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Winter is a rough time of year for lips. Between the cold and the bracing winds, they dry out easily and as much as I love a vampy matte lip, I quite often crave something more hydrating for my pop of colour. Revlon's new-ish Ultra HD Gel Lipcolors are super hydrating and have been helping my lips stay in top condition while looking fab this winter. Revlon were kind enough to send over eight of the fifteen shades in the range, so here they are!
The packaging for these immediately calls to mind the old Lipglides of the mid-noughties - do you remember those? I thought they were SO cool, with the wind-up click dispenser and sponge tip even though click dispensers are generally a bit annoying (you can actually still pick them up pretty cheaply on eBay if you're feeling nostalgic). The Ultra HD Gel Lipcolours wind up with a satisfying click and the click can be heard again when they've been wound all the way back down again. I may have spent a few too many minutes winding them up and down just for the click - easily amused, I know. The lip bullet is slim and easy to maneuver, allowing me to apply all of these lip swatches directly from the tube. Using the edge of the bullet to outline and then the wider surface to fill in my lips works best for me.
Formula overview:
Revlon calls the Ultra HD Gel Lipcolors an 'intensely hydrating gel formula' that 'delivers extraordinary one-stroke colour'. Across the eight shades I received, the colour payoff is smooth and even with varying degrees of sheerness. Very bold shades, like Tropical and Lava, are almost completely opaque, while softer hues, such as Pink Cloud, Coral and Dawn are more translucent. I found the wear time for this formula to be on the short side, with most only making it to the four-hour mark. That doesn't bother me for the lighter shades; in fact, it's expected, but I expect brighter and bolder shades to have a bit more lasting power. On the plus side, they definitely hold up to Revlon's hydrating claims and they don't feather on me. The HD Gel Lipcolors smell very sweet, like a mixture of cotton candy and vanilla.
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Pink Cloud
Pink Cloud is a light pink with subtle cool tones and medium opacity. If you have very pigmented lips, you may want to conceal or line your lips before applying Pink Cloud to get the true colour. I don't do this for swatches as I want you to see how the colour performs on its own and in Pink Cloud's case, you can see that it looks a bit patchy where my lip pigmentation is uneven. It applies smoothly without clinging to imperfections, as lighter colours often do, and lasts just under three hours.
Coral
Coral is a medium coral with sheer, even colour payoff. You guys know corals are my fave so this gets a big tick in my book. Coral performed similarly to Pink Cloud; it would have benefitted from a liner and lasted three hours.
Tropical
Tropical is a bright orchid pink. How gorgeous is this?! Such a fab colour for summer. The stronger colour payoff with this shade made me very happy and it lasted longer than the previous two, at four hours. It felt great on the lips, leaving them soft and hydrated and it didn't feather during wear. I did experience some light staining.
Vineyard
Vineyard is a medium grape purple, the perfect moody hue to take me through the last of this cold weather (well, let's hope it's the last. I'm longing for summer!). It's mostly opaque and lasts for four hours on me.
Lava
Lava is a bright red with warm undertones. It's the kind of red that makes me go gaga and the cherry on top is that it doesn't feather! That's right, a glossy, pigmented red lipstick that doesn't make me look like a toddler caught playing in her mother's makeup bag. I KNOW. The wear time could be better (four hours) but I'll overlook that for the non-feathering.
Adobe
Adobe is a warm brick red with mostly opaque coverage. This gorgeous, like a sultry 40s movie star red. It has great colour payoff and lasts five hours on me. As with Lava, I had no feathering issues.
Arabica
Arabica is a warm semi-opaque red-brown with gold sparkles. This will be stunning on darker skin tones. The slightly sheer finish combined with my own lip pigmentation meant that Arabica wasn't my favourite shade in the range but you can't win 'em all! It lasted five hours on me.
Dawn
Dawn is a semi-opaque mauve with fine golden shimmer. This is a really pretty neutral option, the mauve tint is very flattering. It lasted four hours on me.
What I liked:
- Most shades had excellent colour payoff
- They apply smoothly without streaking or tugging at lips
- Non feathering
- Hydrating
- Relatively short wear time, even for darker colours - four to five hours
- Pink Cloud and Coral appeared uneven on my lips
Have you tried the Ultra HD Gel Lipcolors?
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Lani
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