For someone who regularly skipped lip colour until recently, this is my third lip product review in a row.
Close to 20 new lip colours by Hourglass and Nars landed on my desk last week in the shape of Confession Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipsticks and Powermatte Lip Pigments respectively, ahead of their arrival into Mecca stores nationally this Tuesday (August 29). Differences in formula aside, what both of these new products have in common is the intensity of the pigment across all shades and the longevity of wear. If you favour a traditional satin-finish cream lipstick or a matte liquid lip colour, a barely-there nude or a near jet black, there’s an option here for you.
The colours across both the Hourglass Confession offering and Nars Powermatte Pigments are intense when applied straight from the bullet, however they can be patted on and blended with the fingers for a more subtle colour. My approach to lip colour is to pare back the base and just play up one feature, so I’ve steered clear of eye colour to keep the focus to one area.
In the photo above, I’m wearing the Nars Powermatte Lip Pigment in Get It On, which is described as a ‘Tan Rose’. The colour in the tube looks the same once applied to the lips, and the product dried to a smudge-proof finish in under a minute. Over the course of a few minutes, the finish had settled from a velvet into a true matte. The colour lastest for a full afternoon (and a plate of oily loaded fries) without smudging, however I think if I were wearing one of the darker shades the wear would have been a bit more obvious. The formula is very comparable to the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Liquid Lipsticks and I found the pigmentation and longevity to be on-par, however I found the colour range of the Nars offering to be a bit more interesting (I love the CT version, but there are few colours there that felt “new” to me- still a great option if you’re after a tried-and-tested classic though).
The Hourglass Confession Lipsticks delivered similarly intense colour (although I find as a general rule of thumb that the pigmentation from a matte liquid will always beat out a cream- happy to be proven wrong of course) and felt extremely comfortable, almost undetectable on the lips. The finish is described as a satin, which I find to be true (neither gloss nor matte) and although there was a slight colour transfer when I ate or drank the lipstick left a nice stain on the lips even after hours of wear. In the photo above, I’m wearing the shade I’ve Been (which appeared to be a deeper brown online than it did on my lips- the rest of the colours were pretty true to the imagery though) which I applied with a lip brush as the shape of the bullet didn’t quite work for the shape of my lips, especially as I didn’t use a liner. What really strikes me about these, other than the colour range (the Hourglass colour range is always great) is the delivery system- the lipstick is housed in a long gold tube with a pointed tip (see above), and the product itself is refillable. I have 10 shades, and 4 of the gold tubes, so you can use the refills interchangeably. Some may see this as gimmicky but in the world of lip colours there are very few things you can do to make your product stand out from the pack. In this instance, the point of difference is a good selling point for me.
Both the Hourglass Confession Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipsticks and Nars Powermatte Lip Pigments will be available nationally in Mecca stores and online from Tuesday August 29.
These products were provided to me by Mecca Brands, however this post is not sponsored and all views are my own.
