It's been some time since Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks were released and although I pretty much bought them as they came out it's taken me until now to decide what I actually think of them; which is unusual for me because I can usually work out whether I like most makeup products within one or two uses but these really had me stuck as to what I thought of them. What they actually are confuses me to begin with; they apply as you would a gloss but they have the pigmentation and feel of a matte lipstick so in essence they're a liquid lipstick, similar to Limecrime Velvetines. They come in 8 different shades, I bought 3 of them which is unusual in itself because apart from MAC I don't think I've ever bought more than one shade of any lipstick but like I say I just couldn't decide how I felt about these so I obviously felt I needed to give them 3 opportunities to make some kind of impression on me.
The 3 shades I bought are Nude-ist, Grand Cru and Hot Pepper and I can honestly say that I love all 3 of the shades; I think Nude-ist is an amazing day to night colour and the other 2 are among my favourite shades for night time looks. It's just the formula, my god is it hard to work with. I actually don't mind the doe-foot applicator, I can work with that it's just that the product is so thick so it doesn't apply evenly at all and heaven forbid that you get it outside of your lips because that isn't coming off in one clean swipe because it stains (the staining isn't a bad thing if it applies clean and evenly!). They're brilliantly pigmented, don't get me wrong and when they're freshly applied (after you've taken 15 minutes trying to get your application perfect) they look amazing, I really think they look very nice but give it half an hour and they've dried my lips out to within an inch of their life.
I've tried exfoliating my lips and applying a balm beforehand to try and make this more comfortable to wear but it really isn't nice once it's been on my lips for any length of time and I feel like reapplication only serves to add another layer of product which then feels almost crusty/flakey (ergh!) and makes me really conscious as to whether people can see said any kind of flakiness. I realise I'm not making these sound very nice but I think it's worth knowing that although these come in some beautiful shades, they're so difficult to work with. I do still wear them purely because I like the shades but I can't say they're a pleasure to have on my lips because they're really not. I would imagine that anyone with a hint of dryness on their lips will find the same problems and even those with perfectly hydrated lips might find these hard to apply. I have tried to apply a balm over the top of these to relieve some of the dryness but then that just defeats the object of them looking matte doesn't it?
Don't get me wrong they do give your lips bold, matte, long lasting colour but for this I think you sacrifice a nice feeling on your lips. I do wonder though whether dryness is just something we have to put up with if we want a matte lip look?
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