Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Matte Liquid Lipstick Review
By Maychiri's Thoughts - December 08, 2024
Not what I was expecting at all... but seeing this lipstick
in person confirmed one suspicion I had: this is the outlier among the lip
products. What I mean by this is that there are 2 lipsticks, 2 lip liners and
one liquid lipstick; I expected one of these to not match the lip liners and it
turns out it’s the liquid lippy! Oh wow, this is seriously red... it seemed more
rusty brown on the packaging, but I really like what I see IRL! But what is it
like, exactly? I’ve had a few Catrice liquid lipsticks before and they weren’t
too bad, so I am hoping this one is decent as well! I am actually looking
forward to wearing this intense darker red, I think it’s going to look
gorgeous! Now, let’s see what this is like!
Packaging: pretty simple for a liquid lipstick, but I live
the little details! Like the solid gold cap that creates such a magnificent
colour combo with the intense darker red of the lipstick. It’s so stunning! The
cap is also reflective, but, as always, that means that it’s a fingerprint
magnet. You win some, you lose some, eh. Also, note that the plastic of the
tube is frosted! What a cool little detail!
These two details are why this
lipstick reminds me so much of the Max Factor Colour Elixir glosses, check them
out, you’ll see the resemblance. Anyways, there’s a Catrice logo, in gold, in
the front and some information about the lipstick in the back. But for the
ingredients list, you’ll have to go back to the calendar. Oh, one more thing, the
cap closes very tightly, to ensure that the lipstick doesn’t dry out too fast.
And the stopper inside is the ideal size, so that you end up with the adequate
amount of lipstick on the applicator every time.
Ingredients: vitamin E, Aloe barbadensis leaf extract for
nourishment. No parabens. Well, there’s at least something to try and prevent
this lipstick from being too drying, which is nice, I guess. The scent is very
nice, and not too intense. It smells somewhat like bitter vanilla... perhaps
toasted vanilla? It’s a pretty sweet scent but it also has a note of toasted
caramel or something. Very yummy nonetheless! The expiration date is 12 months
after opening. Cute, it also has a note that it stains the skin, haha!
This is one of those products that requires a lot of
detailed analysis to get a thorough opinion on, it’s always like this with
liquid lipsticks as they have a lot of parts to them that can be good/bad.
Ergo, the swatch for now. What I can point out now, is, that it’s extremely
pigmented! Like, wow! And it also feels mega thick and takes literal ages to
dry... huh, this is a bit worrying. We’ll see how it behaves on the lips,
though.
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The tip, although not too precise, can line the cupid’s bow pretty successfully. The applicator is firm but still feels soft on my lips, so it is quite comfortable to use. I am blown away by how precise it is around the edges of lips! I have no issues adding just a tiny bit more pigment to make it all even, whereas, with plenty of other liquid lipsticks, this is a risk (because it’s easy to ruin the look). I honestly did not expect to love this applicator this much – I guess there is a first time for everything, haha!
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| Wearing just this liquid lipstick |
Colour: dark red, for sure. But it’s not a very dark red; it’s more of a slightly darker red and that is a-okay with me! I prefer these kinds of reds, I think that they are super seductive and gorgeous on pale skin. Indeed, this colour is so sexy, isn’t it? Very seductive and sultry... ooh, I love that! And, best thing? It’s a cool-toned red! It really leans towards bluish tones, which, wouldn’t you know, is my favourite kind of red! So, this red is absolutely perfect for me! In terms of what colour it is most similar to, that would probably be apple red. It’s that luscious, vivid red that you could associate with red delicious apples. Perfect! And a fitting colour for New Year’s – this is surely one lucky colour, one that will bring you hood fortune in the new year. Oh, also, this colour doesn’t make teeth look more yellow; it, in fact, makes teeth look whiter than usual! This is a great thing! As you might know, red lip products can be tricky in this regard, so I am beyond happy that this lipstick enhances the whiteness of my teeth. Okay, I felt that this would be pretty from the start, but I never thought it would be this sexy! Wooow! Well, I am definitely feeling this colour, mhm! I adore it!
