Chickpea Review: MUA £1 Lipstick

Hi Tory,

The MUA lipstick range is a bit of a story of two halves. On the one hand you have some fantastically pigmented lipsticks (with a secret lip gloss on the end), and on the other some horribly over-frosted, over-chunky glitter shades. Of the entire range, only shades 4 and 5 fail on the pigment front - the rest are exactly what you see in the bullet, and that's a major plus point. The £1 price tag is excellent - you could buy the whole range of 16 shades for slightly less money than a single MAC lipstick which is pretty mind-blowing.

you could buy the whole range of 16 shades for slightly less money than a single MAC lipstick

To break down the textures:

• shades 1 to 4 are cream sheens
• shades 5 to 7 are a frost texture
• shades 8 to 10 and shade 12 are full on, uncomfortable, chunky glitter
• shades 11, and 13 to 16 are a matte sheen

I would strongly recommend avoiding the frosts and the glitters - they're far too uncomfortable and drying, and the amount of full-on frost in them is quite dated and overwhelming (unless you're Jordan or Jodie Marsh). But 1 through 4, #11, and 13 to 16 are lovely colours, comfortable to wear and give fabulous pigmentation.

costs
£1.00

So how do they perform? This is where the £1 price tag sadly comes into play. The colour I reviewed didn't even last the pitta bread - in fact it gave up the ghost half way through. This makes me sad because the colours are really nice, and it's also somewhat confusing to have something that pigmented which doesn't at least stain the lips a little bit.

MUA have just recently revamped the £1 lipstick range - some of them now have names along with the numbers, and the lip gloss compartment screws off easily (a common complaint with the old packaging), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they tweak the formulation as well. I wouldn't give up on them - the colours are too good to pass over completely!

• Comfort: 3/5
• Longevity: 0/5
• Pigment: 4/5
• Two Chickpeas out of Five!

One More Thing...

• Comes in 16 different colours
• Available on the MUA website website here
• The most expensive item in the MUA range is the £8 Immaculate Palette, which features a staggering 24 colours
• MUA is garnering quite the reputation as a solid and affordable High Street/Drugstore brand with a very low price tag coupled with really good quality and pigmentation

Hugs and kisses,
xxx