Lunasol Stain Color Lips

This Lunasol Stain Color Lips in 07 Fresh Orange was an impulse buy when I was picking up my order of the Clear Colorful Eyes. Actually, it wasn't even impulse buy, more like desperate buy, because I was desperate for a Lunasol lippie, having tried only one so far, the Full Glamour Lips in 02 Cherry Red.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

I wasn't at all interested in the Stain Color Lips, because they're meant to be pigmented and matte, totally opposite of my usual MO of translucent, sheer, and glossy lip colors. But okay, I'll be open-minded and give one a try. Another reason I don't like full-pigmentation, opaque, matte lipsticks: they're too drying for my dry lips. So it's not like I can't wrap my head around mattes. I just haven't found one that I could wear comfortably.

Well, I found one. This. Which spells terrible news for my pocket and I knew I shouldn't have gotten started with Japanese lipsticks. Turns out the formula for the Stain Color Lips is rather lovely! Not quite buttery but still thick and smooth. Not quite balmy but still very comfortable and not drying at all. It doesn't have the glossy shine I like but the soft matte finish doesn't bother me. Still way too pigmented for my taste, so I just dab onto the upper lip and press for a stain-like finish, which is the lipstick's namesake anyhow!

Now, I'm not about to go back and get more colors in the permanent lineup, but I'm intrigued enough that when Citrine reviewed one of last summer's limited edition releases, I went to look them up. This spells more bad news, because among those LE's there are a coral and a yellow-based red. Boy oh boy...

- 07 Fresh Orange: bright naval orange and super pigmented as you can see. Gorgeous color and I do enjoy it quite a bit!