My Lips But Better

These days, I kinda feel like my lips without makeup are just sort of...blah. Am I the only one? In the last few months I've widened my search for the perfect 'my lips but better' lipstick, and have found a few good'uns.

First up is the Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Curviest Caramel. I'm not sure if I ever posted about how I acquired this, but basically, I took a little trip to Boots at Castlepoint in Bournemouth in a really bad mood, where I basically got a basket and started throwing stuff I really didn't need into it, when all of a sudden I was accosted by the Clinique Saleswoman, who pretty much bullied me into buying this and the matching lip liner. And yes, I do really like it, but I genuinely was a little bit scared of her. Anyway, I've never owned a browny-nude lip colour before this, and didn't really think it would suit me, but this looks great. I didn't like the original Chubby Sticks at all, I felt they were really overpriced for something with no colour payoff whatsoever. But the intense versions are great, super moisturising, and the colour is gorgeous. When I bought this home, I very nearly lost it to my mother, who favours, shall we say, the 'barely there' look. 

MAC Faux is probably the colour out of the five that best matches my natural lip colour. Wearing this just gives a more polished look. It's a satin finish, so it's very creamy and sits very evenly, if that makes sense? This stuff stays put all day too, through endless cups of tea and biscuits and everything!

The Kate Moss for Rimmel London Matte lipstick in 008 is an almost MAC Faux dupe, it's slightly purpler in the barrel (is that a word?!) and wears slightly pinker on the lips than Faux, which is pretty much equal parts brown and pink. The matte finish means your lips do need to be in quite good condition to wear it, although it's nowhere near as drying as some of the MAC matte finishes (yes Ruby Woo, I'm talking about you).

Now, I know I did a whole long blog post on all the reasons I hated the Rimmel Apocalips, but I did buy another one the other day. I just couldn't stop thinking about how so many people like them, and wondering whether I was missing something major. So I ummed and ahhed at the Rimmel stand in Boots, Superdrug and Sainsburys for a good two weeks, and bit the bullet and picked up Celestial on 3 for 2. I stand by what I said about the colour range, I don't like any of the other colours, but this one is okay. I do prefer it to Big Bang, I think maybe because the colour isn't as intense, the stickiness and messiness of it isn't as bad. Also, I now use my Body Shop lip brush to take the lacquer off the applicator, and apply it from there instead. This makes the whole too much product on the applicator problem better, and makes the end result actually dry after twenty or so minutes. But to be honest, it's all a bit of a faff for an average product. I could live without this one! It's a nice pinky nude on my lips though, if you don't put too much on, like I have on my hand here!

Last up is the Rimmel 1000 Kisses lip stain, which I've spoken about loads on here so I'll keep it brief. Since it's a stain, it doesn't come out as pink on my lips as it looks on my hand, it just enhances my lips natural colour. I like to top this with a swipe of lipgloss, or if my lips are feeling particularly dry, just a clear lip balm. Pretty.

So they are my top picks, can you tell I'm really into Rimmel products at the moment? Last month I was all over Benefit, this month it's been Rimmel, I wonder what's next...

What's your favourite 'your lips but better' lip colour?