L.A. Girl Creme Lipstick in True Love

Unlike most girls (I judge this from the blogs I read, my Mom and my sisters), I'm at the other end of the spectrum when it comes to lip products. I.e. I'm really uncomfortable with colour on my lips. I have a tendency to lick my lips quite a bit (must be hungry huh), and have a bad habit of running my finger over my lips, and a default position of elbow-on-table, chin-on-palm and fingers-playing-with-lips. Unhygienic, I know. This results in lipstick disappearing at flash speed or getting all over - rather undesirable. I do however, go through phases where i just want to have a lipstick. It is a terrible obsessive-compulsive thing. My practical brain opposes my frenzied brain, knowing that I seldom wear lip products and therefore refuses to let me purchase expensive lip products. That's how I came across the L.A. Girl Creme Lipstick. 

My frenzied brain obviously went for the most unpractical colour ever, something that I cannot ever see myself wearing on a daily basis - True Love. True Love is a rather gorgeous fuschia colour if I may say so myself. It goes on extremely pigmented (that swatch is a single swipe of lipstick) and very, very emollient on the lips. It feels great on dry lips and doesn't accentuate dryness. It has a slight glossy finish that I feel eliminates the need for an extra lip gloss, though a deep red gloss on top of it does look gorgeous. 

The downside of the extreme pigment is that this is sooooo crazy hard to apply. I recommend a lip brush instead of trying to apply it out of the tube. I had to use both a lipliner and concealer to get a good shape. When I used fingers to swipe off the lipstick that's gone off the lip, it caused a smear and (the horror!) a stain. Absolutely horrifying to fix! The odd part is that I find the lipstick to stain the skin but not so much on the lips. The lipstick fades evenly and quickly - about 2-3 hours and disappears completely if you have a meal. 

This lipstick also has a rather chemical smell, and a strong one at that. The practical brain ruled price over smell. At  SGD$10, it is quite hard to find similar pigmentation. (Commence moaning over why lipsticks are so overpriced in Singapore because I'm pretty sure this can be found at dollar store item in the US of A)

Practical brain also ruled over the horrendously cheap looking packaging. I cannot even bring myself to talk about how aesthetically unappealing the packaging is. On the bright side, it's still functional and seems hardy enough.  

A full face photo to show how True Love works with my nc30 skintone. Since I'm mostly a balm girl, I can't really decide if it looks good. What do you think?

Rest of face:

Foundation: The Balm Time Balm Foundation in Medium

Concealer: The Balm Time Balm Foundation in Medium

Undereye Concealer: Bobbi Brown Tinted Eye Brightener in Light to Medium Peach

Blush: Famous Shimmer Brick in Golden Rose

Eyes: Mac Paintpot in Nubile, Lakme Eye Colour Quartet in Desert Rose (pink shade), L'oreal Super Liner Black Lacquer, Majolica Majorca Lash King

Eyebrows: The Faceshop Faceit Designing Eyebrow Cake

Summary:

Pros: 

• Very Pigmented Indeed
• Goes on smoothly
• Does not accentuate dry lips nor dry lips out
• Wears off evenly

Cons:

• Messy and difficult to apply for non-pros
• Stains skin but does not seem to stain lips
• Not long wearing
• Ridiculously cheap looking packaging
• Horrible smell

Verdict:

This is not a lipstick that I would wear often (balm girl through and through) but would be good for occasions that do not require much eating. This gets a B- from me.