Stain | Girl Gloss

Maybelline Color Sensational Lip Stain Swatch

Lip stain is all the rage right now. I always loved using Benetint on my lips, and Revlon’s roller ball version of Just Bitten rocked. Now it seems like pens are the in thing,, which with multiple companies marketing them. I’ll be looking at Revlon’s Just Bitten Pen version pretty soon.

Maybelline has joined the fray with their own pen lip stain, Maybelline Color Sensational. Below is a swatch of the shade Feelin Rosy, which suits me pretty well.

Maybelline’s pen lip, stain fares much better than CoverGirl’s version for application and wear. It goes on pretty well, with the pen shape being nice for careful application,s and it stains quite well too. It also comes in multiple shades, which is nice. What it lacks, however, is the nice touch that Revlon gave to their new Just Bitten lip pen version, which is the addition of a built in balm. Lip stain needs to dry on the lips, and is not at all moisturizing, so applying a balm or gloss over it is a must. Of course, carrying a balm or clear gloss is no big deal—I often have both, but having it built in is nice. I will be reviewing the Revlon stain soon.

Maybelline is available at all drugstores and big box stores.

Popularity: 1% [?]

L’Oreal Infallible Stars Never Fail Celebrity Shades and Swatches

L’Oreal Paris has new infallible shades endorsed by celebrities. The L’Oreal Infallible Stars Never Fail Collection has 6 shades elected by Beyoncé, Andie MacDowell, Diane Keaton, Eva Longoria Parker, Kate del Castillo, and Linda Evangelista.

Below are swatches of Beyonce’s Red (my favorite), Diane’s Tuberose, and Kate’s Plum:

If you haven’t tried L’Oreal Infallible, it comes with a thick long wear stain with a sponge applicator and also a balm to wear over the stain. This stuff does indeed stick around! I couldn’t get it all washed off of my hand after swatching and still had a tiny bit on after my shower the next day. However, it does wear off lips quicker, and it will feel drying, so the balm is a necessity. Be sure to let the stain completely dry before applying the balm.

Popularity: 1% [?]

MAC Art Supplies Pro Longwear Lip Stain Marker

MAC has once again assured themselves a place on my best of the year list with their new MAC Pro Longwear Lip Stain Markers, which are part of their Art Supplies Collection. A year or so ago, CoverGirl came out with something similar, which I liked, but did not feel really lasted well. Here is the previous Cover Girl review: CoverGirl Outlast Lip Stain. MAC’s lip stain markers are an improvement on that idea.

MAC lip stain markers look and feel much like a standard magic marker. They have a felt-like tip that dispenses lip stain. The stain itself is decent quality. The pigment is good and it wears quite well. I wore mine through a can of diet cola and a light meal with no loss in color. MAC also has released the markers in a variety of shades for flexibility. One note though: Go darker than you think you might want—the lip stain wears fairly sheer.

Below are MAC Lip Stain swatches in Full of Flair, Style Setter, and Purposefully Red (my favorite):

Because they are sheer and light, lip stains are great for a natural look. Lip stains can feel a bit dry, so I recommend wearing a light gloss over them. Another great use for them is as a layer for creating a long lasting lip look: Apply stain, then lip pencil and then lip color.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Best Long Wearing Lipstick

Total Beauty put out this interesting article on long wearing lipsticks. I tend to dislike most of the stain/gloss combos that claim to be long wearing (MAC’s version is the big exception—I love theirs). But I do like some of the more standard lipsticks that wear well, such as Dior. In reality, my best wear often comes from a combo of Cat Cosmetics lip liner and Dior or Laura Geller lipstick with a bit of gloss on top. It won’t last for hours, but it will wear fairly well, and it won’t look awful as it starts to wear off like the stain/gloss long wear combos do!

Find the Perfect Long-Lasting Lipstick

Real women put them to the test so you don’t have to

Looking for a lipstick that’ll last through your holiday party (not to mention a few trips under the mistletoe)? Well, we’ve found some for you. TotalBeauty.com had readers try nine different lipsticks that claim to be long lasting in order to find out which ones will really stand the test of time. Check out the results here.

See lipsticks

Popularity: 5% [?]

Luna Twilight DuWop Lip Venom

the Luna Twilight Makeup Collection has some interesting items with neat packaging. One that really intrigued me was the Luna Twilight Duwop Lip Venom, so I eagerly went out to Nordstrom to see it and fully planned to buy it if I liked it. I ended up coming home empty handed.

The idea of the Twilight Lip Venom is that there is lip stain at the bottom and clear plumper at the top. In theory, you dip the the applicator into the bottom for stain, only in the top for clear plumper, or shake it up to get both. That is it in theory. I had a hard time getting it to work well in practice. When I tried to just get stain, I still ended up with oily plumper as well that washed the stain away. When I shook it up, I had better results, but the stain still sat on top of the plumper, making it hard to get an even stained look. Here it is on my hand which, unfortunately, was as even as I could get it. This is taken outside in natural light after it dried.

I ended up disappointed, in part perhaps because I had such high hopes for this product. The overall shade of the stain is nice, but I don’t want to battle with a product to get an even color application. You can get a more even look with a standard lip stain. Then, if you want plumping, add regular Lip Venom or your other favorite plumper over it.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Luna Twilight Makeup Lip Products

Available October 22, 2009, and now available for preorder, the Luna Twilight Makeup Collection offers some great packaging for fans of the Twilight series of books and movies by Stephanie Meyers.

I definitely plan to get the staining lip balm. Who wouldn’t want color, conditioning, and natural sun protection all in one? And, of course, the package is nice.

I particularly like the art on the lip gloss.

This special edition of DuWop Lip Venom also is quite interesting and is something I am eager to try. The top layer is clear DuWop lip pluming oil and the bottom is a rich red lip stain. The products can be used separately depending on where you dip the applicator, or it can be shaken to use both at once for a plumping lip stain with shine—fascinating!

Nordstrom also has their exclusive New Moon clothing and accessory collections available for pre-order. Click the image below to see the collection or for more information.

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