Thursday, May 24, 2012

TokyoMilk Dark Femme Fatale Collection Lip Elixir Review

TokyoMilk Dark's Femme Fatale Collection Lip Elixirs are my new obsession. Actually, I take that back. It's TokyoMilk that's my new obsession and these perfect tins of lip balm are just part of it. On a whim, I picked up two TokyoMilk Dark fragrances and these four Lip Elixirs and it was love at first sniff. I don't know how else to describe these but perfection.


TokyoMilk Dark Femme Fatale Collection Lip Elixirs
The Lip Elixirs come in a black tin sealed with a paper band. The paper band features a number and a small image on the ends, which fold over the top of the tin (Clove Cigarettes has the Eiffel Tower, Smoked Salt has a pistol, Salted Caramel has a bee and Coco Noir has a top hat.). The name of the scent is along the bottom, on the center of the band. On the tin itself, the TokyoMilk Dark logo is embossed into the metal with grey and black, but the back label is a sticker.

The tins themselves are surprisingly large. They're bigger than a tin of Smith's Rosebud Salve, almost identical in size to a MAC blush compact. They contain a respectable 0.7 oz (19.85 g) of product.

You can remove the paper bands (they are stickers) from the tin, or you can cut the stickers along the edge of the lid and leave them on. This is how the tin looks with the band removed. I prefer the look of the tin with the band intact.

The back label has a full list of ingredients, TokyoMilk's phone number and URL, a lot code and a tiny version of the picture from the sticker.

Ingredients:
petrolatum, microcrystalline wax, flavor, canola oil and aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) leaf extract, tocopherol (vitamin E), tocopheryl (Vitamin E) acetate, stevia rebaudiana (Stevia) leaf extract, organic camellia sinensis (Green Tea) leaf extract, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil and jasminum officinale (Jasmine) flower extract, monarda didyma (Bee Balm) leaf extract.



TokyoMilk Dark Lip Elixir in 18 Clove Cigarettes
Crushed Clove, Lavender Rose, Saigon Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean

The strongest note in here is clove. It's spicy and fresh, not like the dusty half-bottle of stale cloves kicking around in the back of your spice cabinet. At the back of the scent is something warm and smooth, the combination of cinnamon and vanilla bean. I don't smell any lavender rose. The flavor is stevia-sweetened clove that feels slightly numbing. It tastes just like an unlit Djarum Black kretek, sweet black paper and all.



TokyoMilk Dark Lip Elixir in 22 Smoked Salt
Smoked Sea Salt, Burnt Sugar, Molasses, Vanilla Bean

This smells like a light, dry smoke in the tin. There's a bit of leather scent in with the smoke, but it's sweet and light. It actually smells just like an Irish flake tobacco, or a lighter, sweeter Latakia. There is something salty and savory about the scent, but underneath the smoke is a sweet and slightly sharp scent. I can smell molasses and burnt sugar, but only lightly. It tastes a little smoky with a strong scent of dry tobacco and leather, a little bit of a 'perfume' flavor, and it is sweet-tasting from the stevia.



TokyoMilk Dark Lip Elixir in 36 Salted Caramel
Sweet Cream, Sea Salt, Caramelized Sugar, Toasted Vanilla Bean

This one smells exactly as it should. I smell actual salted caramel, not artificial/perfumey sharp, fake caramel like most caramel-scented beauty products. It smells rich and buttery, smooth, not excessively sweet and has a little bit of a candy corn or caramel popcorn note to it. It tastes lightly of buttery caramel and is slightly sweet.



TokyoMilk Dark Lip Elixir in 60 Coco Noir
Dark Rum, Maraschino Cherry, Sweet Milk, Cacao Bean

This is the only one that didn't smell exactly how I expected it to. It's odd, but good. It smells very sweet and syrupy, like cherry and something else. I can't quite identify the other scent I smell with the cherry and the rum is rather faint. The next strongest note I smell is chocolate, and then something milky and a little dusty or waxy smelling. Not unpleasant, just unusual. I actually really like how it smells. The taste is sweet, mostly like perfume with a little cherry and some of that milky-dusty note.



The balms themselves are colorless. The texture is firm and waxy, but not hard or dry. Imagine a slightly thicker, more dry Jack Black Lip Therapy. Like a cross between soft wax or hair pomade and vaseline. It's not melty or slippery and it is very thick and protective on the lips. It adds no color or shine, only a slight hint of a sheen that's barely noticeable.

What I liked:
  • I adore the packaging. Everything about it is beautiful and very much my style.
  • The scents are unconventional and awesome. It's not every day that you find a Smoked Salt flavored lip balm. Despite the unusual notes, they all smell and taste very good.
  • The scents are strong, but not too strong. Strong enough to enjoy but not strong enough to make me sick.
  • The balm is long-wearing and soothing, even though it feels more protective than truly moisturizing.
  • The tin contains a lot of product. 0.7 oz. I'm sure I'll never be able to finish one of these.
  • They're very inexpensive for how nice they are. Only $7. That's a steal.
  • They can be used as cuticle balm or hair balm, so they're versatile.
  • They don't seem to melt into a liquid if I leave them in the car when it's warm out.
  • There's only enough stevia in the formula to make it taste sweet. Too much stevia in lip products makes them taste bitter and I really hate the taste of stevia to begin with, so I'm glad these don't go overboard on it.

What I didn't like:

  • I don't normally like lip balms in tins. I hate having to put my fingers in them or remember to carry a lip brush. I'll make an exception for these just because everything else about them is so great.
  • The tins get nicked and scratched fairly easily.
  • If you cut the bands instead of removing them, the ends can peel up and catch dirt and lint.
  • This is really a complaint about beauty.com, not about the product itself, but something important to be aware of nonetheless: If you order these from beauty.com, they put a sticker over the back that's hard to remove without damaging the label or the band. They also send glass TokyoMilk Dark eau de parfum bottles unboxed, with stickers over their labels, bouncing around in cardboard boxes without bubble wrap.
  • The ingredients aren't so great; the first three are petrolatum (aka Vaseline), wax and canola oil. Not the most high-end formula, but at least they feel and smell nice.

