Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip “Viper” | Review

Hello friends!

A while back, I made a giant Colourpop order, and part of the reason was for the free lipsticks you would get for spending a certain amount!  This was one of the lipsticks that I was excited to get for free.

Color: Viper is described on the Colourpop website as a “true dusty rose”, which is mostly accurate!  I’d add that there’s a definite purple appearance to it when it dries down completely, whereas I would consider rose to be a more pink shade.  It’s also darker than how it looks in the tube, which is a bit deceiving, so be aware!

Finish: True to its name, Viper is definitely a matte lip.  It’s got the very traditional, completely flat matte appearance which ends up clinging to every single crevice in my lips.

Packaging: The packaging of this is very basic; just a plain tube, silver chrome accents, and shiny writing for the label.  I’ve had this lipstick for long enough that the writing has actually completely faded off – you can still see where it was, but there’s no actual indication from a quick glance anymore.

The stopper in this particular shade seems to be defective.  There’s a ton of excess product that appears to almost be leaking out despite the fact that I always keep my Coloupop lips upright.  I’m assuming that it’s just from me having to wipe the extra product from the doefoot off and it staying at the top of the tube.  My wand is also really messy looking and overall I’m not super pleased with it.

Applicator: The doefoot applicator on this lipstick is incredibly basic, and in this particular formula’s instance it doesn’t serve the product well. My applicator appears to be a bit frayed looking; the doefoot hairs aren’t sitting neatly, so application gets really messy very quickly.

Application: This formula is so liquidy that applying it was actually really difficult – you can probably tell by the very messy lip swatch.  The doefoot being messed up means that I had an incredibly difficult time getting a straight line; I would have weird skipping on the edge that had to be taken care of by wiping it off, since I couldn’t build it up there.

It does go on pretty opaque, but the messed up applicator and liquidy formula combined meant that I had a horrible time with getting a decent looking application to start with.

Transfer: I found that there’s a pretty large amount of transfer, which doesn’t fit at all with the formula.  Usually the Ultra Mattes are very dry, but stay put.  I was eating a plain sandwich and had lipstick coming off immediately – there was no oil or anything that would break the lipstick down.

Another weird thing I noticed was that not only did this transfer easily, but it would collect in the corners of my lips and ball up. When I wiped it off it would smear everywhere – not a good look.

Fading: The formula on this color is definitely different than the other Ultra Mattes I tried (such as Creeper).  I found that this faded incredibly quickly, even just from drinking my coffee. I hadn’t realized it until I went out, either – I had a line of missing lipstick on my top lip where the coffee had just completely worn the lipstick off.

After a few hours, it does start to look patchy, which I think has to do with both the ease in which it comes off, but also the depth of the color.

Comfort: Despite this lipstick being a very dry-looking formula, I actually thought that it stayed pretty comfortable. That’s to say, my lips never ended up feeling dry.  It did end up looking very dry and emphasizing the lines of my lips, but didn’t feel like I was in a desert or like I needed to bathe in lip balm to feel better.

Something that I think is really important to note is that this lipstick should definitely not be layered up.  If you don’t get a good application the first time and you want to change it, I would honestly just say take it off and try again.  One layer was fine, but as soon as I tried to fix up some spots I had accidentally taken off fixing the edges, my lips felt sticky and dry and heavy – basically, terrible.

Overall: I’m not usually this disappointed with Colourpop products, so I’m especially upset with the way this lipstick wore.  I was so embarrassed to be out in public with this on because of the quickness with which it faded and the fact that I couldn’t do any touch ups – it was all or nothing.

It’s really unfortunate that I didn’t like the wear of this, because I found the color to be stunning!  I’ll definitely be on the lookout for some dupes, because I just can’t subject myself to wearing this again.

Price Point: This particular lipstick isn’t sold individually anymore, so if you want to buy it you’ll need to buy the “Out and About” lip bundle.  The kit is currently on sale for $18, and its regular price is $21.