L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour - Incessant Russet

L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour - Incessant Russet

Last Saturday I had quite a beauty shopping fiesta! I only popped into Boots to pick up a few bits and suddenly I was loitering around the L'Oreal stand looking at some of their newer releases. I must've been living under a rock as I hadn't picked up on any blogger hype about them either! Usually I like to read reviews before I buy new products but I was really intrigued and just wanted to give them a go.

The products in question are the L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour and the L'Oreal L'Extraordinaire Liquid Lipstick by Color Riche. I'll save the latter for another post but safe to say I love them both!

I bang on about it all the time, but I love a long lasting lipstick! The L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour is certainly that! The lipstick is a double ended product which you apply in two stages. The first stage is a liquid colour coat, the wand has a doe foot applicator to swipe the colour onto your lips. After this has dried you use the clear balm at the other end to add a moisturising and glossy top coat. Throughout the day you don't reapply the colour - just top up the clear balm!

L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour: 2 step process. Top: Liquid colour  Bottom: Clear balm

This is not a new concept, there have been many varieties over the years such as the MAC Pro Longwear Lipcolour, the Maybelline Superstay 24 Color and of course my old favourite Max Factor Lipfinity (I reviewed one HERE). These 2 stage liquid lip products do tend to divide opinion - you either love them or hate them!

They are not without their challenges and you have to know how to use them or risk a semi-permanent mess. Believe me - be careful if you do lots of swatches in store because these things do not come off without a hell of a lot of scrubbing!

I told you! Two lots of Bioderma and those swatches won't budge!

To get the best out of this kind of product you need to start with clean, dry lips. Don't overload the wand, work quickly and get just the right amount of product to colour the lips. Most importantly whatever you do - don't do a second coat of colour! This will lead to a cakey, flakey mess - trust me. You must also be careful not to smudge the colour whilst it is wet, because you will ruin your make up trying to clear up the smear. Once the colour is dry then just use the balm to keep your lips hydrated.

L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour - Incessant Russet swatch

Compared to the other similar products I have tried, the L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour is really very good! I chose the colour Incessant Russet which is a browny-red colour which is bold but works well in the day too. It has a very slight shimmer to it, which you can see in the tube but on the lips translates more as a shine. It is a similar colour to one of my favourite MAC Lipsticks - Brick-O-La (which I have also reviewed HERE).

Top: MAC Brick-O-La Lipstick   Bottom: L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour in Incessant Russet

The liquid colour coat applied really well - smoothly and evenly. When it dried it didn't feel as dry as other similar products do, and the clear balm has sweet fragrance to it but it doesn't hang around long enough to be annoying. But where the L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour was really impressive was in the lasting power. I applied the lipstick this morning at 7.30am then ate breakfast, went to work, drank several coffees, ate lunch, came home, ate dinner and it was still there!! I only topped up the clear balm 2 or 3 times during the day just to keep the moisture in, but it performed really well.

L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour - Incessant Russet lip swatch

The lasting power is way better than the MAC and Maybelline products. Max Factor's Lipfinity is pretty good but it does tend to flake towards the end of the day (especially paler colours). But the L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour had no flaking or cracking at all!! By 8pm it had started to fade in the centre of the lips but this didn't bother me at all. Of course the name of product claims it could last a full 24 hours, perhaps if you didn't eat or drink it really could - but frankly who needs it to last that long anyway!

I have generally found that these two-stage products work better in darker shades and not so well in paler or nude shades. I have only tried one shade of these L'Oreal products but there are 8 shades to choose from ranging from a nude beige, pinks, a bright red through to a deep plum.

For an impulse buy I have been so pleased with this product! When I bought it I held back from picking up any other shades as I wanted to see how the formula was first. But now I'm reassured I can't wait to just 'pop' back into Boots to take a look at the other colours - I just hope their 3 for 2 offer is still running!

L'Oreal Infallible 24HR Lip Colour is £9.99 HERE and comes in 8 different shades.

Have you tried these? Which shades do you like?