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NYC never ceases to amaze me.  Their very affordable drugstore line consistently comes out with new products to keep up with ever growing trends, but they keep with their affordable price point so that they can be purchased by anyone.

While shopping at Walmart a few months ago I happened across these Applelicious Glossy Lip Balms from NYC.  Being that I am a lover of the Baby Lips from Maybelline, I immediately wondered if these would be similar so I figured I would pick up a few.   These lip balms are at many different retail stores, I have seen them at Walmart, Kmart, CVS and Walgreens.  They come with 0.12 oz (3.5g) of product and are roughly about $2.99 at most stores.

Watch my embedded video below for my Quick Review or click here to watch it on YouTube.  More details below.

 

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Each Applelicious Glossy Lip Balm has an apple shaped core.  This core is filled with a unique formulation that will not only add gloss and shine to your lips, but also helps with moisturizing.  Not only is this apple shaped core cute but there is a reason to its design.

The packaging of each is super cute.  Similar to any type of lipstick or lip balms, it has a twist up feature that allows you to feed the balm/gloss up as you use the product.  I haven’t had any difficulty with it getting stuck – so I am going to say that it works well.

The cap on the tube is clear which allows you to see the color you are wanting to buy.  To me – this is a plus that any drug store brand could add when having tinted or colored lip products.  It gives you the opportunity to know exactly what you are buying.  Let’s face it… the swatches on displays are not the greatest to go by when choosing the right shade. The apple in the middle contains Shea butter, jojoba and avocado oil which helps with moisturizing your lips.

 Apple Blueberry Pie

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Apple Blueberry Pie is a very flattering color on me.  Nicely pigmented with a pinkish hue and blue undertone.  It has a purple look to it but I think it would work well for many people – especially those with my skin tone.

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Pink Lady

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Pink Lady is such a beautiful pink tone.  It’s one of those that give your lips that pouty look without over doing it.  I would even consider it a light Barbie Pink type of color – but since it’s a balm, it has just enough punch of color to be able to be worn on a daily basis, any time of year and by most skin tones.

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Applelicious Pink

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Applelicious Pink is probably my favorite of them all.  While it is not a color I would rock out daily, the pigmentation is phenomenal and it is such a pretty berry red color.  I absolutely love how bright it is on my lips for a balm.

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Pros
Pigmented, moisturizing and affordable.  Color Pay off is awesome but I wish it would last a little longer.  The color lasts just about as long as my baby lips, but in my opinion – these are so much more pigmented.  I love the texture, they remind me very much of my Revlon Lip butters.  Moisture in my lips lasted for a long time – an hour later and my lips still felt quenched, several hours later and my lips still felt smooth and soft.

Cons
Even if I have only tried out 3 of these glossy lip balms, I am completely impressed.  As I mentioned in my video – I was a little off put by the scent when I first opened them, but I’m happy to say that was temporary and the original smell is no longer there.  I just smell a nice soft apple scent.  These balms do not have any flavoring or do not taste like anything but lip balm, so if you are a flavor junkie like me, then that may be a con in your book.

Sparkle Rating…  4.6 Sparkles!
Yes – that’s pretty high in my book… but I like these so much – I’m going to try and get every single color. 🙂

Hope this review helps you out if you are interested in getting these. 🙂

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This post was previously done on my old blog.  You can view that post here: http://honeygirlsworld.weebly.com/1/post/2013/07/nyc-new-york-color-applelicious-glossy-lip-balms-review-and-swatches.html

Facebook is such an awesome place for friends and to find out awesome things and that’s exactly where I heard about Maybelline’s new Vivid Lipsticks and the color Fuchsia Flash.  Now – I hauled my MAC Candy Yum Yum a week or two ago after I took my Back 2 MAC items in and decided to get it.  I’m happy with the fact that technically it was free *yay me!* But just a few days later, a friend of mine, Maria – posted the new Maybelline Vivid Lipstick in Fuchsia Flash and it looked so similar that I was on the hunt for it.

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The above photo is a side by side comparison – MAC on the Left, Maybelline on the Right.  While my camera didn’t really pick up a difference in the sheen, there definitely is that main difference between the two.  MAC’s Candy Yum Yum (CYY) is a dry based Matte Lipstick, like most or all lipsticks that MAC offers that are matte.  It’s one of those types of lipsticks that you literally have to moisturize liberally or it can totally dry out your lips or make your lips look dry.  But – because of MAC’s awesome formulation – you can be prepared to have this lipstick for long wear use.  If I’m looking for a punch of color but want it to be toned down just a bit and last a day – I’ll blot on a napkin and it will pretty much stay for hours.  It leaves your lips with a slight stain that will give it that bold look into the night if you’re not constantly licking your lips or eating and drinking.  I love the stain – because I can add a little bit of lip balm over it and still have a vibrant color after the lipstick has rubbed off.

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Maybelline’s lip color has a shiny finish to it – like a matte color with built in gloss.  It does slightly stain the lips, but not nearly as long or as much as MAC’s CYY.  However, what I love about it is that it really is moisturizing and leaves your lips with a little bit of shine.  For me, this is ideal because I do not really like sticky glosses or lip gloss in general unless I want to really bump up a look – so this will give my lips the right amount of shine without the sticky feel that many lip glosses offer.

Shown side by side above – the lip swatches show the different sheen of the lipsticks really well.  This also will allow you to see how close these products are in comparison to one another.

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Above I took photos of the swatches on my hand.  One set with flash and the other without so you can see how similar they are.  Even in different lighting situations – both colors mimic one another and still show the similarities between the two.  Again – the only real difference is the shininess of the Maybelline, verses the extremely matte of the MAC one.

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Now – I am very very anal when it comes to comparing colors and providing a dupe for one or the other, because many times people look at a color and think it is the same when their sheens are different, their textures and their all around color turns out to be different when applied.  However, while the sheen of the lipsticks are very different, one shiny – one matte, they offer the same type of application.  Maybelline’s shiny lipstick is more of a matte with gloss so it still holds very similar attributes.  Packaging of course is totally different from one another as is the price point.  But I would consider this to be a dupe because even with application on the lips from each – you still get the same color pay off and result as well as pigmentation from both.  I’m truly impressed and tip my hat to Maybelline, awesome job with this collection.

Of course – it is up to you whether or not you want to spend your money on a MAC Lipstick or save about half the cost and get the Dupe (Maybelline lipstick).  If you are truly looking for a dry formula matte lippy – I would spend the extra money for the MAC one, but if the sheen/texture does not bother you too much – go for the Maybelline version.  They both have the same amount of product and both offer you high pigmentation and all around coverage for a lip color.  I’m glad I have both because each will serve a purpose and a reason for why I use them, but honestly – if I knew about the Maybelline one before I traded in my B2M for CYY – I would have bought the one from Maybelline and traded in for another color when I went to MAC.  For half the cost of the MAC lipstick (MAC’s lippies are $15.00 and Maybelline’s I got mine for $6.29 at Kmart) – I thought it was a deal.

I hope this helps any of you that have been wondering or interested in this possible dupe.  I tried to take photos as best as possible to allow for the colors to be compared as perfectly as possible.  At the end of the day – you will buy what ever makes you happy – all I care about is that it makes you smile and you are happy with your purchase. <3

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Note:  This post was originally done on my old blog, but due to migration issues it was not transferred over to the new site.  I have transferred it over since it is a post that is always highly requested.

Original post can be found here: http://honeygirlsworld.weebly.com/1/post/2013/02/dupe-alert-macs-candy-yum-yum-vs-maybellines-fuchsia-flash.html

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