Illamasqua Week - Sheer Lipgloss Review

 In a lot of ways these sheer lipglosses are very like the Intense Lipglosses, they come in the exact sme packaging, have the same scent and seem to have the same, or at least a very similar, formula. The difference, as maybe you can guess from the name, is that these lipglosses are sheer instead of opaque. Also there are fewer 'odd' colours as i guess a colour like green or blue wouldn't show well when it's sheer and just turn your lips a funny colour. But you can get some lovely shades of red, pinks, purples, peaches and nudes.  Again these are £12.50 for 7ml .

I only own one of these, Explode, but Claire has one too, Divine. I've only tried it on to take a photo, so i asked her to write a little bit about what it's like to wear properly and here's what she had to say:

'This was a gift to me from Lillian :) We were shopping around at the Illamasqua counter and she overheard me admiring it's Calpol-pink colour. When my back was turned she bought it on the sly to give to me later! Aww.

Divine goes on very smoothly, it's not thick or gloopy, nor does it feel tacky or unpleasant on my lips. I don't  wear a lot of lip products, so I'm usually very concious of the texture, and if something is too sticky or too drying, I can't tolerate it very well and want to scrub it off, and this is especially true of a lot of lipglosses I've tried. But i can put on Divine and forget i'm wearing it because the texture is so nice. Divine also doesn't seem as sticky as most of the ones I have, and I was especially impressed when on a windy day my hair smacked me in the face, and when I went to brush it away, it didn't stick to my lips in the same horrible way as other lipglosses do (for instance Pink Poodle by Mac is a similar colour but i find it a lot more sticky).


Because it's not thick, it's hard to build up the colour, but for a sheer lipgloss, you do get quite a lot of pigment onto your lips without much work. It's also quite long lasting for a gloss, it will vanish within about an hour without touching it up, but in my experience with glosses, this is pretty good, and I find it quite easy to apply considering it doesn't have a wand. I find the tip is a nice shape for pushing the gloss around on my lips, though maybe because it's sheer, I can get away with being a bit sloppy applying it, so it's easy for me to just pop it in my bag and carry it around if I want to wear it all day.'

Thanks Claire! Kiss kiss.

My findings when wearing Explode and briefly Divine are pretty much the same as hers. For something specifically called a 'sheer' gloss these are really quite pigmented, around the same as the average gloss you can buy. I guess calling it 'sheer' is to show to differentiate them from the opaque Intense lipglosses, not because they are super sheer themselves. They still impart a good amount of colour on your lips, but it is translucent instead of opaque.

To me they feel the same as the Intense glosses, even though the Intense ones must pack a lot more pigment. And, while they do wear off quicker than the opaque colours they still stick around for about an hour or 2 before you really need to reapply, which personally i find quite good for a gloss (don't know if it's just me but most glosses tend to last just a few minutes on my lips before they just disappear or feather away). As they are sheer hey are easier to apply and less high-maintenance than the opaque ones.

So finally here are the lip swatches of the two i have access to.

 

Explode - a lovely milky colour which shows mainly pink reflects but also some gold and a little blue. As you can see it covers the natural colour of my lips quite well.

 

Divine - Pretty clear bright pink.

So would i purchase again? Well i'm not as in love with these as i am the opaque ones simply because i love opaque lip products a lot more than sheer. However there are a few colours i really like and am interested in buying (the purples are lovels and some of the pinks are very pretty) . Another great thing about these is that you can layer them over lipsticks or liners to change the colour. Explode is really lovely over other colours as it makes the colour have a milky-pinky sheen but the original colour still shines through. I think for other people who are used to wearing sheer glosses or lipsticks these would be great though, their staying power, formula and colour range make them still really worth the money. I really like them a lot, just not as much as the Intense Glosses, which as you may know are one of my favourite ever lip products.

Illamasqua Week - Intense Lip Gloss Review

Illamasqua's Intense Lip Glosses are one of my favourite lip products ever, and are certainly the best lip glosses i've ever tried. They are unlike any other lip gloss i've tried in quality, longetivity, colour selection and pigmentation. I have a whole bunch of them now but i'm still not satisfied, i want every colour available! And then i want them to release some more!

