Pillow Talk Was Cool Long Before Zayn Malik

Z + Z wearing Topshop Lipstick in Pillow Talk and Rio Rio.  

We’ve talked before about brands which market themselves as the ‘cool girl’s choice’. Topshop has always been one of them. It was the ‘cooler’ brand for everyone growing up. If you’re one of those filthy rich kids who don’t buy high street then that’s a different story but for peasants like me, it was a big deal. You could have two of the exact same shirts, one from Topshop and one from somewhere else, and the Topshop one always seem a bit cooler, a bit more alternative and ‘with it’. Suddenly, wearing a plain white tee with rolled up sleeves was a ‘fashion choice’ and not just something you wore out of comfort– but of course, only if the tee was from Topshop.

I shopped a lot of Topshop as a teen/young-er adult and of course, back then, they sold their line of makeup in KL stores as well. The makeup was just as cool as the clothes, at least it was for me. Despite the affordable price, they managed to give you cute, quirky packaging and exciting lip/nail colours that you couldn’t get from regular drugstore brands so you always felt kind of cool whipping out your Topshop lipstick or blush (from your Topshop pouch, obviously) in front of all your friends.

Unfortunately, they don’t sell their makeup in local stores anymore. That coincides with the fact that I might be getting too old to be chasing after the coolness points that Topshop provides. So the only time I’d be going there nowadays would be when I get myself a couple of their cute, printed cotton undies.

But what really annoys me about not having their makeup line available in KL anymore is the fact that their signature cream highlighter, Polish, is suddenly a constant feature in every British beauty influencer’s blog/videos. It’s like right after they pull out of the Malaysian market, out of nowhere Topshop makeup becomes this cult favorite/must have and I’m just left kicking myself wondering why I was so foolish as to not have purchased more when they were just a few minutes drive away!

Fortunately, I have a friend who was doing her Masters in the UK, and I asked for a favour from her to ship me a few things from the Topshop Makeup line. They were three beautiful lipsticks; Pillow Talk, Devotion and Rio Rio (an Alexa Chung classic— we feature a lot of Alexa Chung faves on MyLS!).

L-R: Rio Rio, Devotion & Pillow Talk

Pillow Talk is a soft, dusty pink very similar to MAC’s Please Me, but not as pigmented. It’s actually almost an exact dupe for MAC Cremecup, but a lot less drying. It’s got a bit of a sheer, watery texture to it and you can choose to pat it down into a soft, barely-there nude or layer it into a statement pastel lip.

Rio Rio is an orangey red color that I think is so beautiful– a classic orangey red that would look good even on a completely naked face. In fact, I think it would look the most chic with just a nicely filled in brow and mascara.

Devotion is quite an unusual shade; if a plum had babies with a nude lipstick, Devotion would be it. It’s a very modern, fashionable shade yet at the same time is surprisingly wearable as an everyday lip.

They’re £8 each and are supposed to be the cheaper and more affordable alternatives in the UK, so don’t expect the packaging to be as sleek and compact as Tom Ford’s. The tube is white with black stripes, still sticking to the Topshop aesthetic we all know and love. The slight gripe that I have with the packaging isn’t about how it looks– I think it looks just fine– but rather how it performs. The cap tends to be a bit difficult to take off, yet there have been a few times where I’ve reached for the lipstick in my handbag only to find the cap to have fallen off.

The product itself I can say, although not too pigmented (but still does the job well nonetheless) is very creamy in texture and doesn’t dry up your lips like most “affordable” matte lipsticks would. But since this is Topshop– a brand which is All About Image– I guess the most important thing is how the colours look rather than how it feels on your lips.

To that, I say it looks pretty good! Wearing it with sleek shades definitely makes you feel like a true Topshop Girl!

At £8 a tube, that’s definitely a steal! Well, I guess it is since you can’t exactly expect it to be only a pound now, can you? It’s our exchange rate which might make it feel a bit… not exactly that cheap. A tube of Topshop lipstick used to be RM36 when it was around. Due to today’s currency exchange rate, I wouldn’t even consider it a “cheap” alternative.

On a side note, did I ever get the Polish highlighter? No, apparently it’s sold out everywhere. Maybe that’s how they ended up being in everyone’s Youtube video.