Review and swatches: lol (lots of love) cosmetics

Today I have decided to do a review of the very inexpensive cosmetics brand called 'lol' (lots of love). This brand is available at Kmart stores across Australia and you can visit their own website here. They have a wide variety of products across categories of eyes, lips, face and nails. The entire range is retailed for $2.

As we all know, makeup products are very expensive in Australia. I would say the majority of us would be apprehensive to try products from a brand that only costs $2. I expected the quality to be crap, but after I tried one of the eyeshadow palettes I gradually purchased some more products and was pleasantly surprised. There is a huge variety of products available but I am just going to share the few that I own with you. Warning: This may be a lengthy review!

My haul: Lipsticks, face powder, blush duo, eyeshadow palettes and a glitter eyeshadow creme palette.

Eyeshadows

The first product that I tried from lol is their 6 x rotational eyeshadow palette. I was so impressed with the quality and pigmentation of the product that I went on to buy another four in different colours. There are six available, but the blue hued one didn't appeal to me so I did not purchase it. 

'So Rosemantic' in packaging, up close and swatches

Smoky palette in 'Black Betty'

Pigmentation of these are fantastic

Warm toned palette in 'How Now'

In love with the pigmentation and glow of this palette

 

Green hued 'Splash that Cash'

Splash that Cash has such stunning shades

Purple hues in 'Power to the Purple'

So pigmented, but shades are slightly more similar than in other palettes

Overall, I am utterly in love with these shadow palettes. My favourite is definitely the olive toned 'Splash that Cash'. I am a redhead and my favourite colour is green, and I find these shades compliment my skin and my hair. My second favourite is the gorgeous gold toned palette in 'How Now'. I am really loving the warm toned earthy coloured shadows at the moment and these are exceptional. I do love a good smoky eye, so "Black Betty" is great. I don't often wear bright coloured shadows but it is a cheap way to experiment with the pink and purple hued shadows. I absolutely adore the deeper dusty rose colour in the top left of the 'So Rosemantic' palette, and I have also been loving the pale violet shimmer from 'Power to the Purple'.

These palettes have such a buttery smooth formula which was so unexpected. Most cheap palettes are chalky, not very pigmented and have a lot of fall out. These are just so smooth and longwearing and are my favourite product for a $2 buy. I should mention that the applicator that these come with is decent as well. It is not one of those typical flimsy sponge ones; it is made out of a more dense sponge that is a lot easier to work with. Unfortunately there are no matte shades in these palettes so I often need to consult other palettes if I want a matte shade to make an eye look, but that doesn't bother me. I'd rather have the six different shimmer colours. I can't speak highly enough of these and definitely recommend giving one a go.

Glitter Eye Creme

As a rule, I don't use these type of products. Seeing as this was only $2, I decided to give it a go. There are 3 different palettes available, but I purchased the more 'neutral' coloured one in 'Starry Night'

'Starry Night' contains a silver, gunmetal, black, holographic silver, gold and brown glitter creme

Apologies for poor swatching! From top to bottom: Silver, gunmetal, black, holographic, gold and brown

Blurred closeup to show the different colours in the holographic type shadow

Although I don't own any other glitter creme shadows to compare this product with, my first impressions are that these are good for the money, but I won't use them often. My favourite is definitely the white/silver holographic one on the bottom left. It is SO shimmery and eyecatching. The black one is awful, as when it is applied to the eyes, the simmer does not translate and it appears as if there is little black dots all over your lid. I found that these do not apply well with an applicator as they bunch up and are hard to spread out, so I just lightly dab these on with my finger. These are a fun product, but I will most likely only use them when I am dressing up and want a glam look.

Lipsticks

At first, I only purchased one of lol's lipsticks. I was impressed, so I ended up getting 5 more. There is a total of 10 different shades in their lipstick range. 

The six different lippies that I own

From left to right: Sweet Disposition, Social Butterfly, Think Pink, I Wanna Be A Princess, Kiss Kiss & Paint the Town

I only just noticed that the order in the above photos is the not the same. Disregard that order and see caption for colour names. I am also apologising for the bad quality lip swatches you are about to see; I am using my iPhone camera and my lips are in bad shape at the moment.

