Buttering Up

I've been working some fairly long days over the past few weeks and when I do have to work late, all I want to do is get home fast and eat. Yesterday, however, I bumped into a former colleague on the way to the bus stop and chatted to him for a few minutes, before realising I was about to miss my bus...and then I did miss it. My app told me there wouldn't be another bus for 25 minutes, so I decided to walk home instead. On the way, I realised that I could stop off at the Boots near Warren Street on the off chance that they had any of the Revlon ColourBurst Lip Butters in stock.

It's unlike me to jump on a beauty trend but I've been interested in these super-moisturising, super-pigmented lip balm-lipstick hybrids since they were released in the US at the end of last year. They made their debut in the UK 10 days ago and by the time I got to a big enough Boots, in Bristol last Friday, they were sold out. Ditto the stores I tried on Oxford Street on Saturday. The Warren Street Boots did have a few in stock, but there was a mismatch between the tester shades and the shades that were available to purchase. Normally, I would have just gone for the dark, bright fuschia shade, Lollipop, but I do already own a couple of lip products in that colour and I wanted a lighter option. And it was hard to tell which of the lighter pinks were more peachy and which were more pinky without swatching them. The sales assistant told me they were getting more stock this morning orI could try the big Boots further down the Tottenham Court Road. At this point I was starving but I had started my beauty mission and I had to finish it. The bigger branch had one extra shade but only one tester, so after a quick Google image search, I took a punt and opted for Sweet Tart, which is a bright, warmish medium pink. It was either that or Strawberry Shortcake but I decided the latter was probably too pale and too cool-toned for my warm skintone.

So far, I'm pretty happy with the product: it's easy to apply, nicely pigmented and feels, if not super-moisturising, then at least non-drying on my lips. The colour isn't particularly durable but I do drink a lot of water and coffee throughout the day. In terms of pigmentation, moisture and durability, the Lip Butters are comparable to the Bobbi Brown Treatment Lip Shines, the Pink Glisten shade of which was one of my first forays into lip colour and which is similar to the Sweet Tart Lip Butter. And the Lip Butters are only £7.99 instead of £18 for a Treatment Lip Shine. I probably won't be rushing out to buy any more Lip Butters -- not until they bring out some more colours, anyway -- but they are good value and good quality and are worth tracking down if you want to add something pink, red or peach to your lip colour collection.

Revlon Lip Butter in Sweet Tart

A note on my photos: The aforementioned long workdays have meant that even with the advent of British Summer Time, I've still been getting home as dark falls, which means I'm in flash city. The colour of the Lip Butter is most realistic in the bottom photo, although in real life it is pinker and a bit brighter.