Silk Naturals Lip Balm, Stain and Gloss

From vampin' to whinin':

I think these are the first all-out negative reviews I've written -- not because of any bloggy principles but simply because I don't usually buy new formulas until I've done extensive (and geekily enjoyable) research, slurped the brains of like-minded beauty lovers or my known makeup-nemeses opposites! etc. and am pretty sure it will be to my taste.

This time, lured in by Silk Naturals' lowlowprices and my own batty 'well, I'm paying shipping for skincare anyway' and 'ooh, they have proper swatches on-site! How progressive' logic, I decided that maybe Research Was Overrated....

Joy Kissable Lip Cream // Doll Lip Stain // Smooth&Full Black Label Lip Treatment // Raspberry Gingerale Organic Lip Balm

Let's start with the best of a bad bunch: Joy Kissable Lip Cream ($4.99) is marketed as a stick gloss but is more of a tinted jelly-cream finish balm; and I purchased it in hopes of finding a cheaper replacement for my beloved Fresh Sugar tinted balms. This shade is described as coral on the site; in the tube it looks like a soft pinky-peach, but its sheerness means that two good layers still gives a decidedly pink look on my very cool-toned lips:

It's a very pretty shade, but the formula is simply awful on me: there is both too much slip, resulting in a messy, uneven application (that continues to migrate at will all around your face throughout the day for that....er, organically not-trying-too-hard look?) and no actual moisturisation -- it makes my lip lines and chapped bits look worse than many lipsticks would. [Yes, I tried it with a lipbrush, still went patchy. And I don't want to be using a lipbrush with a sheer tinted balm anyway.]
Also, personal bugbear: the scent is pure sickly vanilla coconutty cocoa horror. And it lingers.

The Black Label Smooth&Full Lip Treatment ($5.95) shares the same slim black twist-up tube packaging and coconut cookie stench scent/taste as the Kissable Cream, and is only marginally more moisturising. As a daytime balm, it lacks SPF and the taste makes me want to heave. Used overnight (waiting until I about to fall asleep to smoosh some on to sidestep the gag-reflex), it would leave me with entirely dried-out, beginning-to-peel lips by morning.

[Petty sidenote because I am mean when my lips are chapped: shoddy packaging. These paper-covered black plastic applicators do not retract, and considering how slippy these formulas are, they get messy very quickly. The product picture above was taken one day after they arrived. I carried Joy around in my makeup bag as I do with all my lip-products-of-the-day and left the Smooth&Full balm in my bedside drawer; they still managed to look bedraggled in the process.]


The other balm in my haul, Organic Lipbalm in Raspberry Gingerale flavour ($3.75, but mine came as a GWP) is neck-and-neck with the pricier Black Label one -- it tastes comparatively delicious (sweet-but-not-sickly fizzy berries) BUT is also less moisturising, failing even as a daytime top-up balm for me. A mere five minutes after application, it is gone without leaving even a whisper of plumped-lipness -- I managed to get through a good 1/3 of the tube over a single week of testing, and the condition of my lips improved not one whit.
I'm afraid the main points in its favour are: pretty and retractable twist-up packaging, inoffensive scent, freebie!!eleventyone [I LOVE freebies. Can't help. Is Asian.]


Finally, Doll Lip Stain (3.5ml for $4.50), which looked like a potential replacement for my Beauté Harlot stain (love the shade, tastes like soap, doesn't go on my dry lips quite as evenly as I'd like....)

note how close this white-paper swatch is to the one on Silk Naturals' site :)

Well, I love this shade and it doesn't taste like soap..... Unfortunately it took me three layers, about 10 minutes and a lot of swearing at the doefoot to get....this:

freshly applied, three layers, damned if I was going to spend more time at this game

Then, after letting it set for a whole hour unmolested, I sipped daintily at one measly glass of water before retouching with the Raspberry Gingerale balm. Leaving me with this:

-_______-

Optimistic ray of sunshine that I am, I figured this would at least be easier to remove than the Beauté stain, which usually gives an overeager 48 hours of wear, unasked. But after two rounds  of my usual remove-everything Fancl Mild Cleansing Oil, I was left with THIS. Indelibly. For the next forty-eight hours (so yay, cheap Beauté dupe?)

