I used a clear lip liner.

If you're looking for something that's more gloss than stain but it somewhere in between, this might be the thing for you. It had no discernable odor, which is great and rare in something gloss-adjacent. Beware the color descriptions - seek out swatches if at all possible.

This product is not vegan - it contains carmine. Have you noticed that the ingredients on higher-end products tend to not be as healthy or non-hydrogenated as some mid-range lines? The ingredients for this product:

Hydrogenated Polydecene, Isododecane, Hydrogenated Styrene/Isoprene Copolymer, Dicalcium Phosphate, Hdi/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Polyethylene, Propylene Carbonate, Octyldodecanol, Candelilla Cera, Prunus Domestica Seed Extract, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Silica, Tribehenin, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Sorbitan Isostearate, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide. +/- May Contain: Mica, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491/77492/77499 (Iron Oxides), CI 75470 (Carmine), Red 7, CI 15850 (Red 6/Red 7 Lake), CI 73360 (Red 30 Lake), CI 45410 (Red 28 Lake), CI 45380 (Red 22 Lake), CI 42090 (Blue 1 Lake), CI 19140 (Yellow 5 Lake), CI 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake)

Worse than all of that - at the end of the day, my lips feel like I've been standing in a wind storm. It's going to take some serious repair to make them feel soft and happy again and that's just with one wear!

For me, for the price, this just isn't worth it, sorry to say.

(I purchased this product for my own use. I think I've mentioned before that no one send me free stuff for blogging - all products so far are my own and nothing else. :) ) 

Ellis Faas website product listing - also available from Nordstrom and Sephora online. 

MAC VIVA Glam RiRi

MAC's VIVA Glam line has long been a favorite of mine. VIVA Glam was my first MAC lipstick purchase in the '90s, when it was the only shade and didn't carry a "I" to indicate which one. I tend to wind up buying anything from the line that remotely appeals. Then I heard that they'd be doing a frosted blue-red and knew I was in for it. (I don't know that I've mentioned this before but you're probably the only person who reads this blog, dear stranger, so I buy everything that appears here. :) )

First of all, the packaging on this one is gorgeous. I want a million lipsticks in this packaging:

Then you roll up the color and oooooooooh:

Unlike RiRi Woo, the product itself doesn't have Rihanna's signature molded in, the signature is on the interior portion of the tube. Honestly, the branding doesn't appeal or detract for me, this is a gorgeous package and a stunning lipstick.

Here it is on me - reminder if you haven't read my pale foundation posts, I'm very pale. I have a lot of trouble with red lipsticks either looking brown or orange or pink instead of red.

This is poised to become a favorite spring and summer color for me, which means I should probably back this up while it's available. (This is limited, like the previous Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper, and so on VIVA Glam lipsticks. Folks at my MAC store say it should be available for six months to a year. It also comes in lipglass but I don't wear lipgloss - swatches show the colors to be very close.)

I know I promised Punk Couture lipstick swatches and photos next but I had to interrupt due to my excitement about this color (and it's still available!) I might also make a post about the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Ebony, which I'm wearing in this photo - it's amazing and easy to use.