swaly's "unusual" lipstick thread!

[swaly]

I wanted to start a thread on "unusual," goth, punk, or plain nutty lip colors.

It seems it was only a year or two ago that the only colors I could track down were really cheap Halloween lipstick if I wanted blue, yellow, etc., or the limited color range of Manic Panic makeup. I probably just didn't know where to look!

Now I'm the proud owner of bizarre and unusual lip colors from Lime Crime and OCC, and soon I'll be happily opening packages of lip colors from Morgana Minerals, Fyrinnae, NYX, and Sinful Colors.

I'll post pics as they come but meanwhile discuss your favorite strange lip colors--blues, greens, purples, silvers--and I'll put together a list of what kinds of colors you can get, and from where.

- Lime Crime: bright blues, pastel lavenders, creamy coral, neon pinks. All the formulations are opaque, glossy and shimmer-free. They're very poppy, plasticky, creamy colors. $16 each.
- OCC Lip Tars: they have a good range of primary and secondary colors in "liquid lipstick" formulation, also all shimmer-free. They have yellow, blue, red, blue, purple, white, black, and now a wide range of nudes and deeper hues. $12.50 each.
- Morgana Minerals: they have vegan/mineral-based lipsticks in a large range of blues, greens, greys, color-tinged blacks, as well as more standard reds/wines/oranges. Most of them seem fairly dark, many of them bordering on black. $10 each.
- Fyrinnae: they have "lip lustres" which are liquid but are meant to dry like a stain. They have a lot of more average colors, but they have some fantastically unusual candy colors in a variety of opacities and finishes. $2.50 for the sample size (which appears pretty sizable) and $4.50 for the fullsize.
- NYX: I actually purchased a full set of 144 from Joy's Cosmetics on eBay in order to give many out as goodies and keep the better colors. I see they have mostly the usual reds, nudes, pinks, etc., but there are a few fantastic nudes, purples and silvers I'm interested in. $1.40 on eBay, can be gotten as cheap as $0.99 and as much as $5, it seems.
- Sinful Colors: I can't attest to the quality yet, but they have a couple of chartreuse/lime shades, a lot of color-tinged darks, and several light and dark blues, bright purples, royal blues, grape blue-purples, silvers, greys. $4 each.

So, pics as they arrive. Meanwhile, discuss your favorite "unusual" lip colors! What other brands have you seen carrying strange colors? I know Illamasqua and MUFE both have strange colors that are hard to get in the US, and MAC releases blues and silvers from time to time.

 

[Zephyra]

Back in the day, I had a Revlon Streetwear lipstick in "As If...", a sheer, shimmery, iridescent lime green. Because it was sheer, the green shimmer would neutralize my natural lip pigment and the result was an otherworldly shimmery nude with a tinge of green. I would love to find a color like this again. I guess it's worth noting that I just can't get used to the feeling of gloss on my lips (I'm guessing I'd have more luck if I were open to finding a gloss with those traits), and most of the non-traditional lipsticks I've seen of late have been highly pigmented or just seemed to be high maintenance in the application.

I'd love to see swatches of your finds!

 

[jmgjwd]

I also had that Revlon color and loved it!!! Every once & awhile, I see the streetwear line @ a 99cent store or Biglots...maybe the Christmas tree store (a chain of stores in the New England area states)...the 80's were the best for unusual and loud colors (boy, am i old....)

MAC's 'Spanish Fly' and 'Love dust' lippies were unusual and undupable IMO

Trucco (used to be @ Ulta) had a lippie called Charmed or Charged that was a brownish-green-silverish color--I could never figure out a way to wear it comfortably

 

[swaly]

Oh my goodness I love MAC Lovedust. It's definitely very strange because it's so matte yet so shimmery, and this weird putty-flesh-grey color.

 

[Kragey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmgjwd MAC's 'Spanish Fly' and 'Love dust' lippies were unusual and undupable IMO

I have Lovedust and, on my lips, Wet n' Wild 908B is almost dead on. I found that out by accident (LOL!) here:

YouTube - 10 Favorite Lipsticks

I can vouch for Morgana Minerals and NYX lippies. Morgana's are especially nice; very creamy, one-stroke opacity, good staying power, and actually, a lot of the colors are much brighter than the website makes them look. Always check the descriptions and reviews! I'm loving Serenity right now.

The NYX lippies will slip off your lips in an hour or two if you aren't careful, but blotting or lipliner essentially solves the issue, and I have no issues with re-applying, especially for the price.

I'd also like to point out Manic Panic. Their lippies are 50/50 in my experience: I've tried a couple of their lipsticks and they were REALLY dry or crumbly, but I have two right now that have nice formulas, Poison Ivy and Neon Orange. I'd highly recommend seeing MP swatches or testing them out in a shop before buying them. I think mine were about $5 a tube from the local costume shop.

 

[greengoesmoo]

I got a pallette of 40 colours from Ebay, they are essentially sample sizes of each colours but it was onlt about £8 including postage.

http://www.torontocosmeticsupplies.com/product_images/w/268/40_Full_Color_Lip_Gloss_Palette_%234_-_Full_Color_Range_(4)__74811_zoom.JPG

That's not my one, but it is the same pallette.

