Three things we gals love when it comes to beauty: good hair days, no-chip nail polish and long-lasting lip colour. With that in mind, we’ve decided to test out two lip stains to find out if you really need to spend the extra cash to get that all-day colour you crave.
The Contenders: Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain in Shanghai Sizzle ($14, available at mass drugstores nationwide) and Yves Saint Laurent Glossy Stain in Rouge Laque ($38, sephora.ca)
The Control: Applied onto freshly cleaned and buffed lips and put through the same amount of meals and kisses.
Observations:
Revlon
Pros:
- Silky, balmy texture keeping lips hydrated throughout the day (thanks to the vitamin E!)
- Colour lasts a few hours without needing to be reapplied
- A shiny finish with no stickiness
Cons:
- Needs to be layered a bit to get a nice bold colour”a little low on the pigmentation side of things
YSL
Pros:
- Lots of colour pigment”bold colour translates to your lips in one application
- Tons of shades”from nudes to pinks to corals to reds”to choose from
- No stickiness, just high shine
Cons:
- Colour wore off in just a couple of hours and needed to be reapplied throughout the day
- A little bit drying (just a bit)
The Verdict: While the YSL Glossy Stain definitely has a more luxe feel, we have to hand it to Revlon. The moisturizing balm texture kept our puckers soft and the colour vivid for most of the evening. Sure, there were a couple of times were reapplying was necessary, but overall, for less than $15, the Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain (available in 12 shades) was the real winner.
