$6-8
₤5 (Boots, Superdrug)
Shades: Honey, Crush, Rendezvous, and Lovesick
L-R: Honey, Crush, Rendezvous, Lovesick
These lipstains are described being a “lightweight lipstain” with a “gel formula”. It is supposed to be very long-lasting, giving “hour after hour” of wear. It is also supposed to be moisturizing, giving “softer, smoother lips”. There are 12 colors total, of which I own 4. Honey is a subdued pink, a nice ‘my-lips-but-better’ color. Crush is a mid-toned rosy plum color. Rendezvous is a wearable tangerine/creamsicle color. Lovesick is a bright fuschia, very comparable with MAC’s Girl About Town.
L-R: Honey, Crush, Rendezvous, Lovesick
L-R: Honey, Crush, Rendezvous, Lovesick
First I will talk about the things I like about these products, then I will get onto the issues.
The colors in this line were great, both in selection and pigmentation. I have picked out the 4 that I think were the prettiest, but I would wear pretty much all of them. I think they had a good balance of lighter, more natural colors, brights, and darker shades. I think the brights were also fabulous because they were so wearable. I love how Rendezvous was so easy to work with, yet was still bright orange. I have always admired MAC’s Morange (and suspect I am not alone!), but have been a little (OK, quite a bit) scared of the intensity. Rendezvous was perfect for me. Similarly, in another formula Lovesick and Crush would both be colors some people might shy away from, but in this context they are actually quite wearable.
Another feature that I really liked was the stick packaging. It is super easy to put on, perfect for when you are on the go. It even does a decent job of getting a sharp, clean line, something you may not expect from a fat stick. And lastly, my favorite part: IT IS RETRACTABLE. This may seem like a no-brainer, but there have been some products in the same format that were not retractable. NYX, I’m lookin’ at you. (For my little rant on the subject, click here)
Now onto the things that weren’t so great…
Firstly, and this isn’t really a big thing, just something I wanna gripe about, is the moisturizing bit. Now, a lot of companies like to stick “moisturizing” on a lot of their products. Now, some of them really are moisturizing. However, for the vast majority of these products labeled “moisturizing”, this is not the case. When the companies labeled them “moisturizing”, they really meant “non-drying”. This is one of these products. Now, while I appreciate the fact that they don’t turn my lips into flake city, I’m not so happy about the false labeling. It isn’t worse than a lot of other lip products, but still. If you make a claim, you should live up to it.
The second, more serious place for improvement, was longevity. “What?”, you say, “a lip stain that doesn’t last?”. Well, yes and no. What happens is that after about an hour or two, or after consuming food or a beverage (whichever comes first), the stain wears off around the center of the mouth, leaving that singularly unattractive line around the outside. To make matters worse, the line around the outside is a bitch to get off. This does not make me happy. The whole point of getting this product was the longevity, and it fails in that respect in a spectacularly annoying way.
To sum up:
The pigmentation and the colors of these products were fabulous, as was the packaging, however in terms of moisturizing and longevity this product was very disappointing.
Rating: B-
Tags: balm, bright, disappointing, fall, girl about town, honey, lip stain, lips, lipstain, lovesick, moisturizing, my lips but better, orange, pink, plum, rendezvous, revlon just bitten kissable balm stain, summer, vampy, wearable orange
