ColourPop Lippie Stix in Wifey, Brills, Grind, and Leather

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.

Wifey, Brills, Grind, and Leather
Wifey, Brills, Grind, and Leather

Wifey is a medium vibrant blue-toned magenta 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 darker and brighter than ColourPop Pony, brighter and more purple than MAC Love Forever!, lighter than NARS Angela, and lighter and brighter than NARS Silvia.

Brills is a light-medium cool-toned lavender-lilac 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 more purple and more matte than MAC Asian Flower, lighter and more muted than OCC Rollergirl, brighter and more pink than Kat Von D Coven, and more pink than NYX Lavender.

Grind is a medium-dark cool-toned magenta-violet 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 lighter than ColourPop Leather, darker and more purple than ColourPop Fern, similar to MAC Heroine, and darker and brighter than Bite Beauty Violet.

Leather is a dark cool-toned plum-purple 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 darker than ColourPop Grind, lighter and more magenta than ColourPop Feminist, darker than MAC Heroine, and lighter and brighter than MAC Smoked Purple.

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.