Lip Love

As 'tis the holiday of formulaic declarations of affection... my favourite lip formulas, as requested by various folks over the past few weeks.

Lipsticks: Love At First Slick

I narrowed it down to eight (barely) all of which I can wear without balm underneath, and all of which make my very dry, lined, picky lips both look and feel smoother, plumper -- just prettier. 

From sheerest to most opaque (scent/finish):

Sonia Rykiel Sublime Rouge -- rose-scented / jelly (discontinued) swatches here and here

Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge -- scent-free / cream-jelly (crelly) swatches

Guerlain Rouge Automatique -- candied violet / crelly

Suqqu Blend -- scent-free / glossy cream (discontinued)

Revlon Super Lustrous -- scent-free / cream

Burberry Lip Cover -- rose / cream

Suqqu Creamy Glow -- scent-free / cream swatches

By Terry Rouge Terrybly -- rose / satin

I love them all. 

So I chose one particularly favoured shade from each formula. And did this. For reasons.

Lavshuca RD-1, Sonia Rykiel 24, Burberry Bright Plum
Suqqu Blend Maizakura and Creamy Glow Karakurenai
By Terry Hot Cranberry, Revlon Fire&Ice, Guerlain Liu

Common to my favourite formulas: a creamy or balmy feel with good slip, and moisturising properties. There are plenty of formulas out there which have good slip (e.g. Chanel Rouge Coco Shine, Dior Addict, MAC Cremesheen) but which make my lips crack and peel off in sheets and conversely, there are some mattes which are very comfortable for me to wear (e.g. Lancôme Colour Design Matte, Addiction, Guerlain L'Extrait), but my favourites combine both.

On the other hand, lasting power / wear time is something I barely even consider when it comes to lip products. From my favourites, By Terry Rouge Terrybly is an excellent longwearing formula, and Revlon Super Lustrous, Suqqu Creamy Glow, Burberry Lip Cover and Guerlain Rouge Automatique are also reasonably tenacious on me -- but this is really just a nice 'extra'; as an inveterate snacker and sipper, my expectations in this regard are pretty modest. As long as something fades evenly (no dreaded outer lip tidemark or inner sharpie-sucker mouth), I actually quite enjoy seeing/wearing the different colour nuances a single lip shade can display as you build it up and later, as it wears down. I would much rather reapply a nice balmy jelly lipstick every hour than have a film-forming, long-wearing formula whose colour stays bulletproof, albeit in a increasingly hideous (and balm-repelling!) texture as the day goes on.... (e.g. Rouge D'Armani, Lancôme Rouge In Love, almost every lip stain ever)

Opposites Attract 

....so why do I love YSL Glossy Stains with a frankly idolatrous love? I am not a stain girl; I am not a gloss girl; I am definitely not an alcohol-in-my-products girl (down my gullet is another matter entirely). I just do. A LOT.
Idiotically, my "best of the year" round-up missed these out twice -- in 2011 because I had just tried my first one in December and was all honeymoony and didn't want to jump the gun and in 2012 because they were technically a 2011 discovery/release. Let the wardrobe testify to my love:

7 is not swatched because it was the 'out' replaced by 27 -- even so, I own more of these than of any other lip product

As well as requiring no touch-ups through a full day and many a drink, snack and hearty meal, I adore the shade range in this line and their glorious lacquered finishes. I am odd and also enjoy the boozy rose scent. They also mix beautifully to create new shades -- more of this in a future post. While they don't dry my lips out over the day (I think due to the no-reapplication-needed thing), a few consecutive days' wear will start to show on my lips with deepening liplines and dryness.

Tender Loving Care

I hope this post has established that people's preferences in formulas vary and very often make no sense, because skincare/makeup hybrids are particularly tricky, and this final section should be hedged by big flashing Your Mileage May Vary lights.

But for me, these are the tinted treatments I reach for when my lips are actually chapped, peeling, bleeding or otherwise leprous, but I feel the need for a bit of warpaint for psychological blanky reasons and not-scaring-the-small-children, if nothing else.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments have been a standby for a decade now -- I've tried every other cheaper substitute on the market and always come crawling back. All three shades I own add a little warmth to correct my naturally corpse-mauve lip tone, and tint them: a clear reddish pink (Rosé), a deeper rose (Berry), and a peachy-pink nude (Honey). They taste like lemon sugar crêpes.
Bite Lush Lip Tints are a relatively new discovery, from a Canadian brand I've become very fond of. Somewhat less moisturising than the Fresh Sugar balms, they pack much more pigment -- more sheer lipstick than tinted balm -- and hug the lips more closely (with less slip). Lightly fruit scented, Cherry is a coral red and Raspberry a rose red, both clear and bright.
RMS Lip Shine in Sublime was the cool, clear shade I was waiting for to try this formula [thanks for the tip, Grace!] and it is a moisturising and subtly lip-plumping gloss without stickiness. The pink, while cool, is a pop-bright, spring-in-your-ponytail kind of cool, which in its own way achieves the enlivening  / de-corpsifying thing I like. Smells/tastes of its ingredients, vaguely waxy.

