I hate when I Google for something specific and can’t find any relevant web pages. This most recently happened when I was looking for a review of these lipstick gift sets from L.A. Colors, which were on sale for only $2.10 each (originally $6) at Walgreens.com. (All amounts are in US dollars.) Cheap or expensive, I don’t want to waste money on products that aren’t good, so I always look for reviews before I buy.
After a bit of internal turmoil, I decided to take a chance and spend $4.20 for both sets. Each set contains three lipsticks, so that’s only 70¢ each ー a bargain since L.A. Colors lipsticks usually cost $1 to $3. I’ll post my review and swatches here for anyone else considering this purchase.
Just saying.
I confess that I bought the sets partly for the names: the one with vibrant colors is called “Classified,” and the one with more muted colors is called “Top Secret” (since I like reading about spies!). Each set contains one lipstick in each of three finishes: metal, matte, and cream. Looking at the individual tubes, I was disappointed to see that there are no individual color names. L.A. Colors really missed an opportunity here: they could have given them cool names like “Discretion,” “Covert,” “Redacted” and so forth.
Even using the item numbers on the tubes (C42162-1, C42162-2, and C42162-3 for “Top Secret,” and C42164-1, C42164-2, and C42164-3 for “Classified”) I couldn’t correlate these to color names on L.A. Colors’ website or anywhere else. I think they’re taking this top-secret classified theme a bit too seriously!
The boxes look neat and would make nice stocking-stuffer gifts. The lipstick tubes look the same as the matte, metal, and cream lipsticks currently shown on the L.A. Colors website, where the matte and cream lipsticks cost $3 each and the metal lipsticks say “available in stores only.” It’s possible these lipstick colors are the same as ones in their regular line, but I can’t tell for sure (as I haven’t looked at the others in person).
General impressions
I’m really happy with all of these, and they were well worth the money! Things I like:
- All the colors are really different from each other, so these are nice sets to buy if you (or your giftee) enjoy trying different colors and finishes.
- They go on very smoothly and evenly. I was especially impressed with the purple one from “Classified,” as I have a lipstick in a similar color from another brand (that I paid more for), but that one goes on a bit blotchy, while this one is very uniform.
What I don’t like:
- The “metal” ones are made metallic by what seems like a micro-glitter. It looks nice on, but is hard to get off. After my best efforts at removing the “metal” lipsticks, I kept finding near-microscopic glitter bits on my lips and face.
Specific colors
Classified
- C42164-1 Metal: a shiny slightly sheer light pink.
- C42164-2 Matte: a medium purple, colorful but not too weird for everyday.
- C42164-3 Cream: I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I’m not big on red lipsticks in general because I feel like they’re not flattering on me, but I will wear this one. It’s bold but doesn’t jump off my face, you know what I mean?
Top Secret
- C42162-1 Metal: a semi-sheer shiny champagne-copper.
- C42162-2 Matte: a pink-mauve, suitable for all occasions.
- C42162-3 Cream: a subdued brown-nude.
I look forward to wearing these, and carrying them around in my favorite makeup bags, pictured below. (Did I mention I like spy stuff?) :p
To order these lipstick sets from Walgreens.com with free shipping, you need a total of $35 in your cart. It may be difficult to reach $35 if you’re buying nothing but cheap makeup items, but it’s easy if you add other household items, like laundry detergent, tissues, shampoo, etc. That’s what I did, and got great deals on those too with online coupons. (To clip online coupons, you need to join their rewards program called Balance Rewards, which is free. Or if you don’t want to bother, you can just take advantage of sales that don’t need coupons.)
I hope this was helpful! If you’ve tried these or other L.A. Colors lipsticks, please feel free to chime in with comments below. I’m also curious if anyone has correlated the colors in this set to named colors sold individually.