little white truths

These lip gels have been doing the rounds in the beauty community for a while now and I know a lot of people who swear by them.

For this reason I bought myself three last year when Priceline had one of its big sales, and I opened them towards the beginning of the year - although I've only used this one in Vineyard consistently because I'm panning it, so I'm not yet ready to review the other two.

I do like it and I can certainly see why people rave about these, however this particular shade has a tendency to settle into vertical lines around my lips and run along them like channels, so it's not perfect and I'm hoping the other two shades fare a little better. That's really the only thing I don't like about the formula, though, so I can otherwise confirm that these products are worth testing.

Revlon claims/product details:

• Get high-definition, lightweight colour 
• Intensely hydrating formula with hyaluronic acid
• Available in 15 shades
• Gel formula with vibrant pigments for bold lips that stand out
• Slim package and precision tip to sculpt lip
• RRP $24.95 AUD for 1.7g, but do shop around

There's the bullet, direct sunlight:

Light and heavy swatches, weak sunlight:

Stronger sunlight: 

  

My bare lips for reference: 

Verdict

This is a nice product and I do enjoy it, but I'm not sure I would go ahead and buy a bunch of these because it does travel up and down the vertical lines around my lips within an hour or two of application, so I would prefer to see how my other shades wear before committing to more. Hopefully it's only this one that travels. Unlikely, but you never know.

It's a smooth, lightweight product with a very sweet scent. I can see why they've called it a gel because although I would say that it's creamy and hydrating, it doesn't quite feel like a cream and it has more of a glassy, glossy look and feel than a creamy, opaque one.

The finish has a nice shine that sits somewhere between a cream lipstick and a gloss. Indeed, it's quite hard to classify these and you really need to test one to know what I'm talking about. What I can say is that it's a flattering shine that offers a healthy look to the lips, and the product also smooths out lip texture in the same way that a gloss would do - which is something I personally look for in my lip products.

In terms of pigment, these offer a nice amount of that and you can wear them lightly for a 'bitten' look or heavily for more impact. While you won't get full-blown opacity with these in the way that you would with eg a liquid lipstick, you'll still get a good amount and I personally prefer a little less pigment so I'm happy with how these look.

In other news these feel super hydrating and I don't need to wear a balm underneath them (unusual for me, given how dry my lips are), and while they'll transfer onto your coffee cup, at least they fade evenly and the wear-time isn't bad - especially because they leave a flattering stain behind that I like just as much as I like how they look when I first apply them.

One thing to note, though, is that you only get 1.7g of product in these, which is less than half of what you'd get in a standard 4g lipstick. And given that these are at the upper-end of what you would pay for a budget lipstick, that's something to be aware of and I certainly wouldn't pay full-price for one.

'Vineyard' is a nice wine colour but it has some pink in it so I would almost call it a raspberry. While it's my least-favourite shade of the three I own, I still do like it and I think it would suit a lot of people.

Overall this is a nice formula but I can't give it a perfect review, given that Vineyard runs up my lip lines so it doesn't look great close-up after I've been wearing it for an hour or two. Still, there's a lot to love about the formula and I suspect it would be fine if you don't have vertical lip lines yet. Here's to hoping that my other two shades don't do this.

Worth trying.