106 Guava, 107 Rose Sorbet, and 108 Pink Balloon. All pictures taken in natural light without flash.
These are not my first Paul & Joe Lipsticks so it's no surprise that I love the sheers. Now that I have Lipstick Queen for comparison, I'd say the Paul & Joe sheer formula feels more oily and less balmy, but still very moisturizing and glossy. There's one big problem with Paul & Joe sheers though: some of these colors are milky, as in this very 106 Guava I was iffy about! Here's the I-told-you-so to myself. Urgh. Why??? Just my humble opinion but milky lipsticks look horrible on everyone, with or without dry and flaky lips! Why on earth do they keep pumping out these shitty milky lipsticks?
I know I've been throwing around a lot of terms to describe lipsticks, and it all sound super confusing. Here's a brief glossary, my own glossary and by no means "official". To be honest, the "official" descriptions are even more confusing to me, because sometimes they conflate different aspects of a lipstick, for example its pigmentation level versus its finish, and as a result they use terms interchangeably when those terms don't actually mean the same thing.
Pigmentation: how much pigment a lipstick has, with a whole spectrum going from sheer to pigmented.
Finish: what the lipstick leaves behind after application, with a whole spectrum going from transparent to translucent to opaque.
Sounds self-explanatory, but many brands conflate and/or don't distinguish between a lipstick with minimal pigment, i.e. sheer, versus a lipstick with a somewhat or completely see-through finish, i.e. translucent or transparent. As many of my swatches have shown, a lipstick can have a translucent or completely transparent finish and its color would still show up really well (Paul & Joe Lipstick CS 086 Rosebud is a great example!), because it's got a lot of pigment in it. So a lipstick's pigmentation level is not the same as its finish.
And then there are the milky lipsticks, which I absolutely despise. These lipsticks tend to be sheer, as in not very pigmented at all, and at the same time their finish ranges from somewhat to completely opaque as though there's some kind of milky white base in them. This means upon application, regardless the color, pigmentation, or finish, the lipstick leaves an nasty white cast that brings forth every imperfection there exists on your lips, every line, every crack, every flake. Urgh. The biggest problem is that very rarely there's a telltale sign that a lipstick is milky, which means this milkiness doesn't rear its fugly head until you put it on and be horrified how terribly pale and gross your lips look.
- 106 Guava (Sheer): appears a milky peach in the tube, swatches a shimmer-free and pretty pink guava, but applies a fugly milky pale peach. Yes, this is a milky lipstick and I hate it so much. The white cast it leaves is just unbearable. So save yourself (and your money) and stay far, far away from this lipstick, unless you're going for the ganguro look.
- 107 Rose Sorbet (Sheer): translucent and shimmer-free petal pink that appears much darker in the tube than it applies. In fact, it also swatched much warmer on the back of my hand. On my lips, it applies a bubble gum pink that leans cool, then slowly warms up as it sets. After getting burned from 106 Guava below, I was completely wary of the next two lipsticks. Thankfully, 106 Guava is an isolated case among these three and neither 107 Rose Sorbet nor 108 Pink Balloon is milky. Phew!
- 108 Pink Balloon (Sheer): translucent and shimmer free hot pink that swatched much sheerer than it actually applies on my lips. On my lips it applies true to how it appears in the tube, a lot more pigmented, leaning fuchsia even. Out of these three lipsticks, I like this color best (and 106 Guava is a complete disaster T.T). It's actually surprisingly flattering on me ^.^
106 Guava, 107 Rose Sorbet, and 108 Pink Balloon.
See my previous posts:
- Paul & Joe Lipstick and Lipstick CS
- Paul & Joe Lipstick CS Part II
- Paul & Joe Lipstick CS Part III
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