ColourPop Lippie Stix in Frida, Brink, Bound, and Lumière

Late last year, seemingly out of nowhere, ColourPop was suddenly everywhere. An indie brand out of Los Angeles with little to no marketing, ColourPop seemed to rocket into popularity, being mentioned all over the beauty blogosphere and YouTube in the span of maybe a week. Clearly, ColourPop knew how to make itself known in this day and age: Send your products to the biggest beauty names on social media and bam!, instantaneous hype. Mission accomplished. (Well-played, ColourPop. Well-played.) ColourPop prides itself on "making killer makeup in every shade imaginable in prices everyone can afford." The swatches and reviews that started popping up everywhere were too tempting, so naturally, I had to get in on the action and picked up 12 shades of Lippie Stix lip crayons. There is a total of 56 shades available, and they come in slim white retractable crayon barrels with colour-coded ends. They have a vanilla cookie scent, but no discernible taste. Each Lippie Stix contains 1 gram of product, and retails for $5 USD.

Frida, Brink, Bound, and Lumière
Frida, Brink, Bound, and Lumière

Frida is a medium warm-toned peachy pink in a Satin finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter than ColourPop Clover, darker and more pink than ColourPop Button, lighter than MAC Cosmo, more muted and more peach than Bite Beauty Tatin.

Brink is a medium warm-toned peachy-pink brown in a Matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more pink than MAC Taupe, more peach than NARS Vanessa, darker and more peach than Bite Beauty Léché, and darker than Bite Beauty Amaretto.

Bound is a light-medium cool-toned mauve-pink in a Glossy finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter than ColourPop Westie, cooler than MAC Angel, similar though more matte than MAC Creme Cup, cooler brighter and cooler than YSL 10 Beige Tribute.

Lumière is a medium-dark cool-toned mauve-plum in a Matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It more muted than MAC Amorous, more plum than MAC Twig, similar to NARS Anna, and darker and more pink than Urban Decay Rush.

Smooth? Check. Creamy? Check. Colour saturation? Check. The formulation doesn't seem to have any added benefits, but it's not meant to. After all, ColourPop is a brand that is focused on an extensive shade variety at affordable prices, and that's exactly what you should expect. I didn't find these shades dry or hydrating, but they are comfortable to wear while having a decent wear-time (an average of four to five hours, though darker and brighter shades wear up to eight); they don't have a lot of slip, but I didn't find that these tugged or dragged on the lips, either. As a whole, I found these shades to perform really well, applying smoothly and evenly with true and opaque colour pay-off. If you like lipstick crayons, these are absolutely worth checking out. You just can't go wrong for $5. They come in a huge variety of shades and six different finishes, and are especially great for those who like a more precise application with their lipsticks without having to veer into lip pencils.