Friday 27 December 2013

Review: OCC Lip Tars in Queen & Pretty Boy

When you stalk as many beauty blogs as I do, you start to notice trends amongst the products reviewed/swatched. Urban Decay Naked palettes, Ciate Nail Art Kits, Stila Foil Finish Eyeshadows... the list goes on! Such was the case with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars. Fellow beauty addicts will relate: when you're lemming for a product this hard; nothing, not shipping restrictions, not customs tax, nothing can get in the way of you getting your grubby little hands on your precious! So you can understand my utter joy when I discovered these beauties in the Bellabox Shop. Not only that, I had a discount code; SCORE! I ordered these maybe a week or so before Christmas and to my delight, they turned up just a few days later. Bellabox for the win! I purchased two shades; Queen (neon red coral) and Pretty Boy (rich fuchsia). Read on for the swatches and review.

OCC Lip Tars are super pigmented and are basically pure pigment, suspended in a moisturising oil solution. They are 100% vegan and cruelty free. The ingredient list isn't scary and unpronounceable either. Awesome. As you can see from the swatches above, these things are b-r-i-g-h-t! They're crazy saturated and are opaque in a single swipe. The formula is pretty thin but you only need a teeny tiny amount to coat your lips. There's a faint minty scent to them but it wears away after a few minutes. Because of the thin formula, you will need to wait a few minutes after application to allow the product to dry a little. For the love of God, try not to smudge your mouth at this point or your look will be incredibly Joker-esque. 
The lip tar comes in a clear plastic, zip top pouch with a teeny tiny lip brush. I don't actually use this brush; I prefer to use my usual lip brush which is significantly bigger, but it's a nice addition for touch ups while you're out and about. 
The tube holds 10ml worth of product but with how little you use, this tiny tube is sure to last you a while. You will need to use a lip brush to apply this product. I squeeze a minuscule bead of lip tar directly onto my lip brush and apply onto my lips, starting from the centre and working my way outwards. You can also blend the shades together like paint to create your own customer colour. Cool, right?
As you can see from this picture, there's a little separation happening in the tube. This is nothing to be alarmed about! According to OCC, because they pack so much pigment into their lip tars, a bit of separation between the pigment and the oil is completely normal. Just give the tube a bit of a massage or turn it upside down and let it sit for a couple of minutes. 
Holy mother of lip liner! How gorgeous is this shade? Queen is a truly bright, neon red based coral that hurts your eyes if you look at it too long. Just kidding. It's actually pretty wearable, especially in summer. Lip Tars dry down to a satin finish but can be matted down by blotting. I'd recommend using a blotting paper, which seems decadent but blotting papers just remove the excess oil as opposed to removing oil and pigment like tissues do. 
Pretty Boy is a rich, blue based fuchsia. It's not quite neon but is still very, very bright. The blue tones in this shade help make your teeth look super white which is always a good thing! One thing to note about these lip tars is that if you don't do the old suck a knuckle trick to remove excess lipstick, you WILL get lipstick on your teeth. And people will laugh at you. And you will be sad. 
Because of the thin formula, you may encounter a bit of feathering as the day  goes on. The best way I've found to stop this is to use a clear, barrier lip liner like this one from Models Prefer. It's clear and matte and you just line outside your lipline to help hold in all the colour. 
Lastly, because of the high saturation of pigment, they do leave a long lasting stain on the lips that needs to be scrubbed away if you want to start fresh. The photo above was taken about 12 hours and 1 shower after swatching. 

In the end, I'm thrilled with my new purchase. So much so in fact, that I've ordered two more shades! You won't be able to get all the shades available at Bellabox (although, Bellabox does have Lip Tars for 30% off until the 31st) but there are a few other retailers that stock all the shades. So definitely have a bit of a hunt around and give these a whirl. They're pretty cheap (AUD$18 - $20 RRP and there are always sales floating around if you do a bit of googling), a little goes a long way and they're FUN! So give them a shot, you won't be sorry!

Over and out!

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