Giorgio Armani Ecstasy Lacquer Swatches (x11)
Giorgio Armani Ecstasy Lacquer ($38.00) is a high-shine gloss and lip stain hybrid that’s supposed to have “maximum shine, intense color and lasting hydration.” I fear these might be getting discontinued as they are disappearing from some retailers, and there’s a newly-released gloss by the brand that sounds very similar (but has a new name). At $38 a pop, I figured I should swatch the ones I already bought before it’s a total loss!
And yes, Daybreak REALLY applied that poorly. That was the BEST it looked, I promise!
While many of these are doing nothing for me, Boudoir, Amber and Vintage really ARE! I will likely get just one of these, although the glut of lip products in my consortium tells me “no, no, no!” Too pretty to completely skip. ?
This is one of those products I’ve been wanting to try but I was never able to decide on what shade would be the best for me. Now that I’ve seen swatches, I know that none of them would have been a good fit so I feel a little less guilty about never buying any of them. Thank you for getting these swatches up before I made another poor retail decision LOL!
After looking at the formula and retracing some of my notes on similar formula I’ve created in the past, I think I know what’s wrong with ‘Daybreak’. I found that in these emulsion-type lip formulae certain mineral colorants known as oxides react with the oil in the emulsion in a manner which promotes phase separation under the pressure of product application. In this formula you have a water phase and an oil phase (similar to a traditional lotion or skin cream), and it looks like this particular formula is water-in-oil, meaning a smaller amount of water is suspended within a larger amount of oil. Judging by the ingredients and the color of ‘Daybreak’, the vast majority of the color seems to come from two different iron oxides which A) are present in fairly high amounts to provide a more saturated color, and B) are insoluble in both water and oils, but maintain suspended in oil better than water. Whenever you apply the product the pressure causes the some of the oxides to naturally migrate more toward the oil phase rather than staying equally suspended within the phases of the emulsion, meaning some areas will appear darker and give off a blotchy & uneven appearance; the more iron oxides present the more dramatic the phase separation becomes. To be fair to Armani this is an issue that can be a major pain in the behind to correct; it’s caused me to scrap several formulae that were otherwise great. The other colors seem to rely more on lake dyes, mineral glitters, and carmine, which don’t react the same way as iron oxides and are much less prone to pressure-induced phase separation.
Would that contribute to the product feeling GUMMY?? Because it didn’t just look even… but felt… gummy. I was also wondering if might be something more prone to older stock…
That’s a good question. While the phase separation usually shouldn’t contribute to major texture differences, the longer it sits in storage the more prone it will be to exaggerated phase separation; after around a year in storage (opened or not) you would almost certainly see a change in the texture of the product just from the components settling into their preferred phase of the formula. If this is the only shade that has that gummy texture I’d say you were right on both counts: it’s a product of the phase separation AND the product being older stock. Of course it’s also possible that what you received came from a subpar batch. Batch issues are common across all tiers of cosmetics, but it’s an unspoken rule that luxury brands should never have batch issues; you’re paying for a premium product so it should always be exceptional.
I bought these recently (in the last month), so I know they haven’t been sitting around for ages here, but it made me curious about if age had anything to do it with it. I remember having some issues with another gloss-stain kind of formula that looked awful on.
Thank you, Andrew, for always dropping your knowledge on us!
I came to the comments section for other jaw drops at Daybreak, and left with a science degree thanks to this comment! lol. I loved reading this!
I also noticed that these seem to be disappearing and it breaks my heart. I love these, even more than the YSL Glossy Stains. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to collect some before they disappear entirely.
Well, I’m not buying Daybreak based on the lip swatches!
I love the formula on these, I have 100, 202, and 101 (and a back up because that shade in this formula is impossible to find. I also own several of this gel/stain/balm hybrid in the YSL formula. I wonder what Armani will replace them with ?
They’ve just released a new lip lacquer on their site and it’s now at Nordstrom. Not sure if other retailers have it yet or if it will ultimately replace this formulation.