Hey everyone! We chatted a little about
Life's Entropy's Lip Theory liquid lipsticks in our
Company Overview--they're pigmented liquid lipsticks similar to OCC Lip Tars. On Black Friday last year, Life's Entropy added the Cosmos Collection of Lip Theory Satin lipsticks to their Lip Theory line as a limited edition. These are solid, traditional lipstick bullets with a formula intended to be a duplicate of the
NARS Audacious lipsticks--highly pigmented, creamy, satin-finish. Several of the shades were intended to be duplicates of existing colors from NARS and MAC.
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| Life's Entropy Flux, twisted all the way up. |
The Lip Theory Satin lipsticks were unavailable for a while, but the store has just reopened and they will be available until January 31, 2015. On Black Friday, I purchased full size tubes of three shades ($12 for 4.5 grams) and sample pans of the other two ($1.50 for 0.25 oz in a 15 mm pan), and thought I would share my swatches and thoughts on the formula in case you want to purchase any of these while they're available! In addition to the options above, you can purchase
the whole collection for $54, a 10% discount.
Kristin adds: Jane, the owner,
posted on the facebook page that these will, for now, definitely be limited edition but shades may come back in the future after the company addresses some issues regarding formula. She writes that she is in contact with a cosmetic chemist about these concerns.
Unlike most indie lip products I've seen, these come not in a chapstick-style tube, but as actual twist-up lipstick bullets. The package is a lightweight silver tube with a square black cap and base, a clear bottom with a sticker labeled with the shade name, and a holographic "LE" sticker on the cap. The cap seems to snap on securely. I like the packaging just fine, but I've seen some complaints online of the bullets looking imperfect or crooked, or people feeling like the tubes looked cheap.
As you can see in the group shot at the top of this post, the sample pans are ridiculously tiny, and annoying to work with (they're open pans that come in a little plastic baggie; you can apply with a lip brush, which I hate, or a pinky finger--my other fingers were too big to really fit into the pan). Given the hassle of using them from the pan, I think they really are for sampling, unlike, say,
Fyrinnae mini lip lustres, which are great for multiple occasional uses. For these lipsticks, I'd go for a full size for any colors you think you'll wear more than once.
First of all, here is an overview of all the lipsticks together so you can compare the shades with each other. This is probably the most color-accurate photo of the lipsticks as well, although Milky Way looks cooler and browner in real life, closer to Supernova in color. They are very pigmented; these are single-layer swatches for all the colors.
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| Top to bottom: Life's Entropy lipstick in Supernova, Milky Way, Flux, Plasma, Blackbody |
As far as formula: they do share the single-swipe rich pigmentation and satin-to-matte finish of the NARS Audacious lipsticks (of which I have two). They feel slightly more creamy and a bit lighter when applied. Like the Audacious lipsticks, I find them slightly drying over time, but long-wearing and generally comfortable. I wouldn't rave about the comfort of the formula, but they do go on smoothly (I only had patchiness issues with Blackbody), leave behind a stain (my swatching arm is still stained from the 3 darkest shades 24 hours after swatching), and feel fairly comfortable. I exfoliated my lips before my swatchfest, but you may be able to see in the lip swatches that these aren't the kindest lipsticks for dry lips--I felt like they were left looking sort of pruney and lined, even if there weren't flakes for the lipstick to catch on.
They have a fairly strong vanilla/lipsticky scent, reminiscent of MAC lipsticks. I feel like I can taste it in my mouth a little bit, so this might bother people who are sensitive to scents in their lip products.
I did swatches on white paper and smudged out the lipsticks a bit so it might be easier to see how the undertones compare to one another.
- Heart: Supernova
- Star: Milky Way (but it looks far more coral here than it comes across in real life)
- Squiggly Line: Flux
- Circle: Plasma
- Straight Line: Blackbody.
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| Clockwise from the heart: Supernova, Flux, Milky Way, Blackbody, Plasma |
Supernova and Milky Way are very similar "my lips but better"-type shades, with Supernova being a cooler mauve pink and Milky Way being a warmer muted red, almost orange-toned in comparison.
Flux and Plasma are also fairly similar, although I find that the difference is more evident on lips than on arm/paper. Flux is a rich, deep blue-based red with berry leanings, while Plasma is more of a true cool berry shade.
Blackbody is a blackened, dark cool purple.
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| Life's Entropy Supernova. Clockwise from left: tube, arm swatch, lip swatch, bare lips for reference. |
Supernova
From the website: A rosy mauve.
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Lauryl Laurate, Shea Butter, Carnauba Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 77492), D&C Red #6, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #21, D&C Red #27, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #5. 4.5g each.
