ColourPop Ultra Matte Lips Review and Swatches

ColourPop has been pumping out a ton of new shades and new products over these past several months and their new Ultra Matte Lips had been something I wanted to try out because I love liquid-to-matte lipsticks. I decided to start with four shades before jumping into getting too many of a brand new item, just in case I didn't like them.

I picked up Trap, Kapow, Jellies, and Dr. M.

From left to right: Jellies, Dr. M, Kapow, and Trap

Trap is described as a "dusty greyed-out beige ("greige")," which has seemed to be a bit of a popular king of color recently. I see it as a greigeish color with some mauve tones. For a light shade of liquid lipstick, this color has amazing longevity. I do get that weird looking ring around the center of my lips after wearing it for many hours, but it's not as noticeable as with lighter beige lipsticks. I put this on my lips at around 9:30am and then drove 7.5 hours home from vacation while snacking and drinking soda and this color didn't fade whatsoever. I can't say I have any other lipsticks that hold up quite as well.

Trap

 Kapow is described as a "muted grey taupe," which I'd agree it has those tones, but it looks pretty brown on my lips (which I love!). This one has pretty much the same lasting power as Trap does. It does transfer onto eating utensils and drinking straws, but hardly any of it transfers onto my hand when I do the "kiss test."

Kapow

Jellies is described as a "rich cobalt blue," which it indeed is. This one is pretty runny compared to the other ones. All four of the shades I have are thin and more liquidy rather than creamy, but Jellies is almost watery. This is the only shade out of these four that doesn't dry to a truly "ultra matte" finish, also. It feels matte once it dries, but it looks like it has kind of a vinyl sheen. This and Dr. M are really hard to apply evenly and my swatches show it. I recommend using a liner you can see to help guide the application. When I try to apply this on its own, it's a hot mess.

Jellies

Dr. M is described as a "deep blackened green," which I agree with. I really love this color, but it's almost as hard to apply as Jellies. I'm going to have to get a green pencil to use with it to make application easier. This one dries completely dry-matte and I can feel it on my lips more than Kapow or Trap. I can definitely feel these darker shades have a different texture.

Dr. M

There are definitely some great pros to these guys, but also some strong cons for me:

PROS:

- Extremely long wearing

- Very minimal color fading

- Very affordable: $6 each for 3.2g/0.11oz, which is the same amount as Anastasia's liquid lips (which are $20 each)

- Fun colors! It's nice to get to try colors you may not normally wear for a low price

CONS:

- Very dry. If your lips are already dry or you don't like liquid-to-matte lips, you'll hate these

- Difficult to apply. I find Jellies and Dr. M particularly challenging. Liner will be necessary, IMO

- Dries too fast. There's no play time with these and you need to apply quickly or else the finish gets weird

- Not beginner friendly. I'm used to liquid lipsticks, but I'm still having a hard time getting these to apply evenly since they dry so fast.

- Not buildable or possible to reapply. All four of these are good for one layer only. I've tried reapplying the product over itself and it just flakes and falls apart on my lips after that. If I mess up my application, I need to fully remove it and try again.

These liquid lipsticks all retail for $6 each on ColourPop's site and the brand does not test on animals.