Benefit Cosmetics Posietint

Happy November!!! I can't believe it, but year end is already drawing near!

I'm still trying to finish up all the small items in the Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lips Set, and this preview is for Benefit Cosmetics Posietint in Poppy Pink.

Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lips set

All pictures taken indoor with flash unless otherwise noted.

This Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lips set includes mini sample sizes of Benefit Cosmetics Posietint in Poppy Pink, Smashbox Lip Enhancing Gloss in Pout, Urban Decay Pocket Rocket in Doug, Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Rose, Tarte Double Ended Lip Gloss in Danny-Sandy, Buxom Full-On Lip Polish Diamond in April, and a full size Korres Mango Butter Lipstick SPF10 in 14 Pink.  

I had actually forgotten about this Posietint, until I started to experiment with lipsticks and staining my lips with them. One day, it sort of occurred to me that I have a *real* lip stain in the cabinet and so I dug it out and played with it. It's an unscented milky light emulsion that's very cool upon application and dries to a completely naked lips feel like a stain should. Oddly, however, I didn't like this as a lip stain as much as I thought I would. It -erhh, how should I say this- takes too much work for the lips. As a cheek stain, it gives me pretty flushed cheeks, but it's also almost impossible to remove -.-' Also, the applicator for this tiny sample tube is a brush.

- Poppy Pink: a sheer bright pink with just a touch of coral. The tube itself looks like a salmon pink, but on me it's more pinky than coral.

This picture and the two below are taken in natural light without flash.

Swatched (left) and blended (right).

So why does it take too much work as a lip stains? Let's see, it's way too close to my natural lip color, and on top of that it's way too sheer, so for any color at all to show up on my lips I would have to apply several layers. And unlike a sheer my-lips-but-better lipstick that I can just apply liberally without the need of a mirror (think Korres Mango Butter Lipstick in 22 Naked Rose), to layer a lip stain, each layer would have to be applied after the previous layer dries. And if I don't use a mirror to apply it will definitely stain the skin beyond my lip lines. This is the reason I won't be using it as a cheek stain - check out the stains that remained on the back of my hand after I tried to remove the swatch several times with a makeup remover. Yeah...

The stains after several attempts of removal with the use of Softymo Super Eye Makeup Remover.

On the few days I stayed at home and I tried layering it onto my lips, but after several layers there still wasn't much of any color at all :( Finally I had to apply some gloss on top just to get a hint of pink, so I guess it's just that close to my natural lip color. The fact that it's so hard to get rid off means it's an excellent lip/cheek stain, but may be this particular Poppy Pink color is just not for my lips, and as a cheek stain it, well, scares me. I think I better stick with power and cream cheek colors, something I can actually get off of my skin...