Part of this years Ultimate Beauty Gift was Hourglass’s Rouge Opaque in Icon. I was excited when I saw this in the gift but did not delve into it until yesterday. If you follow me on Instagram, you know what happened. I literally squealed with delight as I applied it and posted a collage of shameless selfies!
I was expecting this to be a lipgloss. The colour was intense in the tube but as you know I much more of a lipstick than lipgloss girl so I was expecting a pigmented but shiny effect. When the first swipe of the doe foot applicator went over my lips, and the colour was vintage, blue red with no shine – that is when the squeal happened. The colour in the tube is slightly orangier then colour on the lips. Bear in mind that I did not prepare my lips in any way, no lipliner, no lip exfoliator just straight onto the lips. Gracious me. I had to change my outfit and my hair to make the whole ensemble worthy of my lips. Sad but true. This colour is epic. Selfie epic. Iconic.
The miniature replicates the full size product with the metallic chocolate brown casing and the big window that reveals the colour. when you put your nose to the tube, there is a distinct ethanol (alcohol) smell but you don’t get a whiff of this when you apply it to the lips. There is some sunflower oil and safflower oil in this product but there are also silicones if you are trying to avoid them in products.
The finish is matt. True matt, and it is not sticky on the lips like a vinyl effect lipgloss has. This is truly a longwear product. It survived several cups of tea, a nectarine a scone and a salad with a little bit of wear on the inner part of the lip. I did not reapply as the as I headed out for pizza in the evening and it survived it all. Once home, it was removed easily with Crème de la Mer Cleansing Oil
The colour is gorgeous and so is the formulation. It is very likely that the plum shade (Empress) from this range will become a part of my make up bag very soon.