Lipstick Queen Rouge Sinner: A Short* and Savory** Review

Have you heard of Red Lipstick? It is a color of lipstick that people wear! You probably have your own feelings about red lipstick, or maybe you don’t. But if you’ve ever opened a female-centric magazine designed to destroy your self-esteem and turn you into a buying machine, you've probably heard about the power of a Red Lip.

A Red Lip will make men love you!

A Red Lip will make women love you!

A Red Lip will make men hate you!

A Red Lip will make other women bite off your lips and swallow them and steal your handbag!

That about sums up what the magazines have to say.

All that said, I like red lipstick. One of my favorites is Lipstick Queen's Rouge Sinner.

Rouge Sinner is a matte, deep-hued red lipstick with a brickish, slightly brown undertone. It goes on very opaque with a single swipe of the bullet. It’s a little bit dry, and I’ve found that with time, the surface of the lipstick can become slightly grainy (this happened to my other Lipstick Queen Sinner matte lipstick as well). It doesn’t really affect the application, but can leave a few dots of darker pigment on the lips that I have to flick off.

Though I usually apply it straight from the bullet, I think it looks a bit nicer if I apply it with a lip brush, as the corners of my lips tend to get a bit blurry as the day goes on if I do not. Because the lipstick is so densely pigmented, applying the bullet straight to the lips can pull the skin a little bit, but I don’t have a problem with that. Maybe you do. Maybe I’m afraid you’re gonna bite my lips off and steal my handbag. Maybe I love how red lipstick looks on you.

Rouge Sinner fades pretty nicely and gently throughout the day, as long as you don’t let your lips make congress with one of those plastic to-go coffee lids, or something really greasy, like some delicious carnitas. Fugghettabout that burrito, baby.

Later in the day, when my lips are rather dry, I apply the tiniest bit of lip balm to my fingers and then pat it onto my lips rather than slathering on something like Aquaphor – this seems to make the application last longer. I also don’t suggest reapplying another layer of the lipstick on top of your original layer later in the day – this tends to cause pilling, and makes the new layer of pigment settle into the cracks of my lips.

My lips usually err on the dry side and while this lipstick is a true matte, and thus somewhat dry, I don’t find it to be uncomfortably so, especially if I gently exfoliate and moisturize my lips about an hour (or 2 minutes) before application of the color. To be honest, it probably stays most comfortable for 3 hours, which is usually the longest span of time that I end up wearing such a densely pigmented lipstick anyway. You see, it's in my contract that I must eat a carnitas burrito every three hours.

One last thing – while this color makes my eyes look even greener than usual (red lipsticks usually have that delightful effect), it also brings out the ruddiness in my cheeks, especially around my nose. If you have some foundation, now might be the time to use a little of it. 

*not really very short
**where are the virtual carnitas?!