Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick: Tannin

Sephora description: poppy red


My rating:

The lipstick

The lip

Yummm, look at that gorgeous red (if you can see past my forehead shine)!!! Argh, I really want to give this one a full five lips rating, but it was sheer enough that getting the color to lie even on the lips was a pain! I think having the bullet instead of just a pallet would have helped, but alas, I had to work with what was available. It's also super high-gloss, which I'm usually not into, but for some reason it didn't bother me too much here. I wish it were more matte though, as with most of the other Bite lipsticks I've tried. Oh well, the color is spectacular, if significantly lighter in tone on the lip than the lipstick itself.

Rock a loud lip,

Azara

Bite Beauty Luminous Crème Lipstick: Pepper

Sephora's description: dusty rose

My rating:

The lipstick

The lip

The lowdown

Of all the Bite Beauty lipsticks I have tried so far (more coming soon!), this is one of my favorites because it is a bit more opaque than many of the other colors. While it is a thicker lipstick, it remains moisturizing, which is always appreciated! Also I find this color pretty flattering, something one could easily wear to class or work without drawing too much attention. Then again, many of the looks on this blog are all about the excessively eye-catching, but it's always nice to have some solid quiet lips in your back pocket! This is definitely a fave for me.

Rock a modest lip on occasion!

Azara

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) Lip Tar: Black Dahlia

OCC description: blackened red

My rating: 

The tar

The lip

The lowdown

I begin my OCC Lip Tar series with Black Dahlia because it is striking and loud yet surprisingly versatile, and has therefore become one of my standards both for fancy occasions and also when I'm just feeling a little vampy. This is the color that inspired me to start wearing my signature double-pointed cupid's bow, which I have dubbed Psyche's Despair (tutorial forthcoming), and is the first OCC Lip Tar I ever bought. I ordered it online after finding it had sold out in every Sephora I set foot in!

The color is gorgeous, and while application can come out a bit patchy, it is such a striking lip that as far as I'm concerned, this hardly matters. I love that lip tars come with special application brushes; you'll need them as it is extremely difficult to fully wash to tar out of a brush once used even if applying a brush cleaner. This lip tar tries to a completely non-sticky matte finish, which I absolutely love!

Elizabeth Short AKA the Black Dahlia, 1943, arrested for underaged drinking.

Equally as dark and fascinating as the lip color is its tragic namesake, Elizabeth Short, given the nickname "Black Dahlia" by the papers after her mutilated body was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles in 1947. The brutality against Ms. Short did not end with her death; the tabloids enthralled the public with tales of a seductress who practically invited assault as her wanton lifestyle rendered her "victim material". Oh 1940s gender politics. 

In my opinion, this lip color captures both the erotic mystique of this imaginary vixen/victimized woman as well as the darkness of the Black Dahlia murder and the event's treatment by media in the aftermath. The color, coupled with the name, creates an effect that evokes that odd way in which we identify sexiness in tragedy and the grotesque. 

Images and reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia

This is part of a series on OCC Lip Tars including:

Melange

Rock a loud lip!

Azara

Kat Von D Painted Love Lipstick: Rosary

Sephora's description: burgundy red

My rating:

The lipstick

The lip
(With makeup by the lovely Kassia Karr of The Neemly at www.neemly.com)

The lowdown

I love the color and it lasted practically the whole day without a primer, although it was a bit sticky and I tend to favor a drier texture. The application was not as even as it could have been; I used a lip brush to put down a base, and ended up needing to apply the color directly to my lips with the bullet afterwards to make it as bold as I felt it should be. It felt a bit like I had to cake it on to get a really strong color.

The color looked deceptively brown in bullet-form, but came out a deep red color on the lip. I wish it had a bit more of that terracotta tone to it when worn because I think it would have made for an interesting lip; that said, I enjoy a good vampy look and in that sense, Rosary delivers.

The look

I created a side-to-side ombre from Rosary to Kat Von D's Lolita. I love this look!!

This lipstick is part of the Kat Von D Star Kissed Lipstick Set available at Sephora. The other colors are:

Lolita
Underage Red
Beranice
Forever & Never
Valentine

Rock that loud lip!
Azara