Neutral Lip Liners: Rouge Bunny Rouge, MAC & Prestige

As it's coming up to the autumn/winter season I thought I'd do an overview on my favourite lip liners as I tend to use these more round that time then in the summer.

From top to bottom: Rouge Bunny Rouge Long-Lasting Lip Pencil in Amerigo, Prestige Lipliner in 206 Silk, MAC Lip Pencil in Spice, MAC Lip Pencil in Boldly Bare (LE).

Up until about a year or so ago, I only had one pencil which was MAC Spice, I was content with just the one until Rouge Bunny Rouge came along and then I have added a few more to my collection since then.

A close up:

L-R: RBR Amerigo,  Prestige Silk, MAC Spice, MAC Boldly Bare

Swatched L-R: RBR Amerigo, Prestige Silk, MAC Spice, MAC Boldly Bare:

natural light

with flash

The Rouge Bunny Rouge is probably the almost spot-on to my natural lip colouring as it's a slightly cooler pink-toned nude brown. It's a bit similar to MAC Spice but the pic in natural light shows that Spice is more browner and warmer then Amerigo. Boldly Bare is like a lighter version of Spice where as the Prestige is most definitely a pink nude shade. In terms of texture all apply smoothly with the RBR being the most creamy but has a very slight tacky feel, MAC is also quite creamy and the Prestige being a bit lighter and ever so slightly harder then the rest.

The star in this bunch for me is definitely the Rouge Bunny Rouge - the name says long-lasting and it really is - when washing the swatches off my hand the others came off easily where as the RBR I had to really rub at it to get it off. I am very impressed with it's staying power.  Even though MAC and Prestige do not last as long, the tones are flattering and blend well into the lips making them versatile in application.

Price wise the RBR is £20 which initially I thought was rather steep, but the quality really shows so I probably would buy this again as the match is perfect for me.

MAC comes in at a reasonable £10, and they are the longer pencils of the bunch; the Prestige is a great bargain at £3.99.

Disclaimer: All purchased by me

Prestige Baked Mineral Blushes: A Budget Alternative to a MSF?

I have several MAC Mineralize Skinfinishes which I use every now and then, Warmed being my favourite. However, in reality when I cast aside their pretty veined looks, as blushes/highlighters they are not the best in comparison to other brands. I can't help it, I am always tempted by these and am at the MAC counter faster then you can say 'Mineralize Skinfinish'.

This leads me onto Prestige, and their Skin Loving Minerals Fresh Glow Baked Mineral Blushes (a lovely long-winded name) which are a similar sort of product to an MSF. They come in 4 shades - 01 Pink, 02 Natural, 03 Peach and 04 Terra Rosa.

Here are pics of the all 4 shades (pics can be enlarged):

01 Pink on left,  02 Natural on right

03 Peach on left, 04 Terra Rosa on right

 Swatches:

L-R-  01 Pink,  02 Natural,  03 Peach,  04 Terra Rosa

L-R-  01 Pink,  02 Natural,  03 Peach,  04 Terra Rosa

These are swatched heavily with my finger, when used with a brush they are not as heavily pigmented as say an Illamasqua blush, but they provide enough payoff to give a natural blush look. What I like most about these is they blend well into the skin and don't look powdery. Pink and Terra Rosa are my favourites which I use as blushes whereas Natural and Peach I use as highlighters.

The shimmer on these is rather fine so that they impart a nice glow. Closer up there are some very tiny glitter particles in Natural. There is not much different between Natural and Peach, Peach is ever so slightly warmer.

The staying power on these is reasonable, on my skin they don't last all day (about 5 hours) but fade evenly so there is a little colour left. 

These are not however perfect:

The packaging - I don't mind the clear casing on these, it's nothing special but the plastic around the hinges easily chips off and as I was photographing these a metal hinge fell out.

The price - these are considerably small for a blush at only 1.5g and the price is £7.99. Many blushes have at least 5g of product. If I would compare these to a MAC MSF which typically have about 9g, the Prestige ends up being the more costly product at £47.94 for 9g! From this perspective they could consider making these bigger and better packaged. The baked mineral bronzers from Prestige are 8g so I don't quite understand why there is such a difference in sizing.

Overall I love the blushes themselves, they are my go-to blushes but price and packaging is an issue.

This was supposed to be more of a rave but it's turned into a bit of a meh review. Oh well.

Disclaimer: These were purchased by me