I’m swatching 20 L’Oreal Paris lipsticks that I have got, on the blog today. And I’m wearing no base makeup on the photos (refer the end of the post to know why) to show you how exactly the shades look on dark Indian skin.
I plan to continue doing swatches this way if it is going to help at least a few brown/dark-skinned women do their makeup shopping wisely. Please let me know your thoughts on the comment section!
1. Pure Brick, Star Collection Lipstick – Price: 995 INR
A bright, brown-red shade that has a hint of orange in it; a good start for people who aren’t used to bold reds. The shade is highly pigmented, fully-matte and slightly drying on the lips. A lip balm is recommended with such a formula. It fades into a muted coral on me after a few hours of wear. (long staying!)
2. Pure Garnet, Star Collection Lipstick – Price: 995 INR
A deep, wine-maroon shade that I’d prefer to wear for night-outs and parties. The pigmentation is fantastic; however, you may need pre-exfoliation and a coat of lip balm to prevent it from settling into the lip lines. The formula is truly matte and long staying. It leaves a natural-looking pink stain on my lips.
3. Pure Rouge, Star Collection Lipstick – Price: 995 INR
Another warm-toned red – similar to Pure Brick from the same range. I’ve seen other bloggers claiming that it’s a dupe of MAC Ruby Woo, which is a cool toned red but I don’t know why the shade in my bullet looks warm! Or maybe the shade turned warmer over the period of time. Nevertheless, let’s assume it’s a pure balanced red (If it doesn’t look warm on you!). The pigmentation is good; it goes opaque in one swipe and stays for long hours.
4. Pure Amaranthe, Star Collection Lipstick – Price: 995 INR
A beautiful red-based-pink shade that will look flattering on any skin tone! For me, this is my go-to shade for wedding parties. The pigmentation is very intense and it leaves a tough-stain behind. You will definitely need a proper makeup remover and not to forget, exfoliate your lips before application if you’ll be picking this one!
5. Charismatic Coral, Infallible Lipstick – Price: 999 INR
A fresh, summery-coral shade with a surprisingly nourishing-formula. It has a pure orange base and no hint of other shades. The shade is non-drying, slides on the lips effortlessly and settles into a semi-glossy finish. However, the pigmentation is not very opaque and it requires a good number of swipes to bring out the intensity of the color. (At least on deeper skin tones)
6. Forever Fuchsia, Infallible Lipstick – Price: 999 INR
It’s a lovely cool-toned barbie pink shade that is very versatile! The pigmentation is very intense; more intense compared to Charismatic Coral. This shade has a non-drying, semi-glossy finish and stays for a good number of hours without getting patchy.
7. Resilient Raisin, Infallible Lipstick – Price: 999 INR
This is my most favorite shade from these 20! It’s a lovely, muted-chocolate shade that doubles up as a nude shade for me if worn lightly. I prefer dabbing this shade over my lip balm and it’s like a must-have in my handbag right now. If you’ve got a dusky/dark skin, you’ll like how this shade looks on you! It conceals two-toned lips like magic.
8. Glamour Fuchsia, Color Riche Moist Matte Lipstick – Price: 899 INR
A bold, blue-toned fuchsia with strong hints of purple. It is more vibrant compared to ‘Forever Fuchsia’ and carries a similar finish – semi-glossy/non-drying. The name says matte, but it’s not truly matte.
9. Cherry Crush, Color Riche Moist Matte Lipstick – Price: 899 INR
A bright, almost-pastel peach shade that will flatter light-brown to dusky skin tones. It washes out darker skin tones like mine and on a very light skin, it probably wouldn’t show up. The finish is powdery-matte and slightly drying. Pigmentation is decent.
10. Blaze of Red, Color Riche Moist Matte Lipstick – Price: 899 INR
A deep-red shade with hints of pink that goes smooth on the lips. If you can’t handle super-matte formulas but still want decent pigmentation, you’ll like this. However, with so many reds from this brand, I’ll give this a skip since it’s a very common shade! I won’t be spending 900 bucks on it.
11. Arabian Night, Color Riche Moist Matte Lipstick – Price: 925 INR
This shade is super intense, dark and perfect for a bold statement-look! Looks like a mixture of deep plum and wine to my eyes. I’d say a deep shade like this goes with anything. (I can be vampire-biased). Night parties, day time casual wear and you don’t even need to concentrate on the other parts of your makeup much. It’s a kind of shade that instantly boosts your confidence if that’s not an exaggeration! (But it makes my already big teeth look even bigger) The staying power is top-notch for such a pigmentation!
