There is nothing (well almost nothing) that a new lipstick can't fix, right? It's the first product I go buy when I am having a bad day. It can be a fancy one from Chanel or a gloss from the drugstore, either way a new lip color can be a great pick-me-up. Here are three new lip launches from Clinique, Lipstick Queen and Dolce & Gabbana that are worth checking out next time you are having a case of the Mondays (or because you are a makeup fanatic like me and have no self control):
1. Clinique Pop Lip Color + Primer - I don't know if it was the names or the colors, but either way I fell instantly in love with these cute new lip colors from Clinique. But let me be honest, I was more jazzed about the concept of them than trying the actual formula because I had assumed they would be sheer, lightly pigmented and more of a tinted balm. Well, this could not be further from the truth! Holy cow - these lip colors pack a serious punch (har, har, har) of color! And they feel like this creamy, moisturizing dream on the lips - smoothing out any dry patches and making the fine lines in my lips look less noticeable. Cute names, adorable packaging and a formula I love? You win, Clinique.
2. Dolce & Gabbana Dolce Matte Lipsticks - While I was not quite sure what to expect with the Clinique lip colors, I knew exactly what to expect with these new matte lipsticks from Dolce & Gabbana. They were exactly the seriously pigmented and intensely matte formulas I imagined. I typically wear lipsticks more than lip glosses, and have come to really love a matte texture on the lips. But even with a matte finish, this D&G lipstick manages to glide easily onto the lips rather than pulling and dragging like matte lipsticks of years ago. I know this may surprise all of you, but my favorite of the two was Inferno. So dark and vampy but so fierce! Dark lip shades can be a bit more high maintenance to wear because they need to be applied evenly and lips need to be exfoliated and well moisturized. I did not swatch it below with any lip liner or primer, because I wanted to show the true application but I have found that priming the lip with a nude lip liner and using a lip brush made for a much smoother finish. Here is a picture I posted to instagram of me wearing it after using this technique and it came out beautiful. I know summer is a time for bright colors, but it can't hurt to break the rules a bit and sport a dark lip every now and then.
3. Lipstick Queen Cupids Bow Lip Pencils - I'm probably a bit biased with this new formula, because two of my holy grail lip colors are from Lipstick Queen. This formula in the shade Pink Bluff is one of my favorite "my lip color but better" shades, and this Lipstick Queen formula in the shade Saint Pinky Nude is another holy grail. As you can see from the below swatches, these colors are not for the faint of heart since they give opaque coverage. Luckily there is a great range of both natural shades mixed with bold, daring shades to appease everyone. These go on extremely creamy so be sure not to leave them laying around in the sun or warmer temperatures (I learned this the hard way sadly), but instantly dry down to a creamy matte finish and do.not.move. There is a slight lipstain quality about them because of this intense staying power so be prepared to grab your cleansing oil at night to remove them. Because the pencil itself is a quite narrow and skinny, they give a more precise application than many other jumbo pencils. And so with another launch, my love affair with Lipstick Queen continues.
Here are all the swatches of each formula and color.
