With summer upon us, who wants to fuss with makeup that’s going to need to be re-applied 50 times a day? Not I! I’m sure that we’d all rather eat barbeque, jump in the pool, and have our summer lovin’ dates without worrying about if our lipsticks have migrated away during the day. In come the lipstains to the rescue!

I tested out 3 different lipstains so that I could give my thoughts about them, so here’s some info about which ones do or don’t make the grade:

Ulta Extreme Wear Lip Stain Pen: I purchased this in Impulsive, a raspberry color, for a pretty and bright pop of *hopefully* long wearing lip color. The shade doesn’t show up quite as vibrant ON the lips as the pen may have you to believe, it’s more of a darker cranberry shade than vibrant raspberry. It was easy to draw on and feels like the other markers on the market, but a downside is that it doesn’t have an included/attached lip balm like most lip stain markers do. I simply added lip gloss over it and was good to go for the full hours that I was at work. It stayed put throughout my work day, but it didn’t hold up that well during a meal after work. When I was done, it had all but disappeared, leaving me with bland natural lips with only a hint that the color had ever been there. I guess that it gets a B- grade because the pen doesn’t dry out quickly and it lasted through the workday, BUT it didn’t last through meals and doesn’t include a balm for when lips get dry.

Vonnie's juicy lips!

Revlon Colorstay Just Bitten Lip Stain: This one was purchased in Crave, another Raspberry shade (I like bright pink lips, what can I say) and applied like a dream! Most lip stains suck the everliving moisture from your lips, but this one felt nourishing when put on. It also had a lip balm attached that was by far the best lip balm I’ve come across in a while! I would use that stuff on its own, simply marvelous. BUT and this is a major but, I ate a meal less than an hour later and the lip stain was completely and utterly gone as if I’d never used the product. They say that it’s kiss proof (which I didn’t test) but it most CERTAINLY is not meal proof so I returned it the next day 🙁 I like the color selection and the soft/moisturizing feel of it, but darn, if it disappears by looking at it too long, then it is not the stain for me! I’d give this one a C. Good price ($6-8) and feels good, but doesn’t last worth a damn.

Smashbox Limitless Lip Stain – Guava is an amazing orangy coral color, which we all know is the hot lip shade for this spring/summer. It looks SUPER vibrant in the tube and *gasp* looks just as vibrant on the lips! It applies like most lip stains, feels like you are coloring your lips in with a regular marker, gets a bit dry after application, but then you just put on the balm that is attached and you are good to go! The balm on this isn’t nearly as nourishing and soft as the Revlon one, but the actual marker part shows up better. To counteract the mediocre balm, I usually wear MAC Viva Glam Cyndi coral lipstick over it and am fine with coverage for hours on end while at work. I’ll eat a meal and the color still hangs on! This stain generally lasts for like 8 hours which makes me a happy camper 🙂 The price is high at $23 but the color payoff and lasting power are very admirable so I give this an A-.

Do you have a favorite lip stain product? Which would you recommend?

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