What better way to start off a beauty blog than with a confession? Here's mine: I can't stand sacrificing money on designer-brand name lipstick. Contrary to popular belief, all it really takes is a good lipliner and, if that doesn't do it for you, a decent lip stain layer to keep your face looking perfect & pouty for an all-nighter. Disclaimer: These lipsticks are pricey for a reason, so if you can afford them, by all means, use them! Names are always great-looking in your personal makeup collection. This post is meant to provide a fun alternative or for those who are new to the lipstick world, a fun way to gloss your way into the world of pretty colors on a budget. Just like everything else we do at South Shore Chic, our goal is to find ways to make people happy, look awesome using smart ways of saving, and engage you all in having fun with your style.
I became fascinated with lipstick with my first Loreal Paris red, and ever since then I've made it my mission to figure out how to continue buying affordable lipstick and make it…well…stick. Then when I started pricing the name brands that everyone knows, I was shocked at how much lipstick I was actually getting---for the price of one lipstick from the other companies. If you want to know the truth (because we all know that brutal honesty is my strong point), it appalls me that charging so much for a disposable item that will eventually run out is the trend. When there's a magical, automatically-refilling lipstick, then I'll pay $20 a pop. Until then, I'll stick with getting 10 lipsticks for $20 instead. With that being said, I have nothing against these lipsticks, brands, what have you. I just know that with a little tweaking, I can get great lip colors and avoid breaking my bank, especially in today's world. Not only do I love being able to expand my color wheel, but I also love mixing and matching lip stains and lipliners. Let me explain…
Just for fun:
Mac Lipstick: $19 Sheen Supreme: $20 Pro Longwear: $21 Mineralize Rich Lipstick: $26 Pro Longwear Lip Color: $29 Pro Lip Palette: $48 Huggable Lip Color: $24
Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick: $22
Sephora Yves Saint Laurent: $35 NARS Lipstick: $26-$39
What I've noticed is that most of these lipsticks claim a new feature that makes them different--well, so do my favorite brands:
New York Color Expert Last: $1.99 Ultra Moist Lipwear: $0..99 City Duet 2 in 1 Lip Color: $2.99
Wet n' Wild Mega Last Lip Color: $1.49 Mega Sheild Lip Color SPF 15: $2.99 Silk Finish Lipstick: $0.99
e.l.f. Lipstick: $3
Jesse's Girl Lipstick: $3.99
Loreal Lipstick Infalliable Le Rouge: $8.99
Rimmel London Lasting Finish by Kate Moss: $4.99
What's the difference? You tell me. Jesse's Girl lipstick has vitamin E that helps to moisturize and not damage lips, Wet n' Wild lasts up to 4 hours and has a specific SPF lipstick (so your lips won't fry in the city heat), New York Color Expert Last lasts up to 6 hours, and most of them have either a glide-on-smooth feature, are a moisturizing lipstick, and all exude color. Now come to think of it…I can't think of a single thing that makes these lipstick options any lesser or worse of an option.
Still interested?
Lip liners. You'll need them. As I've said before, I'm not a professional makeup artist. I just do this for fun and to help others find the joy in affordable makeup and fun looks just like I have. If there's one thing I've learned, it's line, line line. My point is this: line, seal, and stay. Lip liners help two things: line your lips and lock in color. It's just like putting on an eyelid primer or base, you want the color you're using to last as long as possible. When you line your lips, you're not only initially creating an outline for your lipstick to go, but I also fill my lips in with lip liner. When you do this, in case your lipstick should smudge or fade, you have an entire second layer of color to help limit smudge-y looks. Point: if you have a good lip liner, the price of your lipstick is irrelevant. Lucky for you, I have pictures of the liners that I use: all tested and true, and all loved by yours truly.
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Wet n' Wild Coloricon lip liner in Brandy Wine: $1.49 // Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner in Red Diva: $4.76
Milani Color Statement Lip Liner in Fuchsia: $3.99// Jesse's Girl Lip Liners in Plummie & Melon: $1.99 |
Just because I love pictures, here's each one up close and personal
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Every Jesse's Girl Lip Liner comes with its own sharpener, which is
awesome. This means that for each lip liner pencil, you have a
sharpener that is individual to each color. |
Advice: Try to get a lip liner in similar color, but slightly darker, to every color group you plan on wearing. Below, I've separated my lipsticks into five color groups: purples, light pinks, dark pinks, salmon/corals, and of course, reds. When I show my lipstick swatches, you'll notice some colors don't necessarily fit in the groups they've been assigned to: these are the "in-betweens", as I like to call them--the more singular colors that are usually a cross between two color groups, or a shade lighter or darker than, well, light or dark.
Separated, as said. All the way to the left are my lip stains/balms, we'll get into those later. To the right are my lipsticks. Let's start with the most basic color: light pink. I separated these specifically because of the simply fact that these colors don't necessarily need lip liner. The colors are light enough that the same rules for lip gloss apply here: reapply as needed, there's not much color to actually keep in-line!
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| With flash, from left to right: Wet n' Wild in 516C, NYC in Petal, Wet n' Wild in Pink Ice, & NYC in Chiffon |
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| Without flash |
You can see that a couple of these are actually somewhat pearlescent and translucent. On the top of my arm above the swatches, I showed my lightest lip liner (Jesse's Girl Melon) in case you really wanted to line your lips beforehand.
