You know I consider myself to be a good person and a good friend. I am! I may have gone to an all-girl’s Catholic school but I’m not a mean person! I had every opportunity to be– my peers and I were hitting puberty right when Mean Girls came out so you know everyone was falling all over themselves to act like THE plastics (my school had like ten ‘Queen Bees’. Like are you really a queen if there are ten other queens) but I didn’t bite. I avoid being unnecessarily competitive with my friends, I value female friendships just as highly (or higher) as friendships with dudes and I never pitted Britney against Christina. They were both great in their own ways!
But what do you do when your friend has a better beauty product than you?
Okay, real talk, obviously you say “wow I really love this” and then go and buy one of your own. I don’t mind being twinsies with other girls when it comes to beauty products. I mean I like it when someone buys something because of me. It means I’ve got #influence.
Anyway, I was recently rummaging through my good friend’s makeup bag when I came across her Lush lip tint.
“Since WHEN did you get this?” I ask, since this dear friend of mine usually informs me of every makeup purchase she makes so I kind of know everything she has.
She told me she got it in Australia. “Lemme SWATCH this,” I exclaim. She allows it, but not before slathering me in hand sanitiser. Anyway, that was totally a mistake because I ended up loving the product and hating all the lipsticks I already owned and being bitter ’cause we don’t HAVE Lush in Malaysia so I was relegated to constantly asking if I could borrow my friend’s lip tint like some kind of… broke… lady.
Bitch stole my look.
Unless you’re into Asian makeup trends (specifically the whole gradient lip thing), lip tints aren’t really all that in lately, aren’t they? When I was just getting into makeup, Benetint was EVERYWHERE. You couldn’t watch a Youtube makeup tutorial (Youtube makeup was still in its infancy back then! Nobody used HD cameras NOT EVEN PIXIWOO and some people even just had, like, picture slideshows as tutorials) without Benetint being incorporated in there somewhere. Anyway, I was a broke witch so I had to make do with dupes– mine was The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Tint which was really good and I used it all up until it dried up. I felt like lip tints were a really good thing for a teen girl just starting her foray into makeup as it was super subtle and didn’t lend much way for makeup disasters. It was so subtle and natural that the HR where I worked (my first post-SPM job!!!) actually called me to the office and asked me to start wearing makeup. Because apparently nothing improves customer service better than a 17 year old slathered in lipstick.
Anyway, suddenly none of the lipsticks I already owned were working for me. My nude lipsticks were too nude (what I used to think gives me a cool, sixties-inspired vibe now makes me look like a crackhead) and my sheer lipsticks were too shiny. I LONGED for that Lush lip tint– moisturising, providing the perfect amount of a stain while keeping your lips MATTE. See, to me a real stained lip wouldn’t have any shine at all to it. That’s what I’ve always disliked about the Revlon balm stains— they were way too shiny.
Alas, Lush wasn’t coming to Malaysia anytime soon (but I am going to Singapore later! To see Panic! At The Disco wheee it’s always 2005 in my mind!! So maybe I’ll pay Lush a visit) so I figured that I would just suffer with my too nude/shiny lips.
But then one day I was trolling around in Sephora when I found myself in front of the Josie Maran counter. I never really look at her products since I’ve read that it’s really unnecessarily marked up but that day I was reminded of MyLS girl Ellia who talked about being a fan of Miss Maran back in her modelling days (an interesting factoid which I didn’t know before. I thought Josie Maran was born an argan oil specialist) so I decided to check her stuff out. That was when, amongst all the unnecessarily marked up oils, I came across the Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelée.
There were only two shades available– Flashing Red and another, slightly pinker shade. I got the red one because I always prefer my stains to be red. Firstly, the texture is really something. When they say gelée they really mean jelly. The stuff like BOUNCES. It feels exactly like one of those little cone-shaped jellies we used to eat during recess in primary school. The good thing about this is that you can poke at it all day and it will retain its shape– just don’t scratch it.
Finish-wise, it’s just like my friend’s Lush lip tint! It calls itself a cheek jelly, of course, but I use it primarily on my lips. It’s SUPER sheer, so you’ve got to layer it on a bit to get it to show up on your cheeks. I’ve used it as a cream blush a couple of times and it does give you this very healthy, au naturale glow like you’ve just run a marathon and are gluten-free. Most excellent for a no-makeup makeup look.
On my lips it’s everything that I love about the Lush lip tint. It is SO moisturising that I, the Queen of Chappedland, have been able to forego lip balm and just use this on my lips. I’ve worn this to sleep even! It isn’t shiny and tacky and GLISTENING like some cheap tinted lip balms, but just sinks perfectly into your lips and makes it look– pardon the cliche– like you’ve been eating cherries. Actually, scratch that. Like you’ve been drinking blood (but glamorously, like The Countess). I have something against cherries, both in singular and plural.
It lasts a decent amount of time– the more you layer on the longer it will last. I don’t like to layer on too much because I like to keep it looking just bitten, so that will usually stay put for about two hours. But then like I’ve said before, I don’t mind reapplying! I don’t know if this is an Official Observation or maybe I’m just imagining things, but it has some kind of a flavor? A really, really subtle one. So subtle that I can’t quiet ascertain what it is. Hopefully it’s not cherries.
So are you jelly of my gelée? (U betta be). Get the Josie Maran Coconut Cheek Gelée for RM84 at all Sephora stores!
MY LIPSTICK STAIN 
