Anyways, before I get into the review, I am going to do a little rant first. I bought these off ebay because these Colour Riche Balms are not released in Malaysia. They appeared sealed (with the little piece of sticker) but three of them have been opened and swatched!!!!! I have heard that there are no testers in US drugstores so sometimes people open the product to swatch the colour or maybe it's my seller but I really don't think so because the seller seems to have more than one of the product available.
I feel so disgusted and even though I sanitised the product twice before swatching them, I still feel icky to put it on my lips. To whoever who opens and swatches drugstore products, please stop doing it!!!!! It's so selfish and inconsiderate!!! There's loads of information and pictures available online FOR FREE, so why do you need to do that??? WHY?????
I have all 8 colours. From left: 118 Pink Satin, 218 Rose Elixir, 219 Plush Plum, 318 Heavenly Berry, 418 Caring Coral, 518 Tender Mauve, 818 Nourishing Nude and 819 Caramel Comfort.
From left: 118 Pink Satin, 218 Rose Elixir, 219 Plush Plum, 318 Heavenly Berry
Leftmost colour, 418 Caring Coral, is my absolute favourite. As you can see, I have used up so much of it prior to the review and I haven't had it for long at all.
From left: 418 Caring Coral, 518 Tender Mauve, 818 Nourishing Nude and 819 Caramel Comfort.
The first thing I am going to address is the moisturising quality of this product. The name suggests that this product is a balm and lots of reviews online claims that this product is very moisturising, but I don't fully agree to that. If my lips are already dry and chapped, putting this product on will not help to restore all that much suppleness and moisture into my lips. However, if my lips are not dry/chapped, this product does help to prevent my lips from losing moisture. I think that this product feels very thick/ almost oily on the lips, and that is why I think it can help to prevent moisture from escaping. Although the product feels a little oily/thick, it is not to the level where it feels uncomfortably heavy to wear.
In terms of colour, 118 Pink Satin is completely clear on my lips. I would imagine that 318 Heavenly Berry will also be clear on the lips, but I can't confirm that because this was one of the ones that has been opened so I didn't try it on my lips. 818 Nourishing Nude is very close to my lips colour but a tiny bit darker, so it does make my natural lip colour pop a little and give my lips a glossy look.
All the other colours seem to be much darker and would definitely gives some sort of colour to the lips (even though 219 Plush Plum and 518 Tender Mauve have also been opened so I have never put it on my own lips). As I have mentioned before, 418 Caring Coral is my absolute favourite out of the bunch because it just gives a tad of pinky coral tinge to my lips which I really like.
The packaging is cute in my opinion but the plastic do feel a little cheap and light (not complaining though, for the price I think the packaging is not bad at all!). This product do have a sweet/ candy scent but once it's on you will not really be able detect it on the lips. This product wears off very fast, under one and a half hour. The sheerness of it does make reapplying it so effortless and easy so I don't mind pulling it out of my purse and slapping it on every now and then.
Bottom line is, you need to know what to expect and what you are getting with this product. Lots of negative reviews for this product stemmed from the fact that people are comparing this with the Revlon Lip Butters, and I think they are not the same thing. In my opinion, the Revlon Lip Butters are more like lip colours that are light and slightly sheer whereas the L'oreal Colour Riche Balms are just tinted lip balms. Apart from 118 Pink Satin and 318 Heavenly Berry (because if no colour shows up, you are better off with a clear lip balm to be honest), all the colours are worth a try if you like sheer and natural lip colour that gives your lips a sheer and translucent colour tinge.
418 Caring Coral, the most natural pinky coral tinge. I love this~~
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Until next time xoxo
