Mid Level Management (MLM) companies hawking "miracle" or "unicorn" products seem to be on the rise lately. One of the most recent brands to come across my radar is Lipsense. Lipsense is sort of the Lularoe of lipstick, a slightly overpriced yet strangely attractive product that promises to be special. Yet just like the inner cheapskate in me recoiled at paying $25 for a pair of leggings, neither did I want to shell out $25 for one lip product. Most of my makeup is of the under $5 variety.
I'm not a huge makeup person in that my cosmetic product collection is not nearly as huge as my clothing, bath and body, nail polish or wax collection and I tend to wear the same handful of products regularly.
However one thing that intrigued me about Lipsense is that it promised up to 18 hours of lip color that stays put. I would love results like that because I really do hate reapplying lip color and I can never get it to stay on my face. I was aware that there were supposed to be some long lasting lip colors on the market, but I didn't know much about what brands offered them or how long they were actually supposed to last. I like the look of lip colors a lot but all the ones I owned had no staying power whatsoever, so if I could in fact find some that would stay put then all the better.
A Facebook group offering Lipsense for 15% off caught my eye, but even that was still a bit steep for my taste, so I decided to research Lipsense product reviews to see if it really lived up to the claims before biting the bullet and buying some. I came across a lot of really helpful information while googling and the general consensus was that although a full 18 hours of unblemished wear with Lipsense was not a common result, many women did get at least a good 8 flawless hours. That was perfectly fine with me; honestly I don't I would ever need to be awake and looking my best for 18 hours anyway.
One really helpful thing that I discovered almost immediately was that I wasn't the only one who wasn't super crazy about shelling out the benjamins for lip products. One of the best honest reviews I read about Lipsense here also lead me to another post here about 7 affordable alternatives to Lipsense. I highly recommend reading both of these if you too are on the hunt for a long lasting lip color. Long story short, armed with the information above what drugstore makeup brands offered long wearing lipsticks and reviews about how effective they were, I decided to hold off on Lipsense for the time being and see what results I got with less expensive brands.
On my next trip to Walmart, the first of the long lasting lip colors I saw that had been highly recommended by other bloggers was Mabelline Super Stay 24 Color. I snapshot up Fushia as I like a bright pinky/purple lip on myself.
I love that this product is dual ended and comes with its own hydrating lip balm. It was $7.94 at Walmart, a couple more dollars than I'd normally spend but still quite reasonable. Before you get too excited, let me just say that this product did not last 24 hour, but I did have some level of success with it, so read on.
Here it is on; I love how vivid the color is. I was worried it might be hard to color inside the lines so to speak, but I found it surprisingly simple to apply. The directions said to apply a thin coat, let it dry for 2 minute and then apply the balm. I did that and after drying it looked slightly patchy so I Apples a second thin coat, let it dry and then applied the balm.
*Tip: do not press your lips together while waiting for it to dry or it will pull up some color and you'll have to reapply.
Once dry, I could run my finger across my lips and no color would come off. A good start!
So shortly after applying this I drank some tea and success! No lipstick on the rim of the bottle whatsoever.
A couple hours later I put it to the ultimate test; lunch at In 'N Out Burger. Mmmmmm...
A fair amount of color did remain on my lips after eating, but I had clearly worn off a patch of color around my "water line" or where the dry outer part of your lips meets the moist inner parts. Even though I definitely wouldn't get away without a second application of lip color, I still consider this product partially successful. It did remain unblemished through talking and drinking which far out performs any other lip product I've ever tried. I can't blame it too much for being defeated by an In 'N Out burger; those things are beasts.
This also wiped off quite easily with a makeup remover wipe when it was time for bed. No weird staining around my mouth, so that was nice.
One thing to note: many long lasting lip products recommend you exfoliate your lips before applying their lip color to make your lips a cleaner, smoother surface for the color to stick to. Some products claim that they actually exfoliate your lips as you are wearing them and that your color will last longer after the first couple uses when your lips are free of flaky dead skin. I don't know if that was the case with this particular lip product, but I have to say my lips actually did feel softer after wearing it, so perhaps I will get longer wear as time goes on. I will report back on that.
Color: 5/5
Longevity: 3.5/5
Comfort: 4/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
As it starts now I was moderately satisfied with Maybelline Super Stay Color 24. I will definitely be wearing it again and am eager to see future results. I would consider buying this product in other colors, but will probably also try other brand of long wearing lip color too, in an effort to find that perfect unicorn that survives an In 'N Out burger. As of yet, I'm not sad that I didn't buy the pricey Lipsense version.
I really do hope to find long lasting products of all kinds to wear on long humid days during my upcoming Philippines trip and then enjoy even after.
Have you tried a long lasting lip product? Have any favorite brands/products? Please share in the comments below!
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