August’s Lip Monthly finally arrived! I’m not a big fan of this one at all, to be honest – the colors are pretty off for me, and even the bag isn’t one I’ll keep (ugh, pink AND flowers, c’mon). When I opened the bag which was delivered Monday, August 22nd, the product card was stuck to the vinyl inside the bag and left behind orange residue from the card on the bag. The colors? Two are soft, dusty rose colors, one is a neon salmon pink, and the only acceptable one is the red stain. For as much as I loved what I got in July, I’m wildly disappointed in this month’s shipment.
- Hikari Dual Color Stick – .23 oz / $15 – (Full Size Product) The color I received was “Dusk” which is basically a neon salmon pink and not at all like its namesake. It’s bright, BRIGHT-bright. This isn’t a color I can wear since anything that has even the slightest yellow tone doesn’t look good on me, but it’s honestly SO bright, I can’t see how this would look good on anyone who isn’t in an 80s music video. It didn’t look that bad in the tube, but on? HUGE NO. The formula is nice and the stick is huge, but as a lip color, it’s not for me, and I really don’t use blush since I have pretty red cheeks to begin with.
- Lord & Berry Lip Liner – .03 oz / $19 – (Full Size Product) People still use lip liners? I thought we had those invisible ones now and the colored ones were a thing of the past.. anyway, any sort of dusty rose sort of color isn’t for me, nor do I EVER use lip liners, so this is going straight to the trade/give-away box.
- Manna Kadar Liplocked Priming Lip Wand – .09 oz / $24 – (Full Size Product) I’m honestly not sure what color I received since it isn’t printed on the product itself. It may have been on the safety seal band, but I’m at a loss! Looking at the colors online, it’s probably “J’Adore” since it’s a pinky nude which fits the color description. It looks like this pretty closely matches the other Manna Kadar Liplocked gloss I received last month though, so the two should work together pretty well. It’s a thick crayon sort of product and goes on very matte. I actually tried the Hikari color on top and as long as I went really lightly with the Hikari, it wasn’t too bad! The color is just a shade darker than my natural lip color, so it would definitely work best as a primer.
- Seraphine Rosy Cheeks – .35 oz / $20 – (Full Size Product) It’s a lip and cheek stain, and the formula is almost like a cream gel consistency. I received the color, “Bloom.” Thicker than other gel stains, but thinner than liquid lipsticks. It’s got a pretty strong floral scent which to me smells a lot like roses. Again, not something I’d use on my cheeks since they don’t need to be any redder, so I tried it out on my lips. It didn’t really stain much, but instead it clumped together and went on really unevenly. I thought maybe I just needed to start with freshly exfoliated lips, so I did that and tried again, but it was exactly the same. When I rubbed the gel into my lips with my finger to better distribute it, it ended up all coming off on my finger instead. What little did stay on my lips was uneven and didn’t stain very much. I was hoping for a nice classic red stain to wear under lip balms and glosses, and it’s there, but it’s much more subtle than I expected. I think my finger is stained more red than my lips. The company does advertise that they’re cruelty free and vegan, and that this product is 95% natural, so that’s pretty awesome.
The total value of the bag comes to $79 which is great when you consider that the bag cost me just under $10 for a 4 month (buy 3 get 1 free) subscription. When you consider that I’m not really wowed by any of the products, for $10 it’s still okay, and I will use that Manna Kadar primer for sure. I really wish the company had a way to set preferences for colors so the value would consistently be worth it every month. I know that dusty rose and salmon/corals don’t work for me but berry and cool reds do. I know I don’t like lip pencils, but I love trying new stains (even if they don’t quite knock my socks off). Beyond that, for a subscription called “Lip Monthly” having two products be dual-purpose lip/cheek products isn’t really that fantastic for variety’s sake. I probably would’ve appreciated a little more variety in color too since the lip liner pencil and Manna Kadar are basically the same color (though that might be intentional). Anyway, two more months left, here’s hoping next month’s is better!