Spring 2010 saw the launch of O My Rose Collection, inspired by the 60′s with a retro-meets-modern day approach. Under the direction of the brand’s Artistic Makeup Director Aaron De Mey, the collection included a liptoy inspired by his maiden trip to Tokyo.
Beni, a traditional form of lip color, has long been used by Japanese Geishas for its enduring quality. Handpicked before sunrise, Benibana (safflowers) petals are then being soaked, crushed and steamed to form Beni. The pigment itself is a natural red color, and different variations of the shade are created by varying the quantity of water used. Head on to jpdesign.org for more background information.
LANCOME B.B KISS Wet & Dry Color Liptoy
While in Japan, Aaron was piqued when presented with a pot of geisha lipstick that achieves a dry, matte finish on the lips when added with water. He took this idea and created a multipurpose product that can be used on the cheeks and lips.
Housed in a black laquer box and wrapped in silk paper, B.B Kiss comes pigmented in crayon-form, which seemed too precious to be used and more apt to be displayed in an Arts Museum. Here, I’ve compared alongside with the ZOYA and SEPHORA nail lacquers to get an idea of how miniature the product is.
Despite its petite size, the liptoy proved to be sturdy and doesn’t crumble to pieces unlike my childhood disastrous art experiences. Those art crayons would break whenever I fill in colors on the drawing paper, and created quite a mess that steered me away from the subject. Not that I have a rough hand, but those cheap crayons were simply too fragile!
Currently only available in 1 shade, Coral Madrague is a bright coral with gold specks.
Note: I did not receive replies from the US and local LANCOME offices, thus my usages may not reflect how Aaron de Mey had intended the product to perform.
Multipurpose Usages
According to the product description, the B.B Kiss can be used dry, or add water to amplify its intensity. However it seems to work the opposite for me. It took several swirling to get the pigment to show up, and using water seems to dilute the shade.
Lips – Exerting the same strength as I would with any lipstick, it took quite an effort for the coral to show up albeit still looking faint. The result is a metallic finish, but it is recommend to exfoliate and condition your lips beforehand lest the lines be obvious. Aaron suggest applying a clear gloss to create “pure, high-shine color.” As for the wet method, I moisten the lip brush with MAC FIX+ and blend the metallic pigment, but it diluted the opacity ended up sheer or almost to no color.
Cheeks – I’d tested with 3 different applications a) swirled the crayon on my cheeks and blend out b) swatched color on back of my hand and apply using SIGMA F25 or Contour Brush from ETUDE HOUSE 3) apply on cheeks and blend out using sponge moistened with FIX+. I prefer using the first and 3rd methods; less product wastage and better control on how heavy I want to wear my blush. The gold specks were barely noticeable after blending, but I really love the springtime coral.
Eyes – The lack of opacity didn’t make it ideal as a lid color. I tried layering over MAC Coral Crepe Paint Pot but the color is overwhelming by itself .
{1} Heavy, dry swatch
{2} Pre-swatched on hand and applied on skin using brush moistened with FIX+
{3} Heavy, dry swatch and blended out with brush moistened with FIX+
Related posts:
Tags: Brand: Lancome, Lip Products, Swatches
I love how it looks using the third method, it looks so soft and blended with the skin and I love how the gold sparkles tone down! The coral shade looks extremely flattering as well.
Me too, I use it primarily on my cheeks. Isn’t it amusing that the liptoy works *better* as a blush? lol
Nice product and for sure multipurpose use.
From the swatches, I think I would like to use it on my cheeks. The color looks like it’s a great springy coral shade. :)
I agree~ I feel it would be best used an a cheek tint color!!
That looks great for cheeks! A little hard to imagine for lips. Maybe if there was a different shade? I guess these are Japan/Asia(?) exclusive since I haven’t seen anything like that in the US.
It’s a multi-functional tool, hence I would much prefer to use on the cheeks. Currently there’s only 1 shade, and it’s only released in some parts of Europe and Japan.