Rimmel London Apocalips Matte Lip Velvet *

Ever since I started hoarding make up, I've gotten to be a lot more confident and comfortable with wearing bolder colours. I use to find them quite intimidating and felt like they attracted too much attention. For those of you who do not know… I'm 23 but I look like I just had just gotten my pen license, and bolder, brighter colours makes me look awkwardly mature. I'm past that now though, thankfully because I'd never be able to fully appreciate these otherwise -

Rimmel London Matte Lip Velvet are still fairly new on the market (well, new to me this is the first time I've ever seen them). These claim to be a weightless liquid colour with a velvety smooth finish that lasts up to 8 hours and has a moisturising formula that increases lip moisture by 31%.

These Matte Lip Velvets are packaged identical to the original Apocalips Lip Lacquers with a slight dissimilarity (refer to below image) and contain 5.5ml worth of product in each tube. It has a small and firm doe foot applicator with a small groove that distributes the perfect amount of product with precision and ease. I find that removing the applicator from the tube can be a little tricky as it does have quite a bit of suction at the neck. I made the mistake of forcefully yanking it out and creating a little bit of mess. To release the applicator I gently twist off while pulling them apart.

The consistency of this matte lip velvet is thin, creamy and smooth. There are a total of 4 bold, highly pigmented shades in this range. The colour pay off is outstanding - they are insanely saturated and deliver a fully opaque coverage. These lip velvets have a soft velvet-matte finish, not completely matte, and sit on the lips nicely without looking of feeling overly drying - if you have dry lips, you're definitely going to appreciate this formula.

The Apocalips Lip Lacquer has a glossier packaging where as the Apocalips Lip Velvet has a distinct matte packaging.

Rimmel Matte Lip Lip Velvets aren't deeply moisturising, but they definitely do not dry out the lips. This product is lightweight and wears comfortably without feeling masking, sticky or greasy. I love that these apply evenly with a single stroke without streaking.

I find that with this formula, less is more and although they have a velvet matte finish, they aren't smudge proof or transfer resistant so to get the best use out of this you're certainly going to have to blot them especially if you want to avoid slight feathering and bleeding. This is a long-wearing formula and lasted approximately 6 hours on me, however they didn't last through eating and drinking and there was a considerable amount of transfer and smudging but I'm not too disappointed by that because they do reapply evenly. I'm also not too fond of the scent but once I got past that, I absolutely love wearing these! As always, try to exfoliate and moisturise your lips before applying these because these do slightly cling to dry flakes, as do a lot of other lip creams and lipsticks

Rimmel London Apocalips Lip Velvet in 'Orange-Ology'

Rimmel London Apocalips Lip Velvet in 'Atomic Rose'

Rimmel London Apocalips Lip Velvet in 'Burning Lava'

Please excuse the inconsistent lighting, these were taking under natural lighting so the colours may not be completely true to colour. Please imagine these to be a lot more saturated and intense - they're beyond words!

I'm impressed with the overall performance of this product and definitely recommend checking these out. Also, I just want to add that Rimmel is against animal testing (bonus points) and they are currently on sale at Priceline at 50% off bringing the price down to $7.97 each. Rimmel also retails at selected department stores and chemists.