Oooh, I just love Valentine’s Day!  I love the flowers, the cheesiness, the cute plastic and glitter party favors, the chocolate, the love notes – and most of all, it’s the holiday with my favorite color palette.  Pink!  Purple!  And most importantly, red.  That bright, shiny, not-a-hint-of-orange deep red that screams of sex and romance.  I actually don’t wear it much it for clothes, but when it comes to nails and lips, it’s #1 for me.  I thought, since it is V-Day and all, that I could give you a couple of brief reviews of two lovely reds – one of which is my all-time favorite – that you could pick up as you run from work to your hot date (note, you don’t have to have a significant other to have a hot date, you just need this red lipstick).  If you do nothing else for Valentine’s (including wearing nothing else), slap on a red lipstick.  Make those babies pop!  Even if you’re just rewatching “The Office” or scrubbing your bathtub, because there is a shade of red for everyone and it just feels universally glamorous and sexy.  In addition to the two I’ll talk about below, there’s the Smashbox one (in Bawse, a near-perfect red) Rachel introduced me to earlier this year if you have time to stop at Sephora instead of Target.

The first Valentine’s Day Sexy Red Lip Product that I’m going to talk about is Revlon’s Ultra HD Lip Lacquer in Carnelian.

I lurve the packaging of this, with the crystal/diamond/prism-y thing on the top of it.

While this red looks like a slightly darker “candy apple,” there’s actually a berry tinge to it.  From the outside, and up until I really tested it out on my hand, it seemed to be average at the very least.

The applicator is a straight-up paint brush type of thing, with bristles and everything.  Unfortunately, at even the second use, the bristles were sort of all over the place, making the product hard to control.  The crappy brush also sort of reinforces the problem with the texture of the product: It’s extremely sticky and gooey.  You can also sort of see from the above gif that color isn’t very solid, and moves/spreads easily, but you lose pigment as you apply.  You almost have to blot it on to get solidity from the pigment, and spreading it also makes it look completely blotchy and uneven.

This was really, really hard to put on.  It kept going where I didn’t want to, and wouldn’t stick where I did want it.  To be fair, I wasn’t wearing any foundation/concealer, but the color bled all around my lips and I was frustrated just looking at it.

Since I didn’t like how sticky it was, I figured that I could blot it a bit so it felt less sticky.  This is how that went.

The color was pretty much three-quarters gone.  To be fair, I didn’t let it “dry” at all, but it was so glossy and sticky, I don’t think it would have mattered much if I had.  What it left behind, though, I thought was a pretty decent lip stain.

 

 

 

While I personally hate the texture/applicator of this, if you’re feeling a bit more sweet than hot-hot-hot this Valentine’s Day, a subtle, pretty stain may be more your speed.

Now, on to my all-time favorite red lip color: Rimmel Provocalips Lip Colour in Play with Fire.  For me, it’s the perfect red (very similar to Smashbox’s Bawse).  It’s more blue than orange, with not a hint of “berry” or fuchsia.  Totally fire-engine, but warm and full and hot hot hot!  Love it.

My favorite part of this is the clear gloss that goes over top. The color by itself is a sort of cream/matte mix; not too tacky, not too liquid.  It dries quickly, and the gloss on top makes it shiny and feels like it’s protecting it.  The brushes extend from the middle part and you unscrew brush each step from there.

First, the texture of the color.

It has a solid, though soft, standard liquid lip color brush – no bristles.  It’s very paint-y, not sticky, and the pigment is pretty solid and consistent.

I love the texture of this – it doesn’t move around and isn’t difficult to apply.  The stiffness of the brush keeps the lines really smooth and soft, and even if you mess up, evening it out is really easy.  Again, I’m not wearing any concealer or foundation here, and there’s little to no color bleed.  It’s also easy to add or take off product from the brush.

Here’s the application of the gloss.

It isn’t super shiny or glossy; it’s almost like a Vaseline type of feel, and while you can certainly feel it, it isn’t sticky.  In fact, I’d say it dries out a bit to leave a nice sheen/texture without it feeling like it’s going to come off the second you take a sip of coffee.

Is there an Awkward Beauty Photos website?  Cuz if so, I’d like to submit these.  Seriously, I absolutely love this color, love the actual product, and it’s my go-to.  Since I got this one, I’ve gotten two more shades of it, and they’re all fantastic.  The only downside is a bit of a perfume-y smell to it, but it’s not terrible.

And remember how I said you don’t have to worry about it coming off with one sip of coffee?  About that . . .

. . . These were taken a full eight hours after I applied it.  During that time I went out, ate dinner (including yogurt!) and drank, proof positive being the ponytail and comfy sweatshirt – I realized how well it lasted and that I wanted a photo or two after I started getting ready for bed.  If you need a lip color that’s going to go the distance, the only thing I didn’t test out was hanky-panky, and I bet this stuff would do totally well during any, erm, romantic activities.  That especially makes it the Ultimate Red for your Valentine’s Day.  Any day of the year, though, this Rimmel Provocalips will get you not only through the day, but conquering it.

Everyone have a fabulous, romantic, happy Valentine’s Day!