A couple of weeks ago The MUH Blog received a lovely care package from Swedish brand Viva La Diva. They had sent us the Spring/Summer 2015 Collection to review! Our International readers may not be familiar with this brand but they are a reasonably popular Scandinavian brand, sold in stores such as Cubus, Åhléns and KICKS.
Viva La Diva is an all Swedish make-up brand born in Stockholm precisely at the turn of the century, in a time when women just could not find extraordinary make-up at reasonable prices. For us, this was something that just needed to be changed. In our world, everyone has the right to look fabulous! Shaped out of this belief, Viva La Diva instantly became one of the most sought after mass market cosmetic brands due to our playful design, extravagant attitude and divine pricing.
Suddenly every single Swedish woman got the chance to look fabulous, and also with an attitude. Just like a diva! A dedicated Viva La Diva family has since then continuously refined our recipe for success by expansive hard work, quality control and innovative campaigns so that we now proudly can say that we are one of the leading brands among nail polish, lipstick and eye shadow in Scandinavia. It has been a spectacular journey where we have seen just how appreciated our take on make-up is by both make-up junkies and professional make-up artists, and the journey has only just begun.
Viva La Diva appeals to women who dare to show off – women who display their personality just a little bit more, speaks their mind and walks their own way in life. These women encourage creativity and freedom in fashion, make-up and
everyday life because they know that it is the only way to be truly fabulous.
This is the way of the diva, and we know that every woman out there got a little diva in them just waiting to shine!Quote taken from Viva La Diva
I would put Viva La Diva on a par with UK brands such as Collection, Miss Sporty and to some extent E.L.F. They are not really a drugstore brand as they are only available in certain boutiques. In an insanely expensive market they are one of the more affordable brands and even before I received these products, my makeup bag was saturated by their products. For the last few years I have been using their Brow Trios as well as their Foundation Trios, and even got my Mum into them!
The Spring/Summer Colletion: Dreams, which we received consists of four matte lipsticks, 4 nail polishes and a mascara. Lene tested out the nail polishes and will do a review on them later when she is feeling better, so for now the nail polishes are only swatched. The four new shades in the Absolutely Fabulous range are as follows:
- Viva La Diva Absolutely Fabulous Nails: “Dream”
- Viva La Diva Absolutely Fabulous Nails: “Paradise”
- Viva La Diva Absolutely Fabulous Nails: “Beauty”
- Viva La Diva Absolutely Fabulous Nails: “Angel”
Top Left: Dream. Top Right: Paradise, Bottom Left: Beauty, Bottom Right: Angel
During a Facebook chat a few days ago, Lene had this to say about the polishes:
They are quite opaqe with a nice matte finish. I used 2 coats, no top coat. They are not the dry kind of matte that can be lumpy as you can see. Without a top coat I got 4 days wear from the polish before I needed to freshen it up.
The Dreams Collection is all about matte it seems as the new lipsticks are not only new shades but the first of the Dream Matte Lipstick range. There are four new shades in the Dream Matte Collection and they are as follows:
- Viva La Diva Matte Lips: “Velvet Nude”
- Viva La Diva Matte Lips: “Pink Powder”
- Viva La Diva Matte Lips: “Soft Cerise”
- Viva La Diva Matte Lips: “Red Carpet”
I quite enjoyed these lipsticks, they refer to it as the Dream Creme Formula and that it is non drying, something which I have to agree with. Some matte formulations can by very difficult to apply and tug at your lips. These actually slide on with great ease and coverage was rather impressive. I felt that pigmentation was strong without being overpowering and by that I mean that the product was build able. I was easily able to layer the product to create a more intense finish without a build up of streaks or excess product. The formulation absorbs into your lips leaving them feel moisturized but still with a non glossy finish.
“Velvet Nude”
“Velvet Nude” is a very similar shade to the new Jeffree Star “I´m Bare”. I got around 3 hours wear time out of this before needing to reapply. It is a very cold, neutral nude that compliments most skin tones.
“Pink Powder”
Again, I got around 3 hours wear time from this shade. This shade is a very warm pink, much better for the warmer skin tones than the cooler (like myself). While I appreciated the product, I felt that the colour washed me out slightly.
“Soft Cerise”
BOOM! Wear time increase! The wear time on this little beauty was about 6 hours, however I had to break out the oil based makeup remover to fully remove it and even then I was left with “cool aid” stained lips. If you plan on wearing this shade then commit to it because if you change your mind in 10 minutes you will have a stained pout left behind. This shade is a very vivid pink with blue under tones. I should mention that in all the swatches I have 2 coats applied for power lips.
“Red Carpet”
This one was a little tricky. It looked to be quite a deep red in the tube but on application it definitely leaned towards the pink end of red, but it is still incredibly vibrant and as with “Soft Cerise”, it stains like cool aid. I got a solid 6 hours wear from this before I felt like reapplying, but in hindsight, I really did not NEED a touch up, I just did it out of habit.
The final addition to the Spring/Summer Dreams Collection is the Most Wanted Mascara. I have only tried it a few times so far, and I am still on the fence as to how I feel about it.
The packaging is really cute and pretty much your basic mascara tube. I like the simple classy design and I REALLY like the mascara wand. It is one of the rubber combs, so the product really gets spread around well and your lashes do not clump together.
It is not too big either so it is very comfortable to use on both the top and bottom lashes without incident.
My only gripe with the mascara is that it is a little on the thin side. I needed to give 3 coats before I felt I had my “Max Factor” lashes (the mascara I normally wear)
Here I am wearing the Viva La Diva Most Wanted Mascara along with the “”Velvet Nude” Matte Lipstick.
Price wise, all I can say is that the products are “affordable” as this is based on our value of money in Norway. Typically we pay x3 the amount on everything as the UK or the USA, so 70kr for a lipstick is great for us, but when you translate it to pound (£5.60) or dollar ($8.90), it becomes a little less impressive, although still a great price!
And finally back to what I was saying about the Matte Lips being build able and easy to work with. This is a look I posted on my Instagram a few days ago using two coats of “Velvet Nude” and one light coat of “Soft Cerise” blended into the edges to create a soft ombré look.
Hopefully Lene will be back this week sometime, Nadine will be doing her normal Friday tutorials and I will be travelling! Don´t worry, posts have been scheduled and if you follow my Instagram you will see that I will be keeping up with my clipart. If you REALLY want to stalk me you can add me to Snapchat: Makeup-honey. I tend to snap lip looks in creation, makeup, makeup, babies, makeup, lipstick, lipstick, the occasional husband and more makeup. So add me, follow me and don´t forget to stalk Lene and Nadine too!
