When wearing a red lip I usually like to go for a matte formula. There's nothing more annoying than red lipstick on your teeth or even worse, smeared around your face! Matte formulas stay in place much better and require little topping up. So when I heard about the Rimmel Provocalips 16hour Kiss Proof Colour and the rave reviews they had from other bloggers, I jumped on the beauty bandwagon.
So what are they? A matte colour on one end that you're supposed to apply and leave for 60 seconds to set. And on the other end is a topcoat to lock in the colour and moisture as well as add shine (although I didn't think it made the lips shiny!). The idea is great especially as it guarantees to be kiss proof, food proof and completely transfer proof.
The formula feels light weight on the lips and not drying at all. I picked up 'Play With Fire' and 'Kiss Fatal' and I actually wasn't blown away by the shades. The red had a little too much rust in it which I found to look quite ageing on the lips. I prefer my reds brighter and my dark shades more berry-toned. But shades aside, I was impressed on application.
So here's the deal, I was really annoyed by this product. After blowing me away with it's lasting power it came to taking off my makeup many hours later and nothing worked. Nothing! I tried Bioderma, I tried baby wipes, I tried all my oil based makeup removers, I even tried pure olive oil. I ran my face under the shower. I scrubbed at my lips with exfoliating pads. Nothing worked. In the end I genuinely had to go to bed with red (and by this point, sore) lips. In the morning I scrubbed them with my Fresh Sugar Lip Scrub and eventually, a few layers of skin later, I was free. For me, this sort of evening struggle is not worth it just for a long lasting red lip. I think this time the mission for the longest lasting lipstick was taken a little too far. But I wonder if this is the case for everyone or maybe it was just my lips?
Let me know how you got on with this one because I'm kind of sad that what I thought would be my new favourite lip product ended up being thrown (angrily) into my disappointed products box. Leave your comments below!
