Unfortunately I haven't been as productive over the last few months as I would have liked, I haven't learnt a new language or a new skill, and I haven't even made any banana bread, but I'm still counting it as a win, I'm still here and I have managed to sort out a bit more of my junk. I've filled charity bags, and storage bags with clothes, I've thrown the odd thing in the bin and I've also rediscovered quite a few beauty products that I'd pretty much forgotten about. If I'm honest I'm not particular proud of that, I don't think that forgetting about what were sometimes expensive things is a good thing, but every cloud as they say, and with the lack of shopping opportunities at the moment, I've been able to shop my stash, and rediscover some 'new' and some unloved products.
Originally released as part of the 2017 Holiday Collection, I originally bought this Marc Jacobs Beauty set from John Lewis, in the after Christmas sale, where it was reduced from £37, down to £25.90. Although this set itself is now long gone, and John Lewis no longer seem to sell the full Marc Jacobs Beauty range, most of the products in this set are still available in the full size elsewhere so I think I can still justify talking about it x
I love Marc Jacobs as a brand and I'm lucky enough to own a few pieces including clothing, shoes and accessories from the Marc By Marc Jacobs line, and like so many people I'm a huge fan of both the Daisy and Lola fragrance lines, but up until late 2017 / early 2018 I'd never tried anything from the Marc Jacobs Beauty range, so where better to start than with a sale item.
The set that I bought was the Marc Jacobs Cat's Meow Five Piece Petite Le Marc Lip Creme Collection. There is no way of getting round it with this one, depending on your fashion sense, or personal taste, you will either love this packaging with passion, or you'll think it's as tacky as hell - animal print, and especially coloured animal print like this really does polarise opinions but personally I love it, bring it on!
The set came boxed and inside the box is a hard sided purse / clutch / cosmetic bag with a smooth, vinyl like feel. The purse is predominantly in a gorgeous deep, cerise pink glitter. The front of the purse features a matte black, and purple leopard print design, and there is a gold tone, metal Marc Jacobs logo in the centre of the purse. It features a zip around fastening, and the zip pull also features gold tone hardware, and a large black fabric tassel with plaited and braided detailing.
Unzip the clutch and you're greeted by 5 little lipsticks resting lovingly on a black velour covered, removable plastic tray. The clutch is lined in a black polyester fabric, and it features a small fabric 'Marc Jacobs' logo. Take out the tray and you've got plenty of room inside to use it as a clutch bag. I can easily fit my iPhone X, a lipstick, cards, and even a small coin purse inside.
As fabulous as the packaging is that wasn't the real reason that I bought this set, despite what you may be thinking, it was actually for the lipsticks inside. The set contains 5 x mini 1.7g lipsticks from the Le Marc Lip Creme range. Packaged in very similar black and silver packaging to their full size cousins, these lipsticks are cruelty free, and are also free from parabens, sulphates, and phthalates.
Designed to be pigmented, hydrating and long wearing, these lipsticks contain antioxidant rich seaberry extract, cocoa butter, jojoba, avocado, and olive oils, and shea butter.
The set contains 4 of the most popular shades in the La Marc Lip Creme range, Goddess, J'Adore, Infamous and Sonic Truth, and one exclusive shade Currant Mood. The shades range from red to plum, to pink and two different shades of nude.
From Left To Right - 202 Goddess, 272 Currant Mood, 230 J'Adore, 228 Infamous, and 244 Sonic Truth
Marc Jacobs Beauty Le Marc Lip Creme - 202 Goddess
Officially described as a vivid maraschino red with cool magenta undertones, Goddess is a classic cool toned red. As with all stand out, and vibrant shades, you need to be a bit careful with your application technique as there really is no room for error. Despite that the small size actually made fairly easy to apply, and it was pretty easy to stay with in the lines.
Does it stay on? Well if you kiss someone immediately after putting it on it's going to transfer, and you're going to end up with that jammy doughnut esq look. I can promise you that I haven't been kissing anyone in the pic that you can see above but it's still smudged ever so slightly.
Whilst it does seem to transfer at least when you first apply it, once it's on by and large it stays put at least for an hour or so on me anyways, before gradually fading down to a paler stain, and resolutely clinging on to the drier parts of my lips.
Marc Jacobs Beauty Le Marc Lip Creme - 272 Currant Mood
Next up another strong, confident colour, and as I said this shade Currant Mood was exclusive to this kit in this formulation. Whilst it is available in the Poutliner Long Wear Lip Pencil format it doesn't appear in the regular La Marc Lip Creme range.
Described as a deep merlot, it's a fabulously, vampy deep berry, plum shade - there is no doubt that this is a statement colour, and it definitely isn't one for shrinking violets. It another shade that you have to be careful with, again the application was super smooth but again you need perfection with colours like this especially when you have a paler skin tone like mine because you can literally see every mistake and smudge. I think that's definitely one advantage of the petite size, the smaller bullet actually makes application easier and more precise, you can take it right up to the lip line and even use it as an all be it slightly thick lip liner.
