It’s been 5 years since Jeffree Star created his ultra successful cosmetics brand. It’s absolutely amazing how he built it from nothing but a dream and a love for makeup. It’s become such a cult favorite. Yes, he was a MySpace famous, singer-songwriter before so the fame helped. But he took a huge risk putting everything he had into his business, and the passion paid off! As a small business owner myself, I like to hear stories like this. I need the inspiration to hustle! If you are interested in seeing swatches of the JSC Lip Ammunition bullet lipsticks, I have a post on that already!
I am doing a liquid lipstick swatch-fest on various brands where I have a handful of different colors. This is the first part. I am starting with 3 controversial brands: Jeffree Star Cosmetics, Lime Crime and Kylie Cosmetics. In case someone hates any of these brands or their founders, they can feel free to be offended early on. After those, I have my Anastasia Beverly Hills, Jouer Cosmetics and Ofra Cosmetics liquid lipsticks laid out to swatch.
Cream lipsticks are generally more forgiving in my opinion, and you can always try and get a color to work with you, either with application intensity, layering colors or glosses over it. But liquid lipsticks, will dry opaque and colors will sit differently on different skin tones. And they are intensely pigmented! If I didn’t love how a cream lipstick looked brown on me, I could always blot it and let my natural lip color show through. Not with liquid lipsticks. So that’s why I think it’s important to see lipstick shades on people with a similar skin color (and maybe even hair color) as you. My skin tone is what I could describe as a fair olive complexion. I find that a lot of colors sit dark on me. And any color that anyone else would describe as “mauve” looks dark brown on me. While dark lipstick generally is fine for anyone else, I feel like it ages me and make my skin color look dull. Sometimes I do wear deep colors, like purple, but I think that the coolness of the purple helps. Colors that sit more brown, I don’t love on myself. Maybe it’s because it’s been there done that from the 90’s and I don’t want to look how I did as a teenager. I always like how darker colors look on faces that aren’t mine. I am not saying NC15 or people over the age of 35 can’t wear dark brown lip colors. That’s the trend. Go have fun with it! I have’t seen you but I’m sure you look amazing! It’s just me and my style. This only applies to one color I bought from the Jeffree Star Cosmetics brand. These swatches should definitely help those with pale yellow-toned skin, especially for anyone of East Asian descent. (I am mixed, but my skin tone favors my Chinese side.)
My collection isn’t huge, but if you like pink, I have the majority of them:
These arm swatches are both on me, but just on different days, in different lighting!
Drug Lord- Okay, so you wouldn’t spot me with white lips. But this is the most helpful liquid lipstick ever! It’s perfect for face paint for cosplay or body painting looks! I used this for the two looks I did in October- Dia de los Deftones and Sylvanas Windrunner. It was used like White Out to correct mistakes for the sugar skull look. And used for the eyebrows on my Dark Lady look. If you’re a cosplayer, or a body painter, it’s a must in your makeup kit!
It’s also the ideal color for mixing! If you are pale like me, a lot of the trendy “mauve” lipsticks are straight up dark brown on your face. I’ve mentioned it so many times, but some people are new or don’t read the intro. I did this already in the 90’s. So I like to mix Drug Lord with any lipstick I deem too dark and make it usable! So this white liquid lipstick is a must for my collection!
As for the name I am unbothered. Dave Chappelle… it’s hilarious.
714- A light, bright coral. Looks great for summer time looks! Since I tend to go for cool tones, I wanted some warmer colors to switch up my looks. I also like to not match my eyes to my lips, so I would go for cool toned eyes and warm lips and vice versa. So I’m not so matchy!
I remember buying this and the total hype! I bet I was on Trendmood’s Instagram and the comments were going crazy. Others noted that it was up on DollsKill.com before Jeffree Star Cosmetics’s official site, so we all bought it there. It worked out well and they shipped it super fast!
Romeo- It doesn’t sit as pink on me as it does on others. It’s a medium pinky coral. Darker and more pink than 714. But still bright enough to give my face some life! According to this page, I would associate it with Brink Pink.
