50 Shades of Red ... part 2

All right, I’ll jump right in. If you don’t know what’s going on, read about my hunt for the most gorgeous red lip color in the first part of the series.

For this part, I’ve prepared all my Avon lipsticks and one Urban Decay, because I had space for one lipstick on the paper, so I added the brand I only had one thing from – duh! I'm becoming a space-saving genius ;-)=

 

Notice the difference in the swatches - compared to the ELF lipsticks I did last time, these let more color on the paper -> so the pigmentation is way better than in the ELF lipsticks. But if they let so much color on the paper, will something stay on the lips? Are you hanging on the edge of your seats? :-)=

As you can see, I have a lot of Avon lipsticks – all from different lines or whatever that is – some of them quite pricey, some of them super cheap. All they have in common, however, is the pigmentation. It doesn’t matter if you buy the Color Trend line or one of those Extra Lasting ones – they will all give you the color you want in one layer.

Sure, the cheapest ones have the formula a little thinner than the more expensive ones, but I find them more then good for the price. I have a suspicion that Rich Ruby is just diluted Fiery Red. Which reminds me – Avon has a gazillion red shades but they are all very similar. You won’t notice the difference between some of them at the first glance – that’s exactly what prevents me from buying a lipstick from their most expensive line (Luxe), because I’m afraid I’d buy a shade I already have but in a “better” packaging. Better being the operative word here, because I hate gold packaging – instead of looking more luxurious, it does quite the opposite, it looks cheap. But I’ve just discovered I can buy mini samples of them so more Avon is going to appear here for sure.

What I like about all those Avon lipsticks is their duration. Honestly, they all (even the Color Trend Line) survived my meal and drink – I had to reapply the cheapest ones on small areas of my lips, but none of them was completely gone as it happens with lipsticks which will appear in the next episode ;-)= So if you want a good lipstick for a good price (around 5 dollars), invest in one of those (btw the Extra Lasting ones are really worth it - that's Fiery Red in my swatches).

The last one I added for paper saving purposes is Urban Decay’s Gravity. I saved money for a long time before I could afford this one (it was some kind of special edition with pretty steel packaging). And I couldn’t be more disappointed. Not only does the lipstick smell like it just escaped from the chemical lab, it also doesn’t last as much as one would think such an expensive lipstick would. Sure, it’s creamy, application is smooth but I dare you to take a sip from your glass or mug or whatever you drink from. Poof ... gone! Gotta reapply it. I mean one frickin’ drink will make it almost disappear! And that sucks because it is very dark, so it looks weird if you have half of your lips naked while you are sprinting toward the nearest mirror. This was a huge turndown for me.