I don't think this particular spin on the ombre lips trend is going to take off.....

So, research? Soooo not overrated.

Vamp and Vagaries

If you know me from makeupalley or skim through my pinboards, you'll probably know I've been on the prowl for The Perfect Vamp for a good while. An appetite sharpened in summer by images like these, setting the balanced vampy lips off against yellow-based neutrals:

After swatching every vaguely close shade from ArtDeco to Za, and a few disastrous attempts at frankening-my-own [I have whatever the opposite of an artistic temperament is -- my usual attempts at mixing lipsticks results in vampy sludge; the minute I try to get vampy sludge? NADA.] Anyway, blah blah, flung self on mercy of birthday gods, added Addiction Vamp to my order, praying that it would do what it said on the tin.

It did.

with flash

Vamp features the perfect balance of plum/brown/red/black tones, as smoothly saturated yet glowingly matte as all of Addiction's C (colour) lipsticks, does not budge once on (lasts through drinks/snacks, fades evenly to a stain after a hearty meal) and while being as weightless as a stain, doesn't dry my extremely picky lips out. Texture and performance aside, The finish is appropriately vampy, pitched between an uncouth flat matte and a too-lush cushy velvet.

This was two layers, applied with a Hakuhodo Misako Portable lipbrush.

On the eyes, brainless smokey with THREE Eye Rock pencil blended up from lashline with Shiseido Caviar cream eyeshadow on waterline. Tiny bit of warmth from Burberry Earthy in socket. Lancome Hypnose Drama WP mascara.

Apologies for terrible lighting. The shimmer is more complex and apparent IRL.

Now I was uncharacteristically hesitant about the next bit of this post, but in the spirit of publish&bedamned or, like, spontaneity or sprezzatura or summat: conniptions resulting from attempt to dress this look. (Close window now if you don't want to see ridiculous amount of poses and clotheses.)


I wanted something summery and retro-ish and girly/über-femme to play off against the stark makeup; the exact something was trickier. (Fortunately, to offset my hilariously inartistic eye, I have the uncanny ability to perform a full costume change in under ten seconds while leaving makeup prisitine and hair no more dishevelled than is its nature -- the face pics above were taken after all this.)

1. and 2.

The blue/red thing is a hangover from the day before, when I wore blue/red makeup and black clothes. My mind likes to be lazy. The second is better than the first, but both were too femme-formal and not girly enough.

left: Kitterick shirt // Reiss skirt // vintage belt // Clarks shoes
right: EQ:IQ top // Whistles skirt // vintage belt // Pedder Red shoes

3. and 4.

I liked how the deep red skirt [which has pockets, as all skirts should] brought out the red in the lips, so gave it a few more retro spins, with cropped tops in a lighter blue this time, and pink:

left: Topshop bralet // Whistles skirt // Pedder Red shoes
right: diy cropped cardi // Whistles skirt // Pedder Red shoes

5. and 6.

Then I thought maybe going with the sombre lips was not quite the thing and a more summery twist of corally/watermelony red would be kickier:

left: COS cardigan // Topshop bralet // Jill Stuart skirt // Pedder Red shoes
right: Uniqlo tank // Topshop bralet // Jill Stuart skirt // Clarks shoes // derpiest face yet

7. and 8. 

Around this time I started feeling like a parody of myself and grasped frantically at the opposite of blue&red -- yellow&green. Nah, it didn't make sense at the time either.

left: diy cropped cardi // Pageboy skirt // Repetto sandals // me realising it makes no sense
right: COS shirt // as know as de base trousers // Repetto sandals // shameface

9. The I Am Going To Be Late Now Aren't I Resolution

Schoolgirlish silhouette. Play on tones and textures, so in effect matchy-matchy with the makeup. Again.

COS shirt // Jill Stuart skirt // Pedder Red shoes

Black...and white. I'm a veritable fashion TRAILBLAZER so I am.