Doll Parts- When I got this in the mail I thought they sent me the wrong color. But no, it’s definitely Doll Parts! It just looks so dark me! It looks like a gorgeous muted pink on anyone else. It just appears different on different skin tones. And on my pale NC15 self, it looks much darker than the majority of the swatches I’ve seen! I would have loved it in jr high when I went for dark brownish colors. But as for my current taste, I feel like it ages me and dulls my face out. But I absolutely love Doll Parts on medium to deep skin tones!
I also got it partly for the name. I was a huge Hole fan back in the day! See, I liked my old music, just not my old makeup looks. So that’s what Drug Lord is for! Not that we want to mix drugs and Courtney Love together (she is doing so well). But I need to lighten it up for my taste.
Chrysanthemum- A warmed peachy nude with a slight gold sheen. I am surprised at how much I love this shade. It honestly looks great on NC15! I don’t go for nudes, ever. But if my eye look is so intense that I need a nude to balance my face out, this is it. It looks like it would be boring, but it’s really the lip color I need when I am going through lip colors and finding that they aren’t going with the rest of the look. It’s because I needed to calm the fuck down and stop grabbing brights and go for the nude!
Virginity- This is a very light, muted lilac. It appears slightly corsepy on me. I like to go for cool tones and light colors because they seem like they would be a safe bet. But I think the gray undertones make it look shockingly odd on my face. The lilac makes me look a bit dead. If it looked a bit warmer or brighter, maybe it could work. It looks way cuter on Jeffree who I think may be a similar skin tone to me. It looks like a whitish baby pink on the models and on him. It sits more grayish on me.
Queen Supreme- It’s a tough call between Queen Supreme and Dreamhouse as far as my favorite JSC Liquid Velour Lipstick. if you were to pick a shade that would be me this would probably be it. A super cool toned, lavender-based bright pink.
On my skin tone, it looks amazing. It definitely doesn’t have the same effect on everyone, maybe on someone else it might look like they dipped their mouth into Pepto Bismol. On me, it a fun punch of pink that really brightens up my complexion. Therefore, it gets worn a lot. It’s by no means, natural looking. But I have purple hair and wear duo-chromatic highlighters, so that sums up my style.
This tube is 5 years old and has likely expired since it has a chemical smell it didn’t have before. (It’s normal for cosmetics to expire, there is nothing wrong with the fact that it happens.) I am definitely buying a replacement one! Again, there is nothing wrong with JSC, it’s just that products expire eventually. I have old makeup products from other brands that went bad too.
When it first came out. I believe it was supposed to be limited edition. I have to say that I am so glad he decided to make it permanent. 5 years later I am in need of my second one! I am extremely thankful for this!
Diva- A magenta with a gold flash. Definitely a color for me! It’s only a tad cooler than Prom Night, and not as vibrant making it a little more wearable to those afraid of being extra.
Prom Night- Surprisingly, it sits a lot warmer on me than I expected! On me it looks like a red based hot pink. Prom Night is much brighter than Diva. If you need a POW color, this is it! A great color to wear on a night out and special occasions like going to the grocery store.
Dreamhouse- This metallic hot pink is definitely one of my treasured favorites! And it’s way more fun than matte! I have gotten miles out of this one! I don’t know if the metallic formula tends to dry out faster or if it’s just me using it so much that it’s gotten too much air inside… but I will need another since it’s a bit dried out. If this is truly limited edition, I am going to need a backup or three!
It is cooler (more blue) than Diva, plus it has the metallic finish, making it appear more pink. Compared to Queen Supreme, it’s more pink (less lavender), where Queen Supreme has a lot more blue pigment. And if you haven’t noticed, it also has a pink flash! A really gorgeous color! Dreamhosue matches Jeffree’s Jouer collab, Sweet Tooth Long-Wear Lip Topper. (I bought 3 of those!)
I remember buying this, I was playing a video game and had to tell my friends I would have to afk during a dungeon run to buy this. They did not understand what the fuss was about. I was super happy that the Beautylish site is so smooth that it took only a couple of minutes and I got right back into the game!
