50 Shades of Red ... part 1

I stumbled over a huge amount of red lipsticks when I was reorganizing my bedroom. Which was bad. Really bad. It made me realize I was a hoarder. I hadn't known it. Because when you take a look at my make up supplies, you can see I am quite normal - a couple of lipsticks of various colors, couple of eye shadow palettes (all containing a different range of colors), a couple of eyeliners - all in different colors as well - just all you need to make practically any kind of look with a minimum of stuff. And this sense of normalcy remains until you open the Pandora's Box which is nicely hidden under the table. Then you realize I'm nuts. I'm drawn to the red things and the worst part is I don't throw them away until I've used up the whole product so it keeps adding up (I've read about the expiracy date on these things and how we should throw them away after two years ... yeah yeah I own a lipstick which I bought at high school and still wear it which doesn't beat my granny's one which was used only on special occasions as long as I remember - and I've never seen my granny being poisoned by it).

But believing everything bad is good for something, I decided to do a mini series talking about the red lip products I have, doing swatches and maybe helping you with a good purchase.

Holy Grail of Lip Products

 First of all, I'd like to talk about how I'm conducting this experiment. Even though I always rely on Lipcote which makes any lipstick last whole day (including eating and drinking - I don't recommend kissing because it tastes weird), I decided to be little objective here and didn't use this top layer. I only used Lip Lock by Elf as a base (only a thin layer because thick layer has disturbingly flaky effect). I applied the lipstick in the morning, then did my job in which I speak a lot and then, finally, ate lunch. No lipstick actually survived lunch but some of them didn't disappear entirely. I'll tell you when describing those actual lipsticks.

It is very dry but can buy you some time. It is very good for lining your lips - at least you don't need various colors of lip pencils. All you need is this one and your lipstick is without those areas where it bleeds into the foundation.

50 Shades of Red aka My Desperate Hunt to Find THE PERFECT RED

The very first set of lipsticks I'm going to try is ELF lipsticks from their three lines (from the cheapest to the most expensive ones).

By the way, every time I see the following paper with my kisses all over it, I recall the evening I was making it. I was sitting in my room, watching Empire Strikes Back and putting the lipsticks on a piece of paper. My mom walked into my room, saw Chewbacca and made a grimace (she never understood why I would choose The Star Wars over Love Actually). Then she saw me kissing the paper and silently walked away, never asking what was going on. Hey, your daughter isn't a complete freak! She is doing beauty science ;-D

 

More swatches:

At first, I'd like to talk about packaging, because that's my never-ending problem with Elf. It just frickin' breaks. The writing on the silver lipsticks disappeared (not really, I had it on my palm). The most expensive lipstick (Rich Red) has broken and falls out so that it is difficult to apply it (I was so happy to get this skinny one because you don't need a brush to apply it with). And all three Mineral Lipsticks came covered in some weird white flakes I dare not to try to identify.

Ok, since I'm comparing a lot of them, I will take it line by line, because all in one line have similar qualities. 

The first one I have is Matte Lip Color from the Studio Line and when it comes to price it's insanely expensive. It contains only 1,8 g of the product which is 2 g less than the others, and even though the pigmentation is awesome, the cheapest shade Fearless (which is very similar, just a little lighter), wins. It stays on for a quite long time (some color survived greasy food and drinks). It isn't drying nor moisturizing so that's a nice compromise.

The next line is Essentials and as I've already mentioned, Fearless is very similar to Rich Red but has the glossiest finish of them all. These lipsticks smell funny and are very dry. The pigmentation isn't the best (you can see how very little winded up on the paper - that's WITHOUT blotting them first) but they stay on for a fairly good amount of time. I think they are good for experimenting if you don't want to spend too much on it. You may be surprised why I included Voodoo in here as a red one since it looks brown but somehow when I apply it on my lips it looks as a red with a hint of brown (and isn't nearly as brown as Royal Red). Posh looks also very berry-ish but again, it's a red with a hint of berry when applied on the lips. These lipsticks survived food as well.

The last trio is the Minerals. Apart from arriving in a weird condition which made me disinfect them, they are the buttery ones - they moisturize your lips. They go on smoothly and don't last nearly as much as the ones above them. Royal red is almost brown, Barely Bitten is the one if you don't want loud colors (hint of pink in it) and Cheerful Cherry is also on the brown side. They have golden shimmer to them which makes them quite warm. These never survive my snack.

To sum this somehow up, I don't like the color payoff of the Essentials, however, since they are dry, they tend to stay on for a long time. The Minerals are warm smooth colors which don't last. And the Studio lipstick is a pretty matte which lasts but isn't worth the money.

Stay tuned for the next episode of this series ;-)=