Lipstick Review ~ Blackest of Black (part 1)

I've been getting into the gothic look a lot recently so I started looking for a good quality black lipstick (not that £1 crap you get at halloween) and realised that there aren't that many obvious options. So I searched pretty much everywhere and here I'm going to try out the various brands of black lipstick I found on the high street and on the internet and compare them (which means that now I am stuck with 6 black lipsticks - the things I do for you guys!). I'm not a professional makeup artist (obviously), so I will apply each lipstick the same, straight from the bullet to my lips and blot once, without primer or sealant or anything fancy. Things I'll be looking for are: high pigmentation and lasting colour. I don't really care about presentation, if the lipstick is good, it doesn't matter what the outside looks like and I'm also not too miffed about staining (although I will mention it).


Barry M - Black

Price: £4.49 (can be found in Superdrug and Boots)
I wasn't too surprised that Barry M does a black lipstick since they generally pride themselves on having unusual colours but I've never tried any of their lip paints so I wasn't sure what to expect.
Thoughts: The application was smooth and even, the colour was pretty concentrate and I didn't notice any smell. I also found this didn't really dry my lips out at all. I didn't find any feathering, however I did find that there was a lot of migration further into my lip, meaning fading happened pretty quickly (just from talking) and it got on my teeth. There was a tiny bit of staining but it came off with makeup remover.

Pros:

• pretty cheap
• good initial pigmentation  
• non-drying

Cons: 

• migration 
• fading happened fairly quickly

Portland Black Lipstick Co. - Black

Sample was provided. Obviously opinion is unbiased.

Price: £8.43 from their Etsy store (or £10.57 from their website, both prices included P&P in to the UK.)
This one came to me all the way from America. This US-based company had 'black lipstick' in the name so that was a pretty promising start. 
Thoughts: I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this lipstick. I got smooth, even coverage, no feathering and only a small amount of fading, even after eating and drinking. I also found that my lips didn't feel dried out. Less importantly (but still cool) it smelt lightly like peppermint which was nice and there was no staining of such afterwards.

Pros:

• super pigmented 
• long-lasting and durable
• no feathering or migrating
• didn't dry out lips

Cons: 

• comes from America (so naturally a bit more expensive if you're ordering from the UK, if not this doesn't really apply)
• applying straight from this shape bullet can be awkward 

Manic Panic - Raven

Sample was provided. Obviously opinion is unbiased. 

 

Price: £6.95 - cheapest found. (Some others, P&P included: Dream Gate, £8.94, Rowdydow, £8.80)
If you've heard of Manic Panic at all then it'll be in relation to their hair dye, but they also do loads of other stuff, including an alternative cosmetic line.
Thoughts: Initally I found that you needed to build the colour up a bit to get an opaque look but once it was layered enough the pigmentation was okay. I'd say as a general this lipstick is comparable to the Barry M one, especially in terms of fade, which it did pretty quickly, even though all I did whilst testing this was talk. However it didn't migrate (unlike Barry M) or feather, nor was it drying.

Pros:

• not drying
• didn't feather or migrate 
• no obvious staining

Cons:

• faded pretty quickly 
• not exceptionally pigmented

So that's it for part 1. Next I'll be looking at Manic Panic's Lethal (from their vegan Creature of the Night range), Miss Sporty's Black and Stargazer's Black, a nice diverse mix! I'll also have a comparison swatch and tell you what my personal favourite is.
Part 2 can be found here.