Quickie Review: Melt lipsticks in Space Cake and Belladonna

I bought these two sometime last winter and haven’t got round to showing you all yet! If you’re on Instagram, you’re certain to have heard of this company, with everyone going mad for their bright, unusual colours. I wanted to try them because their imagery is just gorgeous – perfect modern pin-up glamour on gorgeous alternative models – my kind of photography! Srsly, this lookbook.

The packaging was super, super cute – the lipsticks are in simple matte black tubes with the purple Melt logo but they don’t look or feel cheap, they’re a nice quality. My order came with a sticker and a small mirror, which was exciting (I love stickers. Give me stickers!) and was packed in pink styrofoam peanuts. The boxes both had a slightly differing Beetlejuice-esque striped design, and you get a card with some of their images on. Basically, if you want a gorgeous package in the mail, you’ll get one from Melt.

 

 

Space Cake, Belladonna.

Belladonna

 

 

Belladonna is where I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very red and I’m not the kind of girl to turn down a red just because she had 20 others that are very similar – I bought this shade because I just can’t resist a pretty red, and I knew I would wear it more often than a bright peach or blue. I just found the formula to be a little thin, a little dry on application, a little lacking something on this one. You can see compared to the photo of Space Cake below that the texture is different and looks much dryer – and they were taken on the same day. There’s nothing awful about it at all, but I can’t jump up and down and say ‘This formula is grrrrr-eat!” because at least for this colour, I don’t find it to be true.  I don’t *dislike* it as such and I do wear it, but I wasn’t blown away at all – for $19 you can get a much, much better red, anyway. Belladonna doesn’t appear to be on their website anymore. If I find out if it’s discontinued, I’ll update.

 

Space Cake

Wearing Space Cake

 

 

First of all, wowza. It’s GREY, you guys. Grey like this, a grey creme, is not something I can remember another company doing. I know Lime Crime had Chinchilla or whatever it was called, that MAC had Grey Friday and I know there have been greyed purples and oyster grey colours floating around and OCC have some options, but I don’t recall another company with a colour like this at all. Believe it or not, ‘odd’ lip colours aren’t that odd anymore and you can get pretty much whatever colour you like these days if you look for it. Anyway, I could go on about naunces of grey and it’s undertones and it’s pink-ness or not, but this shade was new to me. I was expecting this one to be really dry as well, but the formula is much better. It’s a lot creamier than the other shade I had and I was much happier with this formula. It’s not the longest wearing  or the most hydrating, but it’s a good, solid opaque creamy formula. It’s worth noting I don’t find this one to be as matte as the website show it to be.

Would I purchase from Melt again? I don’t know. Based on Belladonna, no. Based on Space Cake, yes! These are pretty bloody expensive for a small brand at $19 a pop (more expensive than MAC which go for $16 and a shade more than Lime Crime which retail at $18) and while I don’t mind spending if I like what’s on offer, that fact that they’re reasonably pricey *and* I have to ship to the UK and deal with customs fees as well makes me a little less likely to bother. For those on a budget or who don’t want to shell out for wackier colours they’ll only wear occasionally, I just can’t seem to find anything here that makes me go ‘Yep, definitely worth twenty bucks!’ It’s all up to what you’re willing to spend personally of course, but I just wasn’t as blown away by these as I could have been.  Am I stupid and possibly bitter for letting my expectations get the better of me? Maybe. I’m certainly not saying they’re shit, or to not get them - the aesthetic of the company is to die for and it’s the type of company I’m drawn to and want to support.  I’m still really interested in their green shade, Blow, which was recently released. If it reviews well, I’ll probably pick it up as it looks stunning and hope it’s the same formula as Space Cake.

 

Melt Lipsticks are available from MeltCosmetics.com

Have you tried Melt yet? Where do you get your crazy lip colours from?