As a preteen and young teenager, I had a brief flirtation with witchcraft. There was something in the air at the time: The Craft had come out several years before, the Harry Potter series was gaining worldwide popularity, and bookstores were full of titles like Spells for Teenage Witches. Growing up in San Francisco made a difference, too. The city was not yet determined to become a sleek, sanitized tech paradise: it was still weird and louche and a little gritty, and you could still buy swaths of moon-printed fabric from hippie ladies at garage sales. I constructed an altar in my bedroom, burned bundles of sage, tried unsuccessfully to make my own rosewater, and meditated while gazing into a candle flame. It was a heady time to be thirteen.
Witchcraft made me feel closer to nature and to something more sublime than my middle-school existence. Unfortunately, it also made me feel a little silly. I don’t think I’m suited to even the most disorganized of organized religions. But I still feel nostalgic for those days, and I still gravitate toward objects with a witchy aesthetic. It’s hard for me to resist anything dark and iridescent, especially in makeup or nail polish; it’s a wonder that I still haven’t tried Rituel de Fille. What I have tried is NYX’s Simply Vamp Lip Cream in Enamored, a dark purplish brown with burgundy glitter. I almost bought Enamored multiple times in the past year, but I couldn’t bring myself to commit until I saw it on sale for about $3.50 at San Francisco’s new Ulta last week. Talk about magical occurrences.
NYX’s Lip Creams, released last year, are chubby twist-up crayons that come in four color categories: Simply Nude, Simply Red, Simply Pink, and Simply Vamp. There are six lipsticks per category, for an overwhelming total of 24. NYX has never devoted much creative energy to packaging, and each Lip Cream is presented exactly as you’d expect, with a clear plastic cap and a tube color-coded to match the other shades in its category. Nothing special, but it gets the job done.
The Vamps have received the most blog exposure of the four color families, and for good reason: they’re by far the most unusual. I mean, at least a dozen brands have created nude lip crayons in the last few years, but how many have created a crayon that can be described as “light rust with red pearl”? Budget beauty brands with truly unique products and wide distribution are rare, and I appreciate NYX for catering to broke eccentrics like me.
In shade, Enamored looks like a slightly frosted brown…
…but in direct sunlight, the sparkle comes to the fore:
I’ve swatched Enamored next to a brown lipstick I’ve been wearing constantly in San Francisco: Revlon Lacquer Balm in Coy. They’re nothing alike: Enamored (right) is darker, cooler, and more opaque. Coy is an office-friendly color; Enamored is office-friendly only if you happen to work at the Ministry of Magic, perhaps in the Regulation of Magical Cosmetics division.
Swatched on my arm, Enamored appears to be a straightforward cool-toned dark brown, but it turns almost purple on my lips:
Unfortunately, Enamored’s formula is less impressive than its color. It’s one of the driest lipsticks I’ve ever worn. It goes on smoothly and evenly (though it needs two coats for full opacity), but once it’s on, it sets about sucking every particle of moisture from my lips. Even a thick balm is no match for the occult powers of this formula. If your lips are heavily lined, as mine are, the burgundy glitter will only make your mouth look more parched. Many dry formulas are also long-lasting, but Enamored is not. It fades with eating or drinking, leaving a stain that might be attractive if it were red or pink instead of dark brown. The glitter also comes off on everything: it’s a good deal more noticeable on this coffee cup than it is on my lips.
I won’t condemn Enamored outright, because it performs decently for a budget lipstick and I can’t think of a comparable color. If you want a plummy, glittery dark brown, your search will likely begin and end here. But if you don’t see yourself wearing such a color often, you’d do well to save your money; I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for this one.
I’ve noticed that dark brown lip colors wash me out more than dark reds or plums do. Enamored makes me look very, very pale; it’s the sort of color that begs for a complement of bronzer, which I don’t own. I took these photos on a cloudy day, and the light filtering through the fog made everything grayer than usual, which could account for my corpsey complexion here. But let’s face it: I’d probably look more alive without the lipstick. My eye makeup is Maybelline Bad to the Bronze blended with theBalm Sophisticated, a cool-toned shimmery brown.
I’ll have to experiment with eye and cheek makeup to see if anything can inject some vitality back into my face when I’m wearing Enamored. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just save it for my next Slytherin reunion.
Seriously, though, I need to stop buying lip colors I can’t wear in non-magical society. But my teenage self is well pleased with Enamored, and even my 27-year-old self is feeling a sudden urge to read some tarot cards.
By the way, many thanks to everyone who responded to my request for post-apocalyptic novel recommendations! After a couple of bookstore visits, I decided on Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood. I managed to misplace it the very afternoon I bought it, but I trust it will reappear soon.
Auxiliary Beauty 
That colour though. I do not get on well at all with anything other than fairly sheeny moisturising lipsticks that fade within an hour but I still want this.
