Dolce Vita Dupe: Revlon Super Lustrous Sheer Lipstick in Pink Truffle

During my trip to LA in August, my chronic absent-mindedness struck again: I managed to lose my tube of NARS Dolce Vita, my trusty “purse lipstick.” Despite my usual preference for bold matte or semi-matte lipsticks, I like having a sheer MLBB on me at all times, in case I don’t have a chance to reapply MAC Antique Velvet after lunch or whatever. I waited a couple of months to see if Dolce Vita would turn up, but when it became clear that it was gone for good, I ran into another problem: I couldn’t exactly afford to replace a $28 lipstick. Damn it.

I’ve discussed why I don’t usually bother hunting for dupes, but this was one of the few situations in which it seemed justified. I didn’t really care whether my new sheer MLBB was identical to Dolce Vita; I just wanted a flattering, comfortable neutral shade that I could apply in a few seconds. I recalled that Revlon, after discontinuing all of its lip butters, had released a few of the more popular lip butter shades in its Super Lustrous Sheer (formerly Shine) range. I knew I liked Revlon’s sheer formula, and though the Pink Truffle lip butter had been a little too dark and warm for my complexion, I had a feeling that the Super Lustrous Sheer iteration would be, well, sheerer. AND I had a CVS coupon that allowed me to buy Pink Truffle for $4.25, or about 1/7 what I would have paid for a new tube of Dolce Vita. Score.

I still had the Pink Truffle lip butter hanging around my room, so I swatched it alongside the new Pink Truffle and was gratified to find that my suspicions had been correct. Am I good or what? The OG Pink Truffle (on the right in both photos below) is indeed darker, warmer, and closer to opaque, but the two are definitely in the same mauve-pink-brown family.

Above, bare lips; below, lips with the new Pink Truffle. It’s astonishingly close to my natural lip color:

Here I am wearing it earlier this week, with theBalm eyeshadows in Sexy (matte burgundy) and Seductive (shimmery bronze); Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Whiskey; and Sleek blush in Flushed. I desperately need a better camera, one that doesn’t blur all my eye looks into muddy washes of medium brown. But if I can’t afford a new tube of Dolce Vita, I certainly can’t afford a new camera, so…

Pink Truffle performs exactly as you’d expect a lipstick of this color and opacity to perform: it lasts a couple of hours if I don’t eat or drink, but a cup of coffee is enough to banish it entirely from my lips. It’s quite shiny when first applied (slightly more shiny than Dolce Vita), but the shine fades within an hour or so. There’s definitely a bit of slip to it, but it’s not annoyingly slippery: it still has a good amount of hold. I find the Revlon Super Lustrous Sheer formula to be more lightweight than the NARS Sheer