A new colour line up for summer from Stila with their Color Balm Lipsticks, £16. If you don’t know the texture, it’s somewhere between a lipstick and a balm, but not particularly glossy, more of a ‘solid’ balm. The colour pay off is good – they’re well pigmented, whereas many ‘balm’ lipsticks are sheer and I’ll flag Elyssa in an oxblood-berry kind of shade as having a Chanel vibe to it. The thing you will notice is a peppermint hint – I’m not a fan of ‘flavours’ but this is quite a clean mint that hasn’t been cluttered up with sugar and vanilla too much and it gives lips a cooling but mild tingle.
The brand has incorporated three ‘color calm’ shades – they say that they give a soft focus but they’re more shade shifters than anything. So, the white shade I have here, Opal, softens red and pink undertones. I used it over Elyssa and it transformed it straight away from vampy to a floral pink. Total mood shift. Use it on your natural lip tone and it gives a creamy, paler tone to them. There is also a grey shade that will soften (either lipstick or your natural shade) brown or deep colours and another neutral shade called Misty that should work to take down tones on all lip colours. I’m not sure why you’d want to do this tone shift when you can just as easily use a lipstick to make your lips any colour you want. But, I guess if you like the balmy, minty texture and want a natural look, there is a place for them but I’m not sure I get it 100%.
They’ve swatched beautifully – the colour you see in the tube is the colour you get on your lips and you might see why I’m feeling a Chanel vibe from Elyssa (last). So, first is Olivia, next is Opal and then the vivid violet is Becky. They’re £16 each HERE at Beauty Bay.
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