Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G This is my fail-safe recipe for perfect lips… Enriched with a breakthrough, secret ingredient, the Lipstick Tree, an anti-oxidant that naturally protects lips from UV damage and external pollution leaving them cashmere soft and irresistible. Blended with special waxes and clever light-diffusing pigments for pert, full-bodied, ultra-brilliant lips that ensure you leave a lasting impression!
K.I.S.S.I.N.G is my signature range of 10 lipsticks curated with modern and classic icons in mind. It is a capsule colour wardrobe of backstage nudes to red carpet reds made to suit any skin tone. Perfect, full, kissable lips really do grow on trees…
• The Lip Stick Tree loves your lips, protecting them from UV damage and fighting oxidative stress so that lips are left soft, pert, soothed and hydrated. A tropical plant originating from America, the plump yet prickly red fruits appear like pouting lips that blow kisses at you as you walk by. The colour from its seeds was originally used by Indigenous American people to paint and protect their lips.
• Also contains light-diffusing pigments that give lips a brilliant, luminous, multi-dimensional finish - they capture the light across the lips and reflect it back out for a full-bodied effect.
• A special blend of waxes means this lipstick is a dream to use and glides over the contours of your lips. The result is colour rich and buildable, the formula does not bleed outside the lip line.
• Paraben free.
Website http://www.charlottetilbury.com/au
Unfortunately I don’t believe I’ll be adding to my CT lipsticks anytime soon. I like the product but I don’t think it lives up to everything that it claims. I bought my lipsticks from Beautylish for $NZD51 (at the time of the exchange rate); really great service and fast delivery.
In regards to the stunning packaging you definitely get more bang for your buck compared to other brands that charge in the same price range. They are sturdy textured rose gold cases that actually have a bit of weight to them so the packaging is an absolute winner for me.
The formula glides on effortlessly without any tugging and leaves me with a satin finish and this is where my problems begin. I wear lipliner all the time because I love adding definition to my lips as well as containing as much of the lipstick in one area. As with a lot of satin finishes it can be difficult to stop it from moving so I feel that the claim of “does not bleed outside the lip line” is debateable. I’ve been sitting at my desk for 15 minutes and already the product has slightly moved outside the lined area - not by too much but within an hour or so I know I’ll need to retouch my lipstick. Granted I did have a scorched almond (or 6) but surely I should be able to stuff my face (like a lady) and not have the product move within less than half an hour! I have tried different natural coloured lipliners ELF, NYX, MAC and I still can’t get it to stay put. This is not the kind of product you want to blot with a tissue because most of it will come right off. I can get a good 3-4 hours wear with 2-3 retouchings to contain the product. I don’t mind too much but it’s annoying when you purchase a product based on one thing – that it doesn’t bleed.
I have the shades Stoned Rose (rich medium brown on me) and Confession (peach rose gold with shimmer). I was quite disappointed with the how the shades turned out on my lips. Note that I didn’t mark the product down based on my colour selection because that’s all personal preference. I don’t have pigmented lips so I assumed that the shades would suit me just like in the gazillion swatches I checked before purchasing. Unfortunately Stoned Rose is a bit too brown for my liking but then again I am in the chocolate club so I probably should have gone for something a bit more brighter. I’m not too sure how ‘rose’ fits into the name because there is definitely no hint of pink/mauve or anything that remotely resembles a fresh dose of colour. As for Confession, here’s a warning – this one has shimmer so if you don’t like fine gold flecks on your lips skip this shade. It’s a beautiful shade that would suit those of a lighter complexion but I personally hate shimmer because it reminds me of cheap lipgloss.
I think would purchase more if I can get the product to stay put as the other colours do look lovely but for now I can live without them.
Tips: To make it work for me I mix the shades together so that I end up with a medium brown based nude with no clear visibility of shimmer (woohooo) but I feel like I have a dupe of that shade amongst my lipstick collection.