Try-it Tuesday: Revlon Matte Balm “Unapologetic”

Hello and welcome to the most maturely titled/acronym’ed new feature on my blog.

Last weekend, on the official first day of spring, I was supposed to fly to Vermont for a writing retreat/conference. It would’ve been my third year and, you guys, I love this retreat. I also would’ve gotten to see one of my dearest friends who lives in VT and whom I haven’t seen since my wedding in summer 2013, and I was so looking forward to seeing her (and, actually, talking about YA lit and lipstick). But snow at my connecting airport pushed back and pushed back and finally cancelled my Friday flight, and a Saturday flight they offered me would’ve meant missing most of the retreat. Thankfully, my critique group members were gracious enough to help me Skype in for our manuscript discussions, so it wasn’t a TOTAL loss, but still–my attitude about winter is at a record low this week.

So I went out and bought some spring-or-bust lipstick! 

Probably you’re familiar with Revlon’s various crayon-shaped lip products, and if not, I BEG you to become familiar with them if you are at all into drugstore lip stuff. These are SO GOOD. The original line was “balm stains,” and the one that I just bought is from the “matte balm” line that came after. They run anywhere from $7ish to $10ish and are worth it imo, there’s so much weird crayon-y goodness in there. They go on so smooth and wear so well, and between the balm stains and matte balms there’s a color for everyone, I think. (Or a lot of colors if you’re something of an addict.) (Maybe I’ll do a post about more of them later?)

Anyway, I bought “Unapologetic,” a bright pink matte balm. I am not that into bright pinks because to be honest I don’t know how to tell if they’re warm or cool, and I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to wear cool?? Makeup is very confusing. Hence: try-it Tuesday! On the right is my face sans lipstick. Below is my face un-sans lipstick!

Bad lighting and kind of yellow-y guest bedroom light and…I don’t know, I was kind of skeptical at first! It went on a little clown-y for me. I do not like clowns. But I did my usual post-lipstick-application routine (blot, little more lipstick, blot, don’t look at it for ten minutes), and I felt better about it.

Here are few more pictures from a little later in the morning. Natural light makes everything look better, even at 7 a.m., and even when it also kind of makes it look like I got the stuff on my teeth. (I didn’t. I’m pretty sure.) By the time I got to work and had smeared much of it onto my coffee cup, I was feeling pretty good about it. It’s a nice watermelon-y pink and I think it went especially well with the tealish shirt I had on.

Speaking of smearing and stuff, I want to say that these matte balms are amazing for longevity. I took a picture right before I ate lunch at 12:30 (right), almost six hours after I first put it on, and it looks basically the same. (I also took some up-close “lip swatch” pictures but they make me feel soooo self-conscious, I just can’t do it yet guys.) I did reapply after lunch (left) because I am sort of a fiendish re-apply-er; it actually took a lot of will power to not reapply until then because I just…get bored? Or it’s a nervous habit? I don’t know, it seems like I find myself reaching into my purse for my lipstick a lot more often than I really need to.

In the interest of full disclosure, here is a picture four hours and one McDonald’s snack wrap after reapplying. Not very faded, but sort of all over my chin. I have no idea how to make this not happen and I don’t think it’s a problem of this lipstick so much as a problem with…me… And if anyone has any tips for how to avoid this PLEASE let me know! (It’s not a hard problem to solve if you have access to a small piece of toilet paper, but…still.)

This is probably not going to be my new Best Pink Ever, but it did make me feel spring-y, and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I did! Especially good with the “neutral pink” eyeshadow which you can’t really see in any of these pictures, sorry! So your call on the shade, but I absolutely recommend the Revlon matte balms, and they’re my second-favorite matte drugstore lip product. (My first favorite is Maybelline’s, and you’ll probably hear about them soon!)

What’s a shade of lipstick you’re thinking of trying for springtime? Or an old favorite? Also, feel free to let me know how you like this post format–too much detail? Too little? Too many/few pictures? Pictures too small?