I’ve been extremely curious about Sweetpea & Fay’s J’Adore Les Levres liquid lipsticks for a while now–well over a year, actually–but I didn’t decided to order from them until this past Black Friday. I was initially intrigued by their sizeable line of colors, including unusual ones like blue and yellow. They usually sell for $9.99, but with the Black Friday sale I paid $5.99 for each. I ordered three colors:

Nordic, described on the site as “an opaque greyish blue matte shade”

Ukulele, described on the site as “a pastel pink/purple shade with a completely opaque look”

and Nantes, described on the site as “a stunning dark rose color with maroon undertones”

My natural lips:

Nordic:

Ukulele:

Nantes:

Arm swatches (Nantes, Ukulele, Nordic from top to bottom):

(All photos were taken in natural light with no editing.)

After swatching all of the colors on my lips, I feel like all of the descriptions are pretty accurate*. I do think that the site describing some of the shades as “opaque” is somewhat redundant, as all of the colors appear to be designed as opaque shades, but I can understand why they would want to restate it in lighter colors where natural lip color might show through. The lipsticks are very opaque and thick; while they are described as “liquid”, they wear more like a cream lipstick. The texture is very soft and doesn’t feel drying at all. Their staying power seems to be about the same as other lipsticks of similar textures: they’ll last a few hours if you’re not eating, but won’t hold up too well against greasier foods (I tested this with Trader Joe’s Mac n’ Cheese, which is delicious but not very lipstick-friendly). They are described as having “a soft french vanilla flavor,” which I find to be true, although they do still have a slight cosmetic scent underneath–they smell pleasant, but you can tell it’s a lipstick.

You really need to use a lip brush to apply these; if you try to apply straight from the tube, it would be very messy. Luckily, a lip brush is included in every order. You simply squeeze some product onto the brush, then begin in the center of the lower lip and spread outwards. I find these easy to work, particularly when compared to other liquid lipsticks, due to the more solid nature of the product. However, they do take more time than a traditional lipstick; each swatch took me about five minutes to get right.

Final verdict: 8/10 stars. I like the thick texture and opacity of the lipsticks, although I know that it isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I think that there are enough color options that everyone could find something that they would like, too. However, they can be untidy to apply (as seen in my lip swatch of Nantes) and I noticed that Nantes did stain my arm after the swatch, which should probably be expected of the darker colors in their line. *I would also like to note that the images on the site aren’t always representative of the actual colors, even though the descriptions are accurate. While my Nordic and Ukulele are pretty close to those shown on the site, my Nantes is noticeably darker than the site swatch. I would recommend looking around for swatches of specific colors on blogs if you’re considering buying.

Overall, I would repurchase these lipsticks.