Revlon’s Color Burst Lacquer Balm Is Gorgeous, But Not Long-Lasting

I love a good chubby pencil lip color because they’re easy to stick in your pocket or toss in your bag on the go, they offer precision, and they’re usually fairly pigmented.

The new one from Revlon isn’t exactly a disappointment. The colors are absolutely gorgeous, they’re vibrant, and they look just how you’d expect them to based on the colors of the tubes (a little darker and less metallic).

I picked up Flirtatious, which is the only one I have so far, but they all seem to perform the same way and it all boils down to your color preferences. This is a deep, rosy pink shade with enough shimmer to catch the light without looking like glitter.

From a distance, it just looks glossy. You really have to look for the microshimmer pieces. The product doesn’t bleed on me, and it’s as easy as expected to get a crisp line since it’s just an oversized pencil. They’re lightweight and not even really noticeable on your lips once you’ve applied it. I love that. It might as well be a regular lip balm, but with intense color.

There are only three things that annoy me about the Color Burst Lacquer Balm:

1. It smells like mint. I’m not a huge fan of mint. I get why it makes sense to make something that goes near your mouth smell like mint, but unscented would have been fine.
2. The price is $8.99. It’s not a lot, but I still prefer to pay less when I’m at a drugstore. It seems like their prices are creeping up to some of the department store brands. For example, a MAC lipstick’s $15, and when I turn in six empty tubes, I get another lipstick for free. That makes them about $13 each in the end.
3. It doesn’t last all that long, and it’ll smudge off quite a bit of you bump it or kiss someone. If I don’t eat, drink, or lick my lips much, I might get one to two hours of wear from these. I know they aren’t designed to be stains, but I don’t think another hour or two would be too much to ask. Also, I have barely brushed my hand against the corner of my lip and ended up with a streak of color on my skin. My husband was going in for a kiss one day and I warned him about the color, so he barely touched my lips and still came away looking like I’d applied the balm directly to his lips.

I like the way these feel, but I’m not sure I’d buy more bold shades. I might pick up the lightest pinkish-nude shade because it looks pretty and won’t be such a big deal if it smudges.

Photo credit: Ulta