OCC SCI-FI LULLABIES Colour Collection & Power Plant Lip Tar Swatches, Photos, and News

I've got to get my recap post from The Makeup Show LA up soon but first I wanted to talk about the new Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics SCI-FI LULLABIES Spring 2013 Colour Collection. There are seven lip tars in the collection, with the majority in their new Metallic finish and several colors seem to be themed after the movie Blade Runner and rest off important figures or movies in the sci-fi/dystopian genre. To celebrate the Lip Tar's 5th Anniversary (it actually first premiered at The Makeup Show LA five years ago!!) and for Emerald being the Pantone Color of the Year, OCC created Power Plant which is a beautiful wintergreen with emerald shimmer. Power Plant is not considered part of the collection.

Lovecraft is a bright bubblegum pink with shimmer, Pris is a whitened beige with lots of white shimmer, Annika is a peachy pink, Clockwork is a terracotta-esque orange (how fortuitous to see A Clockwork Orange), Power Plant is an wintergreen with bright emerald shimmer, Zhora is an orange with a hint of peach, and Batty is a multi-sparkle black.

Availability: Lip Tars retail for $18.00 (a price increase that I'll talk about later on in the post). Currently, only Power Plant is available on Sephora* but the rest will debut online and in Sephora stores March 15th! You might want to check out your local Sephoras now though as they may already be carrying some of the colors (something I learned from The Doppelganger's post and lip swatches of Pris, Zhora, and Power Plant. Be sure to check out her post!)

The new lip tars also underwent a slight packaging change for the better; the names are now printed directly onto the tubes as opposed to on a sticker so no more issues with the names getting rubbed off!

I received Power Plant courtesy of the show so I have a lip swatch of it. Power Plant doesn't look all that impressive on its own but the best thing is that it works so well when mixed with other colors to add beautiful depth. The Metallic colors seem to be sheerer than the creme finishes as a whole and that makes it so much easier when trying to combine colors since you don't have to worry so much about adding too much and messing up your intended color.

Lip Swatch (Taken in natural daylight with no flash)

The base color for Power Plant is quite sheer so when you apply it, you mainly get the impact of the shimmer in the formula. As the color settles, you'll find the brightness from the emerald shimmer lessens. When applied a little heavier, it doesn't look very even on the lips and can appear patchy/streaky from the high shimmer content. If you want a more opaque-ish coverage, apply it using your fingers and not a brush. Honestly, I think it works best as a color to mix in with your other lip products and not necessarily on its own. 

I wanted to demonstrate Power Plant's cool awesome transformative powers by showing the result of mixing Pretty Boy and Power Plant. The top lip is Pretty Boy and the bottom lip is a mixture of Pretty Boy and Power Plant (I'd say 75-25 ratio of Pretty Boy to Power Plant). The addition of Power Plant creates a more purple color without adding too much shimmer. 



Regarding the price increase:

While I was at The Makeup Show, I had the pleasure of being able to talk to (talk to is being a little polite, I sort of bombarded) David Klasfeld, the founder of OCC, and I asked about the recent price increase of the lip tars from $16.00 to $18.00. He was very upfront and basically said that it came about after reevaluating the brand and product as a whole plus it resulted from OCC's growth from being just an independent brand into one that's being stocked at Sephora. He did make a point to say that he doesn't expect any other price increase to happen in the future for anyone that has any worries. I really appreciate that he was upfront to me about it and it is fair to say that the Lip Tars are a generous product, usually containing 3x the amount of traditional lipsticks so they were already a great value as it is. I did wish though that there was a bit of warning before the price went up.

When it comes to things we may see in the future, I asked about the potential for mini lip tars/a mini lip tar set and he mentioned that I should look out for something towards the end of the year (too long to wait in my opinion!). I suppose it might seem a little disingenuous to praise the lip tars for having a lot of product when I'm now about to say that they have too much but sometimes there is only so much of a color that I need so I'm really looking forward to the idea of minis, being able to potentially get tubes of colors that I'm more likely to finish. There was also mention of two more lip tar finishes coming out in the future (to accompany the Metallic and regular creme finishes in the line).

OCC is still a line I have great admiration for. Their decision to be vegan and cruelty free hasn't hampered their ability to come out with a varied range of products from concealers, airbrush makeup, tinted moisturizer, glitters, lip tars, etc. It certainly hasn't stifled their ability to create a wide spectrum of lip colors that work not only for the professional but also the consumer. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post with swatches of the SCI-FI LULLABIES Collection. Do you think you'll be picking any of the colors up?

*Disclaimer: I received Power Plant lip tar for free as part of the Blogger Preview gift bag. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own. The link marked with an asterisk is an affiliate link that gives me a commission based off your use of the link which helps support the blog. Feel free to use a nonaffiliate link if you like!