Category Archives: Liquid Lipstick

OCC Black Dahlia Lip Tar Review & Swatches

As you may know, I’m a huge fan of the OCC lip tars – they’re one of my favorite long-wearing lip products. I’ve swatched five of the shades previously, and I have a sixth for you today! Black Dahlia is a new shade, and part of the -->Heroine Collection -->, which includes both lip tars and other products.

As I said in my last review, lip tars have a thin, fluid texture. They have a peppermint scent. They are basically a very, very pigmented liquid lipstick – the most pigmented lip product I have ever tried. When worn correctly, I have no bleeding or feathering, and they easily last for 6+ hours on me. However, if you apply too much, which is very easy to do, they are a complete mess – they’ll slip off your lips, on to your skin, where they will stain and look very messy. They must be applied with a lip brush. Some people find them drying, but I don’t – though I love matte lip products, and rarely find anything too drying.

Lip tars are now sold at Sephora – it looks like they have the whole shade range online, but I’ve only seen a selection in-store. At Sephora, lip tars are packaged in a clear vinyl pouch and include a small lipbrush and a card with instructions on how to use the lip tar.

Sephora’s OCC lip tar packaging

Instructions – note that I’ve never used clear lip tar –
it’s definitely not necessary!

OCC lip brush – front

OCC lip brush – side

I was quite skeptical that the lip brush would be any good, but I used it to apply the swatches below, and it worked quite well. It has an extremely short handle, but the brush head is a nice size for working with lip tar, and the brush hairs are nicely shaped. It feels like natural hair to me, but since all of OCC’s full size brushes are vegan, I’m sure it’s just an excellent synthetic.

When I swatched Black Dahlia on my arm, I realized it looked similar to MAC Rebel, so I’ve swatched them together so you can compare. AS you can see, they are very similar in color, but Black Dahlia is darker and seems to have more depth. The flash picture looks more color-accurate to me.

OCC Black Dahlia, MAC Rebel - comparison swatches - dupes

OCC Black Dahlia, MAC Rebel – flash

OCC Black Dahlia, MAC Rebel – natural light

Note that Black Dahlia has a different finish than the other lip tars I own – to borrow nail polish terms, the others have a creme finish, and Black Dahlia is a jelly. Or, you could say that the others are opaque, while Black Dahlia has a translucency to it. However, the texture and application seemed the same to me as the other lip tars I own.

I have two lip swatches. The first is a very light application – I used barely any lip tar, the smallest amount I could get to fully cover my lips. For the second, I added another thin coat after the first coat had set.

Black Dahlia – one layer

Black Dahlia – two layers

As you can see, this is not a forgiving shade – every last texture imperfection on my lips is clearly visible. Of course, it looks much better from further away, but some patchiness is still visible.

Also note that Black Dahlia stained my arm – I’m used to swatches staining, but this was a much more persistant stain than most. I usually remove stubborn swatches with straight jojoba oil, then wash my arm with hand soap, then towel dry. This method gets almost all stains off easily – but here’s the result after one round:

Black Dahlia / Rebel stains

After a second round of oil / soap / towel, the Rebel stain is completely gone and the Black Dahlia stain has diminished significantly, but is still quite visible.

Of course, one doesn’t usually get product on one’s arm in the normal course of wearing lipstick! Staining is both a negative and a positive in my opinion. The downside is that it means that if you accidentally go outside your lip line when applying the product, it might stain and thus be difficult to get a clean lip outline. The upside, of course, is that the product will stain your lips and last very well.

Overall, I love Black Dahlia lip tar. I love the color SO much, and I love the slightly translucent quality. However, it is tricky to work with – more so even than other lip tars – so I would only recommend it if you are willing to spend extra time working with it.

Availability: Sephora.com, -->OCC online -->, Beauty.com — $16

Sleek Pout Paint Review & Swatches

Sleek Pout Paints: Cloud 9, Mauve Over, Lava, Pin Up, Pinkini, Minx, Peek-a-Bloo

Continuing on with today’s theme of very-pigmented-liquid-lipsticks-in-squeeze-tubes, I bring you Sleek Pout Paints! Sleek’s Pout Paints are almost identical to OCC’s lip tars.

Since OCC’s repackaging, they have almost identical packaging. They are both intensely pigmented liquid lipsticks that must be applied in very small with a lip brush; both are great for mixing. Both are matte and very long lasting.