Sweet disposition: A frosty nude peach 

Social Butterfly: Matte cool toned pink

Think Pink: A blue toned  shimmer pink/lilac that has a slight duochrome in real life

I Wanna Be A Princess: A semi-matte hot fuschia

Kiss Kiss: A darker shimmery fuschia berry colour

Paint the Town: A shiny bright red

Light swatches. L-R: Sweet disposition, Social Butterfly, Think Pink, I Wanna Be a Princess, Kiss Kiss & Paint the Town

Once again, for $2 these lipsticks are amazing. Admittedly, the quality and formula varies between the shades but they are all decent quality. My favourite is definitely the gorgeous 'Think Pink'. This was the first shade that I bought and what encouraged me to try the other shades. It is such a unique colour and adds a vibrant pop of colour to the lips. 'Social Butterfly' is my second favourite, as it is another great different colour. 'I Wanna Be a Princess' is a very bright fun colour and I like the formula. 'Paint the Town' is hard to wear - the colour is stunning but the formula is very slippery and takes a while to dry. It can be very messy to apply and is high maintenence. Sweet Disposition is a great colour but the combination of the nude colour and the frosty finish means this one really shows every crack and line in the lips. Kiss Kiss is a nice frosty fuschia, but unfortunately I am not really into frosty shimmer lipsticks. The wear time for these is relatively short, which was to be expected. I'd say they last for about two hours or so without needing a touch up. Final say: I love most of these lipsticks and would recommend Think Pink and Social Butterfly.

Blush Duo

I am relatively new to world of blush but this one has impressed me. There are two combinations available, and I have the duo in 'Chateau Rose'.

This duo has peachy/rosey type hues

These blushes are surprisingly pigmented in this light swatch

Although I am no expert on the topic of blush, to me these are definitely worth the money. The colours are gorgeous and add a natural flush to the cheeks. These last on me for most of the day and I really like them. The brush that comes with the duo is utter crap and does not work, so I just use a regular blush face brush with these. I definitely recommend these.

Face Powder

As a general rule, cheap cosmetic companies can never seem to get face products (liquid foundation, powder and concealer) quite right. I picked up this face powder as I was interested to see how it would perform. This powder comes in three shades: light, medium and dark. I obviously picked up the light one. Curse you pale redhead skin!

This powder is a decent size! There is no applicator included

Swatch on my finger

To be honest, this is my least used product out of all of the lol cosmetics that I own. I don't have a strong opinion on this one - it's not good but it's not necessarily bad either. It's kind of just 'meh'. It doesn't provide much coverage, but works okay as a setting powder for my liquid foundation. It's slightly chalky, but not too dry like I expected it to be. I wouldn't recommend this, but if you're interested to try it out then go ahead. Maybe it will work better for you than it did for me.

Conclusion

I have been incredibly impressed with this line of cosmetics. Most cheap brands such as BYS are generally crap and bad quality. I don't think I'd try their liquid foundation, mascaras or lip glosses but majority of the products I have from this company are fantastic for the price. The standout is 100% their eyeshadows. They have just absolutely wowed me with the formula and pigmentation.

Pros

• Affordable
• Easily accessible at Kmart stores
• Eyeshadows are incredible quality
• Large range of products over most beauty categories (eyes, lips, face, nails)
• Large range of colours in most products
• Unique and on trend colours (especially in lipsticks and eyeshadows)
• Cheap way to experiment with new products

Cons

• Quality can be inconsistent across products
• Some products do not have great longevity
• Packaging looks cheap

Hopefully that provided you with an insight to the lol brand and persuaded you to try out some new products. Please comment down below with any thoughts or any ideas about what sort of posts you would like to see from me in the future. Thanks for reading!

Maybelline Baby Lips Review

Even before I became interested in makeup, I have always loved lip balms. When my best friend and I were 11 (eight years on we're still besties!), we collected the Chap Stick lip balms. It was so exciting finding the latest flavours, the 'Flava-Craze' line being my favourite.

Anywaaaaaay, getting to the point: Seeing as I have always been a sucker for lip balms, I picked up one of the Maybelline Baby Lips lip balms about six months ago when Priceline had half price off Maybelline, making it only $1.98. I got the 'coloured' one in Pink Lolita. Since then I have bought a few more, and thought I would share what I think of them.

