Revlon ColorStay Lipliners in Nude and Red rewiew and swatches

Lip liners are a new discovery of mine. Don't get me wrong, I've always known they existed, but I only used them on the outer perimeter of my lips with some stubborn red lipsticks that went uneven on my or bled but somehow hardly ever filled my lips with them and thus never noticed how miraculously they prolong the wear time of a simple lipstick. Having discovered that, I went on a hunt for good lip liners that would match my favourite lipsticks or combine well with them and this proved to be an almost impossible task. If I'd had a larger budget I'd have gone for some more obvious choices like MAC, Urban Decay, Too Faced or MUFE, but apart from the fact that these are horrendously expensive I have to order them online without swatching first, so I never know what I'm buying. So, attracted by one of the regular 40% off offers in my favourite Hebe drugstore, I decided to rummage through their shelves to see if I could find any alternatives for the renowned higher end lip liners. I left the shop with 2 lip liners by Revlon and 3 by Gosh, which will be reviewed soon.

My requirements concerning lip liners are very simple: they should apply smoothly and then set to a budgeproof finish. Waterproof is not a key word here as it's not water that melts and dissolves lip products but oils contained in lipsticks, glosses, food etc. 

My new Revlon ColorStay Lipliners fulfill all my expectations and much , much more.

The two shades I picked were the only shades available in Poland, bearing very simple generic names: Nude and Red. 

They are twist up pencils with a sharpener hidden in the back of the pen. The packaging is nice and sleek and doesn't reveal the drugstore nature of the product in any way. Actually it's identical to MAC twist up pencils and all other high and low brands seem to have exactly the same packaging, as if they were produced in the same place.

Nude is a browny-mauvey variation of  nude and Red is this classic cool-toned bright cherry red that matches most of my red lipsticks sooo well.

Both liners glide on my lips nicely and the fine tip makes precise lining so easy. After about 30 seconds they set and become budgeproof. 

Now onto the good and the bad. 

The good thing is that these two shades match or enhance most lipstick shades I've got. They're both universally flattering and many women could find them useful.

They prolong the wear time of even the cheapest drugstore lipstick by 3-4 hours, which is more than fine by me. They prevent my lipsticks of all kinds from bleeding, feathering, smudging, transferring etc.

And finally one more, seemingly insignificant, advantage of those liners: they are sold shrinkwrapped which is a rare thing in Polish drugstores. Buying them I can be certain that nobody else has been playing with them.

The bad thing is that there are only two shades available, however universal they may be, they do not cover the entire spectrum of lipsticks and glosses I've got.

The other thing is that they make all lipsticks go more matte than they actually are. They become less sticky, shiny, but if this is the price I need to pay for extending the wear time of  my lipsticks, I'm prepared to accept it.

Revlon is a drugstore brand, an even if their products are about half the price of those sold in Sephora, it's still is rather pricey, so I strongly recommend finding a good offer, like the one I used which enabled me to get these two for a  little more than the price of one.

In spite of these reservations, I believe their quality leaves nothing to wish for, so if you fancy one of these shades, go ahead and grab it, promise you won't regret it!