There are a few differences. The OCC Lip Tars are a bit thinner; Sleek Pout Paints are just slightly thicker and, in my opinion, this makes them a little easier to work with. OCC Lip Tars are peppermint-scented, while Sleek’s Pout Paints are unscented. Pout Paints come in eleven shades; Lip Tars come in an amazing 40 shades. Pout Paints are $6.49; Lip Tars are $16.

Personally, I prefer the Pout Paint’s texture; between that and the price point, if there is a Pout Paint shade available, I will go with that; but, since OCC has a huge shade range, I also own several Lip Tars.

Here are the swatches of the seven Pout Paints I own. Again, my camera freaked out over the brightness and couldn’t focus without the flash:

Sleek Pout Paints: Cloud 9, Mauve Over, Lava, Pin Up, Pinkini, Minx, Peek-a-Bloo - swatches

Cloud 9, Mauve Over, Lava, Pin Up, Pinkini, Minx, Peek-a-Bloo – natural light

Cloud 9, Mauve Over, Lava, Pin Up, Pinkini, Minx, Peek-a-Bloo – flash

No lip swatches for now, but please let me know if you’d like to see some!

I have to confess: I’ve actually been neglecting both my Lip Tars and Pout Paints of late; it seems like an extra step, but in playing with them for the posts today, I remembered just how easy they really are. The extra 30 seconds they take to apply is easily made up for by the fact that reapplication is not needed. I will be using them more in the next few days / weeks / months!

OCC Lip Tar Review & Swatches

OCC Queen, Harlot, Radiate, Grandma, Tarred

Since the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) lip tars are now available at Sephora, and thus more accessible, I thought it would be a good time to swatch and review the five I have.

As you can see, I have three (Queen, Harlot, and Radiate) in the new-style packaging, and two (Grandma and Tarred) in the older style packaging. The product is the same. I prefer the new packaging – it has a very thin nozzle-tip, which is ideal for this product because so little is needed per application (more on that later). The older ones had a slant-tip, which was messier. I also like the new matte packaging aesthetically.

Lip Tars have a thin, fluid texture. They have a peppermint scent. They are basically a very, very pigmented liquid lipstick – the most pigmented lip product I have ever tried. When worn correctly, I have no bleeding or feathering, and they easily last for 6+ hours on me. However, if you apply too much, which is very easy to do, they are a complete mess – they’ll slip off your lips, on to your skin, where they will stain and look very messy. They must be applied with a lip brush. Some people find them drying, but I don’t – I love matte lip products, and rarely find anything too drying.

I tried to take a picture of how much product I use, but after photographing and using this, I realized it was too much – this is about 1.5x as much product as I need for one application; you’ll need about this much if you have very full lips and about half this much if you have smaller lips.

OCC lip tar – more than one application

That’s the ELF concealer brush; a very small brush – you can see it compared to other brushes in this post.

And, swatches! These are SO BRIGHT that my camera had trouble focusing – sorry about the blurring!

OCC Queen, Harlot, Radiate, Grandma, Tarred - swatches

OCC Queen, Harlot, Radiate, Grandma, Tarred – natural light

OCC Queen, Harlot, Radiate, Grandma, Tarred – with flash

I think Tarred is feathering because I applied too much in the swatch; I don’t have trouble with it feathering when I wear it on my lips.

And, lip swatches:

OCC Queen – natural light

OCC Queen – flash

Queen is a very vivid bright pink. The true color is somewhere in between the two photos above (brighter than the natural light photo, slightly less saturated than the flash photo).

OCC Harlot

OCC Radiate

Harlot and Radiate are extremely similar; the only reason I own both is that I got Harlot free as a beauty.com gift with purchase. The reason Radiate looks brighter in the swatch is that I’m wearing a slightly thicker layer; either one can look like either of the photos.

OCC Grandma

Grandma is a soft, true coral. It’s paler than I usually prefer for my lip products, so I don’t wear it very often, but it’s a great shade for mixing.

I don’t have a lip swatch of Tarred, because it’s just black. I have a swatch and review of Black Dahlia lip tar here.

In addition to being worn alone, Lip Tars are great for mixing. I usually mix them up in small (3 gram sized) jars with screw-top lids; I’ll mix enough for several applications. You can also use a palette and just mix up enough for one application – they’re so long lasting that often you won’t need to reapply.

