Review: Revlon Kissable Balm Stain - 'Love Sick'

 

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - RRP £7.99

*currently on offer at all Revlon retailers for just £5.00 

As usual I am one of the last people to the party and have well and truly taken my time with hopping onto the bandwagon with the hype for this product. I dismissed these Chubby Stick rip-offs (and the Chubby Sticks themselves) for a long time and expected them to be nothing more than an over-priced fad. After caving and splashing out a full £16.00 on a Chubby Stick Intense and LOVING it (review to come in a couple of days) I thought that I had better test out Revlon's apparent dupes for them before contemplating buying another, and what better time to try them out than when they have nearly £3 off! 

To cut straight to the chase, I'm on the fence. I don't dislike it by any means but I'm not falling over myself in love with it either. I love the colour and I love the formula too - 'balm stain' describes it to a T -  but I personally think the reason that I'm not crazy over it is because I tried the high end version first.. maybe it's just me but if you try 'the best' first then nothing else can ever live up it! These and the Chubby Sticks are so highly comparable (like I said, review to come), but my preference is with Clinique's original take!

I will of course still get regular use from this and more than likely buy another shade too because they're just so easy to use and have an adorable packaging. It's like a chunky little crayon that just effortlessly glides onto your lips lovely and smoothly, much like a balm, and with quite a sheer coverage that can be built up with a couple of layers and the colour, i.e. 'stain', fares well with the test of time and fades gradually over the hours. 

It doesn't look like much really, and they are not as pigmented as your regular lipsticks, but nor do they claim to be. Revlon describes these as 'a pampering balm with a flush of colour that lasts hour after hour' which is a very accurate description. The finish is quite glossy but it feels smooth and nourishing on the lips and with a couple of layers the colour payoff is very good and lasts for hours. Even after the initial glossiness and the balm-like qualities have worn away the colour still remains and it is super quick and easy to touch up throughout the day.

Not the clearest of pictures in the world, but you can hopefully tell that the shade I got was 'Lovesick', a very vibrant hot pink - my favourite lip colour. The colour range that Revlon offer for this is pretty damn good with 12 shades overall, ranging from your nudes (Honey), to your brights (this one, Lovesick) and all the way to your vampy darks (Crush) and I am quite eager to try out Rendezvous next, a coral-y orange colour. 

Although I've mentioned above that I prefer the Clinique Chubby Stick Intense to this, I would purchase another of these Revlon balm stains and try out some more shades, but would not buy another of the Chubby Sticks despite preferring them, and this is mainly due to the price difference. Clinique's version is 3 times the price (when Revlon is on offer), but is not 3 times the quality and that much of a difference between two very similar products seems unjustifiable to me!

Revlon Lip Butters

A long, long time ago (OK, about a month ago), The Sunday Girl ran a give away on her blog (see the post here) giving her readers the chance to win one of five Revlon Lip Butters in the shade 'Sweet Tart' to celebrate Revlon Lip Butters' Sweet Boutique. This was one of the shades that was on my 'wish list' and all you had to do to be in with a chance with winning was leave a comment with your name and either your twitter handle or e-mail address for her to be able to get in touch. So with nothing to lose I left my comment and about a week later I had a message on twitter telling me I had won. How exciting!!

When I received my little parcel a few days later I just had to say 'aw' about the little powerpuff girls sticker on the package haha - just a little something extra, and I am extra thrilled with how lovely the shade is!
                                       


This is actually only my 3rd Lip Butter so I by no means have a large, or even medium sized, collection of shades, but I know that 'Berry Smoothie', the darker one of the three shown below is definitely my favourite one to wear. Its a lovely deep plummy pink but not so dark that it looks 'gothic'. 'Sugar Frosting' is the lighter shade (purchased from a Sunday Girl blog sale - blogger obsession alert!) and I do find it to be a bit too light for me, but is handy to put on over a bright lipstick to tone it down and gloss it up a little bit. 'Sweet Tart' is a fantastic bright girly colour and I have been loving wearing it on bright, sunny days (as rare as they are!).





I'm sorry that I don't have any swatches of the colours but I was struggling with the lighting to try and get the pictures to match the true shades, I ended up getting so frustrated that I just ended up going without.

Have you ever won a give away?

What do you think of the Revlon Lip Butters? Are they worth the hype?

What's your favourite shade?

xx.

Fragrance Direct | Haul

Hey guys!

Thought I'd share with you some lovely new products that I've treated myself to recently, starting with and order from Fragrance Direct.

I'd seen a lot of people talking about Revlon's new product: their Just Bitten lip stain and balms, and as I am massive fan of Revlon's ever so hyped about Lip Butters I thought I'd give their new lip stains a shot too.

They don't seem to be readily available in the UK at the moment so I headed straight to trusty Google to see if there was anywhere online I could order them from. At the top of my Google search appeared a site that I have never used before called Fragrance Direct advertising the sale of these Just Bitten lip stains for just £1.99! Too good to be true? Nope!

Fragrance Direct has a whole range of amazing bargains and I could've filled my basket up to over £100 with many different products, not because I wanted or needed them, but because I felt like I had to have all these branded items for rare minor prices! Brands such as Calvin Klein, Gucci, OPI, Benefit, Bourjois, Revlon and Lancome are just a handful of the brands available with prices starting at just £1! 

Fragrance Direct's answer for why their products are so cheap is answered on their website:

Why are the products so much cheaper?

We sell directly to the public. There is no shop and are no middlemen, so our overheads are kept very low. We pass our savings onto you!

So I had a big long browse through the website and decided to restrain myself and stick to only what was 'necessary'. There wasn't a huge colour range available for the Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stains, but the only that I liked the look of most was 'Victorian', a dark pink colour. This is definitely a product I was disappointed with and I am glad I paid just £1.99 for it instead of full price of around £7.99! Then I would have been really disappointed. It felt like I was drawing on my lips with a half run out felt tip pen and then just putting on a regular lip balm over the top? The stain also sticks to and emphasises any dry patches on the lips so make sure your lips are well exfoliated before you use this! Definitely not a winner for me :(

Find my Instagram: Hannahripley1

Another product that I threw into my basket was a Neutrogena Make Up Remover Lotion which was £2.49 for 200ml which I think is a good price for a lovely refreshing lotion which is works well on just a cotton pad rubbed around the face and does remove 99% of make up. 

I also spotted these Hair Masks at the bottom of the page which were just £0.85 each and I chose a de-frizz one as my hair is prone to a bit of frizz. I've not tried this out yet but I love a good hair mask, it's a nice little treat that I tend to do on a weekly basis in an attempt to improve the condition of my hair. I'm looking forward to trying this out and for just 85p there's not a lot to lose really! 

A little surprise that was also in my box on delivery was two perfume samples as a little freebie - one male and one female. I haven't tried these yet because I'm up to my ears in perfume samples at the moment. I think they could have included the green EDT for men because I also purchased a male product. I got the Davidoff Cool Water for men for my boyfriend as an anniversary present and it was just £14 (RRP £22) so that was a nice little saving. I've not taken a picture because it's all wrapped up in pretty wrapping paper at the moment!

Check out Fragrance Direct if you want to find a range of discounted products and amazing bargains! Just a shame I wasn't keen on the Just Bitten Lip Stains as they could've been an amazing saving at just £1.99 each.

xx.