My Cheap Favorites: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks in Cherries in the Snow, Berry Haute, and Fire and Ice

Affiliate Links

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks are hardly new--in fact, they are probably one of the oldest products still going strong at the drugstore--but I only got my first one (Cherries in the Snow) less than a year ago. It hasn't taken long for them to reach favorite status, unlike most of my other favorites, which I've been using for several years. Honestly, if these had been the first lipsticks I'd tried, I might have been one of those people who was really into lipstick from the beginning of their makeup-using lives, rather than being frustrated with it most of the time. They're really comfortable and easy to use--at least the three shades I have now: Cherries in the Snow, Berry Haute, and Fire and Ice. Most lipstick formulas either dry out my lips or, at best, don't help my already dry lips any. These actually seem to moisturize them a bit! That's very rare in my experience.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks come in four finishes: crème, matte, pearl, and sheer. These three shades are all crèmes, so I can't say how the other finishes perform. They're all very pigmented in a single coat and not prone to smearing. To me, the formulas they're most similar to are the Urban Decay Vice cream lipsticks and the Bite Amuse Bouches (reviewed here). The latter are more pigmented (at least the shades I've tried), so you can get full opacity in a thin layer, but they feel about the same. They're as good or better than most higher end lipsticks I've used. I even like that old-fashioned gold and black tube, and the window on the top of the lid is useful.

And they are very cheap! The lowest price I've found for them is $4.99 at Target and Meijer. At CVS in my area they are $8.99, so the range is pretty fucking wide (and that motivated me to write about sales and price discrepancies). (If you have the right combination of coupons you might get it for the same price at CVS.) On Amazon, the prices vary depending on the shade from $4.99 to $16.12 (random!). (Remember when people used to call everything random? It was the "literally" of the early 2000s.)

Anyway, I really, really recommend at least these three shades from Revlon, even though none of them turned out to look exactly the way I expected on my face, as I'll explain.

First, Cherries in the Snow, which in a lot of online photos looks like a pink-red (i.e. a red lipstick with some pink in it). On me, it's definitely pink. Very little red. But flattering, I think!

Here's a photo of me wearing it last December. I'd actually been thinking that Cherries in the Snow was one of my newer lipsticks, and here it's almost a year old. My memory is shit!

Here's a comparison with some other lipsticks I have in the magenta-fuschia range to give you a sense of where Cherries in the Snow fits in.

Left to right: Revlon Cherries in the Snow, e.l.f. Essential Lipstick in Gypsy, Urban Decay Matte Revolution in After Dark, Revlon Balm Stain in Smitten, Wet N Wild Silk Finish Lipstick in Nouveau Pink, and Bite Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Sour Cherry.

Bite Sour Cherry (reviewed here), which looks straight-up red in this lineup, is more of the pink-red on me that I envisioned Cherries in the Snow being. Something about my skin tone tends to enhance the pink in lipsticks--you'll see that the same thing happens with the other two lipsticks I'm showing you here.

Next (in the order I bought them), Berry Haute. I picked this up back in March when I'd decided that I wanted to experiment with purple lipstick. It was a whim, chosen in the Target aisle based on how it looked in the tube. In the tube, it really does look purple, but on my face it becomes more of a mauvey-pink.

I mean, there's a little purple in there, but it's totally something I can wear to work and no one really notices it. If I had truly purple lips, someone would comment. Berry Haute has the least sheen of these three shades. In fact, it's almost semi-matte.

It's hard to take photos in my apartment these days, because of the reflection of the windows in my glasses,
but it's too windy to go outside.

I really didn't have anything similar to this in my hoard, which is good news for me, but here are some purpley things for comparison:

Left to right: Revlon Berry Haute, Urban Decay Revolution Rapture, and Estée Lauder Matte Shameless Violet.

Finally, Fire and Ice, which, like Cherries in the Snow, has been around for a very long time. Let's admire this dramatic vintage ad from the 50s:

"Like flaming diamonds dancing on the moon!"

Again, this lipstick is not what I expected. I was imagining vibrant orange-red, like many (but not all) of the image search results show. Just like the others, my skin draws out what pink there is in it, and I get more of a coral. Not so much fire.

Like lots of lipsticks in the orange or coral family, Fire and Ice has more of a tendency than other shades to highlight flaky lips. It's not nearly as bad as some I've used, but if you are very picky, you might want to exfoliate before applying it.

Messy hair cropped out.

It's stunning, but it's not the more comfortable replacement for Wet N Wild Purty Persimmon that I envisioned.

Left to right: Revlon Fire and Ice, Wet N Wild Purty Persimmon, NYX Butter Lipstick in Little Susie, BareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Light It Up, and NYX Matte Lipstick in Perfect Red.

The theme with all three of these colors is surprise, but not disappointment. Anyone else a big fan of the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks? I don't think they are at all inferior to some of the most expensive lipsticks I've used, and they're only 5 bucks. What shade should I try next? (Let's pretend it's in any way reasonable for me to buy more lipstick.)

Also, do you also find that your skin tone tends to enhance certain undertones in lipsticks? It's fascinating how the same colors can look so different on different people. I'm not expert enough in undertones, though, to know what it is about my skin that makes these lipsticks look more pink.