The black looking one is actually a very deep red gloss. The reds are VERY strong, the "nude" ones I have yet to try as I'm not a nude girl, and the blues are fabulous! Especially the light pearley one. The glitters are average. They work mixed with other colours but look very cheap on thier own. Sadly there is no green, yellow, or orange in there but there are a couple of offensively bright pinks there too.

The colours are very creamy and last a few hours, but again much better with liner/blotting to keep on.

I have only tried about 1/4 of the colours in mine so far. I can do swatches of them this weekend if you like?

 

[swaly]

My NYX and Sinful Colors packages both came. No swatches yet (I've been a busy bee this week!) but a word on Sinful Colors. The NYX lipsticks, actually, out of the entire range of 144, has no unusual colors. The online image made me think there were some bright purples, but they're all very neutral colors. There are some interesting greyish browns and putties but nothing particularly exciting.

Sinful Colors is cheap, and feels cheap. It's more than 2x as expensive as NYX, though, but feels like a dime-store lipstick. The website also was rather unprofessional, as they never sent me notice my package had been shipped, and never notified me that 3 of my items were not in stock. They just shipped them without, and didn't tell me if they would be in stock in the future, if they would charge be for extra shipping...very disappointing.

The actual lipstick is encased in very cheap clear-topped lipstick cases, and the lipstick doesn't twist all the way down.

The colors are pretty awesome, but they either go on very slippery and sheer, or are extremely waxy and difficult to apply. There are a couple that are pigmented (Mardigras and Grape Jelly are EXACT dupes of each other and apply dark and rich), but overall there is a cheap wax smell and no-good consistency. I'd say go for these if you need a quick cheap color fix (there are some spectacular lavenders and blues, and a very very sheer lime green that is nice), but I'm hoping for the best with my Morgana lipsticks to provide a real, dependable product.

 

[Zephyra]

Thanks for the review. I actually looked for Sinful lipsticks this weekend when I was at the drugstore. I've seen the polish lines in several stores around here but not the lippies. I'm sad to hear the quality is so low. I have several of the OCC lip tars and have tried mixing some shades, but I'm having trouble with the opacity and the texture once they're on. It would be nice to find something more wearable.

 

[iheartangE]

I've been after some of the wilder Illamasqua lipsticks and glosses for a while but I don't currently have the funds to make an order

When I do though...Galactic gloss is MINE! Can't wait!

 

[Kragey]

I'm testing out the MyMix lipstick kit from TKB Trading.com tonight, and apparently it's okay to use whatever lip-safe TKB micas I want. I'll try some blues, oranges, and purples and tell you how it works.

 

[Kragey]

Finished playing with the kit last night. I'm diggin' it!

Here are the results:
http://i50.tinypic.com/2ih8qvk.jpg

My review:
YouTube - Review: TKB Trading's MyMix Melt and Pour Lipstick Kit

 

[swaly]

SWATCHES! finally!

These are Lime Crime's lipsticks, from left to right:
Cosmopop, Oh No She Didn't, Styletto, D'lilac, Great Pink Planet, Retrofuturist, Centrifuschia, Airborne Unicorn, Countessa Fluorescent, My Beautiful Rocket.

The formulation is similar throughout the line--very creamy, opaque, glossy. Out of all of them, the black is the shiniest and therefore hard for me to use, as it slips and slides. And since it's BLACK, it's really not a color you want getting all over your teeth/face.

These are the Sinful Colors lipsticks.

The top row is, from left to right:
Blue Magic, Bonsai, Mardigras, Charisma, Sensuality, Legacy, Grape Jelly, Raindrops, Twist of Lime

The bottom row is, from left to right:
Lizzy the Lizard, Radioactivity, Cotton Candy, Chaos, Envy, Omniscience, Fairy Dust, Silver Stone, Oceanfront

Charisma I think was either rancid or just a total dud of a formula, as it doesn't actually apply. It's the texture of a crayon. The wax will smear off if you crush it against your skin but otherwise no payoff at all. Some colors (like Legacy) are VERY pigmented and smooth. But overall the silvers, greens and blues are very light and shimmery.

Finally, Morgana Minerals' lipsticks.

The top row is, from left to right:
Sugar Plum Rum, Glittering Pointsettia, Sub Zero, Serenity, Violet's Kiss, Slime, Grape, Spellbound, Nightshade

The bottom row is, from left to right:
Ice Queen, Lillian, Turquoise, Silverwitch, Blueberry, Gargoyle, Pumpkin Eater, Serpent, Gunmetal Blue, Shrieking Violet

First impressions: I could tell the products had been made and packed with care. They are also clearly homemade/handmade as each lipstick was slightly nicked or crooked...not unforgivably so, but enough to tell it was done by hand. Overall, I don't mind, but some of the lipsticks lean precariously close to the wall of the tube, and I don't want them getting crushed.

