Autumn on my lips

Autumn has come. I won't deny that this is not my favourite season of the year. Beautiful as it is with all those shades of red and brown and spider nets hanging everywhere around, autumn heralds the imminent coming of winter, which in Poland lasts from November till April and hardly ever resembles the fairy tale image you get from Wham's Last Christmas.

This season I happily welcomed the new trend of berry lips for autumn. I'm not a big fan of nudes and naturals as I find them terribly boring and unimaginative. Unfortunately darks and burgundies are sort of outside my comfort zone, while they go well with my cool skin tone they are a poor match for my age, so instead of getting myself something new I shopped my stash and here's what I found:

1. Revlon Lip Butter in Red Velvet is not really a berry shade, but it's a dark burgundy red, which can be worn both sheer and built up to amazing intensity, considering that it's only a lip balm. Very comfortable on the lips too.

2. Calvin Klein lipstick in Fusion is somewhere inbetween berry shades and pinks with velvet, almost matte finish. Unfortunately this lipstick is quite drying.

3. Milani Color Statement lipstick in Chilled Brandy is rather dark, but when patted on the lips with a brush or finger gives a beautiful shimmery copper wine shade on the lips

4. Lancome Laque Fever in Bloody Cherry is a gorgeous lip gloss which I normally find too dark to wear. But since dark lips are so 'in' I find myself grabbing for it shamelessly often. It's the most beautiful wine red with shimmer and high shine. It's incredibly pigmented and wears fairly long as for a lip gloss. 

5. Chanel Levres Scintillantes in Savage Grace looks very dark in the tube, but in fact it's a much more wearable blackcurrant colour. A very pretty high shine gloss with microglitter.

6. Make Up for Ever Lab Shine Metal Collection gloss #M10 is a very pretty dark metallic red, very opaque, though not long-lasting.

The second autumn trend I always go for in the season is nude lip. Only when I put all my nude or neutral  lipsticks in a row, did I realise how dupeish they are. Have a look and judge for yourselves:

1. Milani Color Statement lipstick in Naturally Chic is a very neutral rosy beige. This lipstick is rich and creamy, wears very well in autumn weather.

2. Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Raffinee is a rosy neutral with slightly mauve undertones and matte finish.

3. Rimmel Kate lipstick #19 is very similar to the Milani one, just a tiny little bit more mauve.

4. Lancome Rouge in Love lipstick in Rose Rendez-Vous #230M is an exact dupe of the Milani lipstick, the only difference is in the formula, which in case of the Lancome one is more lightweight and more moisturising.

5. Calvin Klein lipstick in Mulberry is the mauviest of them all and has a high amount of shimmer which makes it look frosty.

And finally, my favourite shades of the season are warm reds and browns plus beige-toned glosses I like to mix them with to achieve a nudy-beige lip colour.

1. Nars sheer Lipstick in Autumn Leaves is a shimmery muted orange leaning towards brown. The name is more than appropriate in the case of theis lipstick.

2. Nars Pure Matte Lipstick in Moscow is a brownish red with tiny golden shimer and matte finish.

3. ELF Matte Lip Color in Praline is milk chocolate colour and matte, it's too dark and too brown for me to wear on its own so I combine it with beige-toned glosses (no. 6 and 7) to make it more wearable.

4. Chanel Rouge Allure Laque #79 seems quite similar to Nars Moscow, but its formla is liquid lipstick and it's more opaque, that's why it looks darker on the lips. 

5. Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in Emoi #58 is a lovely rosy red, which would suit the colour range above better. I put it here by mistake.

6. This is a no-name gloss I got from a friend of mine. To my surprise I like it a lot and I have nothing like it in my collection. It's a light milky beige with a fairly opaque colour and non-sticky formula. I use it on top of dark brown shades to make them less intimidating.

7. Model Co. gloss in Striptease is a very sheer beige which I use to brighten dark browns like the ELF matte lipstick or to apply over a brown lip pencil, eg. the Stila lip liner you can see at #8

8. Stila Lip Liner no.4 is raisin brown shade with shimmer. I apply it all over my lips and then top it up with a lighter-coloured gloss.

9. Make up For Ever Aqua Lip #2C is a neutral rosy beige which lasts on my lips for ever and makes a lovely base for glosses.