What are your deal-breakers when it comes to considering a new lip color?
For me, totally flat and matte (not really into liquid lipsticks myself!), drying, and prone to emphasizing flakiness/lines.
— Christine
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Generally willing to try most new formulas, the either rule them out (like abh matte on nld, 2 were >96% dupes, and dryyyying.) or love them (Audacious).and begin to score most of the colors I favor, unless they are overduped. Dry, flat mattes not so much, but some are worth the pre-prep. Never really a gloss person, esp now that i’m old. Toppers, etc: a bit too fussy. Rather have the lip product be one step. Utmost importance: no chem sunscreen.
Oh goodness, I forgot about the ABH mattes – HATED that formula! I get that mattes are sometimes drying but I just found them damn near impossible to even put on!
I just bought YSL lip vinyl in Nude Pulse the other day. Went to put in on yesterday. It was not good at all. Very patchy, felt gummy, just gross. And $36 + tax! Can’t wait to return it. Glad I saved the receipt. So this turns me off, plus those drying liquid lips like Kat V D. They just dry my lips out like crazy.
In my opionion, Tarte Tarteist Lip Paints are some of the easiest liquid lip formulas to wear without that horrible drying and settling.
First, and foremost is price. I have yet to find a lip product that warrants veering from DS brands. In fact, the only time I had any issues with a product, it was a Luxury brand, and that has made me apprehensive in trying more.
Anything with a really short wear time, poor pigmentation, or excessive bleeding. In a liquid lipstick, anything that is super-drying or makes my lips look shriveled or flaky. Anything with strong floral or strong synthetic sweet scents, especially cotton candy. I avoid matte nudes that are too close to my skin tone, as they’re not flattering on me (“concealer lips”). Anything that emphasizes my yellow teeth (my tooth enamel is clear instead of white, and always shows the yellow dentin underneath, so teeth whiteners don’t help).
Just popping In quickly to say I TOTALLY agree on the yellow teeth thing omg!
After my surgery a month ago, in the 3 weeks I was in the hospital, they had me using this special surgical mouth wash (because I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough to brush my teeth!!) FIVE times a day.
Turns out, they forgot to tell me! It STAINS YOUR TEETH *BROWN* so now all of my top front teeth are really yellow!
So I’m on the hunt for good teeth brightening shades right now ahah!
Oh, no! I hope the staining won’t be permanent. Go for red-based or really bright oranges if you go for orange lipstick. They don’t bring out the yellow like lighter oranges and peach shades do.
Very dry mattes, like MAC Retro Mattes. I find them unwearable.
Liquid lipsticks are a no go for me when used as they were intended. I have to use a balm under/over/both to make them work for me. I just don’t tolerate the feel of tight lips that the life is being sucked out. It isn’t the appearance, although with liquid lips it isn’t pretty, but just the sensation more than anything. I feel like when I smile my lips are going to crack and blow away.
Anything too emollient that runs out of my lip lines and up into my above lip creases is a no-no also. I have found several more glossy lips that work for me and don’t travel and in particular I like the L’Oreal shines a lot, hence I have almost all the shades.
Anything that has too much of a minty, plumping description. I seem to be sensitive to whatever it is they use to make most lip plumping lipsticks. The tip of my tongue goes numb and I hate that feeling. Sometimes it will be more than just the tip of my tongue so those are a no go, also.
Anything that smells too chemically or tastes too chemical or floral. Although, I prefer floral to chemical. I find that for me personally the chemical scent stays with me all day where as the floral seems to dissipate after a short while and I don’t notice it anymore.
Normally, anything that runs too orange/brown/grey just doesn’t work for me. I did however, just purchase an orange lipstick. It hasn’t arrived yet and I don’t know how I will like it but wanted to give it a try after seeing Taylor use it on a YT video (Thataylla). I am always attracted to the shade but just can’t pull it off.
Too high a price point and that is saying something from me! I usually don’t let the price of a lipstick stop me from purchasing if it is a color I truly want and that looks good on me. I have reached my maximum however. I purchased a lipstick from Lipstick Queen that was $52.00 I am not going any higher for one lipstick.
Lastly, my own lip color is very pigmented so any lip product has to have enough pigment to completely cancel or cover my pigmented lips. A lot of times the shades are opaque in the sense that they cover well but they are affected by my natural lip color underneath. I end up wearing a lot of reds, berries, deep pinks, fuchsia’s and that is okay as they are some of my favorite shades.
Anything orange based makes my teeth look extra yellow, so no corals, orange based reds, browns, terracotta, etc.
Anything drying or even potentially drying.
