Lipstick Queen Trio Review

If you follow me on Instagram (@curlykira) you will already know that I have been away for a considerable chunk of the summer. I will talk all about my time away in another post but today I wanted to focus on something beauty-related. So I have a review instead of products from a brand I have wanted to try out for quite a while now: Lipstick Queen. When I saw that British Airways's in-flight Duty-Free was offering a trio of their lipsticks at a discounted price I decided to buy it and give it a go. The three lipstick shades were: Medieval, Jungle Queen and Hello Sailor.

Left to right: Medieval, Jungle Queen, Hello Sailor

To show the difference, this is me with bare lips...

Medieval

According to the Lipstick Queen website, this shade was inspired by how women in Medieval times would use lemons to bring out a blood-red stain on their lips since lipstick was considered a sin. As such, this lipstick is very sheer. It only gives a tinge of colour in the lip. I mean, that is arguably the whole point of sheer lipstick but as a fan of opaque and bold colours, this is a bit new to me. The sheerness of this lipstick does, however, make this a suitable red shade for all complexions. It is also a great option for people who prefer natural makeup looks or work in professions where statements of personal identity need to be quite subtle. The sheer formula makes it very comfortable to wear and there isn't such a worry about colour bleeding. This takes most of the risk and fear out of wearing a red lipstick.

Hello Sailor

When I saw the colour in the tube I immediately got excited that this would be an amazing navy colour. It's not. This is another super sheer shade which, despite my initial disappointment, is actually a clever colour that should become popular with a lot of people. Not everyone is a crazy colour fanatic like me so Lipstick Queen definitely made the right choice in creating a shade that looks outrageous but then looks pretty and wearable on the lips. That is a great act of quiet rebellion if you ask me! The colour comes off more as a sheer dark berry stain than a navy blue which makes this a much wearable colour. I still found it very sheer and as such, I don't think it will be a lipstick I reach for often, unfortunately.

Jungle Queen

This is the most opaque colour of the three and has more of a creme finish. It is a bright orange-coral colour which I think would suit most complexions. It is also very comfortable to wear. Although it is a fairly bright shade to wear, I do believe that the cream  formulation does lend itself to being more wearable, especially for summer (which is sadly coming to an end). This would look amazing with a natural makeup look with a winged eyeliner so that Jungle Queen gets all the attention it deserves. It's such a fun, flirty and feisty colour (what more would you expect from a Jungle Queen?).

Overall, I can see the benefits of these lipsticks as they are flattering, subtle and comfortable to wear. I can see these lipsticks being great options for going on dates. The colour enhances the lips in a way that looks natural whilst the sheerness makes it low maintenance so you don't have to worry about it messing up whilst eating or drinking (or kissing!).  These products are amazing quality and their packaging is gorgeous, which is why I now understand the hype around them. They may not suit my personal style, but they will make a good addition to my kit and may be nice to use one in a while to change things up a bit.

Top to bottom: Medieval, Jungle Queen, Hello Sailor

Thanks for reading!

Love love love,

Kira <3 xxx 

What Happened To Me in 2014?!

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry I have been gone for so long, life got in the way and before I knew it 2014 had ended. I'll spare you all the nostalgic, inspirational and overly optimistic rubbish that you are all probably bored of hearing and instead I give you this: 2014 was distinctly average; I'm hoping 2015 has more in store.

I'm not being negative, I'm being real here. There is so much talk of "YOLO" and "living for the moment" and whatnot, which quite honestly can leave you feeling inadequate if you're not climbing Kili or petting a drugged up tiger (not a fan of that by the way) or partying your way through £10K in one night. So what if when someone asks me what I did last year I can't remember a single exciting thing off the top of my head because my life was predominantly occupied with university work? That was not a wasted year. That was a year spent doing what needed to be done. Don't get me wrong I had some good times in 2014, but I guess it wasn't as adventurous as perhaps I would like my life to be. But not all years of our life can be full of adventures in the conventional sense, that's not how life works and so to put yourself down for having a less exciting year is absurd. There will be better years and there will be worse years and I'm intrigued to see how 2015 turns out.

That probably sounded like a pointless rant to many of you, but I feel like now is a time where people both reflect on where they are in life right now, how they got there and where they want to be and that's what I'm doing here. And if I can't do that on my own blog where can I, eh? As I said, 2014 wasn't one of my favourite years, but I did have some good experiences. One aspect of 2014 that I want to share with you is some of the work I did in the makeup artistry field, which is one reason I have not had time to put any posts up for the past two months. Obviously, it's hard for me right now because I am still trying to get myself out there and build up a portfolio so that one day I can charge for my work. But right now I am enjoying the learning process of working on different types of projects, different faces and different looks. I have challenged myself so much this year and I feel like I've become more and more confident with every client that I do. My biggest project this year is definitely the UCL Classics Play of Euripides' Bacchae. I did the makeup for the play last year and was asked to return as the Head of Makeup in a much more visually extravagant production. This task involves coming up with multiple makeup looks for different characters, teaching four other girls how to do the makeup looks I have come up with (who have no makeup artistry experience) and apply/oversee the application of makeup to a cast of 26! It's a huge task but one I feel so fortunate to have the chance to undertake.

The production is in February but so far my makeup team and I have worked on the promo images and trailer for the play and I am very happy with how they turned out! So here's some background on the play before you look at the images and think "What in the world was she thinking? And why is there so much mud and blood?" The Bacchae is an Ancient Greek tragedy in which the women of a city go off into the woods to perform some wild rituals and rip their king limb from limb (okay there is a LOT more to it than that, it's actually a very good play and definitely worth reading). So as you can imagine the play is very dark, wild and abstract which reflects in the makeup looks.

That gold leaf though!

I wanted to embed the video of the trailer but for some reason I can't so click here if you want to watch it on Youtube.

I have also been working on two short films recently. They were both with the same director and for different film competitions. The first was a piece about a social issue filmed solely on an iPhone for the "Eye Want Change" movie festival. I was actually involved in this project because I worked with the guy who produced this (and provided the spoken word for the piece) on another of his projects which I shall link here (contains crude humour so not suitable for younger readers!). The film is called Mourning Agender and it's a very thought-provoking piece that you won't believe was filmed from a phone. The second was a Nouveau Noir piece for the Campus MovieFest Awards called Queen of Hearts.

So now I've caught you all up on some of what I was up to in the latter part of 2014 when I was M.I.A on here (which I really am sorry about). There is only one thing I have left to tell you which is non-makeup related...

I cut most of my hair off!

It was down to my hip before!

What do you think? As much as I loved my long hair, it's refreshing to do something a bit different for once. My hair is also even curlier now without the weight of seven and a half more inches on it! VIVA LA CURLY!

Lots of love and speak to you all soon xxx