Next, salmon/coral colors. I'm showing these next, because they'd all go well with the same lip liner as pictured above, except they really need it because there are stronger color pigments.
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| From left to right: NYC Expert Last in Peach Fizz, Wet n' Wild in Pinkerbell & Jesse's Girl in Cruise Control |
Next up, dark pinks. For all of these, I use my Milani Color Statement in Fuchsia
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| From left to right: NYC Expert Last in Blue Rose, NYCCity Duet 2 in 1 in The Hot Pinks, e.l.f. Moisturizing Lipstick in Flirty & Fabulous, Wet n' Wild in Dollhouse Pink & NYC Expert Last in Modern Love |
As you can see, the color of the lip liner is much darker than the lipsticks themselves. I always like to go darker on my liner, but that choice is ultimately yours. If you go darker on your liner, then if your lipstick does happen to wear off or smudge, it won't be as noticeable because there will be a darker color layer underneath. These swatches are shown on my arm, many of them come out darker on your lips so a darker liner is always a better option!
The one everyone waits for: reds. I'm sure that reds are everyone's favorite, and another personal favorite of mine.
Fun tip: always have a classic red. To mix things up a little, find a twist on classic red: whether it be sparkly, shimmery, or an off-shade. I have a sparkly red and a shimmery, somewhat purple red.
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| With flash, from left to right: Wet n' Wild in Cherry Picking,, NYC in Ruby, NYC in Violet Shine, NYC in Retro Red, Loreal Paris in Ravishing Red |
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| Without flash |
Prime example of the colors appearing lighter than they seem: NYC Violet Shine appears super crazy light on my arm, but when applied to the lips, it's the color it says it is--trust me! For all of these I used Rimmel Exaggerate Red Diva Lip Liner, and to be honest it's one of my favorites. It was my first twist-up liner, and I was iffy about it not being a pencil, but I love it! And it's such a perfect red, that it matches nearly every shade that I own.
The next few lipsticks are--you guessed it--some more of my favorites. I love these colors simply because they're so dramatic, and they really just stand out. My skin tone is very light, so if I'm not careful they can clash, but most of the time if I temper my eyeshadow right and use my e.l.f. mineral foundation & booster, they come out fantastic.
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| From left to right: Wet n' Wild in Sugar Plum Fairy, NYC Expert Last in Purple Crush, Wet n' Wild in Dark Wine & Rimmel London Lasting Finish by Kate Moss in Rossetto |
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With flash |
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| Without flash |
The only drawback to swatches is that you can't see the real color that it is on your lips. If I were to actually showcase all of these colors, liners & lip stains/balms on my face, I would probably end up with a mess of chapped lips from all the time spent taking off the previous colors. That's why I took two photos, one with flash and one without, so that you can get more of an idea of the true colors. I use either Jesse's Girl Plummie or Wet n' Wild Coloricon Brandy Wine Lip Liner for these.
Now, you may be wondering if this is enough. You could be asking yourself, "but Katie, what happens if there's torrential rain, I'm drinking a super messy milkshake, and I happen to be eating an uber greasy slice of pizza, and then wipe my mouth with a sandpaper-like napkin?"
Well, then there's lip stain/lip balm stain. And I'm going to show you how to use it in addition to liner and lipstick. These are my collection (and always growing):
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| From left to right: e.l.f. Lip Stain & Gloss in red and Lucky Lady, Wet n' Wild Megaslick Balmstain in Pinky Promise and Rico Mauve, Jordana Twist n' Shine Balmstain in Rage n' Rouge and Candied Coral, Maybelline Super Stay 24 hr. Lip Stain in Perpetual Plum & Maybelline Super Stay 10 hr. Stain Gloss in Ruby Indulgence |
Eventually I'll review these individually, but my favorites are definitely the balmstains. They do stay wet longer, since they are balm-based, but the color is great (especially Jordana), and they moisturize and don't dry out your lips like regular lip stains do. When I first found the balmstains, I was ecstatic. So now I use them either by themselves because of their long-lasting power, or over lipliner and under lipstick. Below are swatches with liner, balm or lip stain, and lipstick. They're just color-matched, but you can see that if it's possible to get a liner to match your lipstick, it's just as possible to find a balm or lip stain to match your lipstick. This will provide even more holding power, and a much better backup than just lip liner if your lipstick does end up wearing off. I recently used Milani Fuchsia Lip Liner, NYC Smooch Proof 16 hr. Lip Stain, and NYC Expert Last in Purple Crush, and it lasted for a full four hours. The only time I reapplied my lipstick was right after I ate, and it was a quick touchup that probably wasn't even needed…I'm just paranoid. That's the awesome thing about using both lip liner and a stain: double protection means minimal touching up, even after eating or drinking. I didn't even have those mark-your-territory lip stains on my glass!
Tip: avoid eating greasy or super oily foods, your lipstick will last longer without it.
Here are the swatches with the examples, the last one is the combination mentioned above:
First swatch, from left to right:
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| Salmon/coral colors |
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| Reds |
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| Purples/Violets. This is the combination of lip liner, lip stain, and NYC lipstick that I used. To drive the point home, if my post as a whole hasn't convinced you yet, I still have mark from the color swatch on my arm where the NYC lip stain, actually, stained. |
Happy lip smacking, long-lasting lipsticking!
