Swatches & Review ~ NEW Portland Black Lipstick Company.

New Portland Black Lipstick Company colours! I'm so excited! These have been a long time coming but they're here! They're here! Along with the new shades comes new packaging as well, which I love. This review was supposed to have been done like a year ago now, so I am sorry for the delay. Also excuse the state of my skin, but since this is a make up review and not skin product one, I'm not going to dwell, because it's really irrelevant and editing it would be a waste of time! I'm already late enough as it is! The swatches could be better, and for that I do apologise, but unfortunately I am currently without a camera so I had to make do with what I took before, which is substandard. But never mind all that! On with the review!

First off, a comparison between the old packaging and the new packaging.

They're still using lip balm tubes, due to the very soft consistency of the product but the new tubes come shrink-wrapped which gives such a great high end feel (I can't remember if the old ones did but it's a cool feature anyhow). The tubes are black, which I love and the labels are more waterproof and feel less like paper, which means less grubby looking tubes. They're also slightly redesigned their logo which looks classy and appropriate to the brand. As always, the ingredients are listed on the back. All in all this is a great upgrade which reflects the company's growing business!

Imitation Cherry

Classic red.

A very traditional, classic but still lovely red. For all you pin-up gals out there who like your ingredients all natural, then here is the lipstick for you! Very pigmented and a lovely formula.

Thee Psychic Berry 

A dark, blackened berry red.

I love this kind of dark, vampy shade. It's one of PBLC's more 'normal' colours, but it's bold enough to be exciting. However, it is very similar to their previous Undead Red (comparison swatch below!). The consistency is creamy and like with all PBLC lipsticks, there is a peppermint scent, however this can be excluded upon request! This is the shade out of all of the new ones that I reach for the most often.

Graey

 A light, opaque grey.

This colour on its own creates this curious effect of cancelling out my lips, it's very strange but has a lot to do with my skin tone. However, a really great tool if you want to create your own custom colours. Grey is a massive trend in the indie lipstick community at the moment (e.g. OCC's Sebastian and Lime Crime's Cashmere) so if you want to emulate a colour like those then use this layered with another lipstick. In fact, I may do a post on that at some point!

Abominable

Pure, opaque snow white.

This is the kind of colour I wouldn't wear on its own, unless it was for a specific costume, but I like the idea of using it to lighten other colours. Another unusual use I found for this is as an eyebrow base. Which is to say, when I'm wearing a wig and my eyebrows contrast in a less attractive way, then I paint my eyebrows over with this and then apply an appropriate eye shadow shade on top. Works beautifully due to how insanely pigmented Abominable is! It isn't streaky or chalky at all, which some pastel lip colours can be.

Chthonique

A dark, metallic khaki green.

This bad boy feels so so creamy and smooth upon application, it's a dream. Easy to apply, I'd say slightly less pigmented than some of the other shades, but the staying power is still there and the fade is still lovely to look at, even after hours. There's something really organic and foresty to this colour - it's less vibrant and more of a natural green, if that makes sense?

The Coral is Coming from Inside the House

A metallic coral.

One of PBLC's more accessible, mainstream shades. A very pretty, easy colour but I think the metallic gives it that edge that PBLC are known for. Applies like Chthonique, although maybe slightly more sheer.


And now for a few comparison, arm swatches!

Left to right: Artificial Cherry, Thee Psychic Berry and Undead Red

When I first saw Artificial Cherry and Thee Psychic Berry I thought they might be quite similar to each other. I was wrong. However, Thee Psychic Berry did make me think of another PBLC colour, and low and behold, they are very similar indeed. I think Undead Red may be the slightest bit more brown but it's so subtle it's probably not worth having both shades in your collection.

Left to right: The Coral Is Coming From Inside The House, Imitation Cherry, Thee Psychic Berry, Chthonique, Graey and Abominable. 

The main swatches were taken in natural light and these were taken under artificial lighting.

