Fall Colours
Fall is not only a great time to wear stronger, warmer fragrances - it is a great time to crack out the richer colours as well!
A good lipstick is hard to find, and in this post I'd like to talk about a few ways we can choose better lipstick. Several things come into consideration when selecting lip colour, such as packaging, price points, quality, and of course colour. Colour is a subjective thing, but since I'm mostly talking about richer shades right now, I'll try and make this more of a guide to finding a lipstick that is conducive to darker shades.
Because dark colours come into starker contrast with our skin, they require more precision when applying them. For this reason, (and for tip #1,) texture matters. Some of the cheaper, drugstore brand lipsticks out there are very dewy and overly creamy. This is a problem with darker shades because when your lipstick glides over the lip too easily, you have less control over the line of the lip's edge. Creamier lipsticks aren't necessarily more moisturising either, and they wear off quickly, sometimes even feather. A lot of people will tell you that it helps to use a liner with it, but in my experience, it still feathers, plus you're spending more money on an extra product to make it work, and it takes more fussing. Blotting helps, but then you're wasting a lot of lipstick over the life of the tube, not to mention it's darned inconvenient. A thicker formula gives you more control because it offers more friction between the colour and the lips.
That being said, yes, drugstore brands do often suck. They're cheap, but are they worth it? There are quite a few price points for lip colour. Drugstore brands are no longer 7 or 8 dollars like they were a few years ago, they're about 11, and with tax, it adds up to approximately 13. Intermediate lipsticks, such as Clinique or Lise Watier are priced between 19 and 22, coming to about 22-25 dollars. Dior rings in at about 30-ish, and Chanel at 40, 45 with tax. Tom Ford is even higher at about 50. Steep, I know, but we don't need to go near that high, in truth.
With different price points comes differences in packaging. How much does it matter? Well, a bit, actually. The cheap drugstore brands often are sealed with stickers, and they can make an unseemly mess when you open them. Case in point, Marcell:
Hideous, is it not? Not that you have to make a fashion statement every time you take a tube of lipstick out of your purse, but that's still a little embarrassing. And furry. Not to mention the plastic casing, which is very brittle and thin. We've all dropped our lipstick at least a few times, and when these crack, the caps just won't click on again. That, coupled with the troublesome texture, means that these drugstore lippies do not get my vote. Having bought this not long ago, I feel like I just wasted thirteen bucks that could have gone to a more usable lipstick.
The sticky packaging featured above also reminds me of one tip worth mentioning: Good lipsticks come in boxes. Exhibit A:
In the high-end lines, the packaging truly is a fashion statement. It's beautiful. The plastic is good quality, likely some form of heavy-duty ABS plastic. It's sleek, smooth, shiny, and well-designed.
Chanel spent a lot of time on the click of their cases, one of them a press-and-pop, the other just a really nice slightly resistant press and good solid click into place. The drugstore lipsticks sometimes feel like they're just barely hanging on, so flimsy is the click design. High end packaging is certainly a luxury though, and I do have a couple of Chanel lipsticks in my makeup collection, but they really aren't necessary. Sure, sometimes you splurge on the odd thing and save on other things, but this still isn't a justifiable splurge most of the time. Packaging-wise, it's nice that they put that sort of attention to detail into something so small when it costs so much, but the packaging on the mid-priced lipsticks are quite excellent too, making them the better choice. Let's have a look.
Clinique and Lise Watier are great examples of lovely mid-priced lipsticks. The casing for both is metal, not plastic, which makes them look both classy and indestructible. The formulas are thicker and wear longer, so you use less and it co-operates with you during the application of darker colours. The formulas offer additional benefits in the case of Clinique, which unlike the drugstore brands and even Chanel, feature beautiful ingredients such as shea butter and beeswax. The click is a lot more secure on the Clinique than the Watier, and I prefer the texture, but these are both excellent choices.
I hope this helps to sort out the confusing selection of lipsticks out there! Go on, be daring and try some darker shades! It's a great time of year to add a splash of colour!
