Clinique Pop Lip Color + Primer

Clinique's launching their new Pop Lip Color + Primer range on 9 April in Singapore.

And that's what is so interesting about the range. They're formulated with flexi polymers and micro-refined pigments to help colors go on smoother and stay vibrant for longer.

Longwearing lipsticks often start to feel dry and get patchy after a few hours, so to prevent that, Clinique has formulated these lipsticks with sodium hyaluronate, ceramides, shea butter, and murumuru butter, to hydrate the lips. Which is a good thing because I often get chapped, flaking lips, and always avoid full coverage lipsticks even though I love them. At least now there's a chance that I can wear them even when my lips are a bit under the weather.

First off, I'll say the color payoff is beautiful and the shades are gorgeous. There are 13 shades available in Singapore at SGD$33 each, and they are grouped into 4 categories - nudes, tawnies, pinks, and violets. But I say ignore that because the color grouping is a bit confusing. Poppy Pop (bright tangerine coral) and Cherry Pop (blue red) are both listed under the "tawnies", and an ultra dark burgundy brown called Cola Pop is listed under "nudes". 

But there is a nice distribution of shades from nudes to brights to deeper tones, so there is a color for everyone.

My 4 favorite shades from the Pop Lip Color + Primer range: Cherry Pop, Punch Pop, Plum Pop and Nude Pop

After playing around with all the shades at a recent press event, I picked the above 4 - both for their smooth even payoff, and also the fact that they are quite universally skin-flattering. I had gravitated towards the 2 deep, dark shades (Berry Pop and Cola Pop) but they didn't go on as evenly compared to brighter, richer, shades in this range (hot pink, red, berry).

As for whether these last all day, I'll say no cream-textured lipstick lasts all day.
These DO last a good long while for cream lipsticks, and some of the stronger shades leave a stain, but if you're drinking, eating, talking, they will wear away slowly, just like any other lipstick. You will still need to wear a base layer of good lip pencil in order for these to last all day, which is the same for any other range.

The good thing is I didn't notice these feathering or bleeding much, and they do feel quite conditioning on the lips. But eventually the conditioning oils will still get absorbed or vaporize, and the shine and hydration will fade away. I can't say yet if the conditioning formula with ceramides and plant butters can help smooth over ragged lips, because I haven't encountered that problem lately, but hopefully the humectants and emollients in the formula can help minimize the chance of that happening.

But all in all, this is a very nice range with a great formula and nice colorsso it's well worth a look if you're in the market for vibrant, creamy colors.