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| Wearing just this liquid lipstick |
Oh my, this isn’t what I expected the formula to be like but I really like it! It is very luxurious! It is super creamy and soft, which, of course, means that it doesn’t tug at the lips while you are applying it. And even though it is so creamy, it doesn’t feel too heavy on my lips. Of course, it is nowhere near as light as non-liquid lipsticks usually are, but it could be much heavier for sure. I have liquid lipsticks that feel much heavier and more occlusive than this one. And one thing that I am so very happy about is that this formula can be layered! So many liquid lipsticks become borderline unusable when you try to layer on more layers, but this one doesn’t mind that. This makes it so easy to fine-tune the exact shape of your lipstick, which can be very hard with liquid lipsticks. Such a great formula! I never expected it to be this creamy and easy to use!
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| Wearing just this liquid lipstick, multiple layers |
Ah, I knew something had to be bad. And this is very bad. See, this lipstick takes forever to dry. I kid you not, I waited for 10 minutes and it still wasn’t dry! This is preposterous! Who has this kind of time just to wait for a lipstick to dry? And, you know, I wouldn’t mind this quite as much if it wasn’t absolutely necessary to let it dry completely before doing anything else with your mouth. So you’ll be stuck, forced to have a semi-open mouth for 10+ minutes while this dries. Because, if you don’t, it starts to crack immediately. So no speaking, no eating or drinking anything and certainly no keeping your mouth closed. Very annoying! It doesn’t seem to dry any faster after I spray setting spray on it, either. I have no idea why it literally takes an eternity to dry, but it is not good. Liquid lipsticks should dry quickly, after all! And it seems to be somewhat moist still the entire day, it’s like it never fully, 100%, dries. Which leads to significant problems, but I’ll touch on them a bit later.
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| Wearing just this liquid lipstick |
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And it’s completely opaque, so you don’t necessarily need to apply a red lip liner underneath. It will help with making sharper defined lips, though. But on its own, this lipstick is so rich and dimensional that it doesn’t care whether there is a red lip liner underneath. It won’t make a difference anyways. I love this fully opaque finish, it helps sell that not-quite-matte finish and makes it look even more luxurious!
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So... isn’t this supposed to be matte? Because it isn’t matte, not really. It has this velvety sheen to it that shouldn’t be present if it truly was matte. So I guess it is more like a demi-matte, velvety texture. And I am not complaining! I actually prefer this – it looks incredibly soft and luscious on the lips thanks to this subtle sheen. Were it completely matte, it would look dry and cakey, but this looks so very supple and soft (it doesn’t look cakey even when you apply multiple layers on)! Which goes phenomenally with the sexy red colour... man, I cannot stop looking at this lipstick on my lips! It makes them so supple and kissable, wow! It just looks so dimensional and rich! And it doesn’t exaggerate the fine lines of the lips, despite being drying! Truly magnificent texture... gorgeous!
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This liquid lipstick is quite easy to apply; it is certainly much easier than many other matte liquid lipsticks. The formula isn’t runny and it applies so evenly that it doesn’t take a long time to get it to look great. Plus, since it is so creamy, it glides across lips without tugging at them at any point. Also, it is very easy to make the edges of lips sharp, they truly don’t look smudgy or messy most of the time. Truly, the only thing that makes it slightly difficult to use is the whole long drying time, but besides that, it is much more user-friendly than I anticipated! I was very slightly afraid of how it would be to use, but it seems that there was no need for that!
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| Wearing just this liquid lipstick, multiple layers |
Ah, another bad thing. Not everything can be great, unfortunately. This lipstick is very uncomfortable to wear. Not that this is necessarily a surprise with liquid lipsticks, but even then, it is more uncomfortable than usual. Most of that comes from the fact that it stays so goddamn tacky the entire time! Nothing can help matters, not even spraying with a setting spray. I guess the only thing that could help would be to apply a lip gloss but I don’t want glossy lips every time, and that means that I have to suffer through this tackiness. But what’s way worse than this (already horrible) tackiness is just how dry this lipstick feels. It’s okay at first, while it is still mostly tacky, but after an hour or so, it becomes horribly dry. So dry, that it forces me to try and lick my lips to hydrate them, which risks ruining the lipstick. It literally feels like there is a drying layer on top of my lips, which is exactly what it is. No need to further elaborate how this lipstick dries out my lips, I will just say that my lips do not feel happy. They actually feel very dried out, even though they do not look like that. You know, I think I would prefer having a heavier lipstick if it meant avoiding this extreme tackiness and dryness... this is really hard to tolerate. Especially after a while, once it becomes so extremely dry. This is making me sad...
