Once upon a time, I used to celebrate Christmas. I mean, trees, cookies and milk, presents, carols, the whole shebang. This was back when I lived in a place where white Christmas was a thing that I could count on happening. Then we moved back to Taiwan and our standard Asian apartment was too small for a proper tree. My parents had their reason to stop all the holiday hassle gift-wrapped and handed to them. No irony intended. But that hasn't stopped me from trying to celebrate my childhood holiday through little things - like smearing on a blood red lipstick. I mean, nothing says festive more than blood, right?there is something severely wrong with me.
There is absolutely nothing festive about the name of this lipstick, but the Urban Decay Matte Revolution Lipstick (£15.50) in Bad Blood is definitely one of the most eye-catching reds I own. It's a medium blue-toned red that'll perk up the winter sallowness while making your teeth look a lot brighter. This is definitely a creamy matte colour that dries down to somewhere between a satin and true matte finish. It's almost opaque with one layer and I don't have problems with it bleeding or smudging all over the place. It does have slight initial transfer, but use a tissue to dab the excess off before downing glasses of champagne and wine going to the party. The longest I wore this shade was for seven hours, with a light meal and regular snacking/coffee breaks in between. I took it off at the end of the day with the colour still holding its game. I didn't feel the need of whipping out a lip balm during this period. Talk about a good holiday lipstick.
The slight downfall of this lipstick is the shape of the bullet. I'm not sure what Urban Decay was thinking when they designed this as a huge round bullet doesn't exactly go hand in hand with bold pigment. It's hard to get a precise line near the corners of your lips when going in directly from the bullet. This is easily solved with lip brush though - a slight hassle, but one that's worth this extra work.
I like using the sandwich method when wearing this lipstick - or any lipstick that I want to hold up through my constant snacking habits, to be honest. I feel like this is a post in its own but I'll do a quick run down here. Dab the colour on, use a lip liner to fill in the colour and define the edges, one light layer of lip colour, tissue to dab off the excess, second layer, another dab, and finally, a slight dusting of powder. A lot of steps, yes, but I guarantee you that you won't be constantly checking your reflection for lipstick smudges on every reflective surface the rest of the night.
What is your festive lipstick this year? I hope it has a less 'murder and gore' name.
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