As I’ve already confessed in my bio, I am a person obsessed with makeup products! Some of my absolute favorite indulgences are lip products. Whether it be lipstick, stain, gloss, or balm - you name it, I love it. It’s also important to note that I am certainly not brand loyal. I’m all over the map when it comes to my makeup affection. I own lip colors of every description from such companies as Clinique, Kevyn Aucoin, Lancome, MAC, Prescriptives, Origins, NARS, Dior, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, and Make Up For Ever....well, you get the idea. Ok, so it’s clear that I’m a makeup junkie, but I’m also a bit of a brand snob - at least when it comes to most beauty products. My usual MO involves a trip to Sephora - or a couple of clicks online to purchase a high end lip product. So, after hearing a lot of excitement about some drug store lip product brands, I decided to check ‘em out!
I’ve spent the last few weeks comparing several shades from L’oreal Color Riche Balm, Cover Girl Lip Perfection Lip Color, and Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter. Overall I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of all three brands. I’ll review each brand separately, beginning with the lightest weight product and moving to the most intense.
L’Oreal Color Riche Balm, with SPF 15, sells for $5.99 at Target (varies by location), and is aptly named a balm since it is hydrating and has a low color pay off by lipstick standards. This is the type of product I could see wearing to the pool or beach, especially since it has sun protection, or on a day when you don’t want to wear a full face of makeup. It goes on smooth and adds moisture to the lips but very little noticeable color. It just sort of perks up your natural lip color. Like any balm, it needs frequent reapplication to maintain a good level of hydration. The company claims that it “Instantly smoothes and nurtures lips, providing 8 hours of continuous hydration. Lips feel softer and more supple all day long. Even when removed it leaves lips feeling conditioned for an additional 2.5 hours.” Ok, so my experience with the product didn’t quite bear that out. As I said, reapplication was necessary and a lot sooner than 8 hours, but it’s still quite a nice tinted lip balm. Oh, and the packaging is quite lovely - looks to me a lot like a Dior lip balm case which is great! The other really positive note is the absence of any cloying scent! So many drug store brands in years past have peddled lip colors that reek of fake fruit or smell like a box of artificially flavored cake mix! (One of the main things that chased me away from drug store brands in the first place!) This one smells, mercifully, like not much of anything which I vastly prefer over the aforementioned train wrecks!
Below are listed the shades I purchased and tested:
219 Plush Plum: sheer, cool plum
318 Heavenly Berry: extremely sheer lilac
518 Tender Mauve: creamy pale mauve
Of these three, Plush Plum and Tender Mauve show up on lips pretty true to what you see in the tube. Heavenly Berry did not show up on my lips much at all and I’m fair skinned with fair lips. It’s funny because what you see in the tube looks almost like a cool red but when swatched on skin it shows up a sheer lilac and on lips not at all.
Bottom line, if you’re looking for a light weight, comfortable tinted balm with an SPF bonus and you’re not concerned with a lot of color, L’Oreal Color Riche Balm is an excellent choice. The key here is to understand the product and have accurate expectations.
What it is? A balm
What it isn’t? A lipstick
So maybe what you want is something soft and hydrating with a lot more color pay off? Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter may be just the thing! Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter retails for $6.49 at Target (varies by location) and comes in 20 gorgeous shades. It’s called a lip butter and feels exactly as you would hope - buttery, plush, and smooth. The company states that “[h]ydrating mango, shea, and coconut butter formula boosts lip moisture by 156%.” Yummy! Seriously though, as an esthetician, I can tell you that mango, shea, and coconut butters are all excellent natural moisturizing factors that protect skin from transepidermal water loss (TEWL) which is a great thing for your lips which are super prone to dehydration through TEWL.
I tested 6 shades and found they all wore comfortably, didn’t settle into lines, or become cakey, and lasted about 3 hours with no eating or drinking. The color pay off is amazing! Even the pale shades really show up on lips. The fun thing is that these lip butters are a great way to wade into the waters of brighter or more intense colors than you may be used to. Intrigued by the pop of color trend for summer but intimidated by the matte or velvet texture of a traditional lipstick? Try Tutti Frutti or Lollipop - both bright-ish shades but in this hydrating and light weight texture they’re so much more wearable! Imagine hot pink but in a creamy, glossy-yet-not-sticky texture.... it’s so doable. How about a white-based shade without looking like death? Also doable with these lip butters.
Another plus would be the barely there (thank goodness!) scent. They’re not scent-free, but the slight, almost “buttery” scent is not unpleasant. My one gripe, and it’s a little one, would have to be the packaging which I think is a little cheesy looking. The “quilted-look” plastic just doesn’t do it for me.
The 6 shades I purchased and tested:
001 Pink Truffle: warm pinky beige
015 Tutti Frutti: sheer melon with light shimmer
050 Berry Smoothie: pinky mauve brown with barely there irridescent shimmer
060 Gumdrop: milky lavender
075 Lollipop: wearable hot pink with barest hint of shimmer
085 Sugar Plum: mid tone creamy mauve
Bottom line: Comfortable, versatile lipstick/gloss hybrid with excellent color pay-off at a reasonable price.
One other quick heads up about these lip butters - like butter, they are very heat sensitive! On warm days they become very soft and could easily be squashed inside the tube if not handled and stored carefully!
If you are looking for a more traditional lipstick, you may be more pleased with Cover Girl Lip Perfection Lip Color. These highly pigmented lipsticks retail for $5.94 at Target, which of course could vary by location - it just happens to be the best price I’ve found. Cover Girl gives this description: “[e]nriched with a silk moisturizing complex, our formula helps sustain moisture levels and helps creat soft, smooth, beautiful lips in just 7 days.”
Well, on a positive note, they do glide onto the lips quite smoothly, but that’s about it. The colors are amazing and intense, but I found them to be intensely drying and uncomfortable to wear. They seem to drain moisture from the lips and, at least on me, they become more and more caked and settled into every line, nook and cranny of your lips which isn’t cute at all. My other big beef with these lipsticks is the smell. It’s hard to describe but it’s something like synthetic cake batter. At first it’s not too bad but the smell lasts throughout the day and becomes borderline obnoxious. I even felt like I was breathing it in after a while and it was very unpleasant. As far as packaging goes, well I’m not a big fan. The base of the tube, with its cube of product showing, is attractive, but they ruined it with the cheaply made top which scratches easily. I hate to sound so negative because I really do love the colors and rich pigmentation. I just can’t get past the dryness and the smell.
The colors I purchased and tested:
265 Romance: creamy browny pink mauve
270 Rush: neutral reddish brown
285 Temptation: coppery finished tangerine with a warm red base
330 Divine: cool toned magenta
335 Embrace: fuchsia purple
340 Entwined: deep winey mauve
So, if I had to pick a “winner” of the three products, I’d have to say Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter due to the lovely colors and comfortable texture. However, the L’Oreal balm is also a good option - just for different reasons. Whenever you want a hydrating balm with a subtle color boost, it’s a great choice.
So come on, I know you’ve tried some of these products. What do you think? Everyone’s lips are different and yours may have a totally different opinion, which I’d love to hear!
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