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Longevity is good, but not as good as a liquid lipstick should be. Sure, it doesn’t fade or smudge during the day, but it cannot handle meals. Not really. It is still in good shape after one meal, provided it isn’t too greasy, but it starts to crumble after more meals. And then it fades from the centre of the lips, so it really looks messy and needs to be fixed, which... is easier said than done. You’d need to remove the entire lipstick and reapply it again or risk it becoming crusty with additional layers. Liquid lipsticks should be able to survive meals, so this isn’t good. And it also isn’t good how it tends to crack if you touch your lips while it is still moist. It doesn’t crack or crumble on its own during the day though... usually. Although sometimes it does if you’ve applied more layers. I’ve found that it wears much better if you apply lip gloss on top of it, but then you are sacrificing this soft matte texture. Eh.
I have to say that I was dreading removing this lipstick – it does say that it stains skin, after all! But... it’s actually pretty easy to remove? Like, I didn’t need to scrub my lips a lot to fully remove it, all that was need was a firm press and swipe. How weird, it’s extremely long-lasting but pretty easy to remove. Oh and I didn’t notice any stains on my lips – trust me, if there were stains I would notice them! I am allergic to lip products staining my skin, that infuriates me, so I am so very happy that this intense red liquid lipstick didn’t stain my lips! Just a note: I used a specialised gel makeup remover to remove the lipstick, I expect micellar waters to have more difficulty removing the lipstick.
Overall, well it is better than I thought it would be, that’s for sure. Am I that happy with it, though? Nope. Because it has some really bad problems. But let’s start with the good, because there is good to be found here. Firstly, the colour! Oh my god, it’s such a beautiful shade of true red! It’s a more cool-toned kind of red, as it does have a good amount of blue pigments inside, but that is exactly what makes it so gorgeous! Of course, this is all just my preference, you might like warm-toned reds more and then this colour won’t be so stunning to you – that’s okay, we don’t all have to share the same opinions. But man, I love this colour! It’s such a sexy and sumptuous kind of red, that really gives off this aura of confidence and seduction. Wonderful! And it looks so amazing on pale skin – finally, something that does! In fact, I think that this colour looks the best on pale skin! Aside from that, I really like the texture of the lipstick: it’s not truly matte as there is still some shine, but it looks so... meaty? Like, rich and creamy on lips, which matches the creamy formula. It doesn’t exaggerate the fine lines of the lips too much, even after smiling. So it serves expensive, at least in looks. Another good thing, which comes as a shock to me, is the applicator! Yep, I didn’t think I would say this, but this flat applicator is actually fire! Like, it applies the lipstick so precisely! I was able to carefully build up the edges without messing anything up, and even drawing the cupids bow wasn’t too much of a hassle. It also picks up the perfect amount of pigment, so that you don’t have to wrestle with a huge mess. And it’s soft, which is always good! Now, the not-so-bad. The formula. Well, at least, without mentioning the drying time. It is very creamy and nice, and it doesn’t even feel too heavy on the lips! However, possibly the biggest issue is the fact that it needs – no joke – more than 15 minutes to dry! No, that wasn’t a typo, I didn’t mean 15 seconds, and that is with a setting spray! Who knows how long it would take without one! And for the entire duration while it is drying, you mustn’t let your lips touch, so that’s no speaking, no drinking, no keeping your mouth closed – for 15+ minutes! Although it might not even matter because it stays so goddamn tacky the whole day. At the end of the day, it was almost as tacky as when I first applied it. This is extremely annoying, as it means you cannot keep your mouth closed for more than like 10 seconds or the top and bottom lip will stick to each other. Luckily, this doesn’t cause any flaking. However, this does not mean this lipstick doesn’t crack, because it develops small cracks and flakes as soon as maybe 5 minutes after applying it. This could be user error, as my lips did touch within that time, but it shouldn’t happen. And it feels so incredibly horribly dry on lips; my lips feel like dried concrete on a hot summer day with this on. Although, not all is bad; its longevity is pretty good. Excellent when compared to ‘standard’ lipsticks with bullets, but it ought to be a bit better as it is, after all, a liquid lipstick. While it does survive a whole day easily and doesn’t smudge or feather one bit, it does start to crumble in the centre of the lips after a few meals. And this isn’t something that can be touched up, realistically speaking. Not without wiping it all off and starting all over, anyways. So, a pretty decent liquid lipstick, though it has many issues. Oh well, I will wear it again though, I really love the sexy red colour!
Rating: 6.5/10
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