I was hellllllaaaaa excited about Limnit Lipsticks releasing a round of lipsticks in bullets. As much as I love their colors, I am very poor with a lip brush, and I'm talking clown-after-a-gobby poor with a lip brush. It's not pretty and definitely not at all Mulanesque, so I shy away from lipsticks that I cannot apply directly from the tube or with a doe-foot applicator. However, I have tried a couple of their products before in jars and I loved their formula, so I sprang for a couple tubes this time and tried one out with a full FOTD yesterday to test its longevity and transfer.
Date order was placed: May 18
Date order was shipped: May 21
Date received: May 23
I had no issues with email updates or tracking. All updates were received through Etsy and I did not have to contact Limnit Lipsticks directly for customer service. The TAT was incredible. I was expecting much longer, as these lipsticks are in high demand, but I received the order under one week after placing it, so I'm super impressed!
My items arrived packaged in this chevron-ish print paper bag in a bubble mailer. I would have honestly appreciated a little more bubble wrap for the individual tubes, as even in bubble mailers things can go awry (I had an incident where a Fyrinnae shadow exploded and everything was covered in Witchy Woodland Creatures. Everything. No, really).
The products I ordered were: a full sized tube of Olly Olly Oxen Free, a full sized tube of Extraterrestrial (their newest shade), and small jar of Abracadabra.
The quality of the tubes honestly leaves a little something to be desired. They do not twist up completely smoothly like a MAC or even a Maybelline. They feel slightly loose and wobbly and like the plastic is about to fall apart. They did not fall apart, but they definitely give me that feeling. There is nothing inherently functionally wrong about the packaging, but it does not feel sturdy or like it has a smooth mechanism. I do appreciate that there is a clear part to the tube so that we can see the color of the product instead of having to flip all my lipsticks upside down in my acrylic holder so that I can see the product name *cough... MAC*
Before we get into swatches, here is a photo of my bare lips. I have some strange bumps on them (not due to non-exfoliating - which I did do) from stitches that I had to get after an ATV accident two years ago. I don't have some strange sexual disease; I'm not actually a clown after a gobby. My lips appear less pigmented in this photo than in person. In person they are pretty pink and make most lipsticks more mauvey than they swatch on the arm or look in the tube.
Here are some arm swatches! From top to bottom, we have: Olly Olly Oxen Free, Abracadabra, and Extraterrestrial.
All color descriptions in bold below are directly from Limnit Lipsticks's Etsy site.
1) Olly Olly Oxen Free - A versatile, medium oxblood with purple undertones. A sophisticated, deep berry shade. It pairs well with neutral and cool-toned colors.
The first thing that I noticed about this lipstick was that the actual product in the tube was slightly dinged in a few places, like someone had stuck a pin in it, as is visible in the photo below. I don't think it's contaminated or anything, and it didn't affect application, but I'm just not sure why it appears this way. Other than that, the color is beautiful. I had a friend describe and swatch the color for me, and it is definitely more pink on me than in Limnit's photos on Etsy. It photographs a little lighter and more vibrant than it looks in person, but it is for sure more pink and less red compared to the website swatches. The finish is the least matte of the three that I purchased, more of a slightly satin finish.
2) Extraterrestrial - This "extra Earthy" warm-toned brown is a sophisticated shade perfect for complimenting other warm-based reds, pinks, oranges, browns, blues, or greens.
See what I mean about my lips turning everything more mauvey than it actually is?! But seriously, I have been looking for a butthole color for forever. Slightly brown, slightly red, slightly earthy. That is my perfect butthole color. I am also NC30 with strong yellow undertones so anything even a little too greyish makes me look dead, or as my boyfriend likes to put it, "it's a liiiittle too light for you" or "it's... interesting", which really means "DEAR GOD TAKE THAT OFF IMMEDIATELY". I love the way this comes off on my skin tone, and it is easily paired with a lot of eye looks that I come back to.
It applies extremely smoothly and is not drying at all. I wore this lipstick for a day of shopping yesterday. I first applied it at 1pm and it lasted all the way until 8pm, through an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel (hnnngggggggg. hnnnggggggggggggg.) and a large diet Coke with minimal fading. I used ELF lip lock clear liner and there was no feathering or bunching in the corners of my mouth, which I sometimes have a problem with. The finish is more matte than Olly Olly Oxen Free, but not completely bone-dry matte (like Viva Glam Gaga 2 by Mac... dear god) so it was extremely wearable and not scary or difficult in any way.
3) Abracadabra - A slightly deep, warm purple. It was also described as a bold, semi-matte, vegan, opaque dark eggplant purple lipstick.
I will admit that I was moderately terrified of this color. It appears more vibrant in photos than in person, but it is really beautiful and not too blue-toned, which I find is a problem when I wear purple lipsticks. In turn, my teeth look NC30 as well and that's just not a good look for me. It is a beautiful semi-matte finish, between the more satin look of Oxen and the almost-matte of extraterrestrial. I applied this with a lip brush, and you can probably tell. Ugh. NEED PRACTICE.
Overall, with some minor issues (such as the dings in my Oxen tube, a slight color mismatch between website and real life, and the quality of the actual lipstick tubes), the finish, formula, and TAT of Limnit Lipsticks is extremely impressive and I would not hesitate to make another order in the future. I was actually thinking of picking up a few more sample jars in more everyday colors.
And, as promised, here is an FOTD from yesterday using Extraterrestrial. This all held up through 7 hours of voracious and aggressive outlet shopping so Limnit's formula definitely gets an A+ from me.
The products I used on my face are:
- Primer: Maybelline Baby Skin and Neutrogena Matte Primer
- Foundation: MAC Face and Body foundation in C3 blended with a damp Beauty Blender
- Concealer: Maybelline Master Conceal in Light/Medium and Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Radiant
- Eyebrows: Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Dark Brown and Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel
- Blush: Shiro Cosmetics's You Can McLean on Me
The products I used on my eyes are:
- Too Faced Shadow Insurance
- MAC paint pot in Soft Ochre
- Baroque Cosmetics Compass Rose all over the lid
- Corvus Cosmetics Berenice in the outer V and slightly blended into the crease
- Urban Decay 24/7 Liquid Liner in Perversion
- Dior pencil eyeliner for tightlining and waterlining
- Lorac Lights Camera Lashes mascara
That's all for now, folks! Now time to recover and put away my new clothes. Or not. Hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend. :)
