ColourPop was one of my major disappointments of 2016. I didn’t like the products I tried from them, and then they made an appearance in the category ‘worst customer service of 2016’ in my best of 2016 post. Nevertheless, they offered free international shipping and suddenly, I wanted to give the products I hadn’t tried before a chance. So, the question is – are ColourPop cosmetics good? Those ones that aren’t hyped up liquid lipsticks and glittery eyeshadows? Millions of followers can’t be wrong, right?
Well, they were and they weren’t.
The Blush – Super Shock Cheek in Cruel Intentions (matte)
I really loved the highlighter I got last time, so I set out to try at least one blush. I wanted something versatile, so I opted for an easy to wear matte medium pink that looked nice in the swatches on their homepage. Temporarily I thought I had gone mad when I opened the box and looked at a terracotta coloured blush. Thankfully, though, the real colour isn’t nearly as intimidating as the product in the pan might seem, so it’s all good.
What else is good? Application is super easy either with my fingers or a stippling brush, wear time is good as well. I get a whole day wear out of this, and the colour doesn’t fade, either. Cost? As usual with ColourPop, it’s excellent – 8$ for 4,2g or 0,15oz. The texture is a bit stiffer and not as bouncy as the highlighters, but that doesn’t bother me at all.
Conclusion? Yay!
The Gel Liner – Crème Gel Colour in Dirty Talk
Dirty Talk is a light gold with some glitter particles in it. It comes in a clear glass pot and looks like your usual gel eye liner. It also behaves like your usual gel eyeliner. Dirty Talk goes on a bit unevenly, but that’s expected with a shade like that – that’s the glitter particles’ fault. But I don’t mind that, really, because it’s nevertheless very easy to use. It dries down very quickly, so it doesn’t matter if you’ve to go over the line twice.
Its opacity isn’t the best, though, and we’ll have to see how long it’s usable until it dries out. I can imagine that the shade makes for a nice base, but haven’t tried that yet. Longevity is rather good – I didn’t experience that much fallout from the glitter particles either.
Conclusion? Doesn’t blow me away, but rather nice.
The Gel Liner, part 2 – Crème Gel Liner in Get Paid
ColourPop’s liners come in both pot and as a screw-up pencil, and I bought Get Paid in pencil form. It’s a gorgeous rose gold, and I love it. It goes on easily, is visible even if you use it over a dark eyeshadow (I did a grey smokey eye with Get Paid and it looked gorgeous) and glides on like butter. No tugging at all. It held up for a whole day as well, and I want more.
Conclusion? Get all the liners.
The lip liner – Lippie Pencil in Leather
ColourPop is famous for having all the colours, so when I decided to go for one of the lip liners, I wasn’t going for a nude or a red. Nope. Leather is a deep purple, and I wanted to use it for all those pink MAC lipsticks that MAC calls purple, but aren’t. Such a colour is also great to deepen a colour (I look horrible in lighter pink and purples), and also for an ombre look.
What I didn’t anticipate was how great the formula is. For me, the greatest lip liner of all times is by Kiko, and this one is just as good. It is very, very creamy, but it’s gel texture dries down very quickly, and then it won’t budge. That’s the reason why Leather is also great worn alone as a matte lipstick, or as a base under a glittery lipstick like MAC’s Kling it on that’s basically glitter in a greyish base. It’s amazing, and apparently, I can get really excited about liners.
Conclusion? Gimme all the liners!
The Satin liquid lipsticks – Ultra Satin Lip in London Fog and Lost
I’m not the world’s most enthusiastic matte lipstick wearer. I’m rather going for comfort than looks, and a completely matte lip is also not a part of my personal aesthetic most of the time. Looks like Satin lipsticks were made for me, right? Maybe, but definitely not ColourPop ones. London Fog is a British telephone cell red, while Lost is a reddish-rosy terracotta. I always find ColourPop’s applicators slightly stiff and cumbersome, and it’s very easy to apply too much product. True to their claim they never dry down completely and have a Satin finish, which I liked. But then they fell short for me.
Weartime is so-so (meaning they hold up pretty well as long as you don’t eat), but my lips felt the same like I was wearing a true matte liquid lipstick. So where’s the point, I ask you? Especially as there’re formulas out there that match a satin finish with a truly comfortable feeling, like Estée Lauder’s Pure Color Envy. Add insult to injury, when I topped my worn down London Fog with a MAC Gloss, it made it bleed and slide all over the place. Not good! I had a better result with Lost. Made weary by my experience with London Fog I figured I had used to much product and resulted to dabbing the product on my lips and smooshing them together. That looked more like a reddish stain, wore quite well again, made my lips feel dry again and at this point I quit. There’re better satin formulas around.
Conclusion? No, not again.
The matte and satin eyeshadows – Super Shock Shadow Collection in Zingara
I’m a total meanie in adding this to my review, because Zingara was in a Fall LE and has long since sold out. BUT! Let’s rather talk about formulas here then particular shades. My first ColourPop order was full of metallic eyeshadows, because everybody loved them so much. They weren’t for me, but I wanted to see if different textures would do more for me.
Zingara consists of Pearlized, Satin and Matte shades, and all of them are a total win. I was especially blown away how easy it was to blend them and how rich the colours were. Pearlized is a nice shimmer texture, very reflective but without larger glitter particles that made my life so difficult when I encountered them in the metallics. The Satin texture has a nice sheen, a proper satin. And the mattes are super saturated, super easy to apply and to blend either with fingers or my synthetic Hakuhodo i-127 brush. Wear time is stellar, there’s no fallout, application is easy – I finally get the ColourPop raves (although not for the things people usually rave about).
Conclusion? More matte, satin and pearlized eyeshadows for me, please!
Overall
After my first disappointment with ColourPop, I finally get the hype (a bit). I’ve found some products I truly love, due to their unique colours or excellent texture. I can heartily recommend their highlighters, blushes, liners in pen form and their matte and satin eyeshadows. I’m still not a fan of their metallics, and surprise! I rate their liquid matte lipsticks higher than their liquid satins. Wonders will never cease. The only thing that will make me hesitant to place another order is their abysmally bad customer service. I usually make a point not to spend my money at places where I’m not appreciated as a customer, so let’s see what happens next.
