Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick (2016) Review & Swatches

I was willing to make a fool of myself and wear the Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick (2016) but I chickened out at the last minute!

Don’t get me wrong, somewhere, out there, there’s a person that can rock this shade and make it look all kinds of amazing. I, however, happen to be the average, short, chubby geek girl that can not pull off powder blue lipstick.

This a sad fact. And I’m not delusional about how good I look in it. In fact, I look downright certifiable!

Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick ($18) is a limited edition lipstick in one of the two Panetone Color of the Year shades, Serenity. Serenity is what I would dub a baby or powder-y blue. This shade reminds me of the Sweet 16 Makeup I had as a child! They had a purple-y shade in a lipstick tube that could be applied as an eyeshadow and I kinda get that vibe from this.

Last year Sephora stared embracing this rather cool suspension style packaging. You might remember it from the Sephora + Pantone Universe Pure Marsala Matte Lip Creme Lipstick! This year the packaging is the same. The outer box features a soft pastel watercolor print and the lipstick appears to be floating in the box but in reality it’s a clear film holding it in the box. None the less the packaging is quite elegant and presented very prettily.

Sephora Serenity Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick

The actual lipstick tube is an ombre design made up of Rose Quartz and Serenity which are the two shades selected as the 2016 Pantone Color of the Year. I noticed that this isn’t as weighty a lipstick as year’s past. It’s made from a very light plastic! Not sure how many people remember it but the Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Creme Lipstick from 2012 was the same price and came in a very heavy metallic tube. I wouldn’t say the lightness of it made it bad packaging or anything like that I just thought it was interesting that they scaled back.

Sephora calls this a modern lipstick with bold coverage. It’s actually created to be layered and mixed with other shades according to them which for me makes more sense versus wearing it on its own as I simply can’t get away with it like that. It’s a very, very pigmented shade with a creamy consistency that glides on lips easily but tends to accentuate every single natural lip line. It’s very difficult to get a smooth, even layer of color on lips directly from the tube so a lip brush might be the order of business to get it smooth. It isn’t a traditional matte as I didn’t feel it set to a dry finish or even an uncomfortable one for that matter and had a hint of sheen. It did migrate a good deal around my mouth if I wore it alone. I could get about three hours of wear from it but in that time it started looking patchy, it wanted to travel around my lip line, and the color faded a good deal.

I played around with it using MAC Von Teese Lipstick as it seemed like it would be a color that would work well with red. It actually took the shade and made it into a cooler raspberry as you can see from my swatch below. In theory, it sounds easy enough to cocktail with but I find it easier to swatch and cocktail with it versus actually applying it on my lips and doing this. I tried applying it on my lips first and following up with Von Teese and I made a big old mess. It’s not that easy to layer with. You might wanna get your lip brushes out for the best results!

MAC Von Teese Lipstick and MAC Von Teese Lipstick Over Sephora Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick 2016

Sephora Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick 2016 Swatches

Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick will make some lucky girl or guy very happy indeed or for those of us that like to cocktail, mix, and match shades you’ll also fit right in here and adore this. As for me, well, I’m not much a makeup artist so I lack the creativity and the skills to create some master look with a shade like this. It’s definitely not for beginners or those lacking the proper skills for application that’s for sure.

But it is unique that you can count on.

Sephora + Pantone Universe Color of the Year Matte Lipstick launches soon at Sephora and Sephora.com.

Think you’ll pick it up?