When I bought my first house, I had a friend who I adored. I was always the shy, self-deprecating one and she was confident, vivacious and beautiful. I felt in her shadow a great deal, although in fairness she did try to inspire my confidence quite a lot.

She had a bad time of things with ill health and this affected her ability to work and start a career. I was buying a house away from the area we both lived when we met and it was faintly daunting, then one day she suggested out of the blue that she, having overcome her health issues, come with me, find a job and start a career, and be my lodger to help pay the bills. Brilliant!

Er, no. What a complete and utter disaster! I have learnt that you never really know someone until you live with them, and I also learnt that I am by far the stronger, more successful and more capable being. I wish I had understood this earlier. In fairness, her finding work wasn't that easy (understandable as things are economically) but ultimately she moved out, handled this badly, left me with financial problems, left all of her stuff and couldn't let me know when she'd come to get it (thus taking up my valuable spare room) and ultimately threw a brattish strop when I told her a year later that, with a new job, massive commute and a family house move on the cards, I unfortunately did not have time to drop everything to find a pair of shoes that she thought she'd left.

What did I get out of the experience of living with my best friend? Debt, slagging off via social networking mediums, a bottle of Garnier sun protection lotion, two collector's edition copies of Elle magazine and a Revlon Matte lipstick. Go me. Suffice to say, we're no longer speaking - which was her call, not mine. Gratitude would be one thing, but respect would be nice.

So this is my review of Revlon Matte lipstick. Hopefully it'll make a minute dent into the seven months of rent I could also have done with!

THE PRODUCT

Around all the time of the above happening, there was a trend for matte lipsticks inspired by catwalk fashions and also for nude lip colours.

My then-friend was pretty superficial, and fancied herself as being very stylish. Admittedly this was early in her stay with me so we had no idea how hard it would be for her to find work, but shortly after we moved she suddenly decided she HAD to have a nude, matte lipstick. Never mind that the £7.49 you can currently spend on this product via boots.com could have fed us both for two days, but hey, you've got to have priorities if you want to be pretty apparently...

Anyway, enough snide comments from me. In short, housemate announced when I got in from work one day that she'd bought this product, and that, as we virtually shared wardrobes (and are both health and hygiene conscious) we might as well add it to the communal stash of bathroom cosmetics and make up. I think she used it about twice before the trend faded out of favour with Vogue and Elle and moved on to something else, and somehow this started to live in my make up bag rather than hers...

Basically this product is, as the name suggests, a matte-finish lipstick and ours, sorry, mine, is in shade 001 - Nude Attitude. There are other colours available in the range, a few fairly natural-looking and also a bright red. I would suggest this is actually the shade shown in the dooyoo picture above.

The lipstick comes in a very dark blue / black plastic tube with a pull-off lid like most lipsticks. Around two thirds down there is a silver band where the lid reconnected, with the REVLON branding. There is a small colour example sticker on the base, and a barcode label on the tube. The lipstick has a twist mechanism and the top is clear plastic so you can see the product colour inside.

As I mentioned above, this is now £7.49 via Boots.com. On there, the product page boasts "suede like" application. It is supposed to glide on effortlessly and provide maximum cover.

MY EXPERIENCE?
Well, I'm a pretty positive person and I like a silver lining. I still have this lipstick, and I'm very glad that I do.

First of all, let's address the product claims. I think that "suede-like" is an interesting way of describing the application sensations. This doesn't feel like any lipstick I've used before; when applied it doesn't feel creamy or gloss-like, but almost very slightly grainy. It does, however, apply smoothly, not overly generously and sometimes benefits from a second stroke.

Maximum colour, well, this is a hard one for me to review as this was deliberately chosen to be nude in tone. I do like the colour, however. Sometimes, particularly now that I've deliberately dyed my hair a fake colour, I like to balance this with heavier eye make up and whilst I enjoy playing with make up I don't like to be heavy on both my eyes and lips - so having a nude lipstick has suddenly become a big positive for me again as it does just add to an overall more polished look. The Nude Attitude shade is basically almost the colour of a medium concealer, and just restrains the natural tones of your lips enough to make it obvious that you have made some effort with your lip make up. It can make your eyes pop that little bit more or just add something to your entire look, and is quite retro in a fun way.

This product has also lasted very well. So I like that and the colour, and the packaging is both durable and sturdy without being heavy - this has been carried around with me for months and still no splits or breaks in the lid, which secures tidily and safely and has never come off.

What do I not like...well now. I mentioned the strange texture this product has and it is definitely more noticeable when your lips aren't in tip-top condition. I've had a few nasty bugs this winter and am a bit run-down and one of the tell-tale signs with me is uneven or chapped lips - no matter what products I use they still aren't soft, plump and healthy as I'd like this winter. I have noticed that unless they are, this product doesn't just feel grainy but also looks it, and sometimes builds up in certain areas and looks uneven and, frankly, just plain unattractive and powdery.

That said, when my lips are plumped, soothed, polished and gorgeous, this lipstick works really well and doesn't have any orangey tint but just reduces my natural lip colour to a more subtle, retro-style tone and allows me to play with my look via other things such as blush and eye make up.

I can't speak massively highly regarding how long the colour stays on, however - that said I have never necessarily seen its longevity as a fault, either. I do try to keep hydrated so drink a lot of water and also eat a lot of fruit so it's natural that my lip products are worn away pretty quickly, so I won't deduct a star for this, nor will I rave about it's staying power. I just find it adequate.

IN CONCLUSION THEN?
This is a nice lipstick, don't get me wrong. Ironically given that it is designed to be a matte finish product, I actually quite like it with a lightly-coloured shimmering gloss on top of it to really finish the look and make it obvious that you're trying to be subtle without trying to look like you're not wearing anything at all (on the lips, that is!). Also, I can't claim that this has ever made my lips feel dried out, which a lot of lipsticks can do, so bonus points there because a matte product for lips which doesn't compromise the moisture in the thin skin has to be pretty tricky to make.

I just can't stand wearing it when my lips aren't in top condition because I feel that it looks and feels grainy and builds up in any lines or wrinkles - and if your lips are chapped then just don't put this on, because it catches under the dead or dry skin and looks absolutely terrible, as well as making the colour look uneven.

I feel that if you're going to "work" the nude lips look then you need to make sure yours are well conditioned anyway, but for all that I don't think it's acceptable for a lipstick costing nearly £10 from a manufacturer as reputable as Revlon to be so reliant on that. I can't give this any more than three stars, but will do so on the basis that I like the fundamental colour, the longevity and the packaging, and the way this looks when applied to healthy, plump lips. Losing two however for it's flaws, which I think are pretty significant.

In short, a nice freebie but a bit like the friendship that led it to me - all well and good when everything is positive, but a big disappointment when you need it to be on your side because it needs you to do most of the work for it!