Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer

This month Rimmel's Apocalips Lip Lacquers have literally exploded into bloggersphere and have taken over our lips. These were released at the very end of January in the mist of a 3 for 2 offer on Rimmel, lovely lovely. I, of course, picked up three shades Luna, Nova and Apocaliptic.

From Top to Bottom: Apocaliptic Nova Luna

I have heard nothing but glowing reviews for these so naturally I thought that I would instantly fall in love never to use a standard lipstick again. The reality was very different, I hated them. They smelt like paint, they felt like paint on the lips and showed ever dry crack in my lips. They were not what I expected at all. 

I actually really like the packaging, you can easily see which colour you're choosing, the lid has a sort of crystal style end. The wand is a doe foot applicator which actually spreads the product evenly across the lip. The wand contains a lot of product therefore can be a bit of pain when you first apply.

After spending a while testing all the different shades on my lips I decided that I wasn't going to just throw them to the back of a drawer and forget I ever bought them. I decided to play around with them a little bit and make them work for me. For me these are not a throw on as you leave the house sort of product.  How I have found works best for me is to apply one coat, then blot the colour on some tissue to remove the thickness of the product while creating a stain on the lips. I then apply a thin layer again, depending on which shade and the occasion I could be done there. However, with the brightest shade I own Apocalipic, I would then blot and apply one more time to make sure the colour is really vibrant without being too heavy on the lips.

Luna: The peach tone in the range. There is a shade that is more nude than this one. I have actually been a bit unfair with this shade as this photograph was taken after the first application, before I blotted whereas the other two are after the blot. This is probably my favourite out of all three, I think it would suit a lot of different skin tones.

Nova: A really nice daytime pink, this is almost a your lips but better shade. I wear this slightly more opaque than photographed but can look lovely sheered out too. The shade range is really varied and contains all different shades from a soft nude all the way to post box red 'Big Bang'.

Apocaliptic: The brightest shade that I own and for me a lovely nighttime shade. I wore this out to dinner and it stayed put for such a long time even after eating the stain still remained. When I swatched these on my hand in Boots, this shade causes me the most pain as it wouldn't come off my hand. I rubbed it and it just turned my hand pink. Good to know that it wasn't going anywhere, but embarrassing that I looked like I had a really bad rash. 

I now really like these and have been using Luna or Nova every day. These were created to combine the colour payoff of a lipstick and glossy finish of a lipgloss. I'm still working with the texture as the brighter shade can bleed a little and sometimes I do have to check to make sure I don't have any on my teeth. At £5.99 I think these are really great, and have also taught me that I shouldn't just give up on a product if I don't like it immediately.