Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color in Red My Mind Swatch, Review, and Photos

I swear, some of the Spring 2013 drugstore collections coming out are truly trying my wallet and right before IMATS and ISSE Long Beach too (two of maybe the best cash and carry beauty conventions). Wet n Wild especially have brought out some tempting goodies and when I was in my local Walgreens, I found an endcap with a few of the new 2013 stuff and picked up one of the Megalast Liquid Lip Colors.

Where to purchase: At this time, I think they're only available at Walgreens but I'm not 100% sure. These were available at an endcap and not with the main products. 

Price: At my Walgreens, they were $3.29 but each one came with a $1.00 off coupon so it came to $2.55 after tax (and I had a gift card so I really got it for free)

Cruelty Free? They are cruelty-free.

Packaging: The lip color is packaged in a tapering cylindrical tube with an hourglass shaped  cap. The applicator is a doefoot but one that's been cut to be more like a paddle. The wiper for the tube isn't that great though and it dispenses too much product. As the product requires spreading, I could see why they opted for the paddle shape but it picks up too much product. You can see how much excess product ends up on the applicator. 

The applicator is actually the same as the Hourglass Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Glosses, in fact I compared the two below. The Hourglass applicator is on the left and the Wet n Wild applicator is on the right. You can see how my Wet n Wild applicator bypassed quality control since there's a big chunk at the top that wasn't cut correctly. It didn't impair my application of the product but it certainly was annoying. I may end up trimming it later.

My Thoughts on the Formula/Wear Time:

I wanted to like this and I did originally, but over time I noticed there were problems. This dries down to a fairly matte finish so you'll want to be sure that your lips are as smooth as possible. The texture is light and thin, very liquidy. Red My Mind is a matte bright red with no shimmer or sparkle and opaque on my lips but I can't attest to the other colors in the range. 

Application is high maintenance since you have to be sure to clean off the applicator otherwise you'll apply way too much. You only need about 1/2 of the amount that you pull out. You can apply another layer as long as you wait for the previous layer to dry but it can make your lips look more wrinkly. The product will dry down within a minute or two and there was no transferring by the three minute mark.  Make sure you keep your mouth open so the product at the corners of your lips can dry. After it's all dry, it isn't very tacky, sticky, or heavy-feeling.

When it comes to wear time, I could only manage wearing this for about an hour because I noticed that in that time, the color had started flaking away from the inside of my lips and was getting on my teeth. The color on the rest of my lips was fine but it's just not really viable to have red flakes on my teeth throughout the day. I thought that I was applying too thin of a layer but even after two layers, it was still flaking. I think the product is just not flexible enough to be worn without flaking. Maybe the friction between your lips might be contributing so it so perhaps wearing a gloss might help with the wear time, but it ruins the matte texture.

Swatch:

This was one layer swatched and the picture was taken in natural daylight.

Final thoughts:

I had high hopes but I can't really recommend wearing this when it'll just start flaking away and getting your teeth. At least it wasn't expensive.

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Have you seen this in your local Walgreens? Did you like it? If you did, do you have any tips for me to get it to last longer?

Disclaimer: I purchased this product myself. All opinions are my own and honest. There are no affiliate links in this post.