Have a great day, and thanks for reading!
A.
A good lipstick is hard to find, and in this post I'd like to talk about a few ways we can choose better lipstick. Several things come into consideration when selecting lip colour, such as packaging, price points, quality, and of course colour. Colour is a subjective thing, but since I'm mostly talking about richer shades right now, I'll try and make this more of a guide to finding a lipstick that is conducive to darker shades.
Because dark colours come into starker contrast with our skin, they require more precision when applying them. For this reason, (and for tip #1,) texture matters. Some of the cheaper, drugstore brand lipsticks out there are very dewy and overly creamy. This is a problem with darker shades because when your lipstick glides over the lip too easily, you have less control over the line of the lip's edge. Creamier lipsticks aren't necessarily more moisturising either, and they wear off quickly, sometimes even feather. A lot of people will tell you that it helps to use a liner with it, but in my experience, it still feathers, plus you're spending more money on an extra product to make it work, and it takes more fussing. Blotting helps, but then you're wasting a lot of lipstick over the life of the tube, not to mention it's darned inconvenient. A thicker formula gives you more control because it offers more friction between the colour and the lips.
That being said, yes, drugstore brands do often suck. They're cheap, but are they worth it? There are quite a few price points for lip colour. Drugstore brands are no longer 7 or 8 dollars like they were a few years ago, they're about 11, and with tax, it adds up to approximately 13. Intermediate lipsticks, such as Clinique or Lise Watier are priced between 19 and 22, coming to about 22-25 dollars. Dior rings in at about 30-ish, and Chanel at 40, 45 with tax. Tom Ford is even higher at about 50. Steep, I know, but we don't need to go near that high, in truth.
With different price points comes differences in packaging. How much does it matter? Well, a bit, actually. The cheap drugstore brands often are sealed with stickers, and they can make an unseemly mess when you open them. Case in point, Marcell:
Hideous, is it not? Not that you have to make a fashion statement every time you take a tube of lipstick out of your purse, but that's still a little embarrassing. And furry. Not to mention the plastic casing, which is very brittle and thin. We've all dropped our lipstick at least a few times, and when these crack, the caps just won't click on again. That, coupled with the troublesome texture, means that these drugstore lippies do not get my vote. Having bought this not long ago, I feel like I just wasted thirteen bucks that could have gone to a more usable lipstick.
The sticky packaging featured above also reminds me of one tip worth mentioning: Good lipsticks come in boxes. Exhibit A:
In the high-end lines, the packaging truly is a fashion statement. It's beautiful. The plastic is good quality, likely some form of heavy-duty ABS plastic. It's sleek, smooth, shiny, and well-designed.
Chanel spent a lot of time on the click of their cases, one of them a press-and-pop, the other just a really nice slightly resistant press and good solid click into place. The drugstore lipsticks sometimes feel like they're just barely hanging on, so flimsy is the click design. High end packaging is certainly a luxury though, and I do have a couple of Chanel lipsticks in my makeup collection, but they really aren't necessary. Sure, sometimes you splurge on the odd thing and save on other things, but this still isn't a justifiable splurge most of the time. Packaging-wise, it's nice that they put that sort of attention to detail into something so small when it costs so much, but the packaging on the mid-priced lipsticks are quite excellent too, making them the better choice. Let's have a look.
Clinique and Lise Watier are great examples of lovely mid-priced lipsticks. The casing for both is metal, not plastic, which makes them look both classy and indestructible. The formulas are thicker and wear longer, so you use less and it co-operates with you during the application of darker colours. The formulas offer additional benefits in the case of Clinique, which unlike the drugstore brands and even Chanel, feature beautiful ingredients such as shea butter and beeswax. The click is a lot more secure on the Clinique than the Watier, and I prefer the texture, but these are both excellent choices.
I hope this helps to sort out the confusing selection of lipsticks out there! Go on, be daring and try some darker shades! It's a great time of year to add a splash of colour!
Have a great day, and thanks for reading!
A.
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