josie maran

I have become a big fan of lip stains for the past few spring and summers. I’ve bought quite a few different kinds and I have found MY favorite. However, this is the sh*t list, so I’m going to tell you about 2 I hate.

I bought JM’s Lip Stain in Jive after swatching it on my hand in a Sephora. In those lights, it looked magical. As soon as last winter’s 20% off Friends and Family Sale was live, this girl was on it. These retail for $19 at Sephora.com, which, to me, is quite a hefty price. I have been able to find 2 great alternatives that work just as well, or even better. I will elaborate on those more in a ‘Things I Love’ post in the future, but I’ve included them for comparison in this post. It’s a decent lip stain. It dried out kind of fast, though, and I need to clean the felt tip a lot or the color won’t show up as well. It’s also kind of streaky. I just think it’s a rip off for that price, because for $19 I could buy multiples of my favorite lip stains. The only thing I like about this is that it’s Paraben-free. I am not one to watch out for parabens but when I have something that does it is nice.

I bought this Lip Stain because I was at Ulta one day and these were 75% off. The retail price is $22….However, I don’t even think I ended up getting the 75% off price. BUMMER! I probably bought this around 2 years ago. At the time, I don’t think I had a single lip stain, so this was a perceived must-have. Boy, was I wrong. It doesn’t even show up. LIP STAIN FAIL!

Josie Maran, Bloom, NYC, and Palladio Lip Stain Test

Now, as for testing these and comparing them so you could see how bad they are, I pondered in between lip and hand swatches for a few minutes. But, lip swatches kinda creep me out when I do them, and hand swatches are okay. But then this popped in my head! I wrote down the name of each lip stain from the actual marker (as they are all felt tipped). The results are insane.INSANE I tell you! The Josie Maran one is alright, but the formula looks almost identical (not color) to the NYC one, which is $4.99. Yes, $4.99!!!!! NYC and Palladio are my favorite lip stain brands. You can get the NYC Lip Stain at Rite Aid or anywhere else that carries NYC. (Mine is in Forever Fuchsia, FYI). Palladio Lip Ink is available at Ulta for $5.99. I think the NYC one is my favorite because it lasts the LONGEST time. (I wore mine for my 10 hour school day and there were still remnants of it up to around hour 6)

What’s your favorite lip stain?