Vampy Winter Lips for Beginners

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
The beginner I'm mainly referring to here is me. I know that some of you are seasoned vampy veterans, but I haven't historically been a huge lipstick wearer in general. I've even declared in writing that I was giving up on lipstick because it was too high maintenance. Instead, I wore every other type of lip product: stain, balm, tint, gloss, etc. But somehow, in the last year or so, I've got a lot more into lipstick. I don't know what happened. Bored with other types of makeup? Getting old and no longer as self conscious? At any rate, probably 80% or more of the makeup I've bought in the last 6-9 months (which hasn't been a lot) has been lipstick, and when I'm browsing it's usually the most appealing category to me lately.

Left to right: Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry/Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.

One new change that I've really only embraced this winter is dark or bold "vampy" lipstick. Now I am talking about vaguely vampy shades, nothing extreme. I'm still a beginner, and my coloring makes things look more dramatic than they might otherwise. There's nothing black (or blackish) in my lineup. The few lipsticks I have that could be categorized as vampy are mostly very pigmented berries or wines. Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy (a supposed dupe for MAC Rebel) is sort of my baseline for comparison here. If you consider Sugar Plum Fairy or Rebel to be a "wearable berry" then you're probably going to roll your eyes at my whole weak foray into bold lipsticks. If, on the other hand, you find it slightly intimidatingly bold, I'll assume you're with me on this one. I'm not saying Rebel is vampy, but for me, anything darker than that is edging into vampy territory. It's my vampy watershed. Or something.

Here is my small collection of debatably vampy lip colors, with Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy also swatched for comparison:

Why do they all look bright pink? Shitty winter light!

Left to right: Wet N Wild Sugar Plum Fairy, Revlon Balm Stain in Crush, Paula's Choice Plum, Bite Mulberry, Bite Scarlet, Maybelline Creamy Matte Divine Wine, and Urban Decay Matte Bad Blood.

Review: Paula's Choice Berry & Bright Lip Pencil Collection + Giveaway!

Disclosure: Affiliate links.
Because people click my Paula's Choice invite link here on my blog, I've been able to try some things from the brand that I ordinarily wouldn't buy for myself. One such thing is this set of four lip crayons for $45. At $11.25 a piece, they're not too much more expensive than most drugstore lipsticks, but I haven't been especially impressed by PC makeup in the past, so I probably wouldn't have gambled. Since I had some credits, however, I figured I would give them a shot--turns out I like (most of) these! And since I got them because of the blog, it seems right to review them here. As further thanks, there's also a giveaway at the end of the post.

Paula's Choice Berry & Bright Lip Pencil Collection (top to bottom): Winter Berry, Currant, Plum, and Sugar.

These four lipsticks in crayon format are described as "satin matte." There are two reds, a dark berry, and a sheer, pearly shimmer. They apparently all have names, but I threw out the box, and the pencils themselves aren't labeled, so I am getting these names from the Paula's Choice website and hoping I assign them correctly: Winter Berry, Currant, Plum, and Sugar. 

Sugar is the sheer shimmer. I'm sure of that, at least. In trying to sort the others out, we come to something I found slightly disappointing about this set, i.e. that it contains two reds. In fact, the labels of all three colors look so similar, that I usually have to hold them side by side to figure out which one I want. My guess is that Paula's Choice probably intended to create a set that included a pink, a red, a berry, and a sheer shimmer. That would make sense, right? Instead we have a pink-red, a true red, a berry, and a sheer shimmer. The colors are lovely, but the variety is a bit lacking.

Paula's Choice Berry & Bright Lip Pencil Collection: Winter Berry, Currant, Plum, and Sugar.

The differences are clearer when you look at the lipstick itself, but obviously we are dealing with two different reds here, not a pink and a red.

Glossy/sheer red lip comparisons

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I wanted to swatch all of my red lip products that are on the sheer side to see if I had any dupes that I could eliminate. I figured I might as well take a photo and post it, in case that sort of thing is useful to anyone else.

From left to right above:

Revlon ColorStay Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Romantic
Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Candy Apple
Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Cherry Tart
H&M Lip Pencil in Million Dollar Lips (Red)
Sephora Gloss Lipstick (unknown shade name)*
Stila Lip Glaze in Persimmon
Be a Bombshell Lip Gloss in Hot Mess
e.l.f. Super Glossy Lip Shine in New York City*

* These ones seem to be discontinued.

In the end, the only ones that are really very close are the Stila and Be a Bombshell glosses. I prefer the BAB formula. It's thinner, and so it will bleed slightly more, but it's easier to apply, feels better, and lasts really well. So bye bye Stila.

Here's a lip swatch of Hot Mess:

You can see lip swatches of a couple of the Revlon ones here. The color of the Revlon Balm Stain in Romantic and the Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple look pretty similar, but the formula is totally different, so they can both stay. I fail at eliminating things! Sheer reds with some sheen are just so fucking pretty, though.

A matte lip crayon I like much better than Revlon's (Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn)

I'd say that 90% of the blog reviews of the Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm crayon that I've read have been raves. A couple have found some shades patchy, but were cool with it, but most of them are just big fans. Obviously that's not how I felt, and it kind of makes me feel like I was being unreasonable or doing something wrong.

But I recently got a matte jumbo lip crayon in my Ipsy bag that I prefer a whole fucking lot. It's the Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn. They describe it as "glossy," but it's definitely not. It's matte. It seems to have a few specks of shimmer (?) in it, but they don't show up at all on the lips. You can sort of see them in the macro shot, but they are completely invisible from a normal distance. Even in the swatch photo below, you can't really see the shimmer. (Judging from swatches, some of the other shades seem to have more shimmer.)

Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn

How it compares to the Revlon matte balm: The Be a Bombshell crayon has a thicker, stiffer texture. The Revlon feels almost buttery - actually kind of like frosting. For me, the Be a Bombshell texture works much better, because you can go back and forth over your lips to build up the color without it getting patchy. It stays in place really well, unlike the Revlon matte balm, which had a tendency to smear and wear off in an ugly way. After I put enough on my lips to make it really opaque, and then blotted, very little came off on the tissue. I tend to worry about wearing bright/opaque lip colors, because they always smear and look messy on me eventually. I think this one has solved that problem. It's going to be my go-to red. It wears very evenly and leaves a nice stain. It doesn't emphasize dryness and lines like the Revlon one does. It also doesn't have a minty scent or tingle, which was something I didn't like about the Revlon. I don't find it drying, either - no more so than not wearing anything on my lips. Basically, this is everything I was hoping the Revlon matte balm would be but wasn't.

Your Claws: This is the perfect red nail polish.

It’s just fucking perfect, okay?

I know it looks like something you found in the back of your grandma’s closet when you were 5, and she told you you could have it, but trust me.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Cardinal