For The Romantics Amongst You! (Beyond Colour Nourishing Lipstick)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Beyond Colour Nourishing Lipstick
Date:	15/06/02 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: creamy, soft, contains sun protection

Disadvantages: doesn't last all day, colours aren't always as they look in the brochure

It may not be a huge surprise to you that I have recently bought some more things from the Avon catalogue. Oh yes. My make-up bag definitely needed a couple more lipsticks. Well, it didn’t *need* them as such. But I bought them anyway ;-)

After having purple streaks put in my dyed blonde hair a couple of months ago (although they have completely gone by now), I thought I needed to change my lipstick to suit it. I didn’t really have much purple-ish make-up, so chose two from brochure 8/2002.

One was from the new Colour Optix range, which I have reviewed separately. This opinion is about the Beyond Colour nourishing lipstick.

Beyond Colour is one of the main ranges of make-up from Avon. There are eyeshadows for £5 and foundation for £9, for example.

Brochure 8/2002 had a special offer on where you bought anything from the range and received a free Colour Bloom face powder, which usually sells for £7. Not surprisingly, being a bit of a bargain hunter, I took advantage of this!

The lipsticks themselves cost £5 each and are available in fourteen shades – pink twilight, ginger blush, burgundy, sweet lips, twig, crimson, romantic, terracotta, sienna, rose stone, beige shimmer, cocoa, uptown pink and frosty apricot – so you should be able to find something to suit your tastes.

I bought the romantic one, which is a kind of rose-purple colour. It looks more purple in the brochure than it does on your lips, but Avon do offer a guarantee to exchange any product you aren't happy with or refund your money.

The lipsticks are called nourishing, because they are supposed to make the wearer’s lips look “softer, fuller and more hydrated”. The lipsticks are also supposed to diminish fine lines, improve the general condition of your lips and make your lips seem more youthful. I haven’t noticed these benefits yet, but maybe I will do in time.

They also conta
in SPF12, which is useful in the Summer - if we ever get anything except rain, that is ;-)

The lipstick itself is a shimmery silver container, like a regular lipstick but with angular sides to the packaging, instead of being smooth and rounded. It has the Avon logo in silver on the top and looks classy. I like this bit!

You pull the top off to reveal a silver top and you need to twist it for the lipstick to come out. This isn’t a trim, slim lip stylo or one of those see-through bottles with a little sponge applicator. No, this is a lipstick in the good old-fashioned style.

The lipstick itself is soft and creamy and easy to apply. It has a slight taste and smell of aniseed, but it is subtle and not at all over-powering. It feels lovely when applied and looks nice enough. You can tell there’s a ‘but’ coming here, can’t you?

But (there it is!) it isn’t perfect. The colour isn’t quite what I wanted and I think it looks a little dark for my skin tones. It’s not awful enough to return though, as I do still use it sometimes, just not as my daily choice of lipstick.

It also doesn’t stay on very long and would need some lip sealer such as Lipcote to keep it on longer, or just regular re-applications. The latter can be annoying, as you probably don’t want to spend all day popping in and out the Ladies, to get the right look!

I do like the product overall though and will probably buy another one in a different colour at some point. The main reason I am a bit unenthusiastic about the Beyond Colour lipstick is because the Colour Optix one is just brilliant. The Beyond Colour one pales in comparison.

Summary: