Bold Lips on a Budget w/Toya

Are you looking for a great lipstick that doesn’t hurt your pockets?  If so, you’ve come to the right place!  Below is a variety of beautiful shades just for you at just the right prices as recommended by Bold Brownies!

Spending $20-$25 on various products quarterly for new seasonal colors or even my everyday favs can be very expensive, which brings me to this week’s exploration – beautiful, bold lipstick colors on a budget.  My goal was to research and uncover fabulous, unfamiliar, reasonably priced brands and colors for the fall and winter months.  I thought it was going to be an easy task, but after going from store to store it turned out to be quite challenging. My neighborhood drug stores seemed to be sold out of virtually every product I wanted to try! After searching high and low, I managed to find a few of my favorite colors, typically bold reds and purples, and a few new shades as well.  

Maybelline Cosmetics

The first two beautiful shades I discovered were from Maybelline’s Color Sensational lipstick line. The price point for this brand is around $8.00.  Both lipstick shades, Nude Embrace and Siren in Scarlet, are true to color, have a soft matte finish and glide on with ease –the color and brand quality makes this product worth every penny! Siren in Scarlet, hands down, is my favorite.  This is a “get glam and go out” type of red.  Everything about this product screams, Toya!  I’ll definitely be adding this shade to my staple red collection.   Siren in Scarlet does not require a lip pencil, but does slightly stain your lips.  Nude embrace, although beautiful, did require a bit more attention. When wearing this shade I will definitely pair it with a lip-gloss and liner for more depth. Overall, I love this line and can’t wait to run out and buy more!

NYX Cosmetics

I am beyond in love with this brand.  NYX cosmetics provides great quality at excellent price points. I purchased four lip creams from their Soft Matte Lip Cream line.  I love the consistency and the color range this particular line offers.   I wanted to buy every shade they had, but I settled with four…for now! These babies normally cost $6.00 but I purchased them at Ulta Beauty at 40% off – can you say “winning”! These matte lip creams are dense in texture and easy to apply.   If I were to be asked to describe this product I would say, “What you see is what you get.”   The four bold hues I purchased were Praque, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen and Transylvania. All four shades can be worn alone or with a lip liner for more intensity. Although high pigment, (or what I like to call bold), shades tend to stain, to my surprise and delight these soft matte lip creams don’t tint my lips at all.

Milani Cosmetics

The last items I found on my quest for bold lips were from Milani’s Color Statement lipstick line. These beauties make a bold statement that will only cost you $6.00. I found these at my local CVS store at a discount – buy one get the second 50% off. I chose two beautiful shades, Sangria and Double Espresso. These colors have great pigmentation and have a hint of shine.  Lip liner isn’t necessary, but these shades do leave an ever so slight lingering stain to your lips.

Lip Primer

Bold lip colors tend to stain your lips, matte colors can sometimes dry your lips out, a remedy for some of these unfavorable side effects is a lip primer.  I purchased NYX’s lip primer which cost about $7.00. I picked one of my top “lip stain” offenders, Divine by Covergirl, and I put the lip primer to the test.   I love this shade, but even after it’s long gone the remnants of pinks and purples still remain. I applied the lip primer on my lips free of any leftover lipstick and applied Divine on top. I waited a few hours and wiped the lip color off. The lip primer didn’t work. My lips were still highly pigmented with the lip color. So the search continues. If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comment section.

Lipstick Shout Out 

One of my favorite drug store lipsticks is Shameless by Revlon.  It’s a matte balm.  Boy, do I love this shade!  It is definitely one of my go-to lipsticks. The color and finish is the bomb!

Check out our tutorial on Bold Lips!

Be Bold!!