Maybelline ColorSensational Color Whisper

After Revlon Lip Butter's smashing success and L'oreal Colour Riche Balm SPF15's hohum-ness, Maybelline tried to one-up the rest with these ColorSensational Color Whispers. And I say one-up and not compete because my humble opinion is that all 3 products are so vastly different, with Revlon being marketed as a tinted balm, L'oreal tried to market the same but the Colour Riche Balms turned out to be more balmy than tinted (lol!), and these Maybelline Color Whispers are actually gel lip colors and neither marketed as balmy or tinted. In fact, gel lip colors are a huge trend lately, either in solid form in a stick or liquid/gel form in a tube!

With the Color Whispers being gel lipsticks, and I have way more than enough of lipsticks, I only picked up 4 colors to satisfy my curiosity with the advertised lightweight translucent color veil.

I bought 30 Pin Up Peach, 40 Orange Attitude, 45 Who Wore it Red-er, and 95 Mad for Magenta. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

I do like the transparent tube packaging that's both slim and light weight. The lipsticks are scented with a faint sweet candy smell that doesn't bother me. The formula is indeed super lightweight but at the same time well pigmented, probably on the same level of pigmentation as the Revlon Lip Butters! I'm happiest about all the colors being translucent as advertised, with or without shimmers, and they leave a nice sheen to boot, not as glossy as Revlon but still pretty and lustrous. 

They do have two major faults though: they're very drying, and despite the several nudes and tawnies the color range as a whole leans cool. I tried these on bare lips and I could feel my lips shrivel and wither up underneath. I even bought my devoted lipstick wearer mum in law two tubes for a second opinion, and she didn't like the formula either because it was too drying. So now I layer some balm underneath when I wear mine. The balm also serves to lighten up the color some too as they're a bit too pigmented for me for daily wear. I didn't count the cooler color range against them though. I did pick 2 warms and 2 cools after all.

- 30 Pin Up Peach: not peach at all but a warm pink with very fine shimmers that don't show. This color swatched with more coral and applies with a lot more pink on my lips.

- 40 Orange Attitude: a nice navel orange, also with very fine shimmers that don't show. This color gains some red on my lips and becomes a bright reddish orange. Lovely!

- 45 Who Wore it Red-er: not red but rather a hot and bright magenta! And no shimmers!

- 95 Mad for Magenta: not magenta but a cool pink, almost fuchsia, with very fine silvery shimmers that again don't show at all.

From left to right: 30 Pin Up Peach, 40 Orange Attitude, 45 Who Wore it Red-er, and 95 Mad for Magenta.

After these initial 4, I also picked up 4 other limited colors and will review these soon. As for the rest of the permanent line, I'm contemplating Lust for Blush and Rose of Attraction ^.^