Sunday, June 16, 2013

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Stila 'After Glow' Lip Colour (Review & Swatches)

Good Day All!

I've still been a bit flat chat with life at the moment (hopefully soon I can reach a nice equilibrium between being a hermit and being social! haha), but I have been trying to wear lots of new products and test them out so I can report my findings to you!

Today's "Under the Microscope" are the new Stila 'After Glow' Lip colours. Stila is not a brand I am overly familiar with, in fact, these lippies were my first purchases from the brand! (Now, however I find myself logging onto beautybay.com quite frequently and adding a few bits to my cart. Whoops!).

These were marketed at festival-goers for the warmer weather (sorry, but festivals are not my deal!). But what attracted me to these was the fact they glow under UV light. YES THEY GLOW! Woohoo! (and now that I've acquired a UV torch I can actually provide proof of their claims! haha). I am a sucker for anything UV and I was sucked into these too, no exception!

There are six colours in total available and I have three I will review for you today.

Stila After Glow Lip Colour
The packaging is pen-style (a la Clinque, Nars, Bite Beauty and the like). I don't really have a problem with this as long as the lid stays on! (Which this one does). It's glossy black packaging with co-ordinating colour print depending on what colour you have! (This is a nifty feature for makeup hoarders like me because you can look in your bag and pull out the right colour and be confident you get it right the first time! lol). They have a pointed tip (which is good as long as you keep it that way!) and they WIND UP! Awesome! Anything pencil style that winds up gets a big thumbs up from me as wastage is minimal (You could sharpen up the point if you needed to but then you will waste some!).

Cute Chubby-Stick Style!
Electric Pink: A bright medium barbie pink.
Vivid Violet: A slight red-based violet. It's vivid (as it's named) but I wouldn't say it's overly bright. You could easily get away with wearing it in winter that's for sure!
Tangerine Dream: A bright orange. It's almost like a sheer version of Morange... (I smell a dupe test!).

L-R: Electric Pink, Vivid Violet and Tangerine Dream
I am actually suitably impressed with these. They are pigmented, but the opacity is not as intense as what I usually go for. However I find myself not minding. They are a bit more balmy, and don't feel quite as drying as most lippies (these are a good option if you can't really deal with matte lippies). A good option if you still want a decent, bright/colourful lip but don't want bold! UV wise, they do work! They are not as strong as UV dedicated lippies (I have some Kryolan ones which are so bright they almost want to poke your eyes out!). However, the not-so-strong UV is actually a good thing to avoid those embarrassing my-lippy-has-gone-bad-and-now-it-stands-out-like-a-sore-thumb moments! Electric Pink is the brightest of the bunch, but there is enough fluorescence in the others to still make an impact!

L-R: Electric Pink, Vivid Violet and Tangerine Dream
Unfortunately I haven't got a decent road-test photo! (But you can trust me that they're nice!). I wore Vivid Violet with a touch of Electric Pink over it, it was a nice combo! Wear time is not the longest compared to other lippies I have but you do get a few hours out of it before a touch up is needed (less if you eat of course). You also get a slight stain left but nothing massive. I can, however, offer a pic with me testing out the UV-ness! Pretty cool I reckon!
After Glow Lip Colour under blacklight!
Size wise, you are getting 2.9 grams of product for AUD$25 (Available from Mecca Cosmetica). This is actually quite generous/reasonable (for comparison MAC lippies are 3.0 grams for AUD$36). You can also buy these from beautybay.com (they do ship to Australia) and if you're a bargainista you may be able to snare them for a couple of dollars cheaper (depending on how good the Aussie dollar is! haha).

The other colours available are: Party Pink, Rave Red and Festive Fuchsia. (Festive Fuchsia may be on it's way to me soon... Whoops!).

All in all, these do get a thumbs up from me! Have you tried them? Thoughts?
Love,
Your PM x

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