New Cover Girl Blast Flipstick Blendable Lip Duo Swatches and Review

Saw this brand new display of lipsticks from Cover Girl right before Christmas. The packaging really caught my eye and I'd never seen these before, so I was really inspired to try some of the brighter, more interesting shades.

These are called Cover Girl Blast Flipstick, and they're basically a double-ended lipstick. One side has a darker, more pigmented color and the other side has a sheerer, lighter shade and you can either wear them both alone or layer them with each other to create a third color.

I chose 815 Flashy, 839 Tease and 840 Stunner.

Flashy is a dark purple with a blue sheen on one side, and a medium rose-fuchsia with flaky sparkle on the other side. I tried to capture the blue duochrome sheen and the sparkles to show how pretty they are, but you may need to enlarge these to see them.

Light side, dark side, and both shades mixed.

Tease is a bright cool-toned cherry red creme on one side and a pastel orangey-tinted sheer with pink duochrome shimmer and silver flecks. The layering half is so cool looking. It's swirled with fine pink and chunky silver shimmer, it looks like a galaxy.

Light side, dark side, both shades layered.

Stunner is a very bright orangey-coral shimmer on one side and an orangey-gold flaky shimmer on the other side. I like that Stunner is orange because it makes me think of this:

I spent a lot of time playing Virtua Cop with one of these. Feel free to laugh at the graphics and the music. And the hostages, how they always pop up out of nowhere waving their arms, wearing white jumpsuits like they just escaped from a mental institution, expecting you not to accidentally shoot them. And how all the bosses are really cheesy, saying things like "This chopper is all I need. I'm through with you two. Now you meet your maker!" in that sort of forced-gruff-sounding Christian Bale Batman voice...

ANYWAY

Light side, dark side, both shades layered.

What I liked:

• These are super pigmented! I wasn't expecting such insane color payoff from a drugstore lipstick.
• They're extremely long wearing. I could wear them all day and only have to touch them up after eating.
  
• The colors are bright and interesting and apply true to the color you expect, they don't morph like some brands.
  
• The packaging is eye-catching because it's so colorful and shiny.
• They smell okay. They're not heavily perfumed, but they do have a generic lipstick base smell to them.
  

What I didn't like:

• The tubes are bulky and awkward and despite the pretty foil labels, they look cheap.
• I got mine on sale, but they're normally pretty pricey for a drugstore lipstick, around $9 depending on the store.
• They are murder on my lips. They felt okay while they were on... In fact, they felt pretty good, only a tolerable amount of dryness after a few hours. However, the next day my lips felt like they were covered in tiny cuts. They burned and felt tight and rough. I've never experienced that from a lipstick before. Allergic reaction?
• They stain your lips. This is bad because they don't stain your lips the same color as the lipstick. For example, the purple one stains my lips an unappealing shade of red-pink instead of purple. And the stain lasts longer than any actual lip stain I've used.
  

I like the individual colors alone more than layered. I love the interesting colors selection, like duochrome purple and super bright coral shimmer, and the pigmentation is excellent... But I'm afraid to buy any more because of how much they irritated my lips. Maybe I'll wear them over a primer next time, or remember to apply balm over them to see if it prevents the irritation. My favorite is Stunner, but I love how truly purple Flashy is. I like the light/layering half of Tease but the opaque half is the wrong color for me.