Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a good weekend!

So if you’ve been following me for a while you probably know how much I like indie makeup companies. Shiro cosmetics is one of my favorites, and I’ve built up quite a collection of their products. I have five of their lip products to review, two balms and three glosses.

Arm swatches of the balms.



That’s nightshade on the left and It’s Called Love on the right.

Glosses!



From L-R,

Heart piece custom gloss in moderate

Red Wedding

Something in the wind (one swipe)

Something in the wind (built up)

Now for lip swatches!

Bare lips for reference!



On to the review!

This is It’s Called Love. It’s a nice coral color. I like this formula, it goes on very smoothly and has even color application. It’s not particularly moisturizing but it’s not drying either. It also has a vanilla scent, which is nice. It lasts about two hours on me before I have to reapply.



Heart Piece gloss in moderate opacity and unflavored. It’s a pink/red color that I really like. Usually I hate wearing glosses but this is a rare formula I can stand. It’s not sticky or heavy and it lasts for about three hours on me before I need to touch it up. This gloss is the easiest to work with out of the three.



Red wedding. This color screams “fall” to me. It’s a blood red color with a cranberry flavor that’s pretty nice. This one is a little finicky, it goes on sheer but can be built up to this gorgeous blood red.



Something in the Wind. This is a deep burgundy with a sangria scent.

This gloss was really disappointing. It is very sheer and settled into lip lines, plus it applied very unevenly. The formula is thin and runny. I tried to build it up here-



But this is after three coats and it’s still not applying evenly. Plus after three coats the formula feels heavy. It’s a shame because I really like burgundy lip colors.



Nightshade balm, this is a sheer blue. This one is more moisturizing than It’s Called Love and has a slick consistency. You can see that on my top lip it’s more of an indigo, but on my bottom lip it’s more purple. This is because my bottom lip is pinker than my top lip. If your lips are pigmented you’ll likely get a purple color like on my bottom lip.

This product is too sheer to last very long by itself, but I like it for layering. Here’s the Heart Piece gloss over nightshade.



And here’s the combo as a stain.



Don’t know how much use I’ll get out of this guy on its own but it’s a nifty shade to have around for layering.

Overall, I’m a big fan of Shiro’s balms, but the glosses are hit-or-miss for me.

Has anyone else tried Shiro or other indie lip products?

-Becky