From left to right: Smoothing Cherry, Anti-Oxidant Berry, Pink Lolita, Mixed Berry & Berry Crush

As shown above, I own five of the Baby Lips. They vary between what line they are from, but I will go into detail about that down below. I got all of these when they were half price, either from Chemist Warehouse or Priceline. These normally retail for $3.95, which I think is very reasonable.

Lids off: The balms very in formula and colour

Packaging

The lip balm above is my most recent out of the five. I purchased this at Chemist Warehouse and to be honest, it was the gorgeous coloured packaging that sucked me in. I'm obsessed with oranges and greens!

Cellular Repair Lip Balm in 'Smoothing Cherry'

These 'Cellular Repair' lip balms claim to be SPF20+ and renew damaged lips in 4 weeks. To be honest I probably won't wear it for 4 weeks straight so I most likely will not see true results from this but so far I love it. I have only had this for literally two days and I think it is my favourite. I LOVE anything with a cherry scent and this one is quite sweet but is subtle and not overpowering. This is transparent and does not add any colour to the lips. It definitely is smoothing like the title suggests. It is not sticky and is very easy to wear. However it does not last 8 hours like the packaging claims. 

Baby Lips Loves Colour in 'Pink Lolita'

This was the first Baby Lips product that I bought. Unfortunately, I am not the biggest fan of this one in particular. The Baby Lips Loves Colour range is different than the 'Cellular Repair' one mentioned above. This range claims to last for 6 hours and add a vibrant pop of colour. It does not do that at all.
Pink Lolita is a medium pink colour that smells absolutely gorgeous, like berries. However, once applied to the lips the colour is uneven and patchy, and clings to dry patches. It works okay if I exfoliate my lips before hand, but who wants to exfoliate for a lip balm?! I mean, isn't the whole point of a lip balm to be a smoothing, low maintenance product? From a distance this balm adds a slight pop of colour to my lips, but up close this balm is really not nice. It looks chunky and uneven. I sometimes wear this at home when noone sees my lips or on top of a lipstick to add some depth but apart from that, it's high maintenance and I don't like it. 

Baby Lips Loves Colour in 'Berry Crush'

This was the second one that I purchased. Although it is from the same range as the crappy 'Pink Lolita', I have had more success with this one. This one also has that gorgeous berry smell. It is a sheer red colour that actually looks okay once applied and doesn't have the same patchy effect as Pink Lolita. It is still very sheer and definitely not vibrant like Maybelline advertises, but I do like this one. I often wear this with red lipstick to moisturise my lips and the combination is great.

Baby Lips Pink Glow in 'Mixed Berry'

Apparently the theme with my Baby Lips' is Berry! I didn't even realise. This one is from a different range again, the 'Pink Glow' selection. This is the only Pink Glow one that I own. These ones are supposed to glow with a healthy blush that is 'you'. To be honest, I don't really notice any 'glow' about it. It's just like a regular lip balm. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. It still has the smoothing and moisturising properties of a good lip balm and I like it. It has a tangy berry smell and has a similar longevity to the others; around 1-2 hours. I haven't noticed any colour to this one but my lips are quite pigmented so maybe it works on other people.

Baby Lips Cellular Repair in 'Anti-oxidant Berry'

This is another of the transparent balms. Surprise surprise, it's another berry flavour and smells just like all the others. I think this basic 'Cellular Repair' transparent SPF, no colour no frills line is my favourite. Apart from the moisture lasting 8 hours, it does what I need it to, which is moisturise and hydrate my lips without being high-maintenance or annoying.

Pros

-Inexpensive

-Hydrating and moisturising

-Cute packaging

-Large variety available

-Smell amazing

Cons

-Not as long-wearing as they claim

-Although there is a large range, they are quite repetitive

-Colour and pink glow ranges are a disappointment

-Coloured ones can cling to dry oatches

-They all smell basically the same (even though it's a nice smell!)

Overall, I would probably not repurchase another one of these as the five that I have basically all do the same thing. However, they are definitely worth the money and I would recommend trying one out.