An Ingredients Analysis of Colour Changing Lipsticks, Lipglosses, Lipbalms, and Blushes

Ever since Smashbox put out its O-Glow blushes and lipglosses, Dior put out its Dior Lip Glow, and Sephora put out its Color Reveal Lip Balm, it seems like colour-changing lipglosses have been exploding over the blogosphere. There are so many breathless reviews on how it's changing into the "perfect shade of pink", or how it "reacts with the skin's pH" to give you a customized shade, and there are also equally many reviews disliking the pepto bismo pink it changes into on them. And, there are (of course) a lot of comparison swatches between the various types of colour-changing glosses.

I've had a few of these - you can see one that I reviewed here. Back then, I had written that I was suspicious of all those lipglosses claiming to know my body chemistry and pH, and I had written, "in my experience these turn into some generic shade of super-bright pink." So, since all the hype has been going on, I thought I'd do a little bit of the ingredients-analysing that you guys all know and love, and explain just how it is that these glosses/lipsticks/lipbalms/blushes do their work!

With these products, you'll always have a PH-relevant/skin-chemistry-relevant/hocus-pocus-magic-quality relevant shade!

Of course, as the nice little graphic summary I did above shows, we know that these types of lipglosses, lipsticks, and lipbalms have been around for quite awhile. In fact, there are so many of them - in addition to the Dior, Smashbox, and Sephora versions, Mark by Avon, Duwop, Jemma Kidd, and NYX Cosmetics have all jumped on the bandwagon at some point in time. And it's not just US brands that are donig it - Essence Cosmetics and Barry M from Europe have done it too. And even outside the West, other brands have done it - there's Lipice in Asia, and even a strange Morrocan Hare brand from (where else) Morroco! And it's not just lipgloss or lipstick! Cheek products have also been given the special treatment, with Stila, Smashbox and Givenchy all have blush versions to give you that pH-adjusted cheek colour.

So yes, we know everyone loves a colour-changing lipstick/balm/gloss/blush. And who can blame us for loving it? The novelty of seeing the colour change on your lips and cheeks is quite something, I'll admit. The thing is, are they really all that different from one another? How on earth are they even changing colour in the first place? You know that if this post involves some ingredients analysis, there's no better place to start than the ingredients list!

So, for this post, I'm going to look at as many ingredient lists of such colour changing products that I can dig up, including lipbalms, glosses, and lipsticks, and blushes, and see what we can learn from there! In true geek style, there are 10 of them (yes, TEN!), so buckle up!

Soft and Feminine Dior Spring Inspired Eye: Get the Look for Cheap

Spring makeup always features a range of soft, feminine and girly looks, and while I'm not exactly a soft, feminine, girly kind of person, I can still appreciate the beauty in such looks. In particular, Dior's Spring 2011 Collection is one of those which has caught my fancy. The eyeshadows are all pinks and greys, which is such a pretty combination of colours. While I was drooling buckets over the pretty pictures, a thought struck me: Surely I already have at least a few pinks and greys in the abundance that is my makeup stash?


(Image from pleasureflush.blogspot.com)

Thus, began my quest to dupe the Dior Spring 2011 eye look. After all, not every girl can afford US$58 eyeshadow quints, right? So, I told myself while pulling my eyes away from those pictures, there had to be a cheaper way to dupe the look, or at least come up with something similar.

Here's a simple outcome using just two colours:



For the pink eyeshadow, I used Stila Fleur all over the lid, and then I applied MAC Knight Divine in the contour area, and applied a smidgen of it on the lashline as a liner.

Stila Fleur is a gorgeous baby pastel pink which I had from waaay back when, when Stila was still headed by Jeanine Lobell. I'm not even sure if they still make this colour. It's a gorgeous shell pink shade, although it is a little on the shimmery side. MAC's Knight Divine is a colour that is a more recent purchase, and currently available as a permanent shade in MAC's collection. It's a blue-based gunmetal grey shade wish silver shimmer. Very cool, almost like knight's armour. Both are fantastic shades, in terms of application and staying power.



So if you're a cheapskate like me, or just have too much makeup and don't want too many similar colours in your collection, duping the look might be a good idea. This is especially so if the look just uses simple basic colours, as in the case of this pink and grey Dior look. Have you ever tried duping a look before? Do you routinely dupe looks, or are you of the opinion that looks are difficult to dupe without the right colours?