Ford Farewell II: Tom Ford Narcissist Blush

Following on from Part I, another beautiful shade from Tom Ford which failed to win my texturally persnickity heart: Narcissist blush.

sunlight

Narcissist is a highly pigmented cool-toned hot pink (oh, you know what I mean), with a tightly-packed texture and smooth frost finish. The softness and high fine shimmer content means that it's very easy to overload a brush -- even with the lightest tap of a fluffy brush, a lot of frantic dabbing into clean tissue might be needed before application to cheek -- and also that even the softest squirrel brushes tend to kick up quite a bit of powder...enough that I would end up with shimmery pink elbows after resting my arm on my vanity to finish an eyeliner flick.

Swatch, applied with Suqqu Cheek brush (left) and sponge applicator (right)

as always, bare arm / natural light

As mentioned in a previous review, my skin tends to show textures and colours true, and shimmer is usually highly unforgiving on the especially dry, thin skin on my cheeks. In the swatch above, you can see the dry 'skipping' at the edge of the heavy swatch and every pore highlighted in the sheer one, even on my relatively smooth inner arm.

As further illustration, here's Narcissist swatched between Sleek Pink Ice (left, from the Pink Sprint trio) and Suqqu EX-02 Mizumomo (right, deeper pan only).

All three blushes were applied very lightly and blended out with an Illamasqua Highlighter Brush (ahem, holy grail cream blush brush, two backups are totally reasonable, shush). Sleek Pink Ice (£10 for trio) is a matte, and despite its unprepossessingly dry texture, it like all Sleek blushes is so pigmented that a tiny dab deposits even pigment without worsening the appearance of my skin, if not improving it. Suqqu Mizumomo (£38 for duo, LE), despite being a satin (with almost as much sheen in the pan as Narcissist) actively blurs and flatters any bumpy skin, even when swatched along the tricky veiny/bony bit of my wrist. Narcissist, much like the equally popular Chanel Notorious, makes visible a bazillionty bumps I didn't even know were there. Lurking.

On my cheeks, in real life....it aint pretty. Even my blush-eating camera can pick up on the bumpiness, translating it as blotchiness (and I swear I blended properly), which makes Narcissist exactly the kind of cool pink rash I get from a mild rosacea flare, for free.

Tom Ford Cognac Sable quad, Wet'n'Wild Cherry Bomb lipstick

Yeah, it's out.
But neatly, it's yet another colour family I'm fairly well equipped to comp-swatch ;)

Sleek Pink Ice (from Pink Sprint trio) -- the most pigmented, and coolest of the bunch
Suqqu EX-02 Mizumomo (right pan only) -- cooler than TF, without its warmer shimmer
Tom Ford Narcissist
Becca Lychee Beach Tint -- more candied, lighter
Addiction Amazing Cheek Stick -- tonally closest to Suqqu, but it's a totally different texture, yeah? And doubles as a matte lipstick *hoards*



Tom Ford blushes retail for £45 each.

Ford Farewell I: Tom Ford True Coral lipstick

Among my presents under the tree last Christmas was this selection of bits from Tom Ford, courtesy of a friend who'd noticed the absence of this brand in my stash the last time she'd come round to play Makeovers(!one!!eleventy!)

Tom Ford Cognac Sable quad, Narcissist blush and True Coral lipstick

And *spoiler alert* they pretty much confirmed my feelings of "meh" towards this line. Since my earlier forays into and farewells to Tom Ford makeup (three other quads, a blush and two lipsticks) predate this whole blogging thing, I thought I'd review these new "outs" as they go. First up: Lip Colour in True Coral.

bit washed out here -- it's really as bright as in the first picture, above

I wasn't a fan of the original Tom Ford lipstick formula, but the new line (of which this is a core shade) sacrificed a little pigment for a much smoother texture, which seemed promising. Sadly, the MAC-like vanilla scent remains. Pigmentation is still on the good side -- not quite full-coverage, but definitely above average -- and the finish is that kind of close-to-lips satin which means good wear-time and even fading.

Unfortunately, being freakishly dry-lipped, long-wearing formulas tend to sink into and highlight every single one of my vertical lip lines. And this is no exception. Freshly applied over lips in tip-top condition (no flakes or chapped areas, freshly exfoliated and prepped with lip balm), True Coral just about passes muster:

However, the desiccation process begins immediately and is visible a bare five minutes later, even at a more normal distance -- check out those crevasses:

Shiseido Jungle trio, Illamasqua Rude cream blush

Looks aside, this lipstick also makes my lips feel dry and after a day's wear, even with regular top-ups of lipbalm, leaves them in slightly worse condition. I seem to be alone (or in a tiny minority) in the blogosphere in experiencing this drying effect, but makeup can just be tricksy like that. Ingredients list for the curious:

The one aspect of True Coral I love unreservedly is, of course, the colour; my Santa knows me well. This also means that parting with it was not such sweet sorrow, as I had these to keep me company....

Guerlain Rouge G L'Extrait Colère (review/swatch -- note how this matte is more flattering on my lip texture than Tom Ford's satin)
Revlon Strawberry Suede (discontinued)
Lancôme Colour Design Matte Corset
Tom Ford True Coral
Chanel Rouge Allure Génial (discontinued -- see how pink it looks against the others here)
Hourglass Femme Rouge Muse


Tom Ford Lipsticks retail for £36 each in the UK.