It's always more noticeable when darker or more vibrant shades start to fade, and within an hour the plummy depth had gone, and it had left a nice deep pink stain on the lips which unfortunately disappeared after eating and drinking. This definitely isn't a shade that I would normally wear but I think I can pull it off with my skin tone, for a night out, or for when I fancy making a real statement.
Marc Jacobs Beauty Le Marc Lip Creme - 230 J'Adore
This next shade kind of bridges the gap between two colour families, the vibrant more out there shades, and the neutral more every day shades. Marc Jacobs Beauty describe J'Adore as rich mocha with cool pink undertones, for me it's very much a rich, almost coffee toned nude brown.
As much as I love a nude lipstick, being paler and having much more of a pink undertone to my skin, I tend to shy away from richer, browner nudes like this one, but despite it's obvious depth and warmth there is a bit of pink in there and that's probably why I think it works on me. Again it wore well and faded down to a paler nude stain, before disappearing completely.
Marc Jacobs Beauty Le Marc Lip Creme - 228 Infamous
The final two shades are probably the most me - they're the most neutral and the most wearable shades. Thanks to my facial paralysis my lips as you can blatantly see aren't even or symmetrical, and to be honest that's probably why I've traditionally shied away from deeper, brighter or more noticeable lip colours, I used to hate drawing attention to my imperfections but whilst I am getting braver, lip colours like Infamous will always be at the top of the pile.
When it came to my favourite colour in this set, it really was a toss up between this one, and Sonic Truth, but Infamous just shades it. Described as a soft muted, warm peony pink, Infamous is a lovey neutral pink shade. It isn't too bright, it isn't too pile, it isn't too warm and it isn't too cool, in my opinion it's just perfect. It really is one of those everyday shades, you could wear it with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt or with a pretty summer dress and sandals, it's not the most in your face shade, but it's just so wearable. Again it faded down gradually with talking, eating and drinking, leaving a slight pale pink stain on the lips.
Marc Jacobs Beauty Le Marc Lip Creme - 244 Sonic Truth
Finally a true nude, Sonic Truth - "a creamy nude that compliments fair to cool skin tones'. Sonic Truth is a lovely pink toned, pale nude. Shades like this are perfect if your hands are a bit wobbly, it's neutral enough that the odd application mistake probably won't matter that much on a lot of skin tones. I wasn't sure about it in the bullet but once it's on, again it's perfect for my cool pink toned skin. I've owned a lot of nude lipsticks that quite frankly made me look ill, but this definitely isn't one of them, although if you have a darker, or more olive complexion I do think that this could potentially look a bit ashy or corpse like.
Obviously there isn't such an issue with fading and smudging, with shades like this but it still lasted pretty well and gradually faded away to nothing.
As you can hopefully see from all of these pictures the pigmentation of all of these lipsticks is excellent. They are really easy to apply with no pulling or dragging. They don't feel drying on the lips, but whilst they do feel moisturising on the lips, they aren't the softest or creamiest lipsticks that ever used, particularly when it comes to the deeper, and more vibrant shades.
The fact that they aren't that creamy though is actually a good thing though because it really helps with the wear time. From the darkest shade to the lightest shade, all of the colours pretty much stayed put, and faded down gradually. The darker shades had a tendency to move a little bit at first, and they did have a tendency to cling on to the drier ares of my lips, but by and large once the glossy finish had faded, all of the shades left a subtle stain like finish on the lips that hung around for just a little bit longer.
These Lip Cremes allegedly have a subtle vanilla based taste and scent but to be honest I couldn't really detect anything but that could be down to the smaller size. Although I would hope that these minis are a good indicator of just how good the full sizes are, I can't really be sure without trying them. Whether they would admit it or not, some brands actually reduce the quality of the products in their holiday sets, so either way with these lipsticks I think you are on to a winner, and I'm really pleased that I bought this set when I had the chance.
Whilst the set does contain a couple of colours that I wouldn't normally wear, I was surprised at just how wearable everything was and just how well the shades worked with my skin tone. The quality was decent, the lipsticks felt nice on the lips, and whilst the wear time wasn't quite as great as Marc Jacobs Beauty promised, it was still decent, and I also ended up with a snazzy new clutch bag - All in all a good first Marc Jacobs Beauty experience, and a good sale purchase.
As I say this particular set was a limited edition, and the only way you might possibly find it now is on the secondary market. If you like the colours though, you can buy Goddess, J'Adore, Infamous, and Sonic Truth in the full 3.6g size for around £27 / $32 each, either direct from Marc Jacobs Beauty, who ship worldwide, or from Net-A-Porter, or Harvey Nichols. Have you tried anything from Marc Jacobs Beauty? Let me know your recommendations if you have any in the comments x
