This is kind of a begrudging review, because I like the lipsticks and have already done all the work of editing photos and testing.... but I am seriously cross with the company. Recently Make Up Academy decided to reroute customers from their own UK based website to various stockists around the world, making it impossible to view (without the use of browser extensions), let alone shop on their own website the way I and many others have for years. This has led to me unsubscribing and unfollowing them on all channels, as none of their promotions are relevant to me any more (being as the stockists run their own specials), and when I've expressed my frustration at the changes on their social media pages they have ignored me outright.
New Zealand and Australian customers are now being redirected to Crush Cosmetics, an Australian website which sells most of the product range at a mark up and in Australian dollars, making it significantly more expensive for me as a New Zealand customer to try and purchase their products - rather at odds with the message MUA have been relaying about these changes being more cost effective for customers.
To demonstrate this, I downloaded a browser extension to trick the MUA website into thinking I was in the UK and created a demo cart containing nine Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquers (despite the website redirects, they do still appear to ship internationally if you're willing to deal with the browser extension workaround). Here's how they added up on the different websites:
MUA: 9 lipsticks at ₤3 each + ₤8.50 shipping = ₤35.50/$77.47NZD (approx)
Crush Cosmetics: 9 lipsticks at $11AUD each + $11AUD shipping = $110AUD/$116.84NZD (approx)
Sooooo.... almost $40 more expensive. Now granted, MUA's website does have some shipping restrictions: the ₤8.50 shipping price is only available on orders under ₤30 and no nail polish can be included. On any orders over that the shipping cost jumps to ₤30, although this is a flat rate and has a guaranteed seven day delivery time, plus nail polish is allowed with this option. Even so, the hiked up prices on Crush Cosmetics along with the removal of choice and lack of response on MUA's part really hack me off. I'll publish the other reviews in my backlog to get the swatches out there, but I won't be purchasing any more from them.
Okay! If you made it through all that, job well done. Let's review these suckers and move on.
Swatched on bare skin under daylight bulbs
Formula overview:
MUA's Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquers are the brand's budget friendly answer to the liquid matte lipstick trend kicked off by brands like Lime Crime and Kat Von D, retailing for a mere ₤3 in the UK and on their website.
Their consistency is thicker and tackier than most brands I have tried and they have a long dry down time, taking about ten minutes to lose the last hint of shine and tackiness. It's best to keep your lips apart as much as possible during the dry down to prevent your lips sticking together and lifting sections of the colour. Initially to me they feel pretty thick and paint-like on the lips but once I get used to it they feel more comfortable. I find them to be quite easy to work with, they are pretty opaque on the whole and apply smoothly and layer up well.
As is to be expected with a matte lipstick, they can be a touch drying, but they don't feather and the lasting power is very good. The scent is sweet, faintly vanilla but mostly unplaceable chemical.
The packaging for these is a double walled frosted tube with a long wanded doefoot applicator. The ones I own have a matte black cap with the MUA Luxe logo and no text on the outside of the tube, but the brand appear to be gradually switching this over to a pewter cap with 'Velvet Lip Lacquer' printed on the exterior of the cap.
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Reckless
Reckless is a blood red and is my favourite of these four, because I'm a sucker for a great red! It's nice and opaque, wears for close to five hours and is slightly drying.
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Halcyon
Halcyon is a warm peachy nude. It's mostly opaque, wore for seven hours and was not drying. This is a fairly good dupe option for Lime Crime Bleached!
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Kooky
Kooky is a medium, muted warm purple. It's mostly opaque, taking a few layers to get even and wears for five hours. It was a touch drying.
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Tranquility
Tranquility is a medium warm nude. It has excellent colour pay off and wears for just under five hours, during which it is noticeably drying.
What I liked:
- Great colour pay off
- Smooth application, layers well
- Wear time ranges between five and seven hours
- Halcyon is not drying
- No feathering or bleeding
- Reckless, Tranquility and Kooky are drying
- MUA
- Ebay
Have you tried MUA's Velvet Lip Lacquers?
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Lani
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