The colours you can get just amaze me. White, grey, black, blue, green, purple, orange, silver and many more slightly less scary sounding colours like reds, pinks, nudes and browns. And all are completely opaque. Many a time i've seen a blue or green gloss and got excited only to discover they are so sheer that they aren't meant to impart any colour at all, just create the optical illusion of white teeth, or a red gloss that is opaque in the tube but sheer on the lips. With these glosses that absolutely isn't the case, they are thick and the colour you see in the tube is the colour you will get on your lips.

The formula is superb too, they don't feel like any other gloss i've tried, they're thick and a bit like a paint. It's really hard to explain it but they are sticky but not in the same way as other glosses i've tried. They're sticky because they stick on your lips, not because they stick your lips together. They're sort of 'waxy' but they really don't feel bad. Once they're on my lips i don't really notice them at all. They're also pretty transfer resistant, if you touch something with your lips a small amount will transfer, but it's such a small amount it doesn't often show. They last for hours on their own, or even longer over a lip pencil, definately the longest lasting lip gloss i've ever tried, generally on me a gloss will just disappear off my lips within about an hour. When they do begin to fade you're left with a stain of the colour. They smell like a sweet, fruity sherbet and taste very faintly of it too.

You can sheer them out easily by just using a tiny amount of the product and spreading it over the lips, or you can apply it thickly to get the colour in the tube. As well as being as opaque as a lipstick these are true 'glosses', they give a really great high shine.

The packaging isn't particularly exciting, a clear tube with a black lid and black text and comes in the classic Illamasqua black box with cream writing. While it's not super exciting it is very classy looking and as the colours of the gloss are so bright it could have been overkill if the packaging was very bright or strange looking. There is an angled applicator where the product comes out, but i always use a lip brush to apply these so i can't tell you have effective it is. I have one problem with the packaging though, the sticker on the back is the same for all colours but then has the name of the shade printed on top, and for some reason these names always rub off really easily. So it can be difficult to remember which colour is which, especially with similar colours.

You get 7ml of product in a tube for £12.50. This might not sound like much, but you only need a small bead of gloss to cover your lips, so it will last you a long, long time.

There are a few drawbacks with these though, they are pretty high-maintenance, they tend to feather on me (but then again EVERYTHING feathers on me) and even if i do the finger-in-the-mouth trick i often still end up with gloss on my teeth, and as it's so richly pigmented it shows as badly as a lipstick.

But i love, love, love these so much and as you can see i've got a really large collection, but i still want more! I would absolutely recommend these to anyone who loves bright coloured lips or glosses and wants to try something new.

I have lip swatches of all the colours i own Here

Now there are only a few left i want need to get!

Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss swatches

I love, love, LOVE these. I am basically trying to catch them all ala Pokemon. I'll probably do a longer review of them when i can, but here's a super quick one.
These are just amazing colours, and the most opaque lipglosses i have ever tried. They're a bit sticky, but not overly so in my opinion, they make my lips feel a bit silky. They stay on longer than any other gloss i've tried, but still wear off much quicker than a lipstick, to make them last longer you can layer them over a matching lip pencil. The smell absolutely amazing, like a fruity sherbet. You can sheer them out easily if you want. Perfect glosses in my opinion.

Mistress


Torrid


Temper


Move


Indulge


Gender


Galactic


Fury


Follow


Fierce


Besotted


Petulant


And to give you an idea of what they looked like sheered out, here is petulant applied very thinly.


Fume

 

Perform

Frenzy

Evil Shades lip gloss swatches

Here are my lip swatches for all the colours of Evil Shades lip glosses currently available. These were applied quite quickly with a finger but i think they give a good idea of the colour and the differences in opacity of each shade.

Wicked Glosses. These have a sort of duochrome effect to them.
Diana's Bow

Gorgeous sheer pink with a green reflect.

