Lancôme L’Absolue Rouge Mythical Roses: Bengale Rose review

Lancôme says…

“Lancôme went in search of colour where it expresses its purest radiance, at the heart of roses, by developing a colorimetric extraction technique to recreate their vibrant colours in lipstick. Radiantly luminous and pigment-infused colour is “extracted” from the very heart of each flower. Thus the world’s most beautiful flowers become a genuine source of lipstick shades

Each petal undergoes chromatic analysis to reproduce its exact shade using a spectrophotometer, which is a photosensitive cell coupled with a computer, recording the light reflected by the rose petals. Thus converted into colorimetric values, this data is then used to faithfully reproduce the roses’ true colours.”

The Mythical Roses collection from Lancôme was released at the end of January this year, and I was fortunate enough to try one of the 10 shades from this collection ahead of release. Bengale Rose looks like a straight up true red in the tube, but on the lips it’s a bright corally tangerine. It has a glossy, slightly translucent finish- which makes it very much a spring/summer colour. I think it would spectacular on pale, cool toned complexions- on my Asian olive skin it has a bit of a k-pop feel to it (I’m not a fan of the k-pop look on myself, but there are plenty who will love this look).

The L’Absolue Rouge in Bengale Rose is surprisingly long wearing- the glossiness wears off after about an hour, but a persistent (and fairly waterproof) coral stain that stays put for 4 hours, so this would work quite well on days when you don’t have time to reapply. On the lips, it feels lightweight and is non-drying.

I love the look of Comtesse de Ségur Rose (dusty rose pink), Amnésia Rose (taupish rose), Black Pearl Rose (deep crimson)- will need to have a play with these in person.

Swatches from left: Illamasqua Box (close to true red- for comparison), Lancome Bengale Rose, NARS Heat Wave, Illamasqua Soaked lipstick.

Keep reading after the jump!

Price: 50 AUD

Availability: Lancôme counters nationwide

note: this product has been sent by PR for review purposes. For editorial policy go to PR page.