Loose Powder

I’m a sucker for cute packaging, so when I spotted the bunny ears and smiley faces of the Tony Moly Petite Bunny Gloss Bar, I just couldn’t resist. Since the Tony Moly brand is from South Korea, you have to look for websites that sell Korean cosmetics. I ended up buying mine from eBay, mainly because the price was more reasonable (re: affordable). As a note: counterfeit cosmetics do exist, particularly those that are highly popular and sought after. I did my due diligence to scope out the seller–established sales, customer reviews, total number and variety of items on the shop, etc.–before purchase.

My eBay purchase included the two Bunny Gloss Bars (number 03 Juicy Apple and 09 Neon Red), along with some other things that I hope to review at a later time. I got the goods delivered promptly (a little over a week) and everything was packaged very tidy in a small box. The individual gloss bar measures 4.5 in / 11.43 cm, which fits into the palm of my hand easily and the bunny ears gives my thumbs a gripping point when carrying. Both gloss bars had a label affixed on it that had a bunch of tiny Korean text which I could only make out the bar code and 03 or 09 numbers. I’ve read that Korean cosmetics have manufacture dates on the product, but I found imprinted on the bottom of the tube “EJN 20150912” followed by Korean text. I’m guessing that’s the use by date?

When uncapped, I noticed the scent of the gloss bar. I didn’t so much smell the 03 Juicy Apple, but for some reason 09 Neon Red had that sweet cherry-strawberry flavor reminiscent of children’s lip balms or cough medicine. The actual gloss bar is a creamy column that extends to about one inch via twisting the bottom tube, which I suppose is an average amount of gloss when compared to other lip products. I had some difficulty getting the 09 Neon Red bar to retract and ended up having to use my finger to gently press it back inside the plastic tube.

As far as the color: it’s actually rather sheer; you have to add a couple of layers before the color becomes really noticeable. The samples I swatched on my arm had a good 4-5 applications for the color to appear. And when I look at the 2 colors side by side, they do look rather similar, though this could be due to the lighting as I took the pictures rather quickly in the car during my lunch break. I found the actual application on my lips a bit on the greasy side for the 09 Neon Red. The texture is buttery soft and applies smoothly, but I didn’t find it to be moisturizing or very long lasting.

Overall, the Petite Bunny Gloss Bar is a combination between gloss (goes on in a shimmery-sheer fashion, but not exactly moist), and colored lip balm (bar that applies smooth and gives a touch of color). The product lists for $8.00-15.00 depending on which website you visit, but I paid $5.75 per shade from eBay. This was definitely a splurge purchase, based purely on the cute factor of the product packaging. There are a total of 9 shades but I’m not sure I would buy the remaining 7 shades.

I’m still a fan of Fyrinnae‘s Lip Lustres, though I personally find them more a special occasion lip product than for every day. Two colors I purchased recently for costuming purposes are Pierced (gunmetal) and Type A (garnet red).

Here is Pierced:

Here’s Type A:

Lip Lustres are a non-sticky, moisturizing lip color made from natural oils and pigments. Because of the mix of natural oils used, this formula will be thinner when warm and more solid when cold. Most of the colors are opaque and while not meant to be long wearing, I find they do tend to last a bit longer than a typical gloss. They have a slight vanilla scent and once set, there is very minimal transfer.

They can be purchased from Fyrinnae for $7 per tube. There are also sample sizes for $2 each.

While looking for a particular pink lip color with gold shimmer, I ended up asking some beauty bloggers if they had any suggestions. Jen of From Head to Toe suggested Rimmel‘s Airy Fairy.

It actually took some hunting for me to locate this color. CVS and RiteAid were both sold out, as were two local Target stores. While at Walmart for another reason, I decided to have a look and there it was – a tube of Airy Fairy for less than $5!

The color is a cool mauve with a slight bit of gold shimmer. It’s nicely pigmented and has a slight scent – kind of like fake cherries? I don’t find the scent overwhelming and multiple uses has faded the scent.

The color applies very smoothly and last for a few hours if I’m not eating or drinking. I don’t mind reapplying, though. I didn’t find this to be drying, but it definitely isn’t moisturizing and it does transfer. Sometimes I’ll apply a lip balm under this color.

I love this color a lot and it’s definitely in my rotation for every day use. I like the formula and would probably purchase more colors from this line.

Fyrinnae is still one of my favorite indie cosmetics companies and I love their Lip Lustres! I had to clean out some old lip products a few months back and threw out my original tube of Romantique.

Lip Lustres are a non-sticky, moisturizing lip color made from natural oils and pigments. Because of the mix of natural oils used, this formula will be thinner when warm and more solid when cold. Most of the colors are opaque and while not meant to be long wearing, I find they do tend to last a bit longer than a typical gloss.

Romantique is  one of the sheerer shades and it’s a soft pink with gold shimmer. I love it for every day use. The gold shimmer is very pretty and doesn’t look frosty at all. It has a slight vanilla scent, but it isn’t overpowering.

You can see the gold shimmer best in the third photo.

I would definitely buy this again (so I hope they don’t discontinue it!) and will probably try out some other shades.

Lip Lustres cost $6 for 8mLof product in a 10mL tube and are available from Fyrinnae.

Because I had some decent results with Philosophy’s Divine Luxurious lip color, I thought I would try a drug store version. Maybelline’s SuperStay 24 Color advertises a lip color that last 24 hours and won’t crumble, cake, fade, or transfer. That’s a lot to live up to!

One end has the lip color with a doe foot applicator and the other side has a lip balm to help keep your lips moisturized through the day. You’ll need it!

I purchased So Pearly Pink, a shimmery pinky-mauve color. It’s rather sheer and it’s much frostier than I expected. Here are swatches on both the back of my hand and my lips in direct & indirect sunlight:

I’m not a fan of this color or this formula. There was no way I could apply this color without it looking like I had flaky, dry lips. Believe me, I tried. I can’t put a lip balm under it, otherwise the color won’t set & stay. I can’t put any lip glosses over it once it’s dry because the oils in it will cause the lip color to rub off. If I didn’t use the lip balm provided, my lips felt extremely dry.

On the other hand, the color doesn’t transfer and it did require make-up remover to get it off at the end of the day. Unfortunately it just looked worse and worse as the minutes wore on and it looked like I had the worst chapped lips.

I may try another color again if I find it at deep discount, but I’m not every confident in this product working for me.