Milani’s 2016 Amore Matte Lip Cremes Review

Aaaahaa!! I hardly ever review something while it’s still sorta new, so this is a big “huzzah” moment for me!

Alright, quick background in case if you haven’t heard it yet: Milani released these limited edition liquid lipsticks back in late 2015 as exclusives to Walgreens, and they were sold out before a lot of people had a chance to get them. The original shades are now discontinued, but for Spring 2016, they released a whole new 18 shades, a few being dupes for the old ones. I grabbed five of em.

Left to right: 16 Sweetheart, 15 Gorgeous, 14 Devotion, 12 Loved, 10 Adorable

Sweetheart is a touch warmer and brighter than shown here, and Devotion is a bit darker and more berry than red, but otherwise, these are accurate!

According to their twitter, these are the duplicated shades, new ones going first:

Adorable – Adore

Precious – Lust

Loved – Beloved

Devotion – Romance

Obsession – Embrace

Covet – Crush

Now, seeing as how I only owned Lust and Adore, I can’t comment personally on how exact these are, buuut going by everyone else’s reviews and swatches, it looks like Obsession/Embrace, Precious/Lust, and Loved/Beloved are the only real dead ringers. I can speak from experience that Adorable is absolutely not a dupe for Adore!

02 Adore (discontinued) on left, 10 Adorable on right

Left to right: 12 Loved, ColourPop 1st Base, 02 Adore (discontinued), 10 Adorable

A quick comparison of 04 Lust (discontinued), 1st Base, 02 Adore (discontinued), and 10 Adorable. Lust is the darkest, a cool pinky mauve. 1st Base is a bright, warm, light pink. Adore is a pale peach, and Adorable is a deep greige.

Under different lighting.

Since it’s been hard to find swatches for these on my own skin tone (and it’s not exactly a rare shade…), I’m going to go ahead and do the swatches right now and save the formula for last. (I’m so excited you guys have no frikkin clue I’ve been dying for these since August!)

Left to right: 16 Sweetheart, ColourPop Mars, 15 Gorgeous

Starting off with 02 Adore (discontinued), a very light and pale peach, and then the new 10 Adorable next to it, a darker and greyer tan nude shade. Definitely not dupes! Keep in mind, both shades looked super light on everyone else, but since my skin is ridiculously pale, these actually both pull fairly dark on me. If you’re darker than NW10, these will look much, mucher lighter on you!

02 Lust (discontinued) is a darker, very subdued, pinky mauve. I like it, but it’s too dark on me to be a real natural lip colour. It’s a bit greyer in real life than the top picture shows, the closeup is more accurate. Please ignore the “drunk at 4 am” application on this one, and every one to follow.

Now 12 Loved! I didn’t expect this to be anywhere near so dark, brown, or red. Wow. It’s really pretty though. It’s like… a less bold red lipstick. 😛 It’s a fairly deep, yet not saturated, reddish brown. It didn’t make my teeth look too yellow either, so bonus!

By the way, here’s ColourPop Ultra Matte liquid lipstick in 1st Base, a light and bright warm pink. A comparison for both colour and texture. Check out how drying it is on my lips! Geesh. I should just pitch it, honestly…

Here’s 16 Sweetheart (I just love the names… am I the only one cuckoo for cutesy naming schemes?), a bright, warm based hot pink.

And here’s ColourPop’s Ultra Matte in Mars. Sweetheart is a touch darker than Mars, and a bit cooler.

Here’s 15 Gorgeous. Another warning: on everyone else, this was a deep, yet not really dark, berry. On me, this was a very vampy dark berry (a bit darker than the pictures show). I’d say cooler undertones, but I’m rubbish at undertones, so don’t quote me on that!

And finally, 14 Devotion! This is another one where I was completely thrown by the colour. I was expecting a classic blue based red that was just a bit darker than the norm. On me, it’s a super, super, super dark berry red that my mom swore she could see some purple in. It’s pretty… but definitely not the Summer friendly colour I had imagined. I did notice that this one wasn’t just because of my skin tone, and it looked pretty dark on everyone I saw who swatched it (just not that dark), so be warned!

I couldn’t get it to photograph dark like it is in real life. 😦 This is more how I expected it to look.

This is a bit closer!

This is pretty much the exact shade it actually is on my lips.

