I’ve been a bit apprehensive about writing this review because of how intense this brand’s fans are. I have a few thoughts about this brand and while I’m worried about being bullied (like some redditors on reddit), I wouldn’t be exercising my right to free speech if I didn’t write this review. If you must research about this brand, fair warning, steer clear of reddit. Stick to YouTube videos, blogs like Temptalia and Chicprofile, and Instagram.
Here goes nothing!
About the brand owner – Lisa Eldridge
I discovered Lisa Eldridge around 5 -6 years ago when she’d started her YouTube channel. I find her refreshingly knowledgeable; especially when compared to YouTube and Tik Tok influencers that rise and fall like a fad. Lisa’s a working makeup artist with amazing skills and has years of experience working on photo shoots, working with famous actors and models. She’s never been associated with drama and seems to be a consummate professional. She’s older than me but she has this sensibility and sophistication I appreciate. And she’s a Audrey Hepburn fan like many of us!
Lisa’s a collector of vintage make up and her videos about her collection of vintage make up is a must watch. She’s something of a make up historian and recently produced a documentary with Channel 4 called Make-up: A Glamorous History.
I’ve been a subscriber for a while and I’m always excited for her launches. Sure, I admit to being a demanding fan and asking for swatches on Instagram ahead of the launch, but that’s to ensure I can manage my budget to buy her products.
About the brand
The brand itself is fairly new. So far the brand has had three launches and two restocks. It has two large events in a year – a launch around the summer and a restock later in the year. Lipsticks, lip glosses, blushes and highlighters have been launched in the past two years.
The launches and restocks have been flawless so far and my experience with the brand across the various touch points (including the amazing customer service) has been great. Now here’s the not-so-great part: so far, in the last three launches the brand has already discontinued 3 products – Go Lightly, Skyscraper rose and lip pencils/lip kits.
That doesn’t taint the brand for me because I know that Lisa uses her own money to get the make up produced and launched. Which means every product she launches is her brainchild and not an out-of-the-box make up brand (*cough* Auric *cough*). Also, Lisa’s had a steep learning curve while establishing her small business. If I remember right, many people complained about the lack of good customer service and she’s invested in fixing it.
A disadvantage that I (and many Canadian consumers) face is the high shipping costs and duties. The brand is based out of the UK and the shipping fee for orders lesser than £75 (~ CA$ 130) is £15 (~ CA$ 25). And this doesn’t include duties and taxes, which seems to average CA$ 50. The brand’s carrier of choice seems to be DHL. Private shippers like DHL and UPS charge exorbitant fees to get the shipment processed, something you don’t see when you ship through Canada Post (or its equivalents like Royal Mail, USPS, etc.).
Here’s what is unique though about the brand: If you didn’t know who the owner was and were to see it in a store, you’d still buy it because of the quality of the products. And this in a sense makes this brand not an influencer brand.
In this post, I’ll be giving you my review of Lisa’s lip products. I haven’t splurged on blushes and highlighters yet because I have so many blushes and highlighters from other brands I need to get through.
Lisa Eldridge’s True Velvet Lip Color
This is probably the best product Lisa’s ever released. Everything about it is stunning – the velvet like appearance of the lipstick, the gold packaging and the true matte formula.
The only point of contention for me is how similar some shades are. Some of the nudes and darker reds are only slightly different. Since you can only buy these lipsticks online, there’s only so much you can tell about the colors. That being said, Lisa does release swatches and videos on her site in order to help her customer gauge the shades. (I’d love a pop-up store in Toronto for her next launch now that the world is opening up).
The shades run the gamut from nudes to dark berries and red. None of the colors are unique; but what makes these lipsticks amazing are how matte they look on the lips. The formula is extreme matte without drying out the lips.
I own:
- Nudes: Blush, Muse, Beauty (pretty close in shade to each other. Blush is a dark nude, Muse is a brown nude and beauty is a pink nude)
- Dark Pinks: Myth, Jazz (dupes of each other; myth is pinker than Jazz)
- Bright Pinks: Skyscraper Rose
- Red: Ribbon (Warm Red)
Lisa Eldridge’s Luxuriously Lucent Lip Color
These lipsticks were created to be a light wash of color. Unfortunately, the performance seems to vary depending on the color. I have two colors – a bright pink called Love of my Life and a muted salmon called Dance Card. Out of the two, Love of My Life is truly the love of my life.
Love of My Life gives you such a beautiful color in one swipe. It looks so good on my lips that I keep it on my work desk to use every day. It’s a comfortable formula with medium pigmentation. It doesn’t completely cover the pigmentation on your lips but you can build the pigmentation. As a redditor pointed out, it’s a lighter and a glossier version of the L’oreal Collection Privé.
Dance Card on the other hand struggles to deliver pigmentation. If it takes two swipes to build pigmentation with Love of My Life, Dance Card takes 5 to 7. And because of this, the lipstick doesn’t look great on pigmented lips. And if you have olive skin tones, because of the nature of the formula, it will look rosy pink on you as opposed to a true Salmon. I was a bit disappointed and I read up about (and watched videos) about the product and realized that you need to apply the lipstick over a lip liner. Now depending on the liner underneath, it can make the lipstick look awesome or it can make it look brown. Luckily, Lisa provides a list of liners that best suit her lipsticks. I’ve never needed a lip liner for most of her Velvet lipsticks, except Velvet Ribbon of course. As every one knows, every red lipstick needs a liner to keep it within the lip.
A bit of history on the lipstick: Lisa released a lipstick similar to Audrey Hepburn’s lipstick in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It was called Go Lightly (Fun fact, Lisa owns the original lipstick). Sidebar: There’s a bit of confusion on whether the lipstick worn in the movie is the same as Audrey’s favorite salmon lipstick (the one Lisa swatches in the video).
According to Reddit groups, Go Lightly wasn’t well received by the brand’s customers because of issues with the formula. As a result, the lipstick was discontinued and a few lucky people who purchased it during the original run got to own and use it. The demand for the lipstick continued and she decided to reformulate it. And thus, Dance Card was born. Unfortunately, the new color isn’t as bright as the original lipstick.
Gloss Embrace Lip Gloss
Having lost the opportunity to purchase Go Lightly in its original run, I recently decided to purchase the Go lightly shade in a Lip Gloss formula. It’s a salmon pink gloss with golden micro shimmer. Now with this product, you need to set your expectation on what the product can do. It’s a nourishing lip gloss which is thinner and less stickier than Fenty Gloss Bomb. It has almost no pigmentation and for me doesn’t last long. As with Fenty Gloss Bomb, if you are insecure about your pigmented lips, this may not be for you.
Should you buy it?
As I mentioned in this post none of the colors are unique. But if you can afford it, you should consider buying a True Velvet lip color. The formula is a one-of-a-kind experience. The highest performing shades are the darker berry and red colors. If you decide to try the Luxuriously Lucent formula, I would suggest picking Love of My Life. For me, the Gloss is a pass.
Featured Image: Photo by Kelsey Curtis on Unsplash