Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Lip Balm - Swatches & Review!

Hello there! It's certainly been a while since I last posted...and I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing of things :)

Today I wanted to bring to you one of my most recent finds in the drugstore that was personally quite exciting. Rimmel London joined on the "Chubby Lip Crayon" trend and released its "Colour Rush Lip Balm" as part of its new Lasting Finish collection in UK towards the end of 2013. A couple weeks ago, I finally spotted them at Shoppers Drug Mart! However, the price tag of $6.99-8.99 (different Shoppers Drug Mart prices varies slightly) was bit high for my liking, so I decided to wait until Target or Wal-Mart stocked them in hopes that their price will be lower.

The waiting did pay off (sort of)! About a week later I found the display at Target for $5.99 each and I was able to purchase with my Target RedCard for another additional 5% off, so I picked up the following 4 colours:

L to R: 120 All You Need Is Pink // 220 Rumour Has It // 300 Viva Violet // 200 Keep Mauving

This product is your standard twist up jumbo crayon, packaging look and feel is basically identical to the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, Jordana Twist & Shine, etc. It contains 2.5gm (0.095oz) of product, just slightly under Revlon's 2.7g, so there is hardly a noticable difference. The colour of tube is more or less an accurate representation of the lip balm so that's certainly handy.

The full display consisted of 10 colours in the range, apparently that's 3 more colour's than UK's original release of 7 colours.

Permanent display found at Shoppers Drug Mart

Let's jump right into the colours that I picked up :)

120: All You Need Is Pink: Originally I thought this colour was going to be more red because of the colour of the tube, however, once it is applied to the lips it becomes this bright pink colour. It is not a type of barbie pink, it is more like a muted hot pink colour but still carries a hint of fuchsia to deepen it slightly. This colour is definitely one that I will reach for often during the summer months because it alone does such a good job of brightening my complexion, perfect for when I want to keep my makeup to a minimum. Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

220 Rumour Has It: Everytime I see this shade name I can't help but start humming Adele's awesome song...anyone with me? Anyway, because of its undeniable tie to the famous tune, I imagined this to be a deep dark red colour. But nope, it's still a pink colour, just deeper than "All You Need Is Pink", definitely more opaque lips. This pinky red colour is rather blue-based, and in general can make your teeth appear whiter, which I love. This is one that I'd reach for on a night out :) Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

300 Viva Violet: A pinky violet/purple colour. Usually these colours, once they have too much purple tones in them, becomes a tad bit too dramatic for me to where on a regular basis. However, because the pink tones are much more prominent in this shade, this colour compliments wintery makeup trends beautifully. Perhaps I will not wear this much during the summer season, but as we are still in the Winter months here in Vancouver, this colour pairs beautifully with my smokier eye shadows and neutral tone cheek colours. It hasn't left my makeup bag in my purse since the day I got it! Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

200 Keep Mauving: This colour is one of the more neutral in the line up. For myself, my natural lip colour is quite pigmented so this colour perfectly deepens the natural tones of them becoming a great "my lips but better" shade. For people with lips that are less naturally pigmented, this colour leans brown with hints of pinks that I think will be very appropriate for school or work because it's not such a bright colour, but rather able to help achieve the put-together look. Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

Texture: These lip crayons are very comfortable to wear! They feel light and thin, but the colour payoff is amazing. It glides nicely on the lips with no tugging. However, it does tend to become patchy on any overly dry places on your lips so if you happen to have any of those you might want to add a basic lip balm underneath. All the colours applied creamy and shiny without any detectable shimmer or sparkly particles. I did not find that these dried my lips out at all, but don't expect them to be able to hydrate your lips if they are feeling a bit dry.

Scent & Taste: Straight from the tube I can detect a very faint but distinct sugary sweetness on the product, but it is not quite noticeable once you apply it on your lips. There is no minty scent or tingly feeling to these, so all in all I find them very comfortable to wear.

Colour Payoff: I would have to say colour payoff is perhaps one of the most impressive feature of these lip crayons. Even the light colours that I tested out at the store were able to provide opaque colours in one swipe! I don't have to go over the lips again and again to achieve the colour in the tube for any of these.

Lasting Power: These are not necessary advertised to be super long lasting, but the darker colours did leave a stain on my lips. Wear time is normal, most likely it will need to be reapplied if you were to eat and drink. Without eating or drinking, the original shine wore off in about 30 minutes but the colour was around for about 1.5 -2 hours. Again, because the darker colours do give a teeny bit of a stain effect so you can likely get away with not reapplying until after the 3 hour mark if the lack of shine doesn't bother you much.

Overall: I think these are great value for your money in terms of the amount of product and the quality of the product! I am very happy with the colours that I chose, however I wish the colour range did include one that was more of a true blue-based red. The overall colour range leaned quite pink, even the neutral colours were pink based. That kind of limited the selection of colours so perhaps Revlon still wins in the shade selection department, especially since they added a matte (very impressive) and super shiny line to their chubby lip crayons not that long ago. I say give these Rimmel Lasing Finish Colour Rush Lip Balm a try if you are one who enjoys lip colours that feels almost weightless on the lips but still provides shiny full-on colour in a single swipe :)