Nicki & Ricky

Today I have a rather long overdue review of a set that I purchased around July last year in my Estee Lauder Corporate Store haul. It is the MAC Viva Glam it Up Lip bag which contains two full size lip products; MAC Viva Glam Nicki lipstick and Lip Conditioner.

The bag included in the set is a rather small pouch about the size of my hand. It has a coin purse style closure. It's pretty cute with red leopard print and black lace on the inside. It is lined both inside and out with a plastic-y material which is easily wiped down in case of any spillages. It's a cute bag but too small to really hold much.

The main thing that drew me to this set was the lipstick in the shade Viva Glam Nicki. I'd seen and heard a lot about this shade in the blogosphere and swatched it a few times in store. Touted as a bright, coral-toned, neon barbie pink, it certainly sounded unique, and in true Nicki Minaj style. It's definitely a bold and bright lipstick and yet still wearable for I think many skintones, as opposed to a blue-toned barbie pink which can be unflattering on some. For me, Viva Glam Nicki swatches differently to what you see in the tube. The tube shade is more of the aforementioned coral pink, but when swatched it comes out more like a true, barbie pink, with little coral or peach tones. This is probably due to the yellow tones of my skin contrasting, making the cooler tones of the pink come out. It's still wearable but I wish the yellow tones would come out more as I much prefer that shade. I often alter it to my liking by mixing it with a peachier lipstick which takes a bit more effort but lends me a shade closer to the what's in the bullet. It is definitely a very striking shade and one that I've worn a few times this past Spring/Summer season.

This shade has a Satin formula which is quite full colour in opacity and somewhere between a matte and an amplified finish; semi-matte with no glossiness or drying feeling. I've never tried a matte lipstick from MAC but I find an amplified finish is ever so slightly glossier (but what I still consider semi-matte) with a touch more creaminess. The satin is comfortable on the lips and is pretty long wearing but will need touching up after eating. I find with this particular shade as well with the formula, it's best to have well exfoliated and moisturised lips beforehand. It doesn't cling to dry patches very badly at all but it definitely looks better on properly prepped lips.

The MAC Lip Conditioner was actually a bit of a fail for me - and for multiple reasons. The texture is quite a thin, light feeling balm that applies quite glossy to the lips. I feel that the conditioner absorbs very quickly to the lips but doesn't offer the same immediate feeling of properly nourished lips. They only feel moisturised temporarily before the need to reapply. I found myself wanting to reapply very often throughout the day as my lips were not feeling very nourished. They weren't dry or chapped feeling but they weren't nourished either. No matter how often I applied it, I didn't really feel like it did anything. On top of that, I think this may have triggered my itchy lip issue that I had last year. I haven't tried it since but I did notice it began around the time I was using this product. I don't have any desire to use this again for fear of the rash flaring up again and also because I simply don't find this to be an effective lip balm at all. It has the typical MAC vanilla scent which I did love when applying but sadly I was sorely disappointed with this product.

Have you tried either of these lippies? If so, what did you think?