Lunasol Sheer Shine Crayon Lips

So I've read Lunasol makes really nice lipsticks, which is a terrible thing to know because I love a good lippie. I was thinking I'm already going nuts with Lunasol eye shadows, I don't need another Lunasol obsession. So in the spring of this year when they came out with the new Stain Color Lips, I could feel my resolve breaking down, that was, until I read that these lipsticks are supposed to be pigmented with a soft matte finish, at which point all flames of desire were immediately extinguished. Safe! Phew.

Then for the summer, they released 2 limited edition Sheer Shine Crayon Lips. This proved to be a quadruple whammy: sheer, shiny, in pencil form, and limited edition. Must. Have. Now. So I went ahead and bought both colors EX01 PK and EX02 OR.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

It turns out Lunasol lied to me, at least partly. Yes, these are indeed in twist-up, sharpener-free pencils and are limited edition. However, they must be pencil versions of the Stain Color Lips, definitely not sheer, and not shiny either :( If anything, I'd say these are pretty pigmented and semi-opaque. See the swatches for yourself. And their finish is soft matte even though both colors have very fine shimmers. 

Even more disappointing is that these are drier than the pencils I'm used to. They're thick and creamy, sure, but dry and not as moisturizing as hoped. Hell, they're drier than the vast majority of lipsticks I own, because 95% of my lipsticks are sheer, shiny, and moisturizing. I mean, that was why I bought them?

Anyway, after the lackluster first try, on a second wear I remedied the situation with a dollop of gloss. I just dabbed the gloss onto the middle of my lower lip then press to spread. That was when this amazing thing happened: with just that bit of gloss, what was dry and opaque before became semi-translucent, super shiny, and moisturizing. Even better was that the color adapted itself to my lips and I ended up with these pouty, photo-shopped lippie-ad lips. Wow! 

The color lasted a long time too without much fading. This impressed me as lip colors generally fade faster with the addition of the gloss. But with these pencils, I put some on right after lunch with the dab of gloss and the color was still going strong around dinner time until I wiped the whole thing off with a napkin.

- EX01 PK: a warm medium pink with fine shimmers on the back of my hand but becomes lighter, brighter, and cooler pink on my lips with the addition of the gloss.

- EX02 OR: a reddish coral with gold shimmers on the back of my hands but again becomes a brighter orangey peach on my lips with the dab of gloss. Very pretty and feminine.

EX01 PK and EX02 OR.