A Party Rogue’s Legacy: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks in Icy Violet, Carnival Spirit and Pink Sizzle

Greetings from a land of purple tundra and crazy parties, fellow rogues!

Every so often, you’ll see me duck back from the front of the party to let you know about some loot I’ve sighted – if you’ll recall, once recent example of this involved me waving my arms about the unexpected arrival of the Revlon Legacy Lipstick Collection (see the flailing and full arm swatches here). There was also some babbling about/swatches of the lipsticks from the Rio themed 2014 Revlon x Gucci Westman collection (first spotted here). I’m happy to report that – thanks to a convenient sale- I am at liberty to present a couple of gems from these collections, plus a bonus lipstick!

Revlon lipsticks! Legacy: Icy Violet, Gucci Westman: Carnival Spirit and regular permanent Super Lustrous line: Pink Sizzle. The picture at right shows (L-R) Pink Sizzle, Carnival Spirit and Icy Violet.

All of these lipsticks are from the Super Lustrous line – I have yet to try the Colorburst lipsticks (although I have several of the Lip Butters), but I am already a fan of the SL formula (I’ve reviewed the famous Fire and Ice here, way back near the beginning of my little blog adventure!). Frankly, Revlon’s cosmetic line, even just restricted to lip products, is pretty intimidating. If the average Revlon counter were a dungeon, the sheer number and variety of undead/monsters/trolls/irritable warlocks/etc would be almost overwhelming! I mean, variety is a wonderful thing, and there’s no risk of getting bored, but it can get intense. Still, you know that if you need to find a certain colour of lipstick in a certain finish, Revlon’s probably got something for you!

Anyway, I’m rambling (what a surprise). 😛

The druid, selecting lipsticks near the Spring of Suitable Presents for Sisters. Fabulously helpful place, that.

The reason I’m highlighting the variety you can find at Revlon is that our trusty druid friend was recently in the throes of trying to find a suitable birthday gift for his sister. Naturally, he turned to me for assistance (rogues are nature’s dagger-based problem solvers), and I unhesitatingly recommended a lipstick. Not being a lipstick aficionado like myself or our dwarven warrior Sigryn, the druid looked rather panicked, but I suggested we visit the nearest village with a Revlon merchant. Surely, I thought, we would be able to find something there!

As usual, I was right. It only took a few minutes of pulling tester tubes out of the rack and swatching them before he pointed to a pretty, sheer medium pink and exclaimed ‘This one looks suitably inoffensive!’. You’ll have to pardon his expression there – he had just been somewhat horrified by the ones marked ‘Frost’ (‘I’m not swatching *anything* that someone’s put frost magic in – are you insane?!’) and was still recovering. The lipstick in question was Pink Sizzle, a ‘Shine’ lipstick from the SL line. It’s a medium, warm pink with sheer coverage and a glossy finish, and wears (suitably moisturisingly) for about 2-3 hours. It’s a great choice for anyone who wants an everyday pink lipstick, with enough colour to give life to your face but enough sheerness that you can control how intense it is, and can apply without a mirror. In actual fact, I rather think this is a good one for lipstick beginners, as the pink is close enough to neutral to suit most!

Pink Sizzle. He was worried there’d be fire magic in this one, if you can believe it. Druids, eh? 😉

While our faithful druid was busy grappling with the wall of lipsticks, I was on a more targeted mission, deftly pulling out a couple of other Super Lustrous gems that I’d had my eye on already More specifically (and probably no great surprise to anyone reading this), I was after Icy Violet from the Legacy collection, and Carnival Spirit from the Gucci Westman Collection.

(Just to get a couple of generalities out of the way: packaging is totally standard, with the bonus of a window in the top end so you can see the lipstick inside. There’s no scent or taste that I can discern, aside from perhaps the vaguest of vague ‘cosmetic’ smells.)

