Name: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Mauvy Night
Date of Purchase: June 2011

Grade: A-

Notes: I promise that this tumblr will stop being a Revlon blog very soon; I just bought a lot of Revlon lipsticks in my early days of makeup collecting. No regrets, though. Drugstore lipsticks are great for figuring out what colors you like and hate, and they’re actually much better now than they were when I was starting out. The past two years have seen something of a drugstore-makeup revolution, with Revlon Lip Butters and Maybelline Vivids and Rimmel liquid lipsticks—hyper-refinements of color and formula that didn’t exist in the aisles of CVS in 2011.

In early June of that year, I saw Midnight in Paris with some grad-school friends. It was far from my favorite Woody Allen film, but I fell in love with Marion Cotillard’s makeup look:

When we think of ’20s lipstick, we usually think of the dark reds that have in recent years become wedded to two of my least favorite adjectives: “oxblood” and “vampy.” But Marion Cotillard’s character favors more everyday colors: soft mauves that make their presence known but don’t compete with her dramatic smoky eyes. As usual when copying a look back then, I ignored the eye makeup and focused on the lips, which I tried to replicate with Mauvy Night. (Bonus: the ghosts of Persian Melon and Orange Flip.)

I remember being underwhelmed when I first tried on this lipstick, and I pretty much ignored it until today. I think I felt so meh about it because mauve lipstick does tend to look meh unless paired with something on the eyes and cheeks. So today I dolled myself up: Maybelline cream eyeshadows in Bad to the Bronze and Pomegranate Punk, CoverGirl LashBlast Length mascara (my favorite of all time), and a tiny bit of NARS Coeur Battant blush. Then I swiped on Mauvy Night and BAM. Instant love.

Doing my best Marion Cotillard, with lipstick in place of cigarette. Come to this salon often?

I really love the texture of Revlon’s Super Lustrous line of lipsticks: soft, moisturizing, and slightly glossy. They don’t last terribly long, but I’d rather reapply throughout the day than have my already-dry lips ripped to shreds by a long-wearing formula. In any case, I suspect I’m going to get a lot of wear out of Mauvy Night before spring arrives! This is exactly what I wanted my lipstick chronology to do: unearth long-forgotten gems. Three cheers for frugality.