Anything that sucks the life out of my lips and leaves them worse for wear. This includes most dry-down liquid lipsticks, some traditional matte lipsticks and even, strangely, a few lip glosses. I HATE having chapped, cracked or, rarely, bleeding lips. So, I try to be careful by researching others experiences with certain lip products.
If it’s red or non traditional colors like blue and green. Just not me
If it has a really strong fragrance, I am usually very wary – I don’t mind light vanilla or fruity but anything chemical or perfume-y (like L’Oreal Color Riche) is a total no go for me.
I don’t mind if lip colours aren’t hydrating but anything that makes my lips look dry and wrinkly and textured is also a skip – some of my Colourpop Ultra Mattes are unwearable but most of them are OK, strangely enough… Fresh Cut is a gorgeous shade but once it’s on my lips, it just looks hideous.
And anything sticky – I don’t mind if there’s not a total dry down or a bit of transfer but anything that goes sticky or gummy feeling once applied gets banished, never to be seen again. Ew.
I agree about the smell. I just got rid of a Rimmel lipstick because the smell truly disgusted me. I think L’Oreal is pretty bad, too. The citrus smell of Bite Beauty lipstick can get on my nerves after awhile, though it’s nice at first. On the other hand, I absolutely love the smell of Chanel Coco Rouge lipsticks. I also like the light vanilla scent of MAC.
Other than certain colors not working for me, I avoid mattes like the plague. Much too drying for me
My deal breakers for lip products are:
Expense – nothing too expensive. As we have seen here on this blog, Colour Pop and Sephora lipsticks can achieve A ratings just as often as Chanel or Guerlain for a fraction of the price.
Lip glosses/stains: Tend to be too drying and sticky
Matte lipstick: Quite dehydrating on my lips and I don’t like the finish.
Pink, nude and non traditional shades: These shades are those that leave me looking unwell and with my vibrant red hair, pinks just don’t work on me at all.
Brands that notorious for short wear time: Revlon and L’Oreal lipsticks often don’t last long on me so I have stopped buying them.
Deal-breaker = uncomfortable formula, meaning if it is drying, gummy, sticky, or tastes horrible,
Right? No one wants something that makes your lips or any part of your face look WORSE, so I agree that anything that settles into lines is OUT. While there are certain shades and finishes I prefer, I am open to trying almost anything. Besides the already mentioned drying and settling products, I hate most reds. While they may look great upon application, they change color on me and turn into a weird pinky red coral, even with a base under them.
I’m trying to use only ‘natural’ lip products at this point – don’t want to be ingesting more potentially toxic chemicals. Lipstick disappears quickly on me, so the amount of it that I end up eating may be more than other people. I like a bit of sheen, something that won’t migrate, and as long lasting as possible. Bite is probably the best so far in checking all those boxes.
I’ve also become more cautious about the ingredients in all of the lip products I use regularly. We all end up ingesting some of them and our skin absorbs them. A definite turn off is bht so no more Fresh Sugar lip products for me! I’ve been trying to avoid silicones (which isn’t easy). I switched from high end skincare and cosmetic lines to simple balms made of organic food grade ingredients and plants. Yet I’m still wearing liners and lipsticks from Melt and Dose Of Colors because I can’t exist without bold colors at least some of the time.
Anything in the peach or coral family (unless they’re very intense and saturated to the point where they could be mistaken for red, intense orange, or deep pink). Pastels of any kind. Glossy (unless I suspect, or have tested, that the glossiness can be blotted away). Glittery. Ridiculously expensive (by my standards, obviously). Strongly scented (vanilla is the only added scent I can tolerate for any length of time). Slip-y? Slippery? I don’t mean glossy, I mean that quality where it feels like it’s moving around on your lips. Dead matte liquid lipsticks (creams, velvet mattes, or semi-mattes are fine). Graininess, whether going on that way or turning that way over time (Nudestix do this to me, unfortunately). “Plumping” (unless the effect is supposed to come from hydration, but that’s not usually what they mean).
Uhhh! This is hard! I love them all! I will not wear nudes only have a couple of those one rosy brown, one peachy but just don’t look on me or browns unless combined with pink or ginger. Love berries, reds, purples & lavenders, oranges, not into pink much I think they make my teeth look yellowish? But will wear a bright one with a jean top to give it life.
I like creams over anything satin or else. They just stick to the end. I really dislike any lipstick that bleeds is the worst! Or having to reapply over and over iof some that will all transfer to a cup of coffee like some NYC I still have love the colors but they walk off to my cup of coffee. No. 7 lipsticks need to be reapplied also won’t last. WetnWild I love them and have the entire rainbow also their crayon lip balms and glosses. Milani is also great! Love lipstick the most!