Anyone who has been following me for any significant period of time might have gotten the hint that I am a fan of wacky lip colours. I had to make a Portland Black Lipstick Company order, because seriously, who wouldn’t?

So, the first thing you notice (if you’re me) is that, if you try to buy things on the product page, it’s really hard to find swatches on the website. You instead get estimations of what the colour looks like. While there’s a few pictures on the “lips too red?” page, they’re all in pretty variable lighting, with some swatches on lips and some on paper, and some just not represented at all. I actually avoided looking up swatches before ordering, choosing my colours based solely on the little colour estimations on the website.

I ordered eight lipstick samples, and got a free sample of glitz with them. The glitz was unlabelled, but that’s not a massive deal for me, since I don’t actually have many baggies of cosmetic glitter.

Purple Cloud looks similar on the website to its real appearance, although the paper swatch under “lips too red” is a lot darker than it is in real life. It’s a light, almost pastel lavender shade- while it’s not the sort of thing I normally consider to be flattering on me, it’s still quite nice. The formula is almost matte, and lasts through tea and toast easily.

Metallurgy is the first one I noticed having problems with representation. The description details a metallic fusion of black, green, and gold, but the picture they have there is a mossy forest green. If I had to describe it, I’d say it was like an aged dark bronze shade. Really unique, really pretty, not what I was expecting. It wears a bit patchy, but I didn’t find it too bad.

Lux Et Voluptas is what I would describe as my my-lips-but-better shade, since one of the many things that improves my lips is a gold sparkle. It’s a light pink with a gold, almost duochrome effect. This is not really something I would have guessed from the slightly speckly plum they have there, or the swatches on what look like black paper. I do really love this dearly, since I can wear it to work but it’s still kinda weird. As well, it stays on surprisingly well given that it’s metallic.

Indigo Bridge. Unf. I love this. I love this until I die. It’s a metallic blue- I was expecting a deep navy from the picture, but it’s actually more of a royal blue. It hangs around for a good while on my lips, as well, which I appreciate.

Difficult Island is a matte robin’s egg blue. I’m not sure how much I like it on me, but it’s nice. Also, that picture was taken after tea and raisin bread. It lasts well for a pastel colour.

Chlorosis is a mint green lipstick. It’s another one with great lasting power, but I’m not sure how much it works with my face. If you want an opaque mint green lippy, though, this one is for you.

Black. It’s a black lipstick. We all know what black looks like. There are some application issues I had with this one- I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how that’s just a problem with the sample version, but still, I might not get a full-size, since black is one of those colours that is pretty easily found elsewhere.

Black Lagoon is a dark, metallic blue with a tinge of green in. It’s a lot bluer than it is in the picture.

Finally, we have the Glitz in white. I did an arm swatch over primer, then patted it on over black lipstick. It has a noticeable green shift, which I think I am cool with.

What do I think?

First, I think I’m scrapping the number scale, since I worry too much about it.

I think that these are, on the whole, nice lipsticks. Something should probably be done about the black applying so patchily from the sample baggie, but I’m not a chemist, so that’s not my field of expertise. As well, they really need to get some good swatches on the site, since a lot of the colours are kind of off. Overall, I was really quite happy with my order.

Next- Oslo Cosmetics. I won’t post that one tonight. Probably.