DHC Moisture Care Lipstick

It's been a while, hello there ^.^' Sorry for being gone for so long. Life and work are just kicking my a$$, though I'm still going through my skincare as usual, so my list of drafts is growing out of control again :(

I'll start with DHC Moisture Care Lipstick. I haven't bought anything from this brand for a while so I revisited them back in May with the Imperial Green Tea Shower Gel. Since then I have branched out to try a few other things, including these lipsticks, a few powder blushes and highlighters which I will get to posting soon, I hope.

There are 8 colors available, and I have 7. However, in this post I will only review 6 - OR03 Clementine, PK04 Sweetpea, PK05 Whisper Pink, RD01 Pepperberry, RD10 Camelot Rose, and WN01 Sugarplum. I got BE07 Hint of Honey just a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to even take pictures of it yet.

From left to right: OR03 Clementine, PK04 Sweetpea, PK05 Whisper Pink, RD01 Pepperberry, RD10 Camelot Rose, and WN01 Sugar Plum. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

What attracted me to these lipsticks in the first place is the fact that they're supposedly moisturizing, sheerer colors, and offer some shine. Another big sell for me is their packaging - look at that gorgeous lipstick case! These twist-up bullets are housed in a pink-peach metal case with frosted sunflower and butterflies motif around the bottom quarter. They are smaller sized lipsticks, each having only 0.08oz./2.4g of products (versus the 0.12-0.15oz. from most brands), but they are also fairly affordable at $14.50 a piece. With their metal cases, they feel weighty in my hand and their caps click shut securely. These are honestly some of the prettiest lipstick cases I own!

***Stock photo from DHC North America.

As for the actual lipstick formula, I was actually really disappointed after the first try. ALL of these lipsticks have silver shimmers in them. Worse, for some reason the shimmers seem to have mostly "floated" to the top of the lipsticks. This resulted in a horribly gritty and dry first few applications - an absolutely terrible first impression to make! However, their cases are so beautiful I felt too guilty to throw them out, and thank goodness I stuck around - after about 3 applications the "floating clusters" of shimmers wore off and the lipsticks became super soft and smooth! Now that I've been wearing these lipsticks for a while, with the exception of the OR03 Clementine I don't feel the shimmers at all from any other color!

Having overcame the shimmers problem, I totally love the lipstick formula! It's not as thick and buttery as Clinique Butter Shine Lipsticks, but it's still very moisturizing and gives the same glossy shine (all those shimmers' got to do something!!). The formula outlasts the colors too, but given that the colors were on the sheer side to begin with I'm not too sad about that ^.^ 

Here is the ingredients for one of the lipsticks, though I forgot which. I am assuming the others have the same ingredients save for the different pigments.

Over all, I ended up loving these lipsticks so much I carried RD01 Pepperberry and WN01 Sugarplum around with me in my bag for a few months! Being the most pigmented while somehow staying translucent makes them my favorites out of all the colors. If you want to try these, I definitely recommend those 2 colors first. Just remember that they will feel very gritty on your lips for the first few applications, so stick with them and reap the rewards!

- OR03 Clementine: A candied orange with some peach. I thought I would love this color but it turns out to be my least favorite - the silver shimmers turn this lipstick somewhat frosty on me :( This was also the grittiest out of all the colors until the "floating clusters" of shimmers wore off. It's still just a touch gritty, but nothing too bothersome.

- PK04 Sweetpea: a my-lips-but-better warm fleshy pink. Thankfully, the colors are translucent enough to counter the silver shimmers. In fact, this color matches my lips so well I don't even need a mirror to apply it! It literally looks like my naked lips, but more moisturizing and glossy - waaaay better I'd say! ^.^

- PK05 Whisper Pink: I know this color looks identical to PK04 in the swatch picture but it's not. It's actually a cooler rosy pink and a lot pinkier on my lips. The silver shimmers in this color are not really visible on my lips, so I like it a lot as it's super wearable and youthfully feminine. I also found it to be quite suitable for the office as it brightens up my whole face and makes me look awake and alert. Can a lipstick really do that? Apparently this one can!

- RD01 Pepperberry: one of my two favorites of the bunch, a translucent juicy strawberry red! Like the PK05 above the silver shimmers don't show up at all on my lips. As you can see from the swatch, RD01 Pepperberry, RD10 Camelot Rose, and WN01 Sugarplum are the more "pigmented" colors of the bunch. Even then, they are probably still quite sheer by some ladies' standard. I prefer this sheerness over full coverage lip colors so they score big points with me. Anyway, I find this color perfect for date nights, or anytime I want a pop of color, really. I carry it around for a reason!

- RD10 Camelot Rose: a pretty tawny rose. The silver shimmers actually give this color a metallic sheen but I still find it suitable for the office. It gives a very polished and accomplished look.

- WN01 Sugarplum: a violet toned berry. The silver shimmers in this color also give it a metallic sheen, although not as quite pronounced as with RD10 Camelot Rose above. This is my other favorite of the bunch. For some reason, it just goes really well with my skin tone even though the violet is much more apparent on my lips than in the swatch. I really enjoy cool-toned lip colors these days! Well, the ones that work with me, that is.

From left to right: OR03 Clementine, PK04 Sweetpea, PK05 Whisper Pink, RD01 Pepperberry, RD10 Camelot Rose, and WN01 Sugar Plum. The later 3 colors are brighter than the first 3. Swatches have been layered 2-3 times each.