Peel-off makeup is now officially a thing – Mind. Blown.
Nobody can call the makeup industry boring. With the constant creation of unique and quirky makeup products, something like this was bound to come around. Peel-off makeup is a trend that seems to be taking the beauty world by storm with many popular bloggers and youtubers trying out peel-off lip stains and eyebrow tints, whilst others are trying to make their own in DIY tutorials. So, unlike Gretchen Weiners with the word “fetch”, peel-off makeup has been made a thing. What a time to be alive.
So despite this trend being around for a while I was always skeptical to try it because, like many others out there, I was having nightmares about peeling my eyebrows/lips off in a DIY attempt gone wrong. There are several Asian brands that have introduced peel-off products like Etude House and their eyebrow tints, but for me it wasn’t worth the shipping price. So with a heavy heart, I decided to sit this one out. BUT imagine my surprise when I was browsing the makeup section of Topshop Oxford St to find some peel-off lip colours! They had the several colours of the Romantic Bear Long Lasting Lip Colours which is the brand I saw several bloggers try out. In my excitement, I put one of each colour into my basket and was halfway to the till before I realised that buying all of them was wholly unnecessary because I would probably only use them once in a blue moon. So I picked one colour – Cherry Red – which was the darkest of them all and would show the clearest results. I can’t quite remember how much I paid for it considering my student discount, but you can easily find these products on Amazon. The peel-off lip tint comes in a simple squeeze tube that has a net weight of 15g. This applicator is similar to the old-style lip glosses which had a lipstick shape and a hole in the middle to dispense product. The tint has a strong fruity smell that isn’t unpleasant and it’s consistency is very thick and gooey.
Put the consistency and applicator type together and you’re in for a very difficult and MESSY application. Trying to get the goo to coat your lips evenly and within the lines is next to impossible. It’s like going back to pre-school and trying to colour in pictures with those awful wax crayons. So applying the tint to your lips is not the easiest task in the world. THEN you have to wait for it to dry and one thing you cannot, I repeat CANNOT do in this time is let your lips make contact – with ANYTHING. Not even each other. Because the goo goes really tacky and will stick to anything and make a huge mess. So I found myself having to sit around with my mouth wide open whilst the tint dried which wasn’t very convenient. It took about 20 minutes before it was fully dry and I could touch my lips. When dry it feels like a layer of plastic over your lips. Then comes the fun part: PEELING. It’s actually not that difficult to peel off, because it naturally starts to peel around the corners of the mouth. You just take the edge and pull it away from the lips. It’s better to do it slowly so that the tint comes off in one. It’s not painful at all and it’s pretty damn satisfying.
Unfortunately, the end result was a bit anti-climatic. Whilst there WAS a tint left on the lips, it was SUPER patchy. I noticed that the tint took better on the skin closer to the inside of the mouth aka the “wet part” whereas it wasn’t as pigmented along the outside of the lips. I tried putting a clear balm on top to see if it helped, but it didn’t really do much to camouflage the uneven distribution of pigmentation. On a good day in nice lighting someone could say it was an “ombré lip” which is popular especially in the Asian beauty market, but on a bad day someone would just tell you to re-do your lipstick.
Overall, whilst it is a fun and novelty product which is great to try once as a laugh, I can’t really see these products becoming everyday essentials. They’re just too much hassle for the not-so-amazing results. But it was worth trying for sure.
Until next time my loves,
Cephy xx
Cephy's Choice 