I have a love/hate relationship with lip colors. I love them because, well, who doesn’t love a great lipstick? But I hate them because I can’t ever decide on just one. I’ll look at a full range of shades and pick my favorite, but then I’ll have to have the four shades that are closest to that one as well, just in case.
If you’re a red lip girl, you can usually find the one perfectly toned shade for you in any collection, the red, your red. If you’re Kourtney Kardashian, it’s the orange-toned Le Orange by YSL. If you’re Queen of Pop Taylor Swift, it’s the blue-toned Dragon Girl by NARS.
But if you’re ME, you’re incapable of making your mind up about anything and end up panic-buying half of a collection just to make sure you have the perfect shade to match any outfit, attitude, or iPhone case. I love a dark lip, but I also love a good mauvey-nude. Both of those shades, for me, can be hard to settle on the perfect one. So I don’t settle! I end up buying every shade that I want or may want in the future. I’ll have Sephora looking like a Fat Joe video, dollars falling from the ceiling and Moet spraying everywhere.
Next thing you know, I’m out $250 for like, five lipsticks that I’m never going to wear. So maybe don’t do that. Check out Colour Pop instead.
I found out about Colour Pop the same way I find out about all of my favorite beauty products: Trolling Instagram while in line for my morning coffee/verbal assault from these two chicks who work at the coffee shop I go to. They perpetually exist in this state of OVER ME and I really can't blame them. After a nice caffeine buzz and a little research, I knew that Colour Pop had to be my next conquest.
Colour Pop has a gigantic range of lipsticks with matching lip liners in every shade, and eye shadows, all for just $5 a piece.
I am very about their color collection. They’ve got every color you’ve been dying to fuck with, from reds, pinks, purples, and even greens, blues, blacks. It’s all here! What it means for you is that all my college girls on a beauty budget, my boys with black lips, Instagram models always wearing crimson lipstick, and those Tumblr famous teens with pigtails and turquoise lips, we’ve all got a place to cop our favorite and most coveted lip colors without having to miss a meal to do so.
What this means for me is that I’ll never again find myself wobbling out of Nordstrom, emerging from a shopping black-out with a bag full of Tom Ford lipsticks and no memory of buying them.
This is the point when you ask about the quality and the stay power. I got about six hours of wear out of these colors with only minor touch ups here and there because I’m a little obsessive about that. If I’m gonna wear a lip color, it’s going to be perfect. The finishes include glossy, satin, and matte, and they all barely budged. None were drying, either, as some satin and matte lip colors tend to be.
I lined each color with its matching liner of the same name. Wanna see the colors I tried out? Yea you do.
Scandy is my favorite kind of pink, blue-toned hot pink, with a satin finish. The satin, almost matte finish, paired with the highly pigmented color is absolutely insane. This color grabs onto light and doesn't let it go, so it essentially glows off of your lips. This isn’t my favorite color, specifically, from the collection, but I think it’s my favorite overall of the ones I tried. It's that good.
A close relative to Scandy, with a little bit more of an orange tone that makes for a more watermelon, flamingo pink. A rich, warm hot pink with a satin finish. I love the juicy color.
Easy is a fleshy pink with a glossy finish, making it a bit more sheer than the others, allowing for buildable color. This color looked very natural on my lips, a nice flush of pink color without being a total moment. It’s a great addition to your beauty look without being the main focus.
Chi Chi is popsicle bright orange with a matte finish. I was surprised how much I liked this color on my skin, although it’s probably not the most flattering color against my complexion, I like, don’t care. It’s not a orange-toned red, it’s orange, and it’s great. I’d call it a great alternative to that RED LIP, CLASSIC, THING THAT YOU LIIIIIKE while still being really flattering. Who knew?
Color-wise, Leather takes the cake as my favorite. Colour Pop describes the color as a deep blackened violet with a matte finish, whereas I would call it more of a greyed out royal purple. I say this because as blackened violets and purples go, Train Bleu by NARS (my fave) and both Cyber and Smoked Purple by MAC are a lot more blackened. Colour Pop’s newer offering, Feminist, is a true blackened purple, and I’m coming out of my skin to try it.
Semantics aside, this color is gorgeous, luxurious, feels amazing on the lips, and wears well without drying. Leather is one of my new favorite dark lip colors, and it’s perfect for me, because I’m a leather daddy.
Bludgeon me to death with Brills. Do you know how hard it is to find a true lavender lip color? I do! After having some sort of iteration of lavender hair for the last year, I’m always on the lookout for lavender beauty products to match my hair, so I can be even more of an eyesore. Brills goes there. It’s a cool toned lavender with a satin finish that reaches opacity with only a few swipes.
Colour Pop also makes a sick collection of eye shadows, that, if you’re an eye shadow girl, you need to try out.
Beauty icon Tamara went into more details on those over on Vain a minute ago, so go check that out.
I’m so excited to see the new colors and products that Colour Pop has coming our way in the future, and I’m excited to try more of their products because I (probably) won’t go broke doing it!
Remember last week when everyone fell in love with that bright pink lip that Kristen Stewart was wearing last week? It was Trixie, by Colour Pop!
Have you tried Colour Pop? What is your favorite lip color right now? What are you wearing on your lips this very second? Tell me and show me pictures down in the comments. I want to know!
Tynan is playing with lipstick on Twitter @TynanBuck.