A few days ago, my boyfriend found the new Revlon items I have been searching for. In addition to the ones he purchased, I also purchased Striking for a total of five out of the ten new matte balms from Revlon. I was super excited to try these since I love a matte finish lip products so I just had to dive in as soon as I could and test some out, as well as swatch the rest in the collection.
From left to right: Showy, Sultry, Striking, Standout, Shameless
Unlike the Balm Stain's, these are not shrink-wrapped. They have a small piece of tape and I don't like it because it makes it easier for people to open it to tamper with it. I tried to peel it off & seal it back to see if it is noticeable if it has been tampered with & I was not really able to tell because it just taped right back on to how it was before.
These are the lip swatches I have also posted on my instagram.
Full-face with the lip products.
Showy: Bright candy pink. Although in the full-face picture it shows more as a bubble-gum pink, I feel like it looks a lot more like the lip swatch in person where it has a slight lavender tint to it. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like bright and light colors like these normally shows up a bit lavender on me while it does not to many others (such as Candy Yum Yum) so it might be different on me depending on my skintone/lip pigmentation. This applied a lot lighter than I thought it would because it looked like it would be a magenta from the packaging. This shade definitely shows the dry patches on the lips a lot more than the other shades so I would recommend exfoliating before using this.
Sultry: Mauvey-pink. This was very pigmented and one of my favorites. It is a nice shade for everyday wear because it is like a neutral, but not very neutral.
Striking: Tomato Red/Red-Orange. This was a surprise favorite because I thought it would be more of an orange, but after trying it, it kind of reminded me of Maybelline's Vibrant Mandarin, but this is more on the red side. This is very wearable.
Standout: Classic red. This is similar to many reds that I own so this is not a "must" have if you have a lot of reds, but it was very nice.
Shameless: This shade was the shade I was most excited for because I absolutely love purple lip colors! However, this was not as pigmented as the others I have tried because it required more swipes and it applied a bit patchy. It definitely reminds me of one of the recent limited edition Maybelline purple lipsticks.
Overall, these dried into a nice matte shade, but nothing that is super matte like MAC Cosmetics Retro Matte, but more of a regular matte where it is not very drying. Although it is not as moisturizing as the Revlon's Balm Stains since these are not balms, they did not feel drying the first two hours of wear, but it felt drying a while after that. It has a very lightweight feeling so that is good because sometimes, mattes sit weirdly on my lips. Like the Balm Stains, these have a minty scent to it and it has a slight tingle to it, but nothing that tingles too much, so if you do not like the Balm Stains for the scent, these would probably not be for you. I find that after these set, they do not transfer much. The formula was also pretty consistent with all the ones I have tried except for Shameless, which was a bit patchy. They glided on smoothly without tug & it was perfect! The only thing I would have liked better is if these were shrink-wrapped rather than it having just a piece of tape over it.
My boyfriend picked them up for me from Bed Bath & Beyond for $6.99 each and I am still unsure if these are supposed to be a part of the Holiday/Winter collection or Spring because when I first heard about these, they were supposed to be a part of the Spring collection. Since these are already at Bed Bath & Beyond, these may pop up soon at local drugstores that usually carries Revlon, but the price may vary. I would also like to note that six out of the ten of the matte balms only have one of each color per display, while the lacquer balms have two of each color in the display. The ones with only one each are Shameless, Standout, Mischievous, Elusive, Striking & Complex.
What do you think about these Matte Balms from Revlon? Are you a fan of mattes? Are you looking forward to the Lacquer Balms more?
