Dainty Doll Lipsticks - Couture, Saucy Sailor & It's My Party

After my numerous haul posts featuring Dainty Doll products, I am finally getting around to reviewing them! Today's post is reviewing three shades of the lipstick.

As I have commented before, I am a big fan of the Dainty Doll packaging. I think real effort was made to create something new and distinctive, and it's also a little retro which I like.

The lipstick tubes are made from a matte black metal which looks fantastic - very high end. The lids clip on securely, the lipstick feels safe in the tube and they feel nice in your hand. The three shades I went for were 001 Couture, 002 Saucy Sailor and 003 It's My Party.

Top > bottom 001 Couture, 002 Saucy Sailor, 003 It's My Party.

As you can see, these lipsticks are highly pigmented - the colour just jumps out at you! I was so pleased with these when I swatched them on my hand for the first time. Couture is a deep vampy vintage red shade which I'm not sure I will get all that much wear from to be honest. Saucy Sailor is an in-your-face blue toned red that I think will suit most skin tones (and most importantly for Dainty Doll, looks awesome on a pale skinned gal like me!). It's My Party is much pinker in real life than it's showing in the photo - a really bright, neon pink. I don't think I would wear any of these shades during the day but they would be real show-stoppers on a night.

Here is Saucy Sailor on my lips. Here comes my first criticism! When I tried to apply this lipstick on the lips I found it really really dragged. The formula is so waxy that when putting it on the lips directly it's tricky to get an even coverage and not leave any gaps. I would definitely recommend applying this with a lip brush for this reason, and in general it's a good idea to use a brush for bright colours anyway. Once on the lip I really liked the look, however (second criticism imminent!) after only about 45 minutes of wear the product started to seriously dry my lips out. I have dry lips generally, and so I always apply a thin layer of balm under any lipstick but even with that protection in place, after 2 hours of wear my lips were so dry they were almost painful! I had to wipe this off and apply an emergency layer of Nuxe Reve de Miel to try and fix them! The It's My Party formula is marginally less drying, but it's still not very moisturising and I can't wear it for very long without needing to apply a heavy coat of lip balm.

The third and final criticism is the longevity. Even if your lips can stand the dryness, the lipstick does transfer onto cups and glasses, and starts to partly fade after about an hour. The outside of the lip doesn't fade and the lipstick there does stay put, doesn't smudge and lasts well, but the middle fades really fast. The high impact shades I've tried means I have to touch up every 45 minutes or so, perhaps even more often if eating and drinking lots over that period.

So overall I'm sadly disappointed by these lipsticks. I had high hopes for them given the high price - these retail for £12.50 ordinarily, and there are a number of rave reviews in the blogosphere. I bought mine from Fragrance Direct for £1.99 each (link) so I'm not as annoyed as I would be had I spent over 6 times that amount on each one.

Have you tried these lipsticks? How did they work out for you?

xx

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