A Late-Bloomer's Favorite Lip Colors
If you know me, you’d know that I’m OBSESSED with lip colors! But first, let me share a little bit about my experience with make up.
I consider myself to be a late-bloomer when it comes to cosmetics because I only figured out how to wear lip colors in 2015! *cue gasps of horror* Before that, I only ever used tinted lip balm and if there were photos of me wearing lipstick, it was probably applied by someone else because I was really that hopeless at it.
By the time 2015 came around, I suddenly realized that I wanted to add more color to my face when I went to work everyday, so why not start with lip colors? It seemed like the easiest thing to do since my lip already had its own shape and all I had to do was color it in.
The first lipstick I bought was a red one from NARS, and I bought it with the matching lip liner. The promoter told me that if I lined my lips with the lip liner, it would prevent my lipstick from smudging. So that’s what I did 3 months after I got over my nerves and finally decided to put it on!
I remembering being genuinely insecure and shy about it the first day I wore lipstick to work. I kept checking in the mirror and on every single reflective surface because I was really not used to seeing colors on my lips. I also refused to eat or drink (I usually snack a lot at work with the rest of my snack-driven team) for fear that my lipstick would run. Haha, yes, that’s how worried I was!
By lunch time, I was SO STRESSED OUT when I realized my lipstick had started to smudge into the fine lines around my lips even though I hadn’t eaten or drank anything at all! It didn’t look that bad from a distance, but when I looked closely, I could see all the fine lines that I didn’t even know I had, and I was freaking out BIG TIME. I went to the bathroom to wipe off the smudges, only for it to return again just half an hour later! I wiped it all off after lunch and decided I had enough with lip colors for now.
Which leads me to my #1 favorite lip color of all time!
#1: PERIPERA Peri’s Ink
I have 4 out of the 5 colors in this range. The only color I don’t have is the orange one that’s second-from-right in the photo. I didn’t buy it because it was too peachy-orangey for my liking. So to make it easy, from left to right, I have #1, #2, #3, and #5.
I swear by this range, and I’m gonna tell you why - IT STAYS. I can eat, drink, wipe, and repeat the cycle throughout the day, and the ink freakin’ stays the hell put!
I'm wearing #5 in this photo which was taken at the end of a long work day, after I've had 2 meals and countless beverages!
You can see that some of the color has been wiped off but there's still plenty left.
Aside from being a late-bloomer, I should also mention that I’m one of those girls who are lazy af. I wanna look presentable and somewhat pretty, but I don’t wanna try too hard or put in too much effort because ain’t nobody got time for multiple touch-ups during the day! So Peri’s Ink is PERFECT for me because I just have to apply it once in the morning and I’m set for the WHOLE DAY.
It’s almost as fluid as water, which is why they call it Peri’s Ink, because that’s how ink would be if it came out of a pen or a marker.
The best part is that it dries really quickly (pretty much under 10 seconds) so it never has the chance to smudge into the fine lines around my lips! Goodbye forever to smudges!
To control the intensity of the color, I just have to dab it with tissue almost immediately after application, but I’ve grown to love rich intense colors, so I just go all the way and let it dry out in its full intensity.
Here are the colors after I dabbed them with tissue immediately after application. Pretty good stain level!
Here's how the full color intensity looks.
It’s also really light! So light that I don’t even get the chance to feel like I’m wearing anything on my lips. It was such a refreshing feeling and so unlike other lipsticks or lip gloss, where I always felt like there was something wrapping around my lips… which, technically, there was, but I prefer feeling like my lips are not caked up because I value comfort above all else. If my lips start feeling dry, I just put on a coat of lip balm. I seldom do it though, because I never really think about it when I’m wearing the Ink.
Even now, as I’ve become more well-acquainted with several other brands of lip colors, I’d still choose Peri’s Ink if I had to use just one brand for the rest of my life.
However, I can understand if it’s not for some people because it may be a bit challenging to control the intensity of the color. As I earlier mentioned, if you don’t want the full color to go on, you’ll have to dab at it with a tissue as soon as you apply because it dries very quickly, and with that, there’s always a risk that it may end up looking blotchy and uneven. It’s just never an issue for me because I love the full color intensity.
I'm wearing #2 in this photo and you can see my lips are a little dry, but it's not a big deal for me.
I just love how luminous and vibrant the color is!
I'm wearing #5 in this photo and this was a fresh application. I snapped a selfie before heading out!
The only issue I’ve ever had was with the remover that came with my first bottle of Peri’s Ink. I don’t care for it and it’s really not that good of a remover. I had problems removing it initially and had to resort to baby oil, and even then, it didn’t come off entirely without me rubbing my lips raw. But I discovered that as long as you don’t use their remover, any other remover works. I’ve been using removers from Sephora and Cyber Colors and the Ink comes off pretty easily at the end of the day.
So in summary, buy Peri’s Ink but not the remover!
Also, they have a Moist version of the Ink but the colors are not as vibrant and the staying power is almost non-existent… and I don’t like that, so I’m not gonna elaborate.
Anyway, I hope this post has been helpful for some of you who have been curious about my lip colors!