Personal Comments:
This is one of my favorite shades from the collection. It is a cool-toned, medium mauve pink, intended to be a dupe of NARS Audacious Lipstick in Anna. It's almost a "my lips but better" shade for me, just slightly cooler and pinker than my lips lean naturally. I really like the slight purple/mauve tone of this lipstick.
Arm swatch is a single layer. Lip swatch is 2-3 layers, lightly blotted. All photos taken in indirect natural sunlight, no flash, and lightly color-corrected to get them closer to true colors.
Purchase Link
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| Life's Entropy Milky Way. Clockwise from left: tube, arm swatch, lip swatch, bare lips for reference. |
Milky Way
From the website: A pinky brown.
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Lauryl Laurate, Shea Butter, Carnauba Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 77492), D&C Red #6, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #21, D&C Red #27, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #5. 4.5g each.
Personal Comments:
This was intended to be a dupe of MAC Soar, the "Kylie Jenner" pinky brown 90's lip shade everyone has been going nuts over in the beauty world for the last half year or so. I was sort of disappointed with it, as it was warmer than I had expected, and more of a muted, warm spice red than a pinky-brown in my mind. I had the hardest time getting this color to show up correctly in my photos--sorry about that! I took probably 50 photos and every single photo I took was wrong in some way, despite my best efforts to color-correct. The arm swatch is coming out cooler than the color appears in real life and the lip swatch/tube are coming out warmer. What might give you a better idea of its color is that it's similar to Maybelline's Creamy Matte lipstick in Touch of Spice, but less matte.
Arm swatch is a single layer. Lip swatch is 2-3 layers, lightly blotted. All photos taken in indirect natural sunlight, no flash, and lightly color-corrected to get them closer to true colors.
Purchase Link
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| Life's Entropy Flux. Clockwise from left: tube, arm swatch, lip swatch, bare lips for reference. |
Flux
From the website: Rich Burgundy.
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Lauryl Laurate, Shea Butter, Carnauba Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 77492), D&C Red #6, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #21, D&C Red #27, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #5. 4.5g each.
Personal Comments:
For me, I think this is the most flattering out of all the colors in the collection. It's a rich, velvety-looking deep blue red. It's supposed to be a dupe of NARS Audacious Lipstick in Charlotte. The arm swatch came out too purple, but the tube and lip swatch are pretty accurate.
Arm swatch is a single layer. Lip swatch is 2-3 layers, lightly blotted. All photos taken in indirect natural sunlight, no flash, and lightly color-corrected to get them closer to true colors.
Purchase Link
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| Life's Entropy Plasma. Clockwise from left: tube, arm swatch, lip swatch, bare lips for reference. |
A deep berry.
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Lauryl Laurate, Shea Butter, Carnauba Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 77492), D&C Red #6, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #21, D&C Red #27, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #5. 4.5g each.
Personal Comments:
Another gorgeous shade, a rich purplish berry. I was considering buying a full-sized tube of this, but I think I have too many lipsticks that fill a similar hole in my collection to justify it, even if they're not exactly the same (MAC Fashion Revival, Wet 'n' Wild Sugar Plum Fairy, Bite Beauty Aubergine). It's so pretty, though. Not a dupe of an existing shade, but
inspired by the promotional pictures of MELT Cosmetics Dark Room. I applied this with my pinky finger and it went on very smoothly and with full pigmentation, although the feeling of swiping it on from a bullet versus dabbing it on with a finger is very different.
Arm swatch is a single layer. Lip swatch is 2-3 layers, lightly blotted. All photos taken in indirect natural sunlight, no flash, and lightly color-corrected to get them closer to true colors.
Purchase Link
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| Life's Entropy Blackbody. Clockwise from left: tube, arm swatch, lip swatch, bare lips for reference. |
Blackbody
From the website: A deep aubergine.
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Capric/Caprylic Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Lauryl Laurate, Shea Butter, Carnauba Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides (CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 77492), D&C Red #6, D&C Red #7, D&C Red #21, D&C Red #27, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #5. 4.5g each.
Personal Comments:
This is supposed to be a dupe of NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Train Bleu, although it's a satin shade rather than a matte. It's a deep, dramatic eggplant purple. I found this color the hardest to wear--it's very dark and cool-toned--and the application was the trickiest with this shade as well; I first dabbed it on with a pinky finger and then had to go back over it with a lip brush because the first layer was patchy.
Arm swatch is a single layer. Lip swatch is 2-3 layers, lightly blotted. All photos taken in indirect natural sunlight, no flash, and lightly color-corrected to get them closer to true colors.
Purchase Link
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