Beso-Free: The Longest Longwear Lipstick Ever
I am a red lip girl with a loyalty to NARS’ infamous Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella. I went an entire year in which I wore it everyday and everywhere, from work to an 8 am Target run. And while it is beyond a stunning shade, it’s not a very flexible date-night color, if you know what I mean. Yeah, I said it. If I am wearing red, chances are no one is getting kissed. Heck, if I am wearing lipstick at all, no one is getting kissed. That is, until I was introduced to my new everyday obsession, Maria ¡Qué Matte! Enduring Liquid Lipsticks by Vive Cosmetics, a beauty brand created for Latinas/xs by Latinas. The color Maria is one of their top sellers and a personal favorite of founders, Joanna Rosario and Leslie Valdivia.
Truth be told, it was not love at first application. If we are being honest, I have an issue with long-wear lipsticks. Despite their lasting power, their drying power was something I could not get past. But, this being a Latina owned brand, I wanted to. I applied the liquid lip color after dinner on the night I purchased it during their pop-up here in Chicago. Immediately, my lips felt tacky as the color started to dry on my lips and the tackiness quickly turned to tightness and I almost swore it off entirely. I applied a balm, which would kill the matte effect but soothe my lips and headed home, disappointment in myself for not being as obsessed as the rest of the MBG team. Clearly, I am defective. That night, I washed my face and applied my required nightly regimen of 72.5 anti-aging beauty product and went straight to bed.
In the morning, that long wear lip color was still on. What kind of brujeria was this? How I had not noticed during my nightly cleansing was beyond me. The color was not as strong as when I first applied but it was there and I loved it. I was now determined to make it work if for nothing else than for the beautiful color that apparently I never had to reapply for the next two weeks. Okay, maybe the next 16 hours. So, I gently exfoliated my lips, added balm, kissed said balm off and reapplied the lip color only to find that this time there was no tackiness, no intense tightness, and best of all, no dryness. It took a little tweaking, okay, barely any tweaking and all I did was something I should have been doing anyway, hydrating my lips. And yes, this long wear stunner is in fact beso-free because I am nothing if not dedicated to my craft. For the sake of research, I did find that you really cannot kiss this off.