I am patiently waiting for my summer to pass and twiddling my thumbs to pass the time. My favorite thing to do these past few nights is to make a huge bonfire in the backyard and toast up some oversized marshmallows, but my depleted stash of marshmallows is also telling me stop. I love dozing off next to the fire next to Beau, especially since he lovesss watching the embers fly up from the fire. I think it's ingrained in his membrane that small flying things are viable targets of food. I've also been trolling the mall to pass the time. Now that the Nordstrom sale is over, the mall traffic has gotten a lot better and I love to eat lunch at the Boudin in the plaza. Butternut squash soup = my sad attempt to be a rustic countryside woman. Anyway...
Ever thought that the perfect lipstick in the market costs more than your average box of crayons?
Call me crazy, but I'm the type of girl who splurges on lipsticks. The main reason being that my lips are very sensitive, prone to chapping and flaking, and extremely resistant to looking symmetrical or pretty. While it's always fun to haul in DS lipsticks, many of them find their way to the bottom of my drawer for not living up to expectations. I have a criteria list for lipsticks that would make the Admissions office of Harvard look as fun as a slip n slide. Speaking of which:
- I prefer lipsticks that are moisturizing enough to slip onto my lips and do not dry them out. Having thin lips is already a boon, but having dry and crackly lips caked on with lipstick at 4pm in the workday is not okay. I often find myself reapply a balm over lipsticks simply because they are too drying and end up with bleeding color.
- However, my ideal lipstick is long lasting. This means no budging, feathering, bleeding, or disappearing halfway through the day. I am fine with touch ups after meals and layering over lip liner.
- The color selection must include reds, fuchsias, nudes, and dusty pink/beiges. I see no reason why a product line would have only three colors to choose from unless they were universally flattering. Though I prefer satin finishes, I also love a matte lip or even a sparkly sheen if it's the right shade. I also prefer opaque lipsticks that don't require multiple coats, since we're not painting barns here.
- No strong scents that remind me of either play-doh, perfume, grandmas, crayons, or death chalk. I love MAC's vanilla scent but abhor lipsticks that claim to be scentless only to smell (and taste) very artificial. You should never be able to "taste" a lipstick.
- The packaging should be practical, if not beautiful. I don't like caps that go missing in my black hole of a handbag or those that hide the color when I'm trying to make a quick decision in the morning. This would explain why all of my MAC and NARS lipsticks are stored upside down for easy ident. (Jeez, sounded a little superfuturistic-filmnoir there.)
- Not too expensive or cheap. There are several DS brands that out-perform my high end lipsticks, and several high end products I would repurchase despite the price tag. However, it's realistic to price lipsticks at 10 to 20 dollars, not 3 (suspicious) or 300 (made of human tears).
From left to right: Number 3, Corail in Touch, and Number 1.
In most cases, a lot of lipsticks have fallen short of all of this very high Asian mother standard. I am happy to say that YSL's Rouge Volupte lipsticks are well worth the price (34 dollars!) and prestige. I recently picked up two beautiful nudes, Number 1 and Number 3, in the original collection along a lovely orange/coral in their Rouge Volupte Shine range. I believe this is the shade 14 Corail in Touch. I cringed at the price, but all of those demonic reviewers were infiltrating my mind and whispering words of encouragement as I stood at YSL's counter.
In this case, the pictures speak for themselves about the beauty of the packaging. The sheer heft of their packaging would make your boyfriend jealous, and the colors are absolutely radiant. I feel like a rich b*tch just for taking these out of my bag for reapplication. The best part is how you can tell what color you're about to use just from a quick glance.
What's more important is their creaminess! I could not believe how well these glided on but stayed on without bleeding. Paired with a prepped and moisturized lip, the color stays for almost 4 hours without touch up. For the Shine color, it acts as an emollient balm that imparts a healthy color. In fact, it reminds me of a very good version of the coveted Revlon Lip Butters because it does the same job without bleeding outside of your lip line, a la The Joker.
These lipsticks all have a mango scent. Now, here is the tricky part. Some people will absolutely detest this because it smells very juvenile for such an expensive product. The good part is that it doesn't last too long after you put it on. I personally enjoy it and finds that it makes my day a little brighter. Others will find this too cloying. I'm just glad it doesn't smell like perfumed grandma playing in play doh. I've literally gagged after applying some cheap lipsticks due to the scent and taste.
Not to mention, I have many, many, many more colors to collect from YSL's lip product ranges. There is a great variety of selection from divas looking for the perfect opaque red to the girl new to makeup who tries a baby pink stained flush. I got bewildered and went with two nudes from their original collection, since I've always been let down by other nudes that are just too chalky. Number 1 is a dusty rose pink nude that would look absolutely beautiful on an NW10 to NW20 (on me, it looks like a dirty Miami vacation fling, which I like). Number 3 is my MLBB shade and subdues any smokey eye makeup. The orange Volupte shine is also very flattering on my tan skin at the moment and looks very summery.
Overall, I think that these lipsticks are very well rounded. They don't particular blow every other lipstick in existence out of the water, but they perform very well and are a luxurious joy to have on your vanity or in your purse. If they were priced at around 20 dollars, they would absolutely be holy grail in comparison to other lipsticks in that range (Makeup Forever, Buxom, Smashbox, etc...) I would love to collect a few more, specifically a bright classic red and screaming loud pink.
What do you think? Is 34 dollars a lipstick the same sin as 34 dollars for a great bra? Does the daily use overweigh the initial cost? I would love to hear your opinion on these!
Hope your week is going well. I am counting down the days 'til LA.
Be
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