Bobbi Brown Art Stick Liquid Lip in English Rose

Sephora is a store that I love hating on. Most of their skincare products are way overpriced, their reward program is a little pathetic (spend 100 bucks and get a mini concealer!) and during their twice-a-year sales, everything (most of the shiny new makeup releases) are sold out anyway. The question is: Why can't I stop buying random toys from them?

It's the cute little lipstick. Sephora seems to be the perfect source of mini lipsticks from various brands. Sometime they are point perks, sometime they are available from a set and sometime, they use it to trick you to buy 25-dollars of products that you don't need. I fall for those tricks all the time.

Several weeks ago I saw the Bobbi Brown Art Stick Liquid lip and it took me no time to grab it (I can always use some cleansing balm). The Art Sticks were freshly released this spring and something I was quite interested in, but not enough for me to just buy one (I try to buy formula that I actually reach for when it's passed mid range).

The mini Art Stick is exactly what I needed: Slim and cute but still looking rather substantial. It's the size of my (middle) finger and has the same squeeze mechanism as the full sized tube.

Being a scaled down mini, the smaller opening was actually quite helpful as the product packs major pigment. At the end, I still ended up loading a whole glob of it because...

While I was taking the close up picture of the applicator (on a different day, with different flowers as background/at least they are both white), I was absentminded that instead of squeezing the body, I kept twisting the black base...It finally broke and now it's spewing large lumps of gloss from the back.

English Rose is a muted mauve rose (that looks nothing like Nars Rikugien or Burts Bees Tahitian Sunset) that turns redder on the skin. It has a mint scent and a thick pasty texture that's creamy, easy to blend (but isn't slippy) and very malleable. A small dab, blended with lip brush, gives me an even, demi-matte tint that's not at all drying.

With the whole spew situation, small dab wasn't an option (if I get a small dab from the front, the back would also gush...)

English Rose, to my surprise, didn't turn into a grandma mauve at all. Instead it's a mature but modern rose with a plummy red lean. It's a rich tone that's probably more suitable for fall and winter.

A big glob of Art Stick liquid lips yields full coverage with a slight (not the wet, glossy type) shine. Once settled on the lips, the finish is neither creamy nor matte, it gives some color impact but in a tasteful way.  I am rather fond of this shade and quite impressed by the formula. I think I could use a bright pink or coral...