When Chanel launches a new lipstick, the online beauty loving world is all ears. You see, the perfect budget-friendly alternative for a Chanel handbag is a Chanel lipstick. Or at least that's how it goes in my mind. This time Lucia Pica (creative director for Chanel beauty & a woman to admire, check out her background & story in this Vogue article) & team are doing liquid matte as a continued hommage to the classic red, following up on Lucia's first autumn makeup collection. Enter Rouge Allure Ink Le Rouge Liquide Matte.






Rouge Allure Ink is a thin, very lightweight liquid lipstick that eventually dries down matte, but starts off with a satin finish. Lovers of true matte will be a little disappointed, the quickest way to get these to a true matte is by blotting the excess shine away and reapplying. The formula contains jojoba oil and the signature Rouge Allure antioxidant complex composed of sappan wood, green tea, sweet almond oil & a Vitamin E derivative. It indeed doesn't feel drying - I wouldn't say it's hydrating, but it doesn't leave my lips feeling parched like many other matte products tend to do.

The flocked applicator has a great shape to apply the product very precisely. I start off with colouring in the middle of my lips to get rid of the most product on the applicator, and then first do the contours of my bottom lip, followed by my upper lip and doing my cupid's bow as last. If you use liquid lipsticks often you'll notice that if you start off with shaping your cupid's bow there'll be too much product and it won't dry down nicely.

Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in 150 Luxuriant (a little deeper with more pink in real life)

Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in 144 Vivant (a little more neon & orange in real life)

Whoa, this weather has been tough to photograph in. I took three sets of swatch pictures, as none wanted to turn out true to colour. I did the best I could making these look true to colour in case you'd like to order online, but it was a tough job in this horrible weather with grey overcast skies. The swatches on my arm are the most accurate, just don't mind my purple bath robe in the background: my test photo including real life background was the best one. Of course I took the rainiest week since forever as my week off, while I was intending to spend it working on the blog and catching Pokémon. Along with some thorough relaxing of course. Let's hope some light shines through the following days - I have pictures to take!

I wore Luxuriant out on a Pokémon hunt (in my rain coat, sadly) and it performed quite well. It wore really well for at least four hours and only started fading when I had a snack and drank some water from a bottle. After eating dinner several hours later I could still clearly see a stain on my lips. Great stuff.

If you're a fan of Chanel, love luxurious lippies, have the patience to wait until the formula has dried down & don't mind a little bit of a satin finish, this one might be for you. For now the shade lineup mostly features variations on red - a true hommage to the classic red. However I'd love to see a few other shades in the future lineup, like a pretty brown or a dusky mauve. Because you can never go wrong with dusky mauve, amiright?