Review and Lip Swatches: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balms

A few weeks ago, I started hearing early reviews on the new Revlon Colorburst Matte and Lacquer Balms. I'm a big fan of chubby lip crayons, so of course I was looking forward to checking some out for myself (and for blog-research purposes, of course). 

After reading/hearing preliminary reviews on the blogosphere and YouTube, I decided to pull the trigger on the Matte Balms, as you know I prefer a matte finish on the lips. After loving these, I picked up one Lacquer Balm and have my eye on another one, so my Lacquer Balm review will come soon!

Here's what I think of the Revlon Colorburst Matte Balms...

 

Full floor displays of the Revlon Matte and Lacquer Balms.

Also displayed are the Revlon Parfumerie nail polishes [review here]

Price: The Matte and Lacquer Balms are part of Revlon's permanent collection. There are ten mattes, ten lacquers. They retail for $8.99. My local CVS is always ridiculous with their prices (they were priced at $9.29 but I had BOGO 50% off and some CVS ExtraBucks to blow. Since I got six, I ended up spending the exact same amount of money than if I had bought them at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  TIP: Never pay full price for drugstore beauty!

Color Range: I absolutely love the color range of both the matte and lacquer line, although I wish there was a nude-y pink that was in between Elusive, and the true nude in the collection, Complex.

Pigmentation: As you can see in the lip swatches below, the Matte Balms are all incredibly pigmented in one swipe. To get a completely opaque, perfect application, I swiped the product on two or three times.They are also incredibly smooth like butter. Not wet buttery like the Revlon Lip Butters, but almost a dry buttery feeling.

Staying Power: These are not marketed as staining or long-wearing, like the other Revlon lip crayons, the Kissable Balm Stains are. However, the darker colors do stain the lips. Lasting power is 2-3 hours but when they do wear away, they do wear away pretty evenly and I did not get the dreaded lipliner look. They did emphasize the lines on my lips after a few hours of wear, so if you have extra wrinkly lips, I would make sure to use a lip balm underneath. 

Smell/Taste: These smell like peppermint, but the smell is nowhere near as strong as the smell of the Revlon Kissable Balm Stains, which I know was an issue for many ladies. The Colorburst Matte Balms actually smell like York Peppermint Patties. I detected no minty taste. 

Overall Thoughts: These chubby crayons are great! I'm excited there's more quality matte lippies at the drugstore. The crayon style makes it super easy to precisely apply the product. They're not moisturizing, however, so if you have extra dry or wrinkled lips, you may want to dry the Lacquers instead!

Here are the individual swatches!

Now I'm not sure why the product picture turned out so bright, 

but the bottom swatch picture shows a more true color. Elusive is a wonderful bubblegum pink. 

This will look great with smokey eyes.

Showy is a bright fuchsia berry. This will be fun to wear in the summer, but I'm still excited to wear it out at night this coming winter. You have to have some confidence to rock this one.

Here's Sultry. Again, the top product picture came out a little bright, but the bottom swatch picture is more true-to-color. This is an AWESOME dark rose plum with a teensy hint of brown. 

This reminds me a lot of my favorite daytime fall color, Wet n Wild's MegaLast lipstick Wine Room 906D. I think this would look extra great on darker skintones as well.

Striking is a bright corally-orange red. This is a great "J. Crew" orange red, great for the daytime.

Of course I had to pick up the true red, Standout. It's amazzzzinggg. 

I can't wait to wear it for the holidays.

 

 Shameless was the one Matte Balm I picked up knowing I'd probably return it. 

While I know this color would look stunning on darker skintones, on me it looks too goth and 

I think washes me out too much. This was the only one that applied a bit patchy.

 Hope you enjoyed!

xo, Anaïs

I purchased the products I mention above with my own money.