The formulation is curious. It's densely pigmented, but the pigmentation is "transparent." If I had to hazard a guess, I would think they are mostly micas or other shimmery colorants in a lipid base, without any opaque dyes/pigments. Morgana lipsticks contrast sharply with Lime Crime and are nearly opposite. Morgana lipsticks are darker and shimmery and sheer despite being densely pigmented (if that makes sense), whereas Lime Crime are pastel and totally opaque. There is also a strong smell of something like flaxseed oil, or some sort of veggie fat. It doesn't put me off, but it worries me in terms of future rancidity.

The lipsticks definitely have to warm up before you use them so hold them against your lips for a bit. They drag at first and seem waxy but they're not the cheap kind of waxy--they just need to become warm and smooth to use.

So far, I like it, but some of the colors look messy on my lips, because it's impossible to get an opaque covering. Bits of lip-color come through. So I'm still working on how to achieve a denser covering--I've tried patting on translucent face powder in between layers, which helped a tiny bit.

Anyway, it's late and this isn't a very good review, so if you have any questions about any of the products ask away and I will answer in the morning!

 

[Kragey]

^ I'm really confused as to how your Morgana lipsticks are not opaque. I've gotten a decent number of them and they're very smooth and pigmented for me, super-creamy, one-stroke opacity. Others have had pretty much the same experience (although some of the samples end up kinda dry, so the samples may have an "off" texture). Maybe there was something wrong with yours? They are, after all, hand-poured, so errors are possible.

Have you tried contacting the owner Melissa? She's very sweet and could tell you if there's something wrong with your product.

 

[swaly]

It's difficult to explain. Like I said, the pigmentation is dense, but it doesn't have an actual opaque base. It's like dense shimmer suspended in a transparent base.

I don't think anything is wrong with my lipsticks, they're just not the absolutely matte opacity I'm used to with MAC or NARS lipsticks. They're definitely richly colored, but not in a way that completely covers my liptone.

 

[Kragey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swaly It's difficult to explain. Like I said, the pigmentation is dense, but it doesn't have an actual opaque base. It's like dense shimmer suspended in a transparent base. I don't think anything is wrong with my lipsticks, they're just not the absolutely matte opacity I'm used to with MAC or NARS lipsticks. They're definitely richly colored, but not in a way that completely covers my liptone.

Oh no no no, I get that, it just doesn't sound correct to me. They cover my lips in one stroke versus my experience with the Lime Crime lipsticks, which were waxy and slid all over the place. (I'm not calling you a liar, I'm just super-confused as to why our products are so different.) But then again, everybody's experience will be different.

 

[Junkie]

Ok - these are all mine. All OCC Lip Tars and a few I've mixed myself (in the jars).

I fell in love with these when I saw MissChievous use them on her YouTube channel and then shortly after xSparkage and Petrilude reviewed them - seems they were a hit at last years LA IMATS, so when I learned they were coming to the Toronto IMATS I bought a bunch.

The texture is very nice, like a gloss and a little goes a long way in terms of colour pay off and blendability, however, they're not that great for covering the lines in the lips and slide around a bit. Apparently, they also don't work well with other lip products other than their own brand - I haven't found this to be a problem myself. I've mixed them with other glosses and it doesn't affect them IMO.

Blending and making your own colours can be a hassle. NSFW (red) is so strong - you really have to use your colour theory skills when trying to dupe or make a certain colour you want. I usually mix with another clear gloss as a base to tone it down and add pigments or glitters (hence my purple Electric Fucshia dupe).

Oh and if you store them too long without using them, the colour separates from the gloss and looks like this (I just shake 'em back up a bit and they seem ok):

L-R: Traffic, Felicia, Rx, Botanical, Safety Orange, NSFW, Tarred, Feathered
L-R: Grandma, Hush, Melange, Plum

I didn't pick up any of the pinks, but now I'm kicking myself for not getting atleast Anime or Pageant.

My mixtures:

 

[swaly]

oh man yours are all so nicely packaged/labeled! I got mine way back and they're just unlabeled clear tubes

 

[kabuki_KILLER]

The thing about Lime Crime lipstick is that of the colors I want, none of them would look good on me. Pastels like D'lilac and Great Pink Planet would make me look ganguro and positively atrocious, even though I'm quite light.

I was on the brink of purchasing the whole she-bam from Morgana's Minerals, but swaly points out an important thing...they are pigments suspended in a sheer base. Maybe I'll get some samples. If it doesn't work out, I'll have to mix my own. **sigh** I used to use a lot of Manic Panic, but since I started with MAC and high end, I have gotten a lot more picky about coverage, evenness and all that. Anyone else feel that way?

 

[lilibat]

I got several of the lipsticks from Morgana and lilian seems a bit sheer but the others are opaque to me. Lilian over Grape is amazingthough. The turquoise matches the roots of my hair perfectly, and is the same colour as mufe 12L aqua eyes pencil. Sub Zero is the same colour as MAC sea me shadestick.

I tested out all the ones I got and they wore just as long as my MAC lipsticks and actually felt similar going on. The samples were dry and ick though. I think these need to be used asap due to being natural & lacking in preservatives.

 

[Kragey]

YouTube - Review: Morgana Minerals Vegan Lipsticks