Mariposa Matte Lip Stain Review

tldr: these are matte, waterproof and stay put but feel tacky once applied on the lips and not very comfortable
 
For those of you not familiar with Mariposa, it's an in-house makeup brand at Dollarama (a dollar store found across eastern Canada). Today, I saw Mariposa's new liquid lipsticks and picked up two shades for $1.50 each. Most of the shades in store were pinks, mauves, reds, and I saw a single, adventurous bright purple (shade: “Ms. Paris”).

Lollipop in its packaging

I purchased Lollipop (medium pink-red) and Dreamer (brown-red). They come in 8ml tubes with doe-foot applicators. With the applicator it came with, I was able to apply the lipstick cleanly without the help of a lip brush. The pigmentation is great and it only took one coat for opaque coverage. I also immediately noticed the scent – it smells like a coconut tart to me. I normally hate artificially scented coconut, but this doesn’t veer into sunscreen territory. When it dries completely, it gives a fully matte finish. They're called matte lip stains but to be honest, they don't feel like a traditional stain. Instead, they feel like liquid lipsticks.

Swatches in natural light on NC15 bare skin

Immediately after application, I noticed that these don’t wear comfortably on the lips. If you’ve ever used the MeNow liquid lipsticks sold on eBay and other online Chinese vendors – this is exactly how it feels. You can feel that you’re wearing a product, and it doesn’t feel nice. Another similarity to the MeNow lipsticks is that it leaves a tacky feeling, which never really goes away, i.e. if you press your lips together, it’ll stick together. When it comes time to remove these, you'll need an oil-based cleanser and you're going have to scrub hard because these are not easy at all to remove.

These don't budget under water. You're really going have to scrub with an oil-based cleanser.

Overall, if you’re in the market for budget liquid lipsticks, these are a great option to play with. I don’t think these will make it into my daily rotation because I’m not a fan of how they feel, but these are fantastic in every other aspect, especially for the price.

VERDICT: B+