All in all, I loved every single shade! My favourites were a surprise underdog winner this time around, Loved and Sweetheart. Both of them I picked up just expecting to like but not love, whereas I expected to completely adore Devotion and Gorgeous. Loved I just found extremely flattering with my hair and eye colour, and I love how Sweetheart is bright without being neon like Mars. Gorgeous and Adorable are the runner ups, with Devotion being my least favourite – the red! I know! So out of character for me. But I just don’t like how berry it pulls on me, rather than true red. It’s still lovely, and I’ll still wear it, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

So, let me run through the formula with the same questions I had before I bought these…

Are they drying?

I’m not going to lie here, they’re not exactly moisturizing. You do feel them on your lips for sure, but it’s not too aggravating to me, and they do feel a little drying, but nothing too major. It’s certainly tolerable! I’d say they’re a little less drying than the original formula, a little more drying than NYX’s Liquid Suede formula, and far less drying than ColourPop’s original formula.

Do they dry down completely?

Yes! They take a little bit of time to dry down (around one to two minutes), but they do dry down 100%. Using the same examples, they dry down much faster than NYX’s Liquid Suede formula, and a bit slower than ColourPop’s original formula.

Are they patchy?

I’ve heard complaints of Sugar being patchy, but as far as these go, they weren’t patchy at all – as a matter of fact, they streaked less than the original formula for me.

Can I eat with them on?

Yup! I ate out yesterday with Sweetheart on and it didn’t budge, you just have to be careful not to get all slobbery, as saliva breaks these down (just like Mr. Krabs’ paint). Can’t attest to kissing/making out though, as I’m a single lonely soul, and my cats just weren’t up to the challenge. 😛

How long do they last?

All day, easily, for me. I didn’t notice any fading at all after five hours, then I promptly fell asleep with it on, and lo and behold, it was still vivid when I woke up. The darker shades especially have a tendency to stain, so watch out.

Can you layer coats?

Absolutely, but you will be trading opacity for some comfort. With one layer, these are only a little drying and a little noticeable. With two, these starting to feel a little annoying on my lips, and I wanted to keep putting chapstick on.

Speaking of which, can I put lip balm on over these?

Actually, yes! I wore Sweetheart all day yesterday with a thick layer of lip balm (the kind from a squeeze tube, not a stick), and the colour stayed on just fine. It just made it wear more like a cream lipstick rather than a liquid lipstick – that is, it wasn’t budgeproof.

Is the formula like the original?

Now, a lot of people have been fussing over this, but I’ll say… yes. Actually, I like this formula more, as it has a few slight differences. The original formula was more liquid, while this is just a touch moussier/more whipped. The original formula had a tendency to streak on me, while this one goes on much easier. Aside from that, I couldn’t find any differences whatsoever.

How’s the packaging?

Same as the original. If you missed out: you get a flat paddle applicator that gives you ample product for both lips without redipping. You will have to scrape off some of it, though, as it can give you too much and just be a little messy. These have a tendency to explode out of their container, so remove and replace the applicator slowly. I think these will be as spillproof as the originals, which I often carried around in my crowded purse without any mishaps.

Are they smudge/budge proof?

100%. 🙂

Any smell or taste?

Yes, they smell like cake batter when you first remove them and apply them, but it goes away completely as soon as they dry.

Do I need to get them?

I don’t think anyone “needs” any sort of cosmetic, but yeah, these are lovely. I’d highly recommend them if you want a high quality liquid lipstick for a somewhat low price (lower than midrange, at least!).

Are they cruelty free/vegan?

Milani is a cruelty free brand. 🙂 These are the vegan shades: 10 Adorable, 11 Precious, 12 Loved, 13 Craze, 14 Devotion, 15 Gorgeous, 16 Sweetheart, 17 Fancy, 18 Obsession, and 19 Covet. These are the non-vegan shades: 20 Sugar, 21 Flame, 22 Amore, 23 Babe, 24 Cherish, 25 Allure, 26 Fling, and 27 Fascination.

Where can I get them?

You can buy them online at Milani’s website for $8.99 apiece. The shipping itself was very fast for me, only taking about three days, even though the processing took significantly longer. You can buy them in stores (I think people have had the best luck with CVS and WalMart), but these were nowhere in sight in my city, even in places they had stocked the rest of the Milani Spring 2016 collection. I think they’re a buck cheaper in stores, but I am not positive!

How do you guys feel about these? Do you own any, or want any? Has anyone actually seen them in stores, or are these guys just like Bigfoot??