Lipstick is the one category that I feel can be done well by a lot of brands at all different price points, but I know that I can count on Giorgio Armani, Guerlain, Pat McGrath, Urban Decay, and Bite Beauty!
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Bite Beauty (here’s hoping that their new lipsticks hold a candle to the Luminous Cremes and Amuse Bouches), I’ve had great luck with Revlon and Flower Beauty Lipsticks, and PMGL also has a really reliable, pigmented formula as well.
MAC will probably always be #1 for me (they make my favourite shades, after all). I find Smashbox to make really good lipsticks and UD has some great ones too. I don’t wear mattes (or even “comfort mattes”, to which UD lays claim – falsely, IMO) but for creamy and satiny shades, I love those 3 companies. I used to love BITE but really want to see what they have to offer when they reintroduce “bullet” type lipsticks.
I feel like most name brands do traditional bullet lipsticks well. These all have good track records with me: Urban Decay, MAC, Bite Beauty, ABH, NARS, Besame, ColourPoP, SugarPill, Too Faced, Milani, NYX, Maybelline, Revlon, e.l.f., Wet n Wild, Hard Candy, and Sephora Collection. I only have a few each of Tom Ford and PML, but they’ve all been great.
As for liquid lipsticks, I find what formulas work best vary widely from person to person. Best ones for me: KVD, Black Moon Cosmetics, ABH, Bite Beauty, Too Faced, theBalm, ColourPop Ultra Satins, NYX Liquid Suede Creams and Lip Lingeries, Notoriously Morbid, Geek Chic Cosmetics, Sugarpill, and Dose of Colors.
Unless you’re Jacilyn Hill, most brands get lipstick right lol. My biggest gripe is color selection. Bite is a decent formula but their color selection is atrocious. So many reds and milky nudes…yuck, pass! Urban Decay has a million colors and a fine formula but the color offerings bore me but then again I already have a million and one lipsticks so they just don’t have anything I want to add to my too large collection. PML is not bad. Just nothing to write home about and about $20 too expensive to have a basic color selection and a formula a million other brands have at a better price and the packaging is horribly cheap for being a lux product imo. My favorite brands for lipstick is Revon and MAC. Revlon because they are accessible and decently priced and they are always coming out with new formulas. Plus I have nostalgic memories of these lovely limited edition collections they used to offer. And we’ll MAC has everything and they take up the largest part of my collection. It takes a lot of restraint for me to resist buying yet another MAC collection. They come out with a nude collection and somehow for at least one it’s not just another nude. Something special about it and is different from my other nudes. Their lipsticks are comfortable, at a good price and I’m never bored!
Pat McGrath, Dior, Nars, Mac
Personally I am very satisfied with the MAC Mate Lipstick formula: good staying power, mate and not a moving creamy mess, comfortable and somewhat hydrating, fades nicely during the day. The only miss with them is that not all colors suit me, but that’s a different story.
MAC, UD, PML Bite and Nars have all been fairly consistent for me personally. My single YSL lipstick is downright phenomenal, and so I know it won’t be the last I buy from the brand. I also totally enjoy wearing my two Tom Ford lipsticks, too.
Revlon is fantastic and probably the reason I don’t buy many high-end lipsticks. That said, I also love Bobbi Brown for the superb, moisturizing formulas and colors that suit me better than other brands.
Bite and Armani are the two that spring to mind for me. I haven’t bought as many shades from PML as I have from others but the ones I’ve bought or swatched seem very good. Guerlain is still one of my favourite lipstick brands but I feel like shades can vary more than they should within a single formula. I have no problem with a brand having different formulas, of course, but I don’t like when there are noticeable differences in coverage, consistency or finish within a single range.
When it comes to a traditional bullet lipstick I prefer the PMGL formula’s. They are pigmented, easy to wear and last well for someone who worries their lips a lot, which is me! I also like the Guerlain Rouge G’s, MAC and Charlotte Tilbury.
For liquid lips, which I don’t wear often but if I want lipstick to last for a good while, I will wear a LL. My favorite formula’s are those that are relatively comfortable to wear or continue to perform on top of a very lite balm. I like ABH and Jouer, although neither has many of my preferred shades. I use to wear a lot of KVD LL but I don’t purchase from the brand anymore.
My least favorite formula of LL’s is the MAC retro matte lippies. They are just horrible for me. I am sure that many like the formula but for my daughter and I they were a real bust. They gummed up and left pills on my lips and that was without lip balm underneath. They wore off in that disgusting “b**t ring which is a deal breaker for me!
My lips react to a LOT of lipsticks. So far, I’ve had better luck with NARS Audacious, Shiseido RougeRouge, Shiseido Visionairy, Revlon Super Lustrous, Urban Decay, Colour Pop Lippie Stix, Colour Pop Lippie Pencils and Pat McGrath Luxetrance.
I can’t wear Bite Beauty, MAC, Smashbox, Tarte, Milani, Colourpop, NYX, Givenchy, Milani, LORAC, and most other brands I have tried.
Pat McG, Bite, Mufe, Estee Lauder: These are the labels I have kept in stash. Tom Ford is there too for the most part, but I feel his clutch sized lipsticks lowered his overall reliability over time.
I can usually count on
Givenchy, and Shiseido “Rouge , Rouge” and Guerlain..
For natural brands I like Ilia “Color Block “ formula and Hauschka.
Of yourblist, I haven’t tried Pat McGrath but agree with the others. I would add MAC also.
For traditional bullet lipsticks, I prefer ‘old school’ Estee Lauder and Elizabeth Arden. Both are comfortable, emollient, non-drying, and surprisingly long-wearing (4 hours) formulas that fade gracefully. Never had a problem with patchiness or “butthole” lips with EL or EA!
For me, the most reliable lipstick brand (of late) is the Colour Pop Lux lipstick range. I find them creamy, hydrating and long lasting. I just wish they would extend the range a bit more. They have more shades in their lippie stick range than they do in their lux lipstick selection. And they are pretty inexpensive too.
All the HE lipsticks here in Aus are horrendously expensive – try $90 for Chanel!
Another brand I found to be good is Milani’s Colour Statement lipsticks. I am finding it incredibly difficult to get their “I am ” range here. But they look good and their previous range was excellent.
Elizabeth Arden’s Colour Intrigue and Ceramide line are pretty good too and have a lovely selection of bronze shades – which I am totally addicted to.
I like the Clarin’s Joli Rouge line as well – very easy to wear.
I have a couple of Bite Beauty’s – Maple and Nori, but I find that they tug as I put them on and not as easy to wear as CP’s.
Maybelline can be hit and miss for me – some of their shades end up turning pink on me.
For me, Bite and Charlotte Tilbury. There are other brands I find very reliable for certain types of colors though: L’Oreal for nudes and pinks, Revlon for reds, UD for less mainstream colors.
For traditional bullet lipsticks I like MAC, UD, Smashbox, Shiseido, Chanel, Charlotte Tilbury, PML, Maybelline, Wet n Wild (great for a quick pick me up color), though I’m not really a matte fan regardless of brand. I don’t have much experience with Bite because I can never find a color to suit me, my problem not theirs, and I’ll keep looking for one because everyone speaks so highly of their formula. I don’t wear liquid lipstick because they’re so uncomfortable, though someone just recommended Stila so I may try them. I also don’t like the scent from Milani, though the formula isn’t bad. Nice question.
For bullets, Urban Decay. For liquids, Sephora.
I should add that Mac makes great Satins and Mattes, their others vary.