12. Rose Symphony, Colour Riche Extraordinaire Lip Color – Price: 950 INR
Rose Symphony is a light peachy-pink shade with a creamy matte finish. Though it doesn’t wash out on my deep skin much, it settles just like a lip balm! Extraordinaire lip colors, especially the light shades, are not nicely pigmented. They’re more suitable for dry lips.
13. Plum Quartet, Colour Riche Extraordinaire Lip Color – Price: 950 INR
A milky pastel-plum shade which carries a visible blue undertone! The shade is averagely pigmented. The applicator does a decent job but I still couldn’t work it right on my lips. Definitely not a shade for my skin but I guess I should give it a try over nude lipstick someday!
14. Magnolia, Colour Riche Extraordinaire Lip Color – Price: 950 INR
I absolutely loved the formula of this lip color. According to me, it’s the best formula out of all the 20 I own. It goes buttery smooth on my lips (yet, well pigmented) and settles into a creme-matte finish. It doesn’t get patchy at all. I wish I had darker shades of Extraordinaire lip colors from L’Oreal Paris instead of the light ones that wash me out.
15. Blake’s Delicate Rose, La Vie En Rose Exclusive Lipstick – Price: Rs.995
It’s a warm pink shade that is slightly-peachy and settles matte. The pigmentation is definitely not the best however it does a decent job. I still will never recommend it to people with pigmented lips. The shade will also wash out on darker skin tones. For my eyes, Blake is the matte-version of Rose Symphony from their Extraordinaire range. If not same, they’re very similar.
16. Naomi’s Delicate Rose, La Vie En Rose Exclusive Lipstick – Price: Rs.995
This shade has a similar, powdery-matte finish and is decently pigmented. Still, not well pigmented enough to cover pigmented lips. Contrary to the name, the shade carries almost no pink in it. It’s a light peach. This shade is not going to suit many of the Indian skin tones but only the very light-pale ones. (With smokey eyes, especially!) But you may like it if you like wearing pastel on dusky skin, fora change! At this price, I will still recommend you to search for other pastel-options as it doesn’t score in the ‘pigmentation’ part.
17. Gong Li’s Lilac, Star Collection Matte Lip Color – Price: 950 INR
This lip color is similar to a gloss (settles into a creme finish initially but later dries into matte) and not really a lipstick. The shade lilac is a pastel peach shade with mild shimmer. It carries a buttery formula and a slightly plastic-y scent. This shade is a mismatch for me. Not for pigmented lips, again!
18. Fan Bing Bing’s Peony, Star Collection Matte Lip Color – Price: 950 INR
A pure pastel milky-pink! It’s extremely pastel and averagely pigmented. Not for medium, dusky or dark skin tones. The applicator also gets patchy. Not recommended by me.
19. My Sky is the Limit, Infallible Mega Lip Gloss – Price: Rs.850
Though the gloss looks like a peppy bubble-gum pink on the tube, it goes VERY sheer on my lips – almost lighter than a tinted lip balm. There’s a faint stain of pink with shimmer, which adds up to the perfect glossy finish. I’m honestly disappointed with the pigmentation but the formula is extremely nourishing and glossy! It helps my lips stay moist for long hours. (I wouldn’t suggest it though, because of the price tag)
20. All Night Long, Infallible Mega Lip Gloss – Price: Rs.850
All night long also has a poor pigmentation, and it’s a shimmery coral shade with warmth! The finish is super-glossy and it has golden shimmer (more shimmery compared to the previous shade) to add a bit of dazzle to the look. I believe these glosses are good to be worn on no-makeup days or over your regular lipstick for a nice, glossy non-drying finish. Mind you, the shimmery glosses from this range has a faint, plastic-y smell that I don’t fancy. My favorite from this range is Who’s the Boss, which is a lovely deep plum shade! (I lost the tube, unfortunately!)
This is the first swatch-heavy post on this blog. Sorry for the poor lighting and pictures. I never liked swatch-ing different lipsticks, to be honest. But I realized there aren’t many swatch posts for the brown-skinned, on the Indian blog-o-sphere. (Correct me if I’m wrong. I’d be glad to discover bloggers/vloggers who do swatches on dark skin) Even if there were a few, they mostly use a lot of base makeup to lighten/conceal their natural skin before swatching the shade so it almost becomes impossible to know how the shade is going to look on a proper dark skin.
I believe posts like these will be helpful for dark-skinned women to choose their lip colors wisely. Let me know on the comment section if you liked it and if you didn’t like it (with your reasons, so that I can rectify the errors). And also, if there’s a range of lip colors or eye colors you want to see on dark skin, please let me know below! I’ll try to swatch them for you.
