I've had a brand-crush on Three Custom Color Specialists for awhile now. It started before I began blogging, back when I'd only read about them in magazines. Now that I've tried a few things from the line, I have to say my crush hasn't gone away.
Mental note: I need to finally get off my ass and send in that discontinued lipstick I have so they can mix me up a batch of it! It's my perfect nude lippie. What am I waiting for?
I ended up getting samples from their most recent collection, Get Away, and I'm pretty happy with them. I mentioned the collection here, and now I've got pics and swatches and a proper review.
Keep reading for more...
As I said in the last post, this lipstick formula is a new one. It's moisturizing (chock-full of ortified Vitamin E,
Grapeseed Oil, Jojoba Oil, Shea Butter, and Avocado Oil). It's also packed with pigment and supposedly long-lasting. (I'm always skeptical about that claim!)
$21.50
BORA BORA Cool, vivid fuchsia with a subtle blue opalescence
SANTORINI Rich raspberry with silver shimmer
COPACABANA Bold coral with gold shimmer
MAJORCA Warm paprika with a soft bronze shimmer
ST. TROPEZ Sandy peach-beige with champagne shimmer
First the pretties...
In case youse haven't figured it out, yet, youse can click the smaller pictures to make them the big picture. :)
Now the review...
Shall we do it by color, lassies?
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BORA BORA Cool, vivid fuchsia with a subtle blue opalescence
Clearly a favorite here at BSB! However, here's the thing: I would probably call it a "hot pink" rather than a fuchsia (I feel like fuchsia is a bit more blue/purple than this shade). Excellent color, though, with great pigmentation. I've been craving a color like this and it hits the spot.*** - SANTORINI Rich raspberry with silver shimmer
Another one right out of the park! It seemed to be a bit more like a bright plum-red on me, which is still excellent. I'm going to wear the hell out of it this Fall. It's probably up there with some of my favorite reds! This shade was incredibly opaque (that's a plus in my book).*** - COPACABANA Bold coral with gold shimmer
I wish this had come out in the Spring when everyone was grabbing everything coral with wild abandon. If you still wanna get your coral on, this is a nice soft warm one. I had a bit of trouble getting complete coverage on this one the first time I tried it, but that could have been because it was the last one I swatched. The second and third time I tried it, it went on fine and as opaque as the other shades.*** - MAJORCA Warm paprika with a soft bronze shimmer
J'adore! I am crazy for these deep orangey shades lately. It looks really really orange in the pot, but on the lips it gets a bit of a depth to it that keeps it from being too bright and nuts. Careful, though- it did make my teeth look a bit yellow. Again: opaque, pigmented, lovely.*** - ST. TROPEZ Sandy peach-beige with champagne shimmer
Looked too brown for me in the pot, which is why I was surprised that I simply adore it! Sandy peach-beige is probably fairly apt, but I keep gravitating to the word "praline". I'm really surprised at how good this looked on me, too, since browns aren't usually my friend. The answer can only be that there's not too much yellow in this (or else it would have gone orange on my lips instantly). It completely covered the lip, so again we have an opaque shade. A great choice for cool-complected lassies that want to rock the brown lipstick trend that's coming this Fall! This was the sleeper hit in the collection for me.***
I think it's clear from the color descriptions that we're talking about opaque, color-pigmented shades. They also feel great on the lips- not too slick and not at all matte. In fact, they feel somewhat satiny, which was surprising considering the emollient ingredients.
There are some downsides, though. I am really good at not touching my lips or "mushing them together". I learned that at MAC where I would have to have perfect makeup during the busiest times without being able to touch-up or even peek in a mirror. Usually the difficult stuff to wear is the uber-tacky gloss, right? Well, I found these lipsticks, and Bora Bora in particular, to be very slippery. No, it didn't travel over the lip margins but I did end up with some on my hand when I bumped into it accidentally while reaching something the baby was trying to use to poke out my eye. And by "some" I mean a big old nasty smear. I also found all of these colors on my coffee cups. Oddly, it still looked good on the lips in all of those cases.
As for the suggestion that these are "long-wear" I have to disagree, at least in my experience. Sure, the pigment is strong and may even stain a bit, but I got about 2 1/2 hours of wear off of each of these and only a bit longer (3 hours) with primer underneath. At those points, the color was still evident in that "she put on lipstick this morning, but it's gone now" kind of way, but I don't consider that wearing well. To me, a truly long-wearing lipstick looks pretty damn good several hours later. This one didn't fit that bill. That said, it certainly wasn't transient or weak - just not "long-wear".
On that moisturizing note, I will say my chapped post-beach lips loved that I was wearing these lipsticks this week! They're in better condition than they were at the beginning of the week, so there's something! :)
These products were provided to me for consideration by Three Custom Color Specialists.
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