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Rosy Lips


Sometimes, a bold red lip is just not going to work: for example, at work. Still wanting to appear not-dead and sprightly, your best option is to go for a rosy pink lipstick that will add a little bit, but not too much, colour to your complexion.

Pink lipsticks come in shades of berries, corals and true cool pinks, but they are versatile and largely personal.

Best Packaging: Lancome & Jill Stuart 



Lancome lipsticks are some of the best on the market. Pigmented, smooth and moisturising, they also have a gorgeous, instantly-recognisable scent. The best part of Lancome lipsticks for me, however, is their packaging: the one on the left has a magnetic closure; and the one on the right is a click-opening (like a pen).

Lancome L'Absolu Rouge in 352 (Rose Chimere) 

Lancome L'Absolu Rouge in 07

The 07 is perfect for work: slightly warm, a little brownish-pink, it is the perfect your-lips-but-better tone. Rose Chimere, on the other hand, leans cool and almost Barbie-pink.

Jill Stuart in 05 Amarylis Poetry
To be honest, I have always found Jill Stuart packaging over the top and saccharine. The little flower design on top of the lipstick, for example, is completely girlish and unnecessary - but I do appreciate the small mirror. For a more sophisticated option, try Guerlain, which also comes with a mirror minus the flowers and plastic gemstones.


More shine than pigment, the Jill Stuart isn't very long-lasting but it is very pleasant on the lips.

Most Moisturising 

One cannot talk about lip crayons without giving due credit to the original Clinique chubby stick, which is the front-runner of all such lip products which since then have been brought out by a range of brands, both high end and drug store.

The lip crayon, unlike traditional lipsticks, focus on injecting colour into what is essentially a lip blam, hence their high level of comfort. The Clinique, in my view, is the most pigmented of the bunch, and recently they have brought out a limited edition series with Crayola.

In terms of pigmentation, Clinique chubby sticks lean on the sheer side, but they have brought out a range of 'Intense' chubby sticks which are more pigmented. Unfortunately stay-power is not a lip crayon's strong suit, but then again, it was never meant to be long-lasting. It was only ever meant to be a wash of colour.

Clinique Chubby Stick in Chunky Cherry

Clinique Chubby Stick in Super Strawberry
Most Pigmented

I don't own any liquid lipsticks in pink (I save those dry, high-impact formula for bold red lips), but here are a couple formulae that deliver a good colour punch:

Clinique Long Last Lipstick in Runway Coral

Clinique High Impact in Extreme Pink

L'Oreal Color Riche in 375 (Deep Raspberry)
Also try the Bobbi Brown Rich Lip Colour formula - highly pigmented, long lasting, slightly on the dry side but very, very beautiful.

Meh

Lancome Rouge a Levres Color Fever in 312
Not Lancome's finest hour. It is not a bad lipstick - it is still beautifully packaged, it has that sweet, expensive scent, it goes on smoothly, it's a pretty enough pink - but compared to other Lancome lipsticks this one does not stand out. It's not as pigmented or long-lasting.

Maybelline 20 (Pink & Proper) 
Why, Maybelline, why, do you always package your lipsticks in tubes which have completely unrelated colours, making picking out lipsticks extremely annoying (this light, cool pink came in a wine-coloured tube)? And why does this lipstick have a strange play-dough smell?

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