bailey bee

beauty, home and lifestyle blog

ALL 36 NYX SOFT MATTE LIP CREAMS // NYX SOFT MATTE LIP CREAM VAULT

The NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams have been one of my favorite lip products since before matte lips were even “in”. They’re cheap, come in fun colors and used to be my go-to for night’s out when I wanted my lip color to stay on without me having to think about it the whole time. So when NYX first released their SMLC Vault, I was very excited. For $70 you could get every SMLC that has ever been released (there are 36 of ’em). I loved the idea but didn’t initially jump for it.

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Fast forward to the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday when NYX released on their Instagram Story that they would be releasing more of them exclusively at Ulta on the biggest shopping day of the year. Seeing as I hadn’t paid attention to the vault since it’s release, I was confused. Turns out, it was impossible to find this collection of products anywhere. I don’t believe in shopping Black Friday or Thanksgiving all that much so I told myself that I wouldn’t be getting the vault and maybe I could check Ulta later that weekend for it.

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Ulta opened at 6pm on Thanksgiving night. I was in North Carolina with my family and found myself bored at 5:45 so I journeyed over to the store and waited in line to get this puppy. As everyone in front of me in line veered towards the prestige side of the store, I wandered over the the NYX endcap, grabbed the vault and checked out. I was successfully the first customer to check out on Thanksgiving evening.

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I still wasn’t sold on them. I think NYX should have released the vault with the lip creams in color order so it wouldn’t be SO overwhelming. When trying out new colors I hadn’t tried before, I found myself frazzled and uninterested suddenly. After being swayed by my Instagram followers (check me out at @beautymunson) to keep the vault, I started the swatching process. I organized everything by color to make it more appealing to us all!

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Enough talk. Here they are— all 36 of NYX Cosmetics’ Soft Matte Lip Creams:

on-arm swatch of nyx soft matte lip creams
on-arm swatch of nyx soft matte lip creams
on-arm swatch of nyx soft matte lip creams
on-arm swatch of nyx soft matte lip creams

Let me know if you would be interested in on-lip swatches. For obvious reasons I did not do them for this first giant swatch party but I would be glad to do them for another post in the future. I hope you enjoyed!

LIPSTICK PARADE: FAVORITE WINES + REDS

Hello and Happy Thursday!!! I have decided to start a bit of a series called Lipstick Parade. I will be talking and watching myself through my lipstick collection by color family. Today I’m sharing with you all my favorite wines & reds for autumn. No, I’m not transitioning into food blogging after this series. I’m talking LIPSTICK! Let’s not waste any time– let’s get into swatches!

(L to R: Clinique Almost Lipstick in ‘Black Honey’, Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in ‘Crush’, MAC ‘Rebel’, NYX Matte Lip Cream in ‘Transylvania’, Kylie Cosmetics ‘Leo’, Maybelline ColorSensational in ‘Red Revival’)

Starting off with the most non-lipstick lipstick of the bunch, Clinique’s Almost Lipstick is a super pretty, sheer and moisturizing color that can be built up to be fairly deep. I love Black Honey and I’ve had this for years on years (definitely past it’s expiration…) because I stole it once upon a time from my mom. It’s a great color for when you aren’t looking to appear very done up.
Revlon’s Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains are soooooooo great. I own about seven of them. Crush is the prettiest and easiest stain of them all and it’s so nice to wear during the fall because it feels like a lip balm but has some serious staining abilities so when you’re cold and you’re feeling chapped, you can reapply for the balm aspect or keep away and continue rocking a pigmented color. The only thing to know about this product is that it does tend to bleed a bit so it’s best to wear a lip liner underneath it or clean up your lip lines with concealer.
MAC’s Rebel lipstick is an absolute classic in my collection. It can be worn over a deep lip liner for a super vampy look or overtop nude lips or a nude liner for a more berry-toned shade. It’s a satin finish so it is very comfortable for hours and wears away evenly— even for such a deep color. I usually always pair it with a deep red or wine liner for a dramatic look.
NYX Transylvania is a part of the Matte Lip Cream family that was the OG matte lip in my life. I remember in high school and college putting these things on for a night out and being able to forget I had them on and that was sooooo nice. Now that matte is the go-to, NYX matte lip creams aren’t exactly as amazing as they once were. I would prefer a true liquid lipstick over them in most instances but I love Transylvania. It’s such a deep purple color that it looks black. When you spread it out on the lips it shows it’s purple hue and is just about the best dark shade to rock if you want to turn heads. I guarantee that there are liquid lipstick dupes for this shade but the product itself is still good so why buy what I already own? (bad question. I buy a lot of what I already own when it comes to makeup but I’m going to try to showcase self-control!)
Kylie’s exclusive birthday collection shade, Leo, was not a winner for me when I first tried it out. and I have to say, it’s still a little finicky. However— it’s too pretty a shade to not make work. As long as you later it over an equally deep lip liner, you will find the color applies and wears much more evenly. I just really like that Kylie’s lipsticks are budge proof and especially for Leo because with a color this dark, I like to apply and forget. With traditional lippies, you could never really do that.
Maybelline’s ColorSensational line is my favorite lipstick line anywhere. They’re cheap, consistent and come in every color you would ever need. Seriously. Red Revival is my perfect red— it’s not too cherry and bright and has just the right amount of depth to make it flattering for whatever kind of situations you would wear a red lip.

I would LOVE to read some of your favorite autumnal shades. Or do you have any dupes for the swatches on this post? Let me know in the comments!