I may not have blogged throughout March, but at least I was working towards a blog post every day with just a dash of lipstick. At the end of February I came up with a little beauty challenge – to wear a different lipstick every day for a month. Why did I do this? I have absolutely no clue, but it was a good reminder of why I really shouldn’t buy anymore lipsticks. Of course I decided to do it on a long month, so here ya go – here are 31 pictures of me wearing 31 different lipsticks. I’ve commented individually on some of the lipsticks – not all, because I honestly didn’t feel there was much to be said about some of them – but you’ll find my main thoughts at the very end…
Clockwise from top left:
- Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint in Uncuffed
- YSL Beauty Rouge Pur Couture The Slim Lipstick in Rosewood Oddity. There’s a teeny-weeny chance that I may have mixed up pictures 2, 3 and 4 and gotten the names wrong (I know, so disorganised) but I’m 99% sure this is YSL. However, I have to point out that it came out ridiculously light in the picture if it is; it’s got a much deeper, purply pink undertone.
- Mac Cosmetics Matte Lipstick in Mehr + Mac Cosmetics Lip Pencil Lipliner in Soar
- Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Walk of Shame
- Kylie Jenner Matte Liquid Lipstick in Kristen. This lipstick used to be one of my favourites, but now that I’ve tried so many liquid lipsticks I can confirm the formula of this one is very average. It’s now very dried up too, so it’s probably time to bin it.
- Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Catsuit Matte Lipstick in Give Me Mocha. It’s a bit tricky to put on as it’s not very pigmented, so it’s tempting to ‘layer up’ – and that can look a bit off. But overall, this has been a good little rediscovery as I love the dusty rose shade.
- Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Calabasas
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick in Kathryn
- Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Lips Liquid Lipstick in Dangerous Liaison (talked about here)
Clockwise from top left:
- NARS Air Matte Lip Colour in Pin Up
- Charlotte Tilbury Lipstick in Pillow Talk Medium + Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat Lipliner in Pillow Talk Medium. I’ve had massive FOMO over the past years about missing out on the Pillow Talk fever. However, I never thought it would suit me as it just looked too light – so when the medium version of it came out I jumped on the bandwagon faster than you can say pillow talk. And now I can honestly say I don’t get the hype – I find the coverage and pigmentation pretty average, and overall I just find it to be such a boring lipstick.
- Huda Beauty Matte Liquid Lipstick in Bombshell + with an unknown Charlotte Tilbury lipliner (name has been completely rubbed off but I suspect it may be Bond Girl)
- Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Lips Liquid Lipstick in Show Girl
- Nude by Nature Satin Liquid Lipstick in Orchid (talked about here)
- Tarte Cosmetics Tarteist™ Quick Dry Matte Lip Paint in Bling (talked about here)
- Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Number 84
- Lime Crime Velvetines Liquid Matte Lipstick in Sasha
- Pixi by Petra MatteLast Liquid Lip in Berry Beauty
Clockwise from top left:
- Huda Beauty Liquid Matte Lipstick in Icon. An all-time favourite (I’ve repurchased it at least 4 times – talked about here).
- Kevyn Aucoin The Molten Lip Color in Kate
- Mac Cosmetics Versicolour Varnish Cream Lip Stain in Serial Stain
- Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick in Pirate (99). This is a beautiful pinky red shade. In the bullet it looks like a pretty deep red, but on me personally the pink tones really come through. I wonder if it’s the fact that I was wearing lip balm (as I always do and have for 99% of these pictures) that stopped the formula from being really pigmented. Either way I don’t mind as I love the effect – and I do find it quite drying so not wearing a balm is not an option.
- Huda Beauty Matte Liquid Lipstick in Cheerleader
- Fenty Beauty Mattemoiselle Plush Matte Lipstick in Ma’damn. For some reason I find it hard to apply, but it’s so beautiful!
- Pat McGrath Labs BlitzTrance™ Lipstick in Flesh 3 (138). In all honesty I don’t think I have the confidence to pull off this metallic lipstick – and I think it would look better on a darker skin tone. I might try mixing it with a red, but it’s still a beautiful lipstick.
- Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Liquid Matte in Quiet Riot (304). Another amazing lipstick that I forgot I had! This is such a beautiful shade of Carmine red – I’m disappointed my phone didn’t capture it in all its glory. You have to be careful when applying it as it smudges if you layer it in the slightest.
- Pat McGrath MatteTrance™ Lipstick in Vendetta (208). This ‘perfect red’ lipstick gets on your teeth if you get a bit happy-go-lucky with the application – but it’s DIVINE.
Clockwise from top left:
28. Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint in Uncensored. I’ve had this for a few years and consider it one of my perfect reds.
29. Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Number 17. I’ve used this red so much that the name has rubbed off – it’s one of my all-time favourite lipsticks, despite the fact that it’s a pretty dry formula.
30. Buxom Cosmetics Full Force™ Plumping Lipstick in Winner (talked about here)
31. Mac Cosmetics x Rosalía VIVA GLAM in VG26
So there you have it, an insight into my lipstick collection with a few lipliners thrown in. Let’s recollect some thoughts:
- I’m going to give myself a little pat on the back because as someone who doesn’t like selfies, no makeup selfies and, especially, up-close pictures of their skin, this was very much out of my comfort zone. I know this has not been done in a particularly artsy way, but I hope you don’t find it too terrible as my resources were pretty limited (a currently broken camera and no one to help out to try for something a little more curated or editorial).
- I’m ashamed to say that this isn’t even half of my collection, so this post might get a sequel.
- The main thing I’m disappointed about is the fact that overall I don’t feel like my phone camera captured the ‘true essence’ of a lot of these lipsticks. But, I have a point of not retouching any of these pictures, so they’re not completely inaccurate either.
- I’m also surprised at how some of these lipsticks that I considered my favourites (Tarte, Dangerous Liaison) just don’t seem to look that good on me in these pictures and have a purple tone – something I hate in a lipstick.
- No one needs this amount of lipstick. Well, maybe performers. Maybe makeup artists. BUT NO ONE ELSE. 30 is too much, but 10 is too little. Maybe 20 is the perfect number for a lipstick aficionado like me. Or 25.
- I definitely have a love-hate relationship with Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks – ironic considering I have about six of them. The three bullet lipsticks I have – Bond Girl (not seen here, soz), Walk of Shame and Pillow Talk Medium – just don’t have the level of payoff and pigmentation I would expect from a higher-end brand. Maybe I just prefer a liquid formula when I go for lighter shades, but I do have other light bullet lipsticks that have plenty of pigmentation. Overall though, I wouldn’t say they’re bad lipsticks – the shades are perfectly nice and I can see why people like them. What I do adore are the brand’s three liquid lipsticks (Show Girl, Screen Siren and Dangerous Liaison).
- My absolute favourite brands for lipstick are Sephora (even though it is VERY drying), Fenty Beauty and Huda Beauty – although Pat McGrath’s red lipstick absolutely blew me away.
- Despite having an extensive collection of rosey pinks and non-red shades, I still feel like my search for the perfect nude isn’t quite over.
- On the other hand, I think I’ve got my favourite reds down to a tee.
I reiterate what I said about this being too many lipsticks – there were days when I definitely wanted to lipstick-repeat and hated having to wait to do so. But at the same time, I love my collection, and narrowing it down will be hard. The good thing is, having so many lipsticks means I can squeeze a few more posts out of them… Hence why more lipstick roundups are on the way!
xxx