left to right: rafael, true coral (full size), michael

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you and your family! enjoy and cherish these times.

if you follow any beauty bloggers, you will have already heard of the Tom Ford lips and boys collection. this was released on black friday through cyber monday and only in select stores for ONE day. lips and boys is a limited edition 50-shade lipstick collection named after all the men in Mr. Ford's life. and to add to the genius marketing campaign, these are advertised as "clutch sized lipsticks" (ohhhh... Mr. Ford) retailing for $32 USD a pop/0.07 oz. for ease of picking, the 50-shades are grouped into the following color families: nudes to browns, silvers to blacks, metallics, light pinks to mauves, pops of pinks to roses, fuchsia to magentas, corals to oranges, reds, violets to orchid, and plums.

if you missed this the first go around, they will be back December 26, 2014 (that's tomorrow!). be sure to also check out Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Saks, and Neiman Marcus websites. this is the PERFECT chance to try a Tom Ford lipstick because they are a little cheaper than the regular sized lipsticks which retail for $50 USD/0.1 oz. pretty steep. i really liked this concept. a smaller sized lipstick at a decent price. because... let's be honest. i don't ever see myself using a WHOLE tube of lipstick in my lifetime. ever.

at the time i purchased these, there were no swatches available on any beauty blogs or websites. so it was almost a shot in the dark picking colors only based on product images. i wanted to venture into the oranges and pinks, so in came rafael and michael. (now lemming francesco!)

rafael belongs to the corals to oranges family. it is a warm orange and is quite pigmented. michael belongs to the pops of pink to roses family. it is a bright medium pink with a semi frosted finish. both colors are perfect for the summer. i can't wait!

swatches are now plentiful in the blogosphere. Temptalia who is very well known in the beauty blogging world has great swatches! check out her initial swatches part one and part two. she also did individual reviews on each lipstick so be sure to use the search function to find those. also, here are a list of shades that are re-promotes (including my beloved true coral!):

Cooper = Pure Pink
Adriano = True Coral
Alejandro = Slander
Leonardo = Smoke Red
Xavier = Violet Fatale
Collin = Indian Rose
Cary = Casablanca
Didier = Moroccan Rouge

go get you a boy (or two),
JD