Another look at the bright pink shades:
I love wearing all four of these colors. The bottom two are my favorites. Someone else looked at my arm swatches and picked out which ones she thought looked best on me. She choose the same two!
Experimenting with Mixing Colors:
This all depends on the amounts you mix up. As I have no concise way of measuring, there won’t be any “recipes”. You will have have to mix until you like the way it looks.
Doll Parts + Drug Lord
I’d like for Doll Parts to look as good on me as it does on the medium skin tones. So I lightened it with Drug Lord and I like the result!
Doll Parts + Queen Supreme
Trying it out with a brighter pink. Of course it doesn’t get as light as the mix above, but it does give me a more flattering shade.
Virginity + Chrysanthemum
Virginity mixed with Chrysanthemum makes a neutral nude color. Obviously this will depends on how much you mix of either color, it may lean more cool or warm or a true neutral.
Virginity + 714
I wanted to try Virginity with a brighter coral. This mixture is still coral but pretty muted down. I definitely have greater parts 714 in this mixture.
Virginity + Queen Supreme
If you were afraid of either, mixing them will darken and brighten up Virginity and tone down Queen Supreme. I may wear this mixture next because I like how it turned out!
Feel free to mix more than two colors and mix up brands! I’d love to see other people’s custom mixes!
Formula:
As far as the formula. I like this better than a lot of brands. Liquid lipsticks are drying, that’s a fact! My lips will be dying of thirst regardless of the formula. But JSC is one of the less drying formulas. It doesn’t dry on thick or cracky. It doesn’t make me want to take it off right away. It’s a thinner formula, making it way more comfortable to wear. I don’t mean thin as in sheer, the most of the colors I own are opaque if you apply it well enough (each color will vary). The only one that I wouldn’t say isn’t fully opaque in one coat is Drug Lord, but I use it as a mixer anyway, so it doesn’t matter.
Value:
These lipsticks retail for $18. I think that is a reasonable price point. Especially for the quality you are getting, I feel like $18 is a standard price for a liquid lipstick. Cheaper is always better, but we can’t always get stuff for $1!
If you are looking to try them out, I’d recommend getting the set of minis or just going to your nearest Morphe store and swatching them.
You can buy mini sets at Jeffree’s official website or at Beautylish:
These are the only JSC liquid lipsticks I own, but there are certainly other ones I like. Candyass, Problematic, and Self Control are on the list!
If you were curious about the traditional bullet lipsticks, I have a swatch post on that from a few years ago. Jeffree Star Cosmetics also carries a variety of lip scrub flavors that I highly recommend. I use the scrubs every day, a jar lasts me an entire year. For $12 that is incredible! Plus they do a great job of exfoliating, the sugar crystals do not crap out and dissolve immediately!
I’ve visited the Morphe stores in Santa Clara and Sacramento, they carry Jeffree Star Cosmetics so I was able to get some shots of the displays. First are the liquid lipsticks displays from both stores.
The stores were of course all sold out of the Jeffree x Morphe brushes, but they had the display samples out. They had plenty of makeup application sponges in stock, so I ended up buying a set. Don’t forget you can ask for 10% off at the register! I forgot, and didn’t save money. I prefer the Beauty Blender, Real Techniques and PUR sponges over Morphe. It’s not bad though! Not even close to bad like the silicone applicators! I’d give it a try if you are curious. It’s best to test things out for yourself.
You can purchase Jeffree Star Cosmetics at:
Jeffree Star Cosmetics
Beautylish
Morphe
Morphe stores
You can purchase the Morphe collab brushes and sponge set at Ulta online and in stores.
Sponge Trio
The Jeffree Star Brush Collection
Jouer x Jeffree Sweet Tooth Lip Topper can be purchased at:
Jouer
Beautylish
The next post will be swatches and review of the Blood Sugar palette. With the news of Blue Blood coming out soon, it’s time to revisit the first “Blood” palette! Plus, I was too busy last February, so it’s about time. It should be helpful to those on the fence about buying it.
Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored and I paid for every single one myself. None of the links are affiliate links, I gain no compensation for anything.
Remember, the swatches may look different on you than they do on me. Please keep this in mind when deciding if you want to buy something.
