Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

Name: Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple Date Purchased: November 2013 Grade: A Notes: After my last post, which took me forever to write, I thought I'd clear my palate with a quick installment of my Lipstick Chronology, now approaching its end: this is the penultimate post! I started my blog in early 2014, so all the lipsticks I've bought since then have been faithfully chronicled in real time. I've left a few out of the chronology either because I gave them away before they could be reviewed, or because I'm about to give them away and don't want to swatch them excessively before I pass them on to someone else. When I've finished the chronology, I'll write up a final stock-taking post, cataloging all the lipsticks I own and deciding which ones to keep (I've already purged a few ). Candy Apple is an orange-red semi-sheer lipstick, scentless and flavorless. It's not a bright orange-red; rather, it has a darkened, toned-down quality, much like Topshop R...

Name: Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Streak Date Purchased: January 2014 Grade: B+ Notes: This "chronology" has gotten so woefully out of order that it doesn't even deserve the name, but the weather is finally above freezing and the sun is out and I'm drinking an iced coffee, and I'm going to review my springiest lipstick, damn it, even if that means skipping over ten others. It's my blog and I can ignore the flow of linear time if I want to. Streak is the only purchase I've ever made from Urban Decay; the brand just never grabbed my attention until it released its 22 new Revolution Lipsticks in the fall of 2013, and it hasn't grabbed my attention since. The reason, I think, has to do with the disconnect between UD's brand identity and its price point. If I'm going to pay $18 for a single eyeshadow or $22 for a lipstick, I want to buy into a slightly more refined aesthetic, you know? UD describes the Revolution Lipsticks as "creamy, ba...

Names: Wet n Wild MegaLast Lipsticks in Stoplight Red and Purty Persimmon Dates of Purchase: September and October 2013 Grades: A-, A- Notes: Wet n Wild's MegaLast lipsticks make me ask myself hard questions about my aesthetic threshold for makeup packaging. I'd like to believe that I'm the sort of person who cares more about the formula of a lipstick than the sleekness or uniqueness of its case. After all, we've all heard of lipsticks that look cool but perform badly (Kat von D's new Studded Kiss lipsticks come to mind). But what about the other extreme: a great lipstick in an ugly tube too short for the lipstick itself? In other words, which is preferable: pure form or pure function? And if you chose the latter, would you enjoy carrying this around all day? Be honest. Over a year after buying these lipsticks, I've come to accept that my tolerance for homely packaging is lower than I used to think. At first I was reluctant to confess this to myself, fearing tha...

Name: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Mysterious Red Date Purchased: November 2013 Grade: A Notes: How excited am I to write this post? So excited that I broke my (never very strict, let's be honest) Lipstick Chronology rule in order to review Mysterious Red out of order. It's the holiday season, after all: what better time to feature my staple red lipstick, the one I can trust to flatter me whenever I wear it? Mysterious Red was released as part of the NARS fall 2013 collection. Assuming that it was limited edition, I used it sparingly for an entire year, mourning the transience of earthly things every time I sharpened it. But on my birthday this November, while browsing the NARS display at Sephora, I noticed that Mysterious Red had been made permanent! It felt like an especially nice birthday present from NARS to me. Plus, now I can review it without apologizing for praising an unavailable lipstick. A year ago, I realized that I'd never found the perfect matte red lipstic...

Name: Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Sangria Date Purchased: August 2013 Grade: C+ Notes: In my experience, sangria is almost always a mistake. I can't stomach the taste unless I'm tipsy to begin with, which means that when I find myself drinking it, it's already too late to escape a hangover. The first time I tried sangria was at a tapas restaurant on Little Clarendon Street in Oxford. A guy spent the entire evening hitting on me in front of his girlfriend, presumably to make her jealous. I guess it worked, or didn't work, because they're still together nearly seven years later. Men are the worst. So is sangria, but you don't see anyone using the hashtag #notallsangria. Buying Milani Sangria, a bright matte plum, was only slightly less of a mistake than drinking its namesake. I'd already tried two other Color Statement lipsticks, Flamingo Pose and Sweet Nectar , and had found them both drying. But I wanted a dark matte lipstick for fall, and I reasoned ...