"Liquid lipsticks" have exploded all over the place. The only makeup I wear is lip color, and I've been wearing lip pencil exclusively for the past year. I can't stand the feel of lipstick on my lips: That's why the pencil is so awesome. They also last all day. I wrote about my favorite here.
But liquid lipsticks promise all that and more: vivid colors, long wear, no-feel. I've seen a few people on instagram use it, and it seems like the miracle cosmetic. Here is a tutorial on how to wear it.
Since my lip pencils are down to stubs, I set out for Sephora and tested a bunch of them for color and wear. So for the below photo, I swatched on my hand and waited for it to set/dry, then wiped my hand across it to see how it smudges. In terms of color and long wear, Kat Von D and Smashbox were the clear winners for me, and these are the two I ended up buying. (Kat Von D for the red, and Smashbox for the pink). Smashbox didn't smudge AT ALL. If they had a red I liked, I would have gotten it over the Kat Von D.
In terms of extra long wear, as you can see I tested a bunch of brands (no smashbox since that wasn't at the 1st sephora I went to) and the clear winners were Kat Von D, Stila, and the house brand at Sephora. I took this photo after I SCRUBBED my hands with MAKEUP REMOVER! no joke. You can see not all the liquid lipsticks are created equal. Some of them were pretty awful and smeared like regular lipstick, even though they were billed as long wear.
Kat Von D review: I applied this once in the morning and it lasted all day. At 10pm, after 3 meals and a night of drinking with coworkers, it was pretty much a light shadow of red. I was very pleased with how long it lasted and it looked perfect during the 9-hour workday. No feathering at all.
The application wasn't as precise as the pencils (though smashbox does have a pointed tip.) If you have a dextrous hand, you can do the cupids bow with some practice, but again not better than the pencil.
The main thing I don't like is that it isn't really well suited for people who go outside of their natural lip line (like I do). My upper lip is thinner than my bottom lip, so I always draw in more lip. I haven't worn the smashbox yet so no comment there, but the Kat Von D doesn't look like I extended my lip line, it just looks like I messed up.
Contrast that with my existing lip pencils:
Anyone else use liquid lipsticks?