I love these. I already have La Vie En Rose on the way from Sephora, and I plan on picking up the rest of them at some point in the near future. With as many lip balms as I own, it's hard to believe that I could find something unique to add to my collection, but there it is. I do wish that they weren't in tins, but then they probably wouldn't look as cool if they weren't. The tins are charming. Look at them! How could anyone resist?

TokyoMilk has their own web shop, and if you sign up for the newsletter, they'll send you a code for a free gift on your first order. Sephora has also just started carrying the TokyoMilk Dark line, though the Lip Elixir selection is limited.

22 comments:

  1. These look soooo good! I wish they shipped to the uk so bad x

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    1. Wildandfunk.com,[0191 386 0550] deliver to the UK and have them for £8.25 each and now thanks to scrangie's review, I'll be trying my first one very soon x

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  2. Hmmm, these sound interesting. Perhaps I should get the Clove Cigarettes one for my friend, Laura...she loves to smoke those.

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    Replies
    1. Oh and she's a total lip gloss junkie, too. Might be a perfect gift! :)

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  3. OMG, a clove lip balm! Do want!

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  4. another product to add to my wishlist! :)

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  5. I love, love, love Tokyo Milk's original fragrance line and I just noticed the Tokyo Milk Dark collection at Sephora. I'll have to give these a second look!

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  6. loving those... they got some nice other things too.
    will have to ask an american friend if i can send it to them...

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  7. I have been a fan of TokyoMilk since I discovered them in a tiny shop in Portland. I fell in love with their candles - Kabuki and Dead Sexy are my favs - then I ended up getting perfume in those scents. love love love their stuff!!!

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  8. I was poking around their website and Ooooh, I want the Let Them Eat Cake lip balm! (It's one of the Bon Bon ones, which seem to have a bit more lush ingredients). Sounds yummy! I'm a sucker for anything cake/cake batter. :)

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  9. Oh my gosh, I haven't had a Djarum Black in six years, but now I'm seriously craving one...last I heard, you couldn't buy flavored cigs anymore, but I quit when my son was born so it wasn't really an issue. Guess I'll just have to get the lipbalm to take care of that craving...

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  10. ugh i so love this brand. now i think ill go obsess over salted caramel some more! thanks for the new lemming!

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  11. I loved how unlit Djarum cigarettes smelled way back when I was a smoker--didn't love them so much when they were lit, though. Harsh things, those Djarums. I would totally go for a lip balm that smelled like them! I love tin design, too--I'm a sucker for gothic packaging!

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  12. The way you describe scents is amazing, lady.

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    Replies
    1. I completely agree! I normally dislike fragrance/smell reviews but Scrangie does it soooo well!

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  13. These sound divine, but it's such a shame that the formula is petroleum based. I hate those types of lip balms. It's why I never understood the hype behind Rosebud Salve ten years ago. They just kind of sit on my lips and do nothing, and I'm not a fan of the way they feel on my mouth.

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  14. I had to brave the Hipster Emporium to find Tokyomilk products in my city. It was probably worth it though. I'm surprised you had such high praise for the Smoked Salt scented lip balm. The desk clerk and I both agreed it was one of the most offensive smells in existence. The lip products all smelled a little strong for my taste, and I liked only a few of them. Cloves and Cigarets wasn't bad, but I ended up buying Absinthe. It kinda actually smelled like the actual drink. Never tasted the stuff but I do know the smell. Very nice. I was more impressed with the perfume. It doesn't have the typical overly floral focus of most women's perfume. The clerk said he uses one of them as his cologne. I ended up getting Tainted Love, but will be going back next paycheck for more.

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  15. I had to brave a store called the Hipster Emporium to find Tokyomilk products in my city. It was probably worth it though. I'm surprised you had such high praise for the Smoked Salt scented lip balm. The desk clerk and I both agreed it was one of the most offensive smells in existence. The lip products all were a little strong smelling for my taste, and I liked only a few of the scents. Cloves and Cigarets wasn't bad, but I ended up buying Absinth. It kinda smelled like the actual drink. Never tasted the stuff but I do know the smell. Very nice. I was more impressed with the perfume. It doesn't have the typical overly floral focus of most women's perfume. The clerk said he uses one of them as his cologne. I ended up getting Tainted Love, but will be going back next paycheck for more.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I had to brave a store called the Hipster Emporium to find Tokyomilk products in my city. It was probably worth it though. I'm surprised you had such high praise for the Smoked Salt scented lip balm. The desk clerk and I both agreed it was one of the most offensive smells in existence. The lip products all were a little strong smelling for my taste, and I liked only a few of the scents. Cloves and Cigarets wasn't bad, but I ended up buying Absinth. It kinda smelled like the actual drink. Never tasted the stuff but I do know the smell. Very nice. I was more impressed with the perfume. It doesn't have the typical overly floral focus of most women's perfume. The clerk said he uses one of them as his cologne. I ended up getting Tainted Love, but will be going back next paycheck for more.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you so much for reviewing these! I quickly ordered Absinthe and Clove Cigarettes for a friend who loves both those things. Out of the two, she prefers the Absinthe as she can get her fix without having to enter a bar. ;)

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  18. Thanks so much for reviewing these! I doubt I would have come across them otherwise. I ordered Absinthe and Clove Cigarettes from Beauty.com (and yes, there was an annoying label on both of them that I had to carefully peel off.) They made for the perfect gift!

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