The Balm: Meet Matt(e) Hughes Review

L-R Committed, Honest, Charming, Adoring, Loyal, Devoted, Sentimental, Chivalrous

Twitter competitions are great aren’t they?! I was lucky enough to win a full set of Meet Matt(e) Hughes Liquid Lipsticks from The Balm and received them this morning.I am in love. There are 8 shades in the collection, all named after qualities you would look for in a man, going from a pinky nude all the way through to the deepest burgundy. Coverage and application is consistently great across all shades, as is the smell which I can only describe as Mint Aero. Yum.

The only gripe I have is in the packaging. There doesn’t seem to be anything to clear off any excess from the applicator when removing it from the tube, meaning that you get a build up of product at the top of the tube which has a tendency to squidge out when you close it. I found this happened particularly with the bright red shades, it just requires being careful and not putting the applicator back in the tube too quickly! On with the swatches!

We start at the nude end of the scale with the shade Committed, a light pinky nude, similar to my natural lip colour but a few shades darker. For a light shade, Committed has incredible coverage.

Honest is a coral nude, something I thought I really wouldn’t like as my skin tone just doesn’t suit coral or orange, but I totally don’t hate this. In fact, I kind of like it. It’s not as bright as this picture makes it look! 

Last of the nude shades is Charming, a lovely dark mauve toned pink. I love this shade, completely love it. It it the perfect dark nude lipstick and I can see myself wearing this a lot. 

First of the red shades we have is Devoted, a bright ‘true’ red shade, difficult to capture in picture. I wore this one for around 4/5 hours, it felt a little tacky for the first 15 minutes but soon dried down and there was virtually no wear, even after eating. 

Loyal is a dark ‘blood’ red, a classic ‘pair me with a cat eye’ shade. This was the one where the tube issue I mentioned above was the worst, I had to wipe away quite a lot of product which is a shame. I found the application particularly smooth and the coverage is incredibly even. 

Last of the red shades is probably my favourite of the collection – Adoring, a gorgeous deep burgundy. Just…I can’t even begin to say how much I love this shade. Two coats give the most even coverage, it is just so darn gorgeous. It lasted through dinner with minimal touch up needed, to be honest I could have gotten away without touching it up at all. Staying power is insane. ‘Nuff said.

There are two pink shades in the collection, first up is Sentimental, a blue toned fuschia. I love me a fuschia lipstick and this is no exception. As with the rest, the coverage and application was great.

Last up is Chivalrous, a blue toned Barbie pink. This was the only one where I found application to be a bit on the streaky side. It’s a little bit bright for my liking but will still see some wear.

Some side by side comparisons of the shades how they sit with my fairly pale skin tone.

L-R: Committed, Honest, Charming

L-R: Devoted, Loyal, Adoring

L-R: Sentimental, Chivalrous

Overall, this is a brilliant collection, with a fantastic range of colours and great consistency in application and coverage. Having worn a few shades over the last week, they can get slightly drying after say 6 hours, but what matte lipsticks don’t dry slightly! My picks have to be Adoring and Charming, while Chivalrous was the only one I wasn’t so keen on. I can even forgive the design flaw because the product is just that good.

The Balm products can be purchased at Debenhams (£13.50) or The Balm website.

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