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It really is a special color. For what it's worth, other bloggers have reviewed Enamored's formula more favorably!
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Helllooooo former Wiccan right here. When I was in Salem a couple of weeks ago I went in every witchcraft shop I saw and it was such a blowback to the past. Personally I think I've channeled all of my occult interests into my beauty hobby, it's a bit like casting spells on myself every morning for the day ahead. Alright that's taking myself too seriously, but I do collect perfume because it resonates so powerfully with memories and feelings, like you can step into how you want to be. Makeup gives you small power to change things and it's pretty fundamentally a celebration of yourself, which was a big draw to witchcraft for me back in the day. Anyway, rambling aside, Enamored looks really lovely on you. If you wanted to try something similar but deeper and non-glittery I think you'd be a knockout in a color like Truffle by Bite Beauty. I'm sure there'should a more price-friendly dupe of it.
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\”Regulation of magical cosmetics division\” – Love it! 😉 Enamored is a lovely shade. Like you said, NYX has more than a few unique colors. I hope they start using better pigment and making better quality products overall. That would be only fair since their price has gone up by far. (I'm not feeling very friendly because I recently picked up an NYX mascara and it is crappy.)I don't think I have anything close but your post reminds me of Chanel Rouge Allure Envôutante. It is much sheerer but sure has a certain magical charm.
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That problem is the exact problem I have with many dark, vampy lipsticks. It's just too brown and not red enough and it makes me look dead. You can try upping the blush in an 'alive' colour like pink or peach – I usually slather it on with a dark lipstick, to make myself look alive. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't (but I'm a lot yellower.) You hit the nail on the head about nyx: superb range, cheap and easy to get. Though their marketing is veering on Colorpop at the moment, I can still swallow it. I have never actually tried their lip products but everything else was pretty good for me.
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Hello, fellow former Wiccan! I've never been to Salem, but I really want to go. And I agree that putting on makeup is a lot like casting spells: they both have that ritualistic, meditative aspect. I'm not a very focused person in general, so I value any activity that can make me feel grounded even for a little while, and makeup is one of those activities. I spend a lot of time in the realm of abstraction, and it's nice to have a hobby as purely material as makeup–and that's one of the reasons I gravitated toward witchcraft, too.How funny: I almost bought Truffle earlier this year! I like how purple it leans.
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It's a shame that NYX has continued to suffer from quality issues. It seems like they've expanded a lot in the last few years, and I wish they'd perfected their formulas and switched to better ingredients before creating a million new products. Thanks for the heads-up about the NYX mascara; I was briefly tempted to try one of their colored mascaras at Ulta, but I had a feeling it would disappoint!Envoutante is beautiful! It reminds me of Revlon Plum Velour, though I know you didn't like that one. 😉
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I can do dark reds and plums with no problem, but you're right: remove that bit of red and I start looking more goth than '20s vamp. I am wearing blush in the photos above (pretty sure it was Illamasqua Zygomatic), but I clearly didn't put enough on! And Zygomatic is a subtle nude color; something like NARS Mata Hari might be a better fit for Enamored.I don't follow NYX on social media, but I'm not surprised they've taken a leaf from ColourPop's advertising manual! I guess it was just a matter of time. NYX's lip products are hit-or-miss for me, but I do love their matte lipstick formula and the weird colors they put out.
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gotta love Margaret Atwood! I just got around to reading The Handmaid's Tale and I can't get the story off my mind lately! Truly hauntingAnyway, the color is gorgeous and undeniably unique, but so many vampy lips seem to be more trouble than they're worth. Still, props to them for creating some truly bizarre and affordable lip colors. I'm also eyeing rituel de fille.. I can't resist the witchy vibe and the all natural ingredients!
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It really is rare to find a vampy lipstick that isn't problematic in some way! There are some nice ones in the lighter vampy range (brick reds, plums, etc), but anything super-dark is hard to get right.I'll try Rituel de Fille one day. I wish they had more lipstick colors, but they seem focused on perfecting a narrower range of items, and I can't fault them for that.
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[…] Lip Creme in Temptress. Since I hate the packaging of the Wet n Wild Megalast lipsticks and the formula of the NYX Simply Vamps, I’m glad I ended up with Matte […]
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[…] clear that I couldn’t wear liquid matte lipstick without destroying my lips, I picked up NYX Enamored. Despite coming in traditional solid form, Enamored managed to be even more drying than the liquid […]
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[…] in shade, then in direct sunlight. Left to right: Maybelline Crazy for Coffee, Milani Crush, NYX Enamored, Revlon […]
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[…] Molten Chocolate in the hope that it would be a higher-quality version of NYX’s lip crayon in Enamored, which I got rid of years ago because the formula was dry and patchy. But I kept my eye out for a […]
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