I adore the concept and aesthetic behind Ellis Faas' makeup line and have previously swatched the full ranges of eyeshadow and lip/cheek colours. If only to remind myself that even literal silver bullets aren't going to make the largely muted or dusty shade range magically easy to wear for me.
Imagine my excitement when I read on Makeup4All of the new Hot Lips range -- opaque liquid lipsticks in obnoxious brights!
Dial up the squee when a makeup-loving pal sends me her briefly tested bullet in L404 Fluo Pink to play with. (In hindsight, this was warning bell the first: we share similar tastes in lip products, and what doesn't work for her usually ends up a fail on me.) Not that I thought much beyond "AH MAH GAH SO PAAAAAHNK!!!! :DDDDDD" at the time.
But wait... what...is that...stench? Ellis Faas, putting a scent in one of her lip products?! And a sickly artificial fruit candy/toilet cleaner hybrid I'd peg as Maybelline in a blind smell test, to boot? That, my dears, is the peal of warning bell the second.
Eh, I'll suck it up for the killer shade and no doubt awesome formula. (Did you know that trying to pronounce Ellis Faas while drunk and in a Finnish accent naturally produces the words 'awesome formula'? True story.)
Pigmentation is insane, so let's take the tiniest dot (basically one of the bubbles the showerhead dispenses) and work it in with a lipbrush:
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Applies as a glossy thick liquid, sets to a satiny finish that approaches matte staindom as it wears. Even freshly applied, with still a bit of gloss to it, it's not the most flattering texture on me. You couldn't tell I'd exfoliated and triple-layered lip moisturisers the night before in preparation for this? It brings out a ring of flaky skin on my upper lip I didn't know I had and highlights even the finest liplines on both upper and lower lips... :/
And after a morning's worth of tea and snacking?
This formula is marketed as very long-lasting -- a hybrid liquid lipstick and stain -- but despite the formula's dry 'grabbiness' I find its lasting power comparable to that of an emollient cream lipstick. Lasting power isn't a significant factor for me, but uneven, patchy fading is not something I'll put up with.
Angst aside, note that this colour has warmer corally topnotes sitting on a much cooler pink base -- as it sets, and even more so as it fades, Fluo Pink will turn an increasingly lighter and cooler pink; the swatch on the Ellis Faas site is a very heavy one, hence its warmth. You'll see it's quite a warm-cool pink-coral-red chameleon in the following pics; the one constant is its kapow neon brightness.
Anyway, that first test wasn't really a fair one. Can't expect all pigmented liquid lipsticks to be as well behaved and magically moisturising as a Guerlain L'Extrait. I wear balm underneath almost all formulas, so let's do that:
Eeeeep goopy sticky horror DNW! And still with the lipline-sinkage! I tried several different balms underneath. Very well blotted. XD All with a similar effect. This formula just won't stick to a slick base -- it goes patchy or slips all over the place -- and with balm underneath you can watch the uneven fading entropic process happening over the course of about 3 minutes.
Okay, so let's try balm over that thin coat above:
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Unfortunately, in real life, thisapplication starts fading after a drink of water, like this:
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As well as fading unevenly from my inner lip, it is BLEEDING. With the myriad of lip-product issues and problems I experience, bleeding is not something that's even on my radar. One product in the history of makeup has ever bled on me: OCC Lip Tar. And that's when I realised: Ellis Faas Hot Lips is an unholy hybrid of two spectacularly disastrous products for me: the incredibly drying, bleedy and messy OCC Lip Tars and the never-setting filmy, unevenly fading Armani Lip Maestros. Flavoured by Maybelline. D:
The ironic cherry atop the woecake? The boffins at Ellis Faas have finally tinkered the previously troublesome click-pen showerhead applicator to perfection. That behaved like a champ, dispensing a predictable amount of product with every click with no waiting or suspense or indeed fluorescent pink showers, whenever I reached for it, for a whole month. -______-
In conclusion: *adopts foetal position*
PS other things I've tried over the past month and am too dispirited to post pictures of:
Imagine my excitement when I read on Makeup4All of the new Hot Lips range -- opaque liquid lipsticks in obnoxious brights!
Dial up the squee when a makeup-loving pal sends me her briefly tested bullet in L404 Fluo Pink to play with. (In hindsight, this was warning bell the first: we share similar tastes in lip products, and what doesn't work for her usually ends up a fail on me.) Not that I thought much beyond "AH MAH GAH SO PAAAAAHNK!!!! :DDDDDD" at the time.
 |
| See? PAAAAHNK. |
Eh, I'll suck it up for the killer shade and no doubt awesome formula. (Did you know that trying to pronounce Ellis Faas while drunk and in a Finnish accent naturally produces the words 'awesome formula'? True story.)
Pigmentation is insane, so let's take the tiniest dot (basically one of the bubbles the showerhead dispenses) and work it in with a lipbrush:
 |
| D: But whyyyyyy |
Angst aside, note that this colour has warmer corally topnotes sitting on a much cooler pink base -- as it sets, and even more so as it fades, Fluo Pink will turn an increasingly lighter and cooler pink; the swatch on the Ellis Faas site is a very heavy one, hence its warmth. You'll see it's quite a warm-cool pink-coral-red chameleon in the following pics; the one constant is its kapow neon brightness.
Anyway, that first test wasn't really a fair one. Can't expect all pigmented liquid lipsticks to be as well behaved and magically moisturising as a Guerlain L'Extrait. I wear balm underneath almost all formulas, so let's do that:
 |
| other makeup of note: Kate Deep Trap Eyes GY-1, Addiction Damask Rose cheekstick |
Okay, so let's try balm over that thin coat above:
Still a little gloopy, but liveable! And after all, DAT PINK.
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| eyes: Shu Uemura G White Rainbow and RBR Batiste Grayling cheeks: Face Stockholm New York |
^That picture is the better representation of Fluo Pink's colour; the following, despite the dimmer and dodgier lighting, gives a better indication of just how eye-searingly fluo-bright it is:
The ironic cherry atop the woecake? The boffins at Ellis Faas have finally tinkered the previously troublesome click-pen showerhead applicator to perfection. That behaved like a champ, dispensing a predictable amount of product with every click with no waiting or suspense or indeed fluorescent pink showers, whenever I reached for it, for a whole month. -______-
In conclusion: *adopts foetal position*
PS other things I've tried over the past month and am too dispirited to post pictures of:
- balm/gloss mixed in = same gloopy effect as balm beneath.
- balm/gloss layered with Hot Lips in various sandwiches = same initially okay but subsequently bleedy effect as balm over.
- applied straight from the bullet, neat, and with all the balm/gloss foofera = no difference.
- with concealer all over my lips as a base / around the lipline in an attempt to contain the bleeding = NOTHING controls the bleeding.