Portland Black Lipstick Company can be found on their website and on Etsy. Each tube of .15oz of product cost £9.46 ($14.00) and I would say is worth every penny. If you're unsure about indie brands, this is where you should start! You can find more swatches of other shades, plus more in depth reviews of the formula here, here, here and here.

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Blue Lipstick Reviews ~ Part 2: the other shades.

It's been a long time coming but here it is! Part two! In the first part of my blue lipstick reviews, part of my series looking at alternative lipstick colours, I focused on a few darker blue shades, including Illamasqua's Disciple, Stargazer's 105, Sleek's Peek-a-Bloo and Portland Black Lipstick's Indigio Bridge. For the second part of my collective review of various blue lipsticks, there are four more products to look at. This time we will be looking at the lighter, brighter and more turquoise based shades.

Sweetpea & Fay ~ Nordic

An opaque pastel, grey-hued blue. 

Price: £5.29 ($7.99)
This comes in the form of a liquid lipstick, in a similar style to OCC's lip tars and Sleek's pout paints, however the consistency of Nordic is much thicker, squeezing product out of the tube did take some effort and of course application required a lip brush. I personally really like how this smells, but as with most lipsticks I barely notice any scent once I've worn it for a while. The fade on this happens pretty soon, I'd say noticeably within an hour or so, but it is a subtle fade, without being ugly or obvious. I'd say the product also feels a little heavy on my lips, but I think that may be a personal thing.

Stargazer ~ 104*

An opaque metallic, turquoise blue.

Price: £3.50
I was happily surprised by this one. The last few Stargazer lipsticks had been slightly disappointing but this one was quite opaque pretty much straight away and the consistency, although slightly waxy was bearable. As always it smells like cheap makeup but again, I got over it (although I know for some people this is a complete turn off). The fade appeared after about an hour, having had drunk and eaten tiny cookies, but like Nordic, it wasn't too ugly and since application is easy so is reapplication.

My Beauty Addiction ~ Sapphire

A bright, opaque metallic electric blue. 

 Price: £5.09 ($7.50)
This was a new company I hadn't tried before but they had some interesting colours (more swatches of different colours to come). Although the application wasn't as opaque as I would have liked, but it lasted longer than expected - around two and half hours before it was noticeable, was impressive, and it also faded gracefully, as opposed to patchily. I may have gotten a more opaque application had I had a bullet instead of using a combination of finger and brush but still, would have liked a bit more pigmentation.

Portland Black Lipstick Company ~ Difficult Island*

An opaque, matte turquoise blue. 

Price: £6.89 ($10.00)
Whilst wearing this lipstick, I completely forgot it was on and I ate a cream slice. Half way through devouring it I remembered I was wearing a lipstick and I was annoyed about the mess I had probably made, but upon looking in the mirror it had no budged an inch. Seriously! I had licked my lips and eaten like a general pig and this baby still stood strong. As always, PBLC never fails to impress me. The product in the tube wasn't completely blended but this solved itself once applied, and always the slight minty scent of the lipstick also made my lips tingle slightly.

And finally all of the eight lipsticks reviewed swatched together, for reviews of the other four, go to part one.

(L-R): Sweetpea & Fay ~ Nordic, Portland Black Lipstick Company ~ Difficult Island, Stargazer ~ 104, 

My Beauty Addiction ~ Sapphire, Sleek ~ Peek-A-Bloo, Stargazer ~ 104, 

Portland Black Lipstick Company ~ Indigo, Illamasqua ~ Disciple. 

Which was your favourite shade?
Have you got a blue lipstick you would recommend? I would love to hear it, I'll be making a comprehensive list of blue lipsticks (in the style of my purple one) so the more blue lipsticks you tell me, the better. Personally, I think I prefer the darker or more turquoise shades and I've discovered that the paler colours don't suit me.
(Unfortunately, due to Parcel Force screwing up I never received my delivery for Muylinda Collection's Kool which really sucks, I would have loved to have added it to this series of reviews.)

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