Review: High Voltage Lip Whips (!)

After enduring horribly slow December mail, I finally got my High Voltage Cosmetics order. The previous order I placed came quite fast for international shipping, so I knew it wasn't anything on Jasmine's end, just crazy Christmas-ness. She followed up several times on Twitter to see if I'd gotten my order, and when it finally arrived we both had a big "YAY!"

I immediately pulled out my three Lip Whips and my heap of samples, all ready to start swatching... aaaand my camera promptly ran out of battery. More December madness ensured I wasn't able to get replacement batteries til yesterday, and I've been really busy working so I didn't have time to swatch!

Since I haven't been able to find a whole lot of reviews or swatches on the Lip Whips, I thought I'd do a review/swatch of those first, and then do a big, separate post on the eyeshadows.

Lip Whips are $6.25 US for 7ml. They come in a squeezy lip gloss type tube with a slanted tip. They're vegan, peppermint scented, and SO pigmented.

Without further ado! I ordered:

• Jesse's Girl (creamy nude suitable for medium to tan complected skin tones)
• She's Got the Look (creamy coraly pink orange[request])
• Iron Butterfly (bright lime green)

Those are the descriptions from the website, and also links to Jasmine's swatches. I think they're actually better than mine turned out!

Jesse's Girl tube

Hand swatch

So at this point, I'm thinking "Nude for tan people?! I must need way more sun exposure! Look how dark that is!" But wait...

Lip swatch

On my lips it softens into an absolutely gorgeous glossy, nude shade. Ignore the blue bit on the left there, it's a reflection! See how glossy it is? :P

She's Got the Look, tube

Hand swatch

Lip swatch

This looks really terracotta-orangey, and it's not. It's a bright, clean, pinky-orange coral. It's absolutely wonderful, and I reach for it when I don't feel like doing a nude, or a red lip - my two go-to work colours. It's a great all-around shade. Please go see Jasmine's swatch for a far more accurate depiction!

Last but not least:

Iron Butterfly tube

Lip swatch 

Something about greens, and my skintone - I don't know what - makes pictures abysmal. Greens end up chalky and my skin turns raging sunburn-red. I tweaked the lip swatch so that a) I wouldn't look like a lobster and b) Iron Butterfly wouldn't look like a pastel. Again, please go and check out Jasmine's swatch, it's dead on.

From the description of the Whips, a lot of people have been saying that these may be cheap, indie dupes for the coveted OCC Lip Tars. I am by no means an expert on the Tars. I own one, the original purple called Katricia. I love the colour to bits, but I really don't find myself reaching for this often.

Not a Lip Whip, this is OCC Lip Tar Katricia

I haven't done a long, concentrated comparison. What I can say about the Tars vs. the Whips, just in passing observation, is that:

• When I open the tube and sniff, they have the exact same peppermint smell.
• On the lips, both the Tar and the Whips give the same gentle cooling minty sensation.
• Both feel light and somewhat oily to me. The Whips feel slightly thicker - almost as if they have more pigment? I like the weightier feeling, it doesn't make me paranoid all the colour's disappeared. They're still much lighter and more moist than a traditional lipstick.
• The Whips 'settle' and dry without becoming drying. Katrice always feels 'wet' on my lips.
• Whips: $6.25 US for 7ml, 68 different shades (at last count!). 
• Tars: $12.50 US for 8ml (OR Aussies can get it for $16AU from here), 33 different shades. 

Honestly, it's up to you. As I said I haven't done an in-depth comparison or even a wear test. But I'll be buying more Whips and I probably won't shell out the cash for another Tar. Jasmine is coming out with new colours in the Whips almost constantly. She also does requests - I actually requested Iron Butterfly and another blogger, I believe Cacau, requested She's Got the Look (THANKYOU! I LOVE IT!) I have worn both Jesse's Girl and She's Got the Look at work, and not only do they stay put nicely, but they stop my lips from getting dry and crackly like they normally do without copious/frequent applications of lip balm.

I really, really want to try some of her new lipsticks, the primer, and get some full sized shadows, but that'll have to wait until 2011 since I'm broke.

Hope you like the lip swatches (well the first two, anyway) and I shall try to get the shadow swatches up in a reasonable amount of time! I have several half-finished comic review drafts sitting around waiting for me, and I have a bit of an announcement as well. Right now, though, it's bedtime. The rest of you can check out High Voltage's shop or the other reviews (one of which is my first one).