A Tale of Two Lippies: Lancôme Rouge in Love & Clinique Almost Lipstick

Mon, 26 March 2012 10:52AM

Whether you like your lipcolour loud and proud, or prefer to tone it down to more of a whisper, your perfect new lipstick is out this week…

First up, Lancôme Rouge in Love, $45, from department stores and Adore Beauty.

This is the one for all you serious lipstick wearers out there. It boasts an impressively rich pigment content, which explains the stay-put-for-six-hour promise. My take: you should definitely get around four hours’ wear per application. Still, that’s pretty good result for a long-last lipstick that also manages to feel comfy on (thanks to its oil-enriched formulation). And while Rouge in Love is all about the pigment pay-off, there are levels of intensity, in terms of both colour and finish, depending on the impact you want to make.

Quite cutely, the 21 shades have been split into three categories. There’s the morning range (the shades are marked with an ‘M’), which are the day-perfect nudes and peaches, featuring just a smidgen of shimmer to brighten the face. Then there’s the boudoir collection (those with a ‘B’ next to the shade number), aka the good-time shades you want to wear for late-afternoon cocktails; think oranges (we love the daiquiri-esque Miss Coquelicot) and some baby-ish pinks that just beg to be worked back to a kittenish smoky eye. And then there’s the night range (look for an ‘N’), which are the after-dark-sexy, wear-with-your-LBD numbers; there are some killer reds (Sequence of Love, a cool true red, as worn by Emma Watson in the campaign, is a must-check-out) and a fabulous fuchsia, Midnight Rose.

As the colours go up in intensity, so too does the shimmer factor, with a varying degree of silvery or golden pearl particles strewn throughout each lipstick.

All in all, it’s a fun and ultra-glamorous buy.

At the other end of the lipstick personality spectrum is Clinique Almost Lipstick, $36, from department stores.

You know Clinique’s Black honey, right? As in the cult plum-toned sheer-glossy-lippie that gives that seductive just-bitten stained effect and looks good on absolutely everyone… Well, this week Clinique is launching seven new Almost Lipstick hues, inspired by Black Honey. There’s the same buttery feel, the same sheer wash of colour, the same dewy glow … but in a nice edit of shades from nude to brown, and pink to red …

 

Because the formulation is so sheerly pigmented, the lipstick looks different on every mouth (depending on the natural colour of your lips), so it’s impossible to pinpoint a hero shade. Nevertheless, I’m totally addicted to Luscious Honey, a reddish-pink that gives you a just-been-drinking-berry-juice look that is indeed luscious.

 

So, Primpettes, what do you think? Are you already rushing out the door to stock up as we speak?

And what’s your lipstick personality? Loud and clear, or soft and suble?

Posted by: Katrina Lawrence

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Tags: clinique, cult beauty products, emma watson, lancome, lipstick, red lipstick