Did you know Topshop just opened its first store in The Netherlands? No? Well now you do. On Feb 26th the very first Topshop opened in The Netherlands. I haven’t had a chance to visit yet, but I am certainly curious to see what they have on offer. And one thing I am certainly hoping for is that they have a beauty section with Topshop make up. Because believe it or not, Topshop offers some great make up products, not only by other brands, but also from its own brand. One of my favorite products from the Topshop make up line are their lipsticks. I bought two in London last October and finally got around to reviewing these.
Topshop lipsticks Armour & Beguiled
Unfortunately these colors aren’t very spring like, but that’s because I bought these during fall. One of them is quite, ehm, different let’s say, as it is a rose/ brown metallic shade. I was very curious to see whether that would be a color that would suit me and I also picked up a deep plum shade. These lipsticks retail for around 8 pounds in the UK. I think they will be around the €10 mark in Europe.
Topshop make up has very fun packaging. It isn’t the prettiest per se, but it is practical and fun. The packaging features crayon like lines and the box also features a crayon drawing of a lipsticks. You will never be able to forget that you purchased a lipstick, as the word LIPS is printed in bold on the stick itself.
Let’s start this review with a bang and look at the most out there shade straight away. The first shade I picked up is called armour. This is a metallic lipstick. A type of lipstick which is eagerly making its return after years of hiding since the mid 90s. The ingredients are a long list of abracadabra, most of which I do not understand. This feels comfortable on the lips and glides on easily.
Like I said: this is the most out there shade. In the packaging it looks like a reddish brown with silver flecks of shimmer infused throughout the lipstick. In certain lighting this looks more pink or mauve, as it definitely has a hint of purple in it as well. The question is of course: what would this look like swatched? And what would it look like on?
The second lipstick is a bit more run of the mill. Again, there is a very long list of ingredients. What made me buy this lipstick is a) the fact that it looks like a very dark red in the stick and that it is supposed to go on matte. I love a good dark matte lipstick. Most of the ones I already have are very purple, so I was hoping this would be a pretty dark red, much like MAC’s Diva.
As you can see from the bullet, I don’t think this will be completely matte. There is a hint of shine to this product and looks like a deep burgundy red shade with a plum undertone. This is the type of shade I wear a lot during fall and winter so I knew it would come in handy.
Swatches, side by side. As you can see both of these look different from what you would expect by looking at them in the packaging. Armour is more of a brown with a rose gold shimmer. It’s a lot prettier than I had expected! Beguiled is not as dark as I had thought. It also isn’t fully matte and this isn’t very different from other shades I own. I think that my Topshop Wicked lipstick is very similar, be it slight more purple than this.
On my lips Armour pulls a lot more brown again than on the swatch. The shimmer changes into a sheen of pink which actually makes it more wearable. It is not too metallic. It’s more like a nice shine as if you are wearing some sort of shimmery gloss on top, but in fact you’re not. Beguiled pulls more purple on my lips. I have quite a bit of purple in my natural lip color and so it affects this shade which makes it look even more similar to some of my other burgundy lipsticks.
I honestly do not know how much I would wear a shade like Armour in every day life. I think it looks good on me, surprisingly so. But this is not the type of shade I love pulling out on a daily basis to wear to work. In contrast Beguiled is the type of color I would wear in a heartbeat, but that is why this shade is not unique to my lipstick collection.
These lipsticks feel comfortable on the lips and the color stays on quite long as is my experience with every single Topshop lipstick I own. Their lasting power is thus great and they go on opaque. Especially Beguiled is a shade I can slap on in the morning and needs just a retouch around dinner time to make it last all day.
What is your opinion about brown metallic lipstick?