Maybelline | The Buffs and Color Elixirs

I was recently partaking in a bit of a lipstick purge. Storage space for my lovely lipstick friends has become tight and so it was out with the unloved, and in with the new. As i was tossing, I realized that I had recently purchased quite a few Maybelline lip products. Not all at once, but somehow their new collections have been worming their way into my good graces. Here are the goods that are...well, good.

Let’s start off by saying that I think it’s amazing that a drugstore brand came out with a bunch of nudes to suit everyone’s skin tone. Not everyone can wear the same shade of weird concealer lips, and the introduction of this line really cuts down the guess work in finding something that works for you. Instead of looking at every brand of lipsticks and comparing, you can just search this one collection. Nice.

Maybelline Color Sensational The Buffs ‘Maple Kiss'
On the left we have Maple Kiss which is a strangely lovely kind of nude. It’s like a more orange brown kind of nude. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, you probably think that sounds horribly ugly. But it’s not! It’s actually my favourite, by far. It has really opaque colour coverage (more than the others I have from this line), and it makes my lips look a bit more smooth. It’s weird, it’s like it kind of fills in the lines in my lips. It also has about a 4-5 hour wear time and fades really evenly.

Maybelline Color Sensational The Buffs ’Stormy Sahara’
This shade is definitely less opaque than Maple Kiss but not sheer by any stretch of the imagination. On me, it wears like a muted nude pink with a hint of orange to it. I guess I like a bit of orange in my nudes? It has a similar wear time to Maple Kiss, but this one applies slightly streakier. This is definitely more of a true nude than Maple Kiss is.

I also have two of the Maybelline Color Elixirs. Now I am not a gloss girl at all (who can be bothered with dealing with hair sticking to their lips?). I definitely tend to prefer the more matte side of life, but something hype drew me to these like a moth to the flame. These are semi opaque glosses that don’t have the stickiness that is normally associated with the shine.

Maybelline Color Elixir ‘Nude Illusion’
This is a warm peach shade that is definitely my favourite of the two. It lacks any shimmer and lasts for a solid 4-5 hours. It also looks amazing paired over either of The Buffs lipsticks or over a nude lip liner. This is the ideal summer nude gloss that I think would suit most (if not all) skin tones.

Maybelline Color Elixir ‘Blush Essence’
This is a medium pink tone that leans on the cooler side of the spectrum. It has the slightest shimmer that barely reads at all on the lips. It wore really well and lasted about 3-4 hours without touch up which is unheard of in a gloss. It does have a thicker texture than the average gloss, but it sits comfortably on the lips.

Overall I am super happy with Maybelline right now. They are killing it in the lip department and are definitely working their way up to being my favourite drugstore brand. Honestly guys, if someone switched out some of my higher end lipsticks and glosses with this and changed the packaging, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. They’re that good.