My local CVS had all of its Milani lip products marked down to $2.99 the other day. I'd hear good things about their matte lipsticks (including that they lack the nauseating watermelon stench of the regular lipsticks), but the selection remaining on the rack was pretty skimpy. Nevertheless, I was in a Just Buy Something, Anything sort of mood, and also still regretting that I hadn't picked up Urban Decay's orange Revolution Lipstick in Tilt when it was marked down, so I grabbed Matte Luxe on impulse.
Bad impulse. It's terrible. I returned it to get my precious 3 bucks back--which is why the photos here are so bad. I had to take them indoors on a gloomy day before I took it back.
It's not just the true orange lipstick looks terrible on me and I should know that by now. The formula of this stuff is abysmal. It's as though it doesn't adhere to the surface of the lips at all, but only gets caught up in lines and dry patches. My lips were not even particularly dry the day I took this photo, but this lipstick will find any flake it can.
I think the blurriness of the photo is actually making it look better than it did in person. You can't really see the completely bare patches that were left in between the streaks.
And yes, I can't wear oranges that lean too far yellow rather than pink or red. I should stick to red-oranges or corals. In my defense, it looked redder in the store lighting. This shade drains all the color out of my face--and that, combined with the awful texture, makes me look like I've contracted some particularly strange disease.
Here's a comparison with some red-orange and coral lipsticks, which I can actually wear:
Left to right: Milani Matte Luxe, Wet N Wild Purty Persimmon, BareMinerals Light It Up, and NYX Butter Lipstick in Little Susie.
The experience just reinforces my general rule banning impulse purchases of products that I haven't seen reviewed. And also that just because some shades in a range are beloved and positively reviewed doesn't mean that the quality is consistent for the rest of them. Of course. I guess the fact that this shade was left behind and most of the nudes and pinks were gone was a sign.
Nooo! I'm very familiar with the thrill of a good deal followed by the realization of "...oh, so that's why it was left on the shelf." I've been pretty impressed with the Milani Moisture Mattes I've tried (Naked is perfect, and Fearless is a bit patchy but not bad for a matte dark purple), but I guess every formula has its duds.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Milani got rid of the watermelon scent in the regular Color Statement lipsticks, too! And I noticed a few months ago that about half of the shades were new, or at least had new names. It's weird that they reformulated with so little fanfare after the huge Color Statement launch of 2013...
Yes, your good luck with the other matte shades was one of the reasons I was attracted to them, but I should have chosen something more familiar (or nothing at all, preferably). I think yellow pigment is a difficult one, both in cosmetics for the face and nail polish. Anything with a lot of yellow (or white) seems to have a high chance of being patchy or overly sheer.
DeleteI'm so glad to hear that the watermelon stench is gone! I had a couple of the regular lipsticks a few years ago that were really lovely, but they made me gag, so I got rid of them. That opens up a whole new world for me . . . .
whoooaaaa now....that stuff looks crazzy bad as far as texture goes. *cue in shrill movie violin staccato* THanks for the review!
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