Thursday, May 23, 2013

Thrifty Thursday: L'Oreal Colour Riche Balms

Once upon a time, I had the great good intention of blogging more than once per week but life happens. Fortunately, I had a backlog of Thrifty Thursdays saved up, so here's one from the vault.

I really enjoy tinted lipbalms and L'Oreal has produced a few of my favorites in their Colour Riche Balm line. I have pigmented lips naturally, and I look for shine and a non-drying natural tint in my balms. I don't require a whole lot of pigment. 

I'm glad to say these balms cater to my humble needs. I prefer them to Revlon Lip Butters, which have been known to make my lips peel-- though by anyone's definition the Lip Butters are lipsticks and hence have more pigment. 

I have three balms from the Versailles Romance limited edition collection for this spring, Provence Romance, Legally Regal, and Sundays by the Seine, and two from the permanent line, Nourishing Nude and Tender Mauve. 

Pardon the blur. I lost my camera for a bit there and was dependent
on the one I'd gotten for my high school graduation.
High school was a long, long time ago, friends.
I've seen the Versailles Romance collection complete with lip balms at Rite Aid and Target. The collection reminds me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. The colors of both the nail polish and the lip balms are pastel, but decadent and a little weird.

Once applied, though, they look pretty tame.

Provence Romance is the sheerest one I've tried of L'Oreal's balms (which is saying something because the balms on the whole are not the most pigmented formula around) and consequently the only real disappointment. It's a shy pink with a sheen that is only barely visible on my shy pink arms.

Legally Regal is one of the more pigmented balms I've tried from L'Oreal. It's a cool, pale pink but it's sheer enough not to look stark or truly pastel.

Sundays by the Seine is hard to take pictures of. It's a sheer almost-seafoam blue with iridescent blue-purple shimmer. I plead guilty to having bought frosty mint-green lipstick from Cover Girl in the late nineties, though why I did so eludes even me. Fortunately for all of us, Sundays by the Seine is not at all like that. It's only pigmented enough to mute the redness of my lips down the slightest bit. It doesn't look frosty and it makes my teeth look whiter. A victory all-around.


The two I have from the permanent line are much easier to find and far less pastel.

Nourishing Nude is a pink-based nude without shimmer. It isn't too light for nude-fearers and it isn't too brown for brown-fearers. Just a basic MLBB.

Tender Mauve is the other MLBB shade that caught my eye in the line but it's more of a rosy mauve. Again, not too light.


All of these are glossy enough to camouflage any textural issues and most (save for Provence Romance) give a slight tint that finishes my look without being too high-maintenance or fussy.

1 comment:

  1. I need to investigate them a little. I've been so posh with my lip products and can't remember when I wore any other lip products from the drugstore apart from Revlon Kissable Balm Stains LOL

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