Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge Neo - RD 406

Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge has been around for 2-3 years already (and was well loved by the women in Japan, winning Cosme.net award and all that) and it wasn't until recently that I became interested in the range. Maybe it's because of the introduction of the Essence Glamorous Rouge Neo line (with brighter shade selection) or it was the replacement of the spoke model (Takei Emi is gorgeous but there are very few people who can sell a lipstick better than the pouty Mizuhara Kiko.)

Anyway, I finally took the plunge after seeing the limited shades for spring 2015 (one of them is red!), with a classier (as classy as it can get for light-weight plastic packaging) white and silver tube. This time, I also saved a few bucks as Japanese yen is weak against dollar (or any other currency? I mean my mom in there right now and she wants to buy me blow-dryer...).

As I just mentioned, the package of Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge Neo (or most Maquillage lippy) is very light weight but it doesn't feel particularly flimsy or cheap. There is 6 grams of product inside, which should last 2 months of daily use, or longer for any fickle being (who bought way too much lipsticks in the past 2 months).

While I was trying to take the picture of the gloss, it fell off and now the "metallic" paint got dents on it (same thing happened when I was photographing my last Maquillage Lipstick back in 2010).

Essence Glamorous Rouge boast its silicone-serum formula that plump up the lips (by filling up lip line rather than inflating the whole thing into twin-sausage) so I was expecting a glassy, thick and sticky gloss. Anyway, the formula doesn't feel slippery (compared other -cone rich products), glassy, (like B & C Makemania gloss) or remotely sticky.

Instead, I get a jam-like finish that's jelly when you look at it in the arm swatch but it breaks apart and rejoin on the lips. The finish is juicy but looks a little more refined and natural than other gloss/liquid lip color I have tried. Of course, the texture is a minor nuance I feel...It looks more or less like a generic red gloss.

 The color RD406 itself is a medium-to-pigmented slightly cool red, that can be duped by any American drugstore brands (I wish it was more interesting but I guess I always prefer the shading by American companies anyway, Japanese just wins it in texture department)...

I do like the diamond shape cushy applicator, which is great for corners and deposits enough product in one go. Of course I just like to redip for the heck of redipping.

 

So, I mentioned that neither the color (easy to wear enough but nothing special about a red jelly with blue-purple micro pearls) nor the finish (it's nice but not 3-4 times better than Revlon/Maybelline glosses, as it's 3x more expensive) is outstanding. However, the gloss wears (off) very well, I especially like it 2 hours, when the color would fade a little and it would just turn my dried prune of a mouth into...body parts that feels much healthier inside out.

Overall: Nothing too special but I love it as a lip care product (and the tube is just too pretty!) so I am thinking about repurchasing a coral/orange one for summer time (actually I wear coral all year round)...