Oranges Revisited - Monday Lippie Rambling

It seems that autumn is coming to an end (with many trees in my neighborhood finally bald). So let's remember the good time where all my backdrops were pretty in pink. Yeah, this is the new tube of Tutti Frutti lip butter (discontinued and not resurrected as Almay Butter Lipstick).

This morning, I was toying with a newly acquired Suqqu Creamy Glow (curiosity kills the bank account). Without leaving much spolier to upcoming review/bitch-fest, I will just say that I have been taking the Lip Butter for granted all these years. To think of it, they might very well be my allaround Holy Grail, when I take the colors (how easy they are to wear and how flattering), comfort, packaging and finish into consideration.

Tutti Frutti was the very first lip butter I purchased (because I can never have enough orange, on my lips or in my tummy) and it was all sorts of underwhelming.  It was slippery, greasy, wobbly and not at all moisturizing. None of that magic buttery smoothness bloggers (well, the group of ladies who can land great careers if they work for the shopping channel)raved about.

After a bit of play time - I slowly learned to appreciate it for what it is: A (face and teeth)brightening color in a sheer(blends in with your lips/not sitting on top of it) formula. For the price (I always waited for sales to get them so they were at most 5 bucks), it was a great bargain and looks no less nice compared to more expensive brands.

Funnily, I think I am going through the same phase with Suqqu lipstick right now (spoiler: The Creamy Glow sits and slips like NYX round lipstick on me), except there will be no serial repurchase thanks to the price tag.

Coral Reef was released in summer 2010(a little earlier than the lip butter), as a part of the beautifully curated Daydreamer Collection. This was not only a glorious victory on Revlon that made me (and a bunch of other people) want to hoard-them all (of course I did), Revlon's seasonal collections also became so covetable. 

The Super Lustrous also happens to be one of the best lip gloss formula I have tried: Smoothing, creamy, highly pigmented and reasonably long-wearing. It's strange (or maybe pretty common) to see Revlon revamped the whole line into something much runnier (of course they can market it as light-weight and juicy), with worse quality packaging and tube that contains half as much product. It's all too similar to the Breyer's Ice Cream transformation: From larger sizes to smaller tub, from ice cream to frozen dairy dessert (they market the new formulation light and fluffy). Do they really think that we don't notice this kind of changes?

While reducing a great deal of production cost, Revlon successfully drove me away from the brand to mid-range to more expensive lines (ok, it's not just this but a combinational effort of their distasteful marketing, poorer formula and uninspiring new shades). 

Enough rant for now, here is another summer time revisit(swatches done in cold seasons are usually lip-line galore)of a very nice one from Kiko. The Glossy Lip Stylo has that glossy finish without being sticky or slippery. The only down side would be the black (slightly) textured tube, which builds a layer of patina after a while...

Anyway, it seems that now there is a position opened for my new HG lipstick (now that almost own all the lip butters I would wear). Maybelline no longer carries a sheer formula, Suqqu is downright overpriced. Lipstick Queen(especially Saint formula), while being the best texture I have tried so far, the gummy tube starts to get tacky after the 8-months mark...What sheer lipstick should I try next that has pretty tube? (Maybe I should just focus on finishing up those Fresh minis I have).