OCC Lip Tars in Pretty Boy and Strumpet

I had a sudden inexplicable yearning for bright pink lipsticks this time last week, so when I was offered the chance to try a couple of the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars, I thought I would go bold. I was initially tempted by Anime, a 'so bright it's almost neon' pink but I knew from my experience with MAC's Girl About Town lipstick that I can feel quite self-conscious if I go too bright. So, instead I chose Pretty Boy which is still bright but wearable. I also chose Strumpet, a darker reddy grape colour, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't swayed by the name!

Left - Pretty Boy, Right - Strumpet

Although I hadn't tried the OCC Lip Tars before, I knew from reading reviews that a little goes a very long well. I armed myself with a lip brush and squeezed out only a tiny blob. The pigmentation is indeed very impressive! I found it a little tricky to get a sharp outline but I'm not very skilled at application with a lip brush.

I had been warned about possible feathering and I was careful not to overload my lips with product however, I did spot that throughout the day the colour did creep a little into my fine lines. You get an idea of what happens from the edges of the swatches above. I'm not sure whether a coloured lip liner or one of the reverse lip liners would work best to prevent this happening.

PRETTY BOY

Pretty Boy is exactly the kind of girly hot pink I was looking for. It's blue toned and bright, but not so bright that I feel that I've becoming walking lips. I did the school run wearing this colour and when my eldest boy saw me his little face lit up and he said "Mummy, your lips are so pink. Is that lipstick?". I don't think I've seen him so excited about my makeup before!

STUMPET

Although Strumpet looks quite reddy brown in the tube, on my lips it pulls pink. When I first applied this colour, I did find the colour faded a little unevenly but once I had topped it up a couple of times it left a stain so that I could just apply balm to 'refresh' the colour.

Someone asked me whether the Lip Tars are moisturising and from my initial experience with these I would say no. I needed to use a lip balm throughout the day whilst wearing these in order for my lips to remain comfortable. I found that the Hurraw Black Cherry tinted lip balm worked really well with these as it disguised any colour fade as well as moisturising my lips. Of course, this is an unfair time of year to be judging the comfort factor as we've had snow this week and it has been so cold that our heating has been on almost constantly. 

I love both colours. Pretty Boy is a really fun pink but I imagine I will get the most use from Strumpet. I haven't tried mixing the colours yet but I would like to give it a try. I'm also tempted to buy one of the other more muted Lip Tars such as Memento to experiment with colour mixing.

These OCC Lip Tars came from www.cutecosmetics.co.uk where they cost £7.99 each. The Hurraw Black Cherry tinted lip balm is also available from Cutecosmetics and costs £3.45.


Disclosure: These items were sent to me without cost for review purposes