Wet n Wild Megashield Lip Color in Salsa Lessons

Wet n Wild Megasheid Lip Color is the newly released lipstick with SPF15. For the marked price of 2.99 dollars (though it rang up as 1.99 and came with a dollar off coupon), the packaging is on the flimsy side that not only the lid is constantly spinning on the loose snap closure, the prints (as well as the silver band)on the lid  are highly scratch-prone. The ingredient list of the lipstick is enclosed with a clear tape, which managed to leave quite a bit of sticky mess after it's been peeled off. Typical of Wet n Wild lipsticks, the Megashield bullet doesn't swirl all the way back so it can make a mess easily (which I already did)  inside the clear lid.

The shade I picked up, Salsa Lessons, is a seemly shimmer-free orange red (with a hot pink lean). Under sunlight and as soon as it's swatched, you can see quite a bit of golden/orange toned shimmer through out the lipstick. The hoard of shimmer isn't frosty but once it's applied on the lips, it becomes more noticeable and almost translates into a golden sheen, which I don't necessarily appreciate since the color itself is already so bold. 

 Wet n Wild Megashield Lipstick in Salsa Lessons - under direct sunlight

Orange-Red lip color side by side: Revlon Lipstick in Coral, Colorstay Mineral Glaze Continuous Coral, Stila Lip Glaze Pencil in Orange and Salsa Lessons. While they look somewhat similar in the arm swatch, they do turn out very differently on the lips.

 

The Good Parts: Wet n Wild Megashield Lip Color in Salsa Lessons (taken during sunset) is scent-free, applies evenly and comfortably (as it has a weightless feel), the golden shimmers forms a glowy sheen that lifts up the fruit-punch colored base, giving it more orange tone and an overall retro kind of look (But this is only under certain lighting, most of the time I get a bright punchy pink instead).

I don't find the formula particularly moisturizing or drying, though the bold color can enhance small dry flakes I don't know I have (acceptable since most bold orange lipsticks do that). At the very least, it looks and feels decent compared to most other Wet n Wild lipsticks I have tried (*coughs* I have only tried two).

The not-so-good parts - Most of the times, Salsa Lessons just looks like a garish bright punchy pink (this was taken with natural light, under shade). The Megashield formula is a little on the thin and slippery side that  not only the pigments have a tendency to shift toward the center of my lips, leaving a gradually pinker and thinner exterior. Whenever I use it with a gloss (hoping that it will revive the golden shimmer to make it looks more orange-red), the runny formula gets washed down significantly and as a consequence, looking more punchy-pink than ever...

Beside the golden shimmer, there is also a slight wet sheen from the lipstick, when I try to blot the sheen away, a good chunk of the color will come off alongside the sheen, leaving a bright pink stain underneath. Basically, the harder I tried to make it work, the more faults I found...

Overall - It looks, feels and wears like what it is (a cheap lipstick) and for your reference, its quality is on the same level as Essence lipstick in Red Carpet, NYC Rose Kiss lip color and an e.l.f palette that I didn't bother to review.