Mixing NYX Cairo with Other Colors

So I've recently posted about how much I hate NYX Matte Lip Cream in Cairo because it's way too light, it's drying, and it makes me look like I have concealer lips. I commented to someone earlier that I would probably never wear Cairo out of the house because I just didn't like it, but later on I had an idea: What if I took my most hated lip color and mixed and matched it with some of my other less used products to try and create something good?

That thought led to this mini-experiment with lip color in which I used Cairo as a base for my lip color to try and create other lighter shades of two different products I had (but didn't really use that much): Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer in Cocoa and NYX Chunky Dunk in Pomegranate Margarita.

Now I got Cocoa a long time ago as some kind of Burt's Bee Lip Shimmer set, but I never really used it because I didn't like how shimmery it actually was and I thought it was way too brown for me so it just sat around in my makeup drawer.

Mixing this color with Cairo made a very pretty nude with a slight shimmer. Since the Lip Shimmer has a minty taste and feel it covered up the gross smell of the NYX Lip Cream and left my lips feeling nice and smooth. Honestly, I think that these two made a great pair.

I bought this NYX Chunky Dunk not too long ago because I love the color, however, I don't wear it much because no matter how hard I try I think it looks patchy when I applied it.

When I first applied the Chunky Dunk over Cairo it made this really pretty muted pink (which I have a feeling I am going to be wearing a lot). Since the Chunky Dunk is hydrating it took away the dryness brought on by Cairo and having the cream under the Chunky Dunk made it a lot easier to move it where I needed to without making it look patchy and uneven.

While I really liked the color, I thought that it didn't bring out enough of the purple in Pomegranate Margarita, so I applied another coat of the NYX Chunky Dunk over Cairo and it came out with a darker, more purple tinted color which was still very wearable. It still felt hydrating without feeling too wet or glossy.

All in all I think I might have just re-introduced some products into my regular makeup bag so I feel like this was a win. While Cairo isn't great on its own, it does make a great base for lightening up lip colors.