Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipstick Review & Swatches
Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipstick or UD Gwen Stefani Lipstick are a new lipstick that launched with the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Makeup Collection for Spring 2016. These launched on Friday but from my understanding they’ll be back in stock either today or tomorrow on Urban Decay’s site. All the shades should be available later this January at Sephora.com and Ulta.com although Phone Call is a shade that is exclusive to UD’s site and flagship store.
I really enjoyed the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette so I was excited about the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipstick Collection. Gwen is legendary for rocking a bold lip look and she particularly favors red in many of her looks and this collection is dominated by the shade. Sure, there’s a gorgeous, sheerer nude lip color as well as a rocking fuchsia here but a majority of the collection is all about red.
This collection also introductions a new formulation that Urban Decay calls Mega Matte Lipstick which has a super intense, pigmented matte finish. Not all the shades sport this finish just one but it is an interesting new formula and texture that has really intense pigment although it does run on the dry side sadly.
Let’s take a look!
One of the more interesting things about this formula is the fact it does have many of the same ingredients as Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick but from what I’m seeing and understanding it is a new formula. Just don’t quote me on that. These are cheaper than the Revolution formula plus they contain more product and weigh in at 0.11 oz in size for $18 each versus 0.09 at $22 for Revolution.
Depending on your packaging view you either won’t mind the fact you get more product here and less packaging or you’ll feel a bit saddened by it. If you’re all about packaging these might disappoint slightly as Revolution Lipstick has a nice weighty feel and edge-y look where as Gwen’s Lipsticks are made from a very, very light plastic. I was a little shocked as typically Urban Decay goes all out with packaging.
I didn’t these lipsticks quite have the feel of the Revolution formula and I also thought the formula and textured varied from shade to shade.
I think the first shade we should discuss is 714 which is a new formula that Urban Decay calls Mega Matte which which promises to “lay down a lot of color in one coat”. This is a really, really pigmented bright red. I love the shade but the formula drags badly across my drier lips. It has a fairly smooth, even finish but the application isn’t particularly friendly and the dragging means you have to go over the shade a few times to get color evenly applied. I wouldn’t say this formula is anything like the way softer, velvety texture of Urban Decay Matte Revolution Lipstick. This formula really sucks moisture from lips as well. It’ll wear for several hours very, very strongly but through that wear it feels very, very dry and tight. It does also transfer a good deal as well when drinking from a cup or sipping from a straw.
I loved the formulas on Ex-Girlfriend, Firebird, Firebird, Phone Call, and Plaid. All these shades have an easy, smooth glide with a thin, comfortable consistency that wore for a nice five hours on my lips without transferring or migrating. They also had a hint of shine and had opaque pigmentation on a single application.
The formula on Rocksteady, Spiderweb, and Wonderland was a little tackier and had a slightly balm-y texture but still wore strongly at five hours with a comfortable slightly hydrating feel and excellent pigmentation that did not transfer or migrate.
There are a lot of keeper shades and maybe even shades you might want to purchase a back up in this collection. I loved Ex-Girlfriend and most all the reds really worked well on my medium fair skin.
For me there were three formulas in the batch of eight shades going on. Aside from 714, I thought all the shades performed very well with easy application, excellent pigmentation, and wear. 714 had beautiful pigmentation and looked amazing on but the formula wasn’t too my liking! This shade was a little too dry and draggy for me to fully embrace it!
Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipstick are supposed to be available today or tomorrow at urbandecay.com and should launch at Sephora.com and Ulta.com later this month.
Any shades you want to take home with you?