Saturday 4 July 2015

Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencils and The Korean Lip Look

*Press Sample


 When my friends come over, they are sometimes surprised with the number of foreign (typically Asian) magazines I own. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, I can't read them but I love paging through them. In the Korean variety, the ombre lip has been a heavy feature, not only on the printed page but on screen as well. Perfectly faded brilliantly bold color is so fresh but still magnetically alluring and the Maybelline Color Blur Matte Pencils* (available in Aug, $12CDN, 0.04oz) are specially made to help you achieve that look.


The mechanical lip pencils have a thin pencil tip. The "melting matte formula" can be softly blurred by filling in the centre lip line and smudging the color out with the silicone smudger. You can also wear the color full on and each shade is bright and definitely bold.


The formula has a soft cream silicone feel, much the same as the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams if you've tried those. There is a lot of slip which allows the color to be blurred out well with the smudger. The smudger does tug at the lips though and I preferred dabbing my fingers from the center outwards to achieve the blurred look.


Wear time was good but the centre of my lips typically fade first, especially during meals, so reapplication there, during the day, was necessary.

When used in an ombre fashion, these were slightly drying. I applied gloss (actually the Maybelline Baby Lip Glosses) to help protect my lips.  The color clung to dry patches, especially Pink Insanity which is a very bright cool pink. Some of these shades were too bright to wear full on and the soft matte creaminess didn't really hug the lips like a typically matte lipstick so it looks like you have a layer of color on top of your lips. I much prefered using these in a faded fashion and not full on. 


Where this product excels is how well it is suited for the creation of ombre/faded lips. The shape of the pencil perfectly targers in the inner part of the lips. The creamy matte formula is really conducive to smudging and being pushed around. When faded, even the darkest color (Plum Please) and most orange (Orange Ya Glad) was made more wearable and very flattering. A thing to notice though, these pencils have less product than a typical lipstick (0.04oz vs 0.15oz). If you're only coloring in part of your lips, this might give you the same number of total wears though.

In general, I think Maybelline succeeded in producing a specialized product for a trend look. You can achieve this look with your typical lipsticks but you may need a lip brush (since the bullets will be so much large and you will need a lot less product) which makes on-the-go reapplication a hassle. I'm a big fan of the Korean faded lip look so I'm quite pleased with these. 

Favorite Everyday Color: I'm Blushing!
Surprisingly Wearable: Orange Ya Glad
Most Flattering When Faded: (all of them..really but) Plum Please

Do you want to try this trend? Do you have a favorite creamy matte lipstick?

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