CHARLOTTE TILBURY HOLLYWOOD LIPS – TOO BAD I AM BAD £25.00
This has all the anti-ageing ingredients you need to create high impact colour with a second-skin feel. This buildable, warm rosy pink shade glides on seamlessly like a gloss yet feels completely weightless.
WHAT MAKES HOLLYWOOD LIPS MAGIC
- Weightless, long-wear formula.
- Beeswax helps to prevent your lips against drying out – providing nourishment & a comfortable feel.
- Buildable formula can be dialled up from a soft matte look to a gorgeous, pigmented lip without caking or cracking.
- Hug applicator to bottom lip to cover completely and use the thinner tip to define and trace your upper lip to cheat a wider top lip.
- Crescent applicator mimics the natural curve of your lips for a contour effect.
- Ideal for a long-wear liquid matte lip colour in a moisturising formula.
- 10 shades
REVIEW
I always say I’m not a fan of matte lipsticks because they can look harsh on my ‘over 50 40′ skin. But, I keep on buying them because I fall in love with a gorgeous shade. For me, it’s always colour first, practicality later.
Too Bad, I’m Bad is a rich, medium rose colour that dries to a deeper, rich rose. It’s a highly pigmented, whipped mousse-like formula that doesn’t feel drying on the lips and imparts a pretty, velvety finish. Forget all the ‘magic’ lotions and potions, you really can’t beat Charlotte for a good lip product.
Hollywood Lips applies smoothly like a lip gloss – for once, the blurb is right. However, there are a few useful tips for perfect application.
- Matte lip products are notorious for clinging on to any hint of dryness. To give lips a smooth canvas, use a lip exfoliator before application, but don’t spend money on expensive lip exfoliators. As undeniably glamorous as the Dior Addict Lip Glow Sugar Scrub is the Lip Exfoliator by e.l.f. works just fine and costs a mere £4.50 (review here). I find ‘Brown Sugar’ is the scrubbiest one of the bunch, but ‘Mint Maniac’ is on offer for £2.25. I’m stocking up on a few bits from e.l.f. and I’ve got a 25% discount code ELFUKAPP25 – on non-sale items, which still works today, 17/8/20.
- Dab a little lip balm underneath.
- Line lips first. I find Charlotte Tilbury and Becca lip pencils are ever-reliable. The shade doesn’t have to precisely match – though don’t go darker, it’s not the 90s! Even if you’re not prone to vertical lip lines, it looks better if you contain the colour and creates a cleaner finish.
- I prefer to apply a liquid lipstick with a lip brush. It makes for a more even, precise application. I wouldn’t take too much notice of the ‘crescent applicator that mimics the natural curve of your lips for a contour effect’ faff, it’s just a curved doe foot.
I don’t wear Hollywood Lips on its ow, it’s too intense. I always mix it with another lipstick shade and pop a smear of gloss on top to counteract any matte flatness. Longevity is good and it wears evenly, no tell-tale ring around your mouth as it fades. Tick, tick, tick.
HOWEVER…
I bought another tube before lockdown after swatching it at a counter and thought, this is even nicer than the one I already have.
I didn’t bother to look at the shade – mainly because it’s in the smallest font ever and I didn’t want to do the old ‘over 40 with bad eyesight’ trick, ie take a photo on my phone and enlarge it (oh vanity). But also because the assistant mumbled the shade – twice. I thought she said ‘Toopid’ a play on stupid, which seemed plausible. Although Toopid (I must copyright that name, it’s so good) ended up being somewhat ironic because it was actually Too Bad, I’m Bad. Yep, I’d bought the same shade twice and these babies cost £25.00.
I took it out of the package last week out to take a photo and was going to caption it – So good I bought it twice or something equally hilarious when I noticed the new one was dried up.
This was over 7 months ago, so no point taking it back now. There is a bit of product in there and the subtle vanilla scent is fine, it hasn’t turned funky, but it’s not going to last long, is it? So, lesson learned, check before and after you buy.
Of course, I now read the online reviews at the official Charlotte Tilbury website and this seems to be a common problem, loads of people have photographed their own near-empty tubes. This really needs to be sorted by CT, it’s an (overly) expensive product.
Also, note that the colour of Too Bad, I’m Bad, is a little lighter and pinker than the shade in the photo above, although it dries darker. I have a new phone and it just makes every colour look fresh and vibrant. Believe me, if I found the exact shade above, I’d buy a hundred of them!