Overall, I really love Lip Tars. I love matte, longwearing lip products, and these fit the bill perfectly. But, they’re not for everyone; they’re best for people who don’t mind spending some time figuring out how to use them initially, and then an extra minute or two to apply.

Shiseido RD 607 Nocturne Laquer Rouge Review, Swatches, Photos

Shiseido RD 607 Nocturne Laquer Rouge

Recently, Sephora offered a free mini of Shiseido’s new liquid lipstick and since it was offered in the shade I was most interested in, I decided to place an order for some things I had been planning to buy and get the mini!

Shiseido’s new line of liquid lipsticks, named Laquer Rouge, are offered in eight shades in the US (plus some Asia – exclusive shades), and I have RD 607 Nocturne to review today. Since it’s a mini, the packaging you see above is different than the standard packaging, which looks lovely to me – but I haven’t seen in person.

Shiseido Laquer Rouge packaging

RD 607 Nocturne is described as an “intense dark red.” I agree with the description; it’s very pigmented and and rich-looking, and slightly darker than NARS Cruella, which itself is a dark red (see comparison swatch below). I expected that Nocturne would be a creme – and from my swatches it may look like a creme – but it actually has silver microglitter. When applied in a standard manner, the microglitter is not very noticeable, but when blotted, it becomes quite visible.

Shiseido RD 607 Nocturne

Shisedo RD 607 Nocturne, NARS Cruella

The texture of the Laquer Rouge is definitely that of a liquid lipstick rather than a gloss or a stain. It’s different from any other product I have tried – but I don’t own any other liquid lipsticks. It goes on easily and smoothly. The applicator works very well with the product; I didn’t need to use a lip brush on the endges, though I did smooth them out with my fingers.

Here is two coats of Nocturne Laquer Rouge – two coats gives a more glossy look and a deeper color than one coat:

And here is one coat, blotted – I wear most lip products blotted because it decreases the amount they transfer; but I would probably avoid blotting this particular product because of the glitter issue and because it looks so much better above. You can see some glitter on my upper lip in this photo; it was much more apparent in person.

Because of the texture and color of this particular Laquer Rouge, I expect it to last very well. I haven’t worn it out yet, so I’m not sure exactly how long it will last. I wore it for two hours, and it looked almost perfect / freshly applied at that point.Overall, I really like the formula and color of the Laquer Rouge liquid lipstick, but I’m disappointed in the amount of glitter it has. I would consider buying more shades, but only after carefully swatching them to make sure that they aren’t glittery!

Why I love Sleek Pout Paints: Review & Swatches

Taking a brief break from the eyeshadow swatches, I’m going to talk about one of my very favorite products – Sleek Pout Paints. One sign of my love is that despite the fact that they are not available in the United States, I still own seven of them.

Here are some of the reasons I love them

They last for-freaking-ever on my lips – longer than anything else I’ve tried
Despite being long-lasting, they don’t dry my lips out at all
They are a very good value – you need so little, that one tube will last forever
It’s fun to mix them and create new colors

Are there any potential downsides? Always – no product is perfect.

Limited availability in the US – need to order online
You need to carry a lip-brush with you if you want to touch up

The downsides don’t bother me though – I don’t mind ordering online, and while I don’t like paying shipping charges, it’s worth it when I’m buying several items at once. And, I bought a to carry with me, and some little pots to carry my mixed colors in.

Here are some swatches of the colors I have – I’ve also included a swatch of my favorite color I’ve made – a deep red created by mixing Pin Up (true red) and Peek-a-Bloo (true blue). I had trouble capturing the brightness of Pinkini on camera – it’s really, really bright pink.

From left to right; my mixed color, Pin Up, Pinkini, Mauve Over, Lava, Minx, Cloud 9, Peek-a-Bloo

Are you wondering how Sleek Pout Paints compare to OCC Lip Tars?

OCC lip tars in Tarred, Grandma

OCC lip tars are both more expensive and more easily available in the US than Sleek Pout Paints. The Lip Tars have a much thinner consistency, which I find makes them harder to apply. They also have a strong peppermint scent; some will like this, and some will dislike it (personally, I dislike it). They have a wider color range, and have a black (yay!). The lip tars also last very well. Due to the consistency and peppermint, however, I have a strong preference for the Pout Paints.

Have you tried the Sleek Pout Paints? Do you like them?

p.s. I just installed commentluv on my blog – please let me know if you have any trouble with it!

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