I have many guilty pleasures in life: DVD buying, chocolate scoffing, illicitly reading blogs whilst at work, and also watching trashy TV; most recently The Only Way is Essex (for those of you who have been living on the moon over the past few months, or more realistically, don't come from Britain, TOWIE is a British reality television show based in Essex which shows "real people in modified situations." It's jaw-dropping, can-this-be-real? stuff - check it out if you haven't already!).
Anyways, one of the more fashion-savvy characters/actresses/call-her-what-you-will, Lydia Bright (who coincidentally has her own blog, The Runway Towards the Glamourous Spotlights), was wearing a BEAUTIFUL shade of red lipstick in one of the episodes (a still from the episode can be found here on Lydia's blog), and luckily in one of her blog posts she noted down where she got most of her outfits/cosmetics/accessories etc from. The aforementioned lipstick turned out to be....
...Maybelline Superstay 24H Lip Colour in shade 538 Crimson Crystal
I was so excited I was off down to my local Boots before you could say TOWIE, as I was sure it was going to be a designer make-up brand of lippie, but the Superstay, with it's RRP of £8.99 is a bit more realistic for my budget!
Similar to others on the market, such as Maxfactor's Lipfinity, the Superstay is a two-step, double-ended lipstick: Step one = Intensive colour and Step two = Conditioning balm, and (according to the Maybelline website) there are THIRTY colour varieties available, although I would imagine the number would vary according to stockists, as my local supermarket only stocks about five shades, and my local branch Boots about ten.
So what do Maybelline say?
No other longwear lasts longer. Period. Our micro-flex formula glides on and looks gorgeous all day.
No crumbling, no caking, no fading, no feathering, no transferring. The 24-hour lipcolour that stretches the limits of long wear.
And what do I say? Well I decided to keep a little lipstick diary of how the lipcolour faired during a typical day for me:
- 8am: Applied lip colour (**love** the colour!), waited until I (thought) it was dry, and applied balm. Looked fab!
- 9am: Cup of tea. Couple of red spots on mug, although nothing like the usual colour ring associated with normal lipstick!
- 10am: reapplied balm as my lips felt a bit tight and dry. Had a glass of water. Again, red spots on glass.
- 10:20am: ate a banana. (by this point I was running to the nearest mirror. Colour still looked fresh hurrah).
- 10:50am: another cup of tea.
- 12:30pm: Had a sandwich, some carrot sticks and another cup of tea (yes I am tea obsessed). Lips feeling a bit dry and flakey.
- 2:30pm: (guess what) another cup of tea and an apple. Applied more balm as lips feel tight and "bitty" - like they're flaking. Colour still largely intact, although starting to come away from inside "rim" of lips, and I feel like it is emphasising the lines in my lips, rather than making my lips look smooth
-3:45pm: cup of tea and yoghurt. Loads of transfer on mug!
- 5pm: Ended up having to reapply colour as I got the fright of my life: looked in the mirror and most of the colour had faded leaving me with a horrendous clown-like line of colour round the edge of my lips! Lips still dry.
So what's my verdict?
I have to say i'm a bit disappointed. I had such high hopes for this product: on Lydia the colour looked stunning and uber-glossy (although I have a feeling she might have applied her own gloss on top), and i've read so many positive reviews. I am thinking however that possibly I didn't let the colour dry for the instructed two minutes I was meant to, and therefore i've possibly ruined the results from the start!
I do plan to wear it again as it is such a beautiful colour, and I suppose I don't really mind re-applying the product if I had to, but suffice to say it is NOT a 24 hour product, and I hate feeling paranoid that my lippy's worn off to leave me with some dodgy-looking liner!
In term's of Maybelline's claims of No crumbling, no caking, no fading, no feathering, no transferring, I have to argue and say that it does fade/crumble/cake, and rather than make my lips look smooth I felt you could see every little line on them. I would agree however that generally it doesn't transfer (i.e. I could press my finger to my lips and the colour wouldn't come off), and the colour when first applied is beautiful.
Have you tried the Superstay 24H or anything similar that actually lives up to the claim?
Melanie x
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