Let’s take a look at some orange goodness:

Carnival Spirit. Despite its name, the bright orange colour of the bullet and the Rio theme, this is a very gentle, tame lipstick! 😀

Carnival Spirit is an interesting artefact. Everything about it suggests that it will be an outrageous orange experience…but when you put it on, what you get is a sheer, glossy warmth that turns whatever natural pink you have in your lips into a pretty coral. As you know, I don’t have a lot of natural lip pigment, or naturally red lips, but it still doesn’t read ORANGE. It fits in beautifully with a collage of my favourite sheer coral lipsticks. This is definitely a great investment if you want to own an orange lipstick, but still want to be able to wear it every day with any outfit and any amount of other makeup. It has a number (see first photo), so I’m assuming it’s in the permanent line now, meaning it should be available everywhere! Huzzah! The only downside to this lipstick (assuming you’re happy with sheerness, etc) is that if your lips are having a rough day, the coverage may be a little uneven on the dry patches. It’s still nicely moisturising while you wear it, but the application could be tricky. Wear time is, predictably for a sheer glossy lipstick, in the region of 2-3 hours.

Icy Violet.
It never occurred to me to worry about frost magic in lipsticks like these. I mean, there isn’t even the tinkly ice magic sound when you open the cap!

Icy Violet is another chameleon of a lipstick. The name and bullet would lead you to believe you are getting an aggressive, warm lavender frost lipstick (unless you remember this one from earlier times, before it was discontinued). However, what you’re actually getting is a soft, pinkish brown base with gentle purple shimmer/sheen to it. This is eminently more wearable for the everyday quest, and I feel it’s probably another one that will show up slightly differently on different lips. The coverage is sheer but very buildable, with the amount of ‘frost’ you get increasing with more passes. The lip swatch below is probably two or three strong passes, and I’d say that’s about as frosty as it gets. Aside from being less scary than you might assume, the less aggressive frost also means that the lipstick is not at all drying – in fact, it has quite a nice protective feeling. Not super moist, not slippery, but takes good care of your lips. Wear time is a little longer than Carnival Spirit or Pink Sizzle, coming in at 3-4 hours (totally normal for me). I’m very pleased to add Icy Violet to my purple lipstick collection, not only because if its history angle (first released 1946), but because it’s actually a really nice day to day lipstick as well!

Lip swatches! As you can see, Carnival Spirit and Pink Sizzle are pretty similar once applied!

A note about the above: my lips are a little pinker than usual, as I took the photo in the middle of a swatchfest, when they’d been being rubbed clean and re-lipsticked over and over. As a result, Carnival Spirit and Pink Sizzle actually look quite similar, almost as thought they are just two versions of the same thing (one more orange, one more pink). In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t get both, but I somehow doubt that there are many of you out there currently agonising over whether you should get PInk Sizzle *and* Carnival Spirit ;-).

You can also see in this picture that Icy Violet is less of a full on frost, even at three layers, and more…well, the word ‘lustrous’ comes to mind, which is appropriate for this line of lipsticks. I’m not sure if the Legacy lipsticks are going to be reintroduced into the permanent line at all – Icy Violet (and the others) does not have a number on the label at the base, indicating that for the moment they’re limited edition. Hopefully they’re bringing them back full time, though, as the Legacy line seems to have been popular!

What do you think, party members? Would you wear any of these lipsticks? What’s your favourite lipstick from the Super Lustrous line – if you have any?

The practicalities: Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks cost NZ$ 23.50 / US$ ~7-8 for 0.15 oz / 4.3 g, are permanent (excepting Icy Violet here), and may be acquired from Revlon counters around the world.

Until next time, fellow adventurers, don’t forget to check for traps!

Syl

I am an adventuring rogue, not a mercenary for hire, and as such, all opinions expressed here are my own, based on a genuine fondness for/interest in this product. If you have any queries or suggestions, please do not hesitate to pin your parchment to the board (contact me) at thepaintedrogue [at] gmail [dot] com., or use the contact form provided! All images and text on this blog are the property of The Painted Rogue unless otherwise stated. If you nick off with any of it, be prepared to find that your morning hot beverage tastes a little…different than usual. Didn’t the rogue say something the other day about that new poison that makes your innear ear itch maddeningly for the rest of your life? I think she did…