Trying to find something to stand out at a music festival or just looking to make a statement? Look no further than the new NYX Macaron Lippies for crazy colors to spice up even the biggest lipstick hoarder's collection. As dedicated beauty bloggers, we have more lipsticks than we care to admit, but they're mostly of the pink, red and nude variety, and sometimes a girl's just gotta mix things up. We've been keeping an eye out for some bright-hued lipsticks at the drugstore, but to no avail; until now, that is!
NYX Cosmetics has released a line of super bright and colorful lipsticks in 12 amazing shades, featuring a lime green, electric blue, citrus yellow and even a gray lipstick for the most daring beauty junkies. Needless to say, we wanted the entire collection, but we managed to restrain ourselves and only purchased four. We tried to choose colors we would actually (potentially) wear. We opted for the Lavender, Blue Velvet, Chambord and Violet shades, shown below.
Although you can find NYX in most drugstores, these Macaron Lippies have been super difficult to track down, so we ordered ours right off the NYX website. Each of the lipsticks was $6--only a third of the price of the Lime Crime Opaque Lipsticks ($18 each), which, until now, were the go-to lipsticks for crazy colors. We were more than happy to throw down the cash for these cheaper lipsticks, especially since our delivery included a complimentary NYX Color Lip Balm!
In terms of the actual quality of the lipsticks, reviews online have been split; some beauty gurus say that certain colors in the collection went on smoothly and opaquely while others were patchy and requried many layers to get full coverage. Obviously, we had to see for ourselves! We started our experimentation by swatching the four shades to get a feel for pigmentation and creaminess.
Everything looked good, although the lavender color was a bit more difficult to apply. Next step? Getting our lovely interns to test out and model our lipsticks! Huge shoutout to HC interns Marissa Angelone, Celeen Hefele and Ingrid Marquardt for helping out! The girls started by prepping their lips with the LUSH Popcorn Lip Scrub ($9.95 at LUSH) to remove any dead skin and keep the lipstick from clinging to any dry patches. This was followed by the Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask ($26 at Sephora) to moisturize the lips and make them smooth.
Once our models' pouts were perfected, it was time to have some fun!
Lavender
As predicted, this color was by far the most difficult to work with. According to HC management intern Ingrid, "The lipstick was not pigmented enough; I had to layer it a lot to get an opaque finish." The color itself is a pale purple with an almost gray undertone that is definitely unique and super gorgeous in the tube. This shade looks incredible on girls with fair skin, like Ingrid, and would really jump out on girls with darker skin, if you can get past the patchy texture!
Violet
This vibrant violet color was a winner in our book! It applied smoothly and provided opaque coverage while packing a punch of color. "It went on really easily and didn't feel drying at all," says HC digital intern Marissa. Rich purples look especially great on olive or dark skintones, but they can also work on paler girls with autumn/winter coloring, especially with a plum or red gloss on top to vamp it up. We have a special place in our hearts for purple pouts, and this is definitely the color we'll get the most wear out of!
Blue Velvet
Talk about a pop of color! This was the lipstick we were most excited to try, just because it's so unexpected (okay, and we've always been jealous of how good Ke$ha looks rocking it). The texture of this color is similar to Violet, and HC editorial intern Sophie was impressed by the pigmentation: "It was super opaque from the first swipe; I have a lot of red in my lips naturally, but this lipstick was very true to its color and canceled that out." We'll definitely be rocking this look at the music festival we're headed to this weekend!
Chambord
We're not quite sure why we picked this color; maybe we were thinking about Halloween or just feeling nostalgic for our middle school goth phase. Either way, this color is not for the faint of heart, but we kind of love it anyway. Modeled by HC management intern Celeen (the pink and white gingham shirt she was wearing really made the look), this color performed remarkably well, given that black lipsticks tend to go on more gray and patchy than most other shades. "The color went on really nicely and was very black," says Celeen. "It was also really easy to remove and didn't stain my lips like I was expecting." It takes a brave soul to wear this color, but if you can, more power to you!
We had so much fun trying out these lip colors and were really impressed with the overall pigmentation and staying power of these shades. All four shades were easily removed with a makeup wipe, as well, which is definitely a bonus. For the price, you really can't beat these lipticks, especially since you most likely won't be going through a tube of blue lipstick any time soon (unless, of course, you're Ke$ha). We're already thinking about adding to our NYX Macaron Lippie collection and can't wait to rock these bold colors!
Which of these shades (if any!) would you dare to try? Let us know in the comments!