Sasha's Heart

Medium sheer plummy, browny, greyish colour with a green duochrome

Lillian's Light

Silvery sheer gloss with glitter and a slight blue and pink reflect.

Regular glosses:

Venom

Near opaque black with a slight silver glitter.

Suffocation

medium sheer super glossy lilac/lavender with silver glitter. As you can see i got this on my chin :P

Sinister

Sheerish green with slight shimmer. It looks a bit brown but that's just because it's sheer and my lips are pink.

No Angel

Gorgeous near opaque red, one of my favourites.

Lethal Kiss

Lovely sheer peachy colour with silver sparkle. Really beautiful.

Guilty As Sin

Medium sheer pink with pink glitter.

Deadly

Super glossy almost opaque raspberry with slight blue shimmer.

Banshee

Amazing near opaque light cyan colour with slight silver shimmer. One of my favourites.

13th Hour

Very sheer brownish purple with silver shimmer. This is the only colour i was unimpressed with as it is just too sheer for me.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars

I recieved these from my girlfriend as a christmas present. They are one of the greatest lip products i have ever encountered. They're not a gloss, not a lipstick but something really new, basically a runny liquid with the lasting power and opacity of the best lipstick you could imagine. These are really easy to apply with a lipbrush and youonly need a tiny bit to completely cover your lips. These are meant for mixing so you can customise your own shades and basically make any colour you could imagine, i haven't tried this yet because i don't have any jars small enough for testing it out. They're not matte, not shimmery and not glossy, but they do have a tiny amount of shine. They also have a minty smell (reminds me of buttermints) and feel ever so slightly tingly when you apply them. It's really quite nice but i can't see any reason for it, no plumping effects or anything.
Anyway here are some lip swatches of the colours i got. I hope to get about 3 more and as soon as i have some smaller jars i'm going to try mixing them.

NSFW:


Safety Orange:


Traffic:


Botanic:


RX:


Pageant:


Katricia:


Tarred:


Feathered:
  
Hoochie:

 

(this is more pink and less blue toned in real life)

Anime:

Grandma:

Vapid:

 

(this is more pink and less blue toned in real life)

As you can see these are so opaque they all completely block out my natural lip colour (with the exception of feathered which applies a little more patchy than the others).

Would i recommend these? Absolutely. In fact i would recommend them to everyone everywear who likes wearing lipsticks. Even if you would never wear a bright colour like the blues, greens and so on i have, there are many many other colours to try, like nudes and light pinks and as they are mixable you could add other colours to them to create your perfect colour. For instance if you wanted a more cool toned pink you could add a tiny bit of RX to 'Hush' (a very light pink). There is also a clear lip tar to sheer out the colours. And if like me you love an unconventional lip colour, with these the world is your oyster! Imagine all of the different colours you could make! A pastel turquoise, blackened purple, acid yellow! And the finish is just amazing.

Any negatives? The only one i can think of is that these do tend to feather or bleed around my lips, but then i often have this problem with lipsticks or glosses.

Available from here: http://www.occmakeup.com/liptar.html for $12.50 which i think is a great bargain!

Barry M Lipgloss swatches

Cherry Glitter:


This one smells of a sort of synthetic cherry candy. I like it but i can imagine other people might find it sickly or unpleasant. This one is quite sheer and i wouldn't recommend wearing it on it's own as it can go on a bit patchy. However i LOVE this over the top of a red lipstick or lipliner, the glitter is beautiful and not at all gritty or rough and the sheer red makes the red base look even more vibrant.

Here it is over the top of a red lipstick (have since forgotten which one)


Tropical Tango:


This one is less sheer and looks beautiful on it's own, but i imagine it would look even more vibrant and special over an orange liner. This smells absolutely delicious, it reminds me of fruit salad chews (these are an old-school british sweet, i don't know anything it might compare to outside the uk) i cant imagine anyone would dislike it because to me it's so irresistable, but it's quite strong so again check the smell before you buy.

Also i added some new lip swatches to my Barry M lipsticks post here:
http://lillianfunnyface.blogspot.com/2009/11/barry-m-lip-swatches.html