#28kisses and Counting | Day 24: Sam's Blowing Us Kisses

Only 4 days left of the #28kisses challenge and I think it's about time for a guest post.

Today's Kiss is centred around Black|Up Paris, which is a French Premium Cosmetics brand targetted at ladies with medium to dark skin-tones. I've been wanting to try them out for a while now as I've heard great things about their product pigmentation and quality, but a post from one of my favourite bloggers a few years back on their Debenham's counter customer service kind of scared me off.

Late last year a representative for Black|Up got in contact with me as asked if I wanted to review and test out some of their products *cue screams of 'HELL YES' being shouted at my laptop screen*. I was sent 4 of their shades to try out and their lipstick in matte 20 or 'M20' was one of them.


The problem with getting sent something by someone who doesn't know you, is that they tend to choose shades they like or is on 'trend', which you might not necessarily like and unfortunately that was the case with this pastel pink lip

This shade just did not work for me and I knew that if I forced myself to review it, it wouldn't have been a fair review as I simple would have gone on and on about how wrong the shade was for my skin-tone and how I looked like I had taken a big bite out of a pink-powdered doughnut so I got my blog wife Sam of Sam's Beauty Blog to try it for me as I knew it's the kind of shade she loves.

Hey guys!

Annie asked me to do a review for her over at her blog. She was sent a lipstick that didn't work well with her skin colour, so she asked me if I wouldn't mind reviewing it for her. Of course I said yes because she is my wife and it's best to keep your wife happy or you are destined for one unhappy life! See, happy wife equals happy life - it even rhymes so it must be true!

Black Up is a brand designed for darker skintone girls I believe. Their lipsticks claim to have a "balance of pearlizers and pigments, which reveals colour upon application, even on dark lips". Annie sent me a lipstick from their matte range, which they describe as being a semi-matte texture with a beautiful veil of velvety colour that is comfortable and lasts 8 hours.

Upon application, (and you can see this clearly from the swatch with flash) this lipstick does appear to be semi-matte, however within an hour this lipstick is more or less over-drying matte. I would say matter than Ruby woo from Mac, and that is the mattest I know. I think personally when you are working with such a bold vibrant colour, there needs to be some sort of moisture factor that enables the colour to look great. Without this, it can look like a crusty mess (as you can probably see). The colour is beautiful, a little shocking at first because it reminds you of barbie, but nevertheless a very complimentary colour, even on tanned skintone. I was impressed with the pigmentation of the lipstick, with a few swipes it produced this bold, vibrant colour. The texture was a big let down for me. As you can from the pictures, even from far away and so close up, you can see the lipstick has sunk into the fine lines of the lips, which creates an uneven, dry finish. It felt very uncomfortable on the lips because you could feel that it was drying, and in terms of lasting power, I don't believe this would look the same after 8 hours. I wore it for an hour, ate dinner and then tried to reapply it because it looked awful. I would personally team this lipstick with a lipgloss just to avoid the dry look that it creates. I moisturised my lips heavily with Burt's Bees and this lipstick still looked incredibly dry. I tried reapplying the lipstick in hope that it may improve the appearance, it just made it look worse, so I assume you would have to remove the lipstick all together and then apply it from scratch - which is a lot of effort for me!

Being priced at £15, which definitely classes it as a high-end product, I have to say I am unimpressed. The bad factors totally outweigh the good, and then when you compare this performance with other brands that are similarly priced, such as Mac, you're not getting the same standard of quality. Mac is in fact a pound cheaper, and I own several matte finishes and none have created this over-drying look. I must say even drugstore brands such as Revlon, that is almost half the price, produced better looking matte lipsticks. Longevity and the texture of the lipsticks are 2 major factors in my eyes and this lipstick failed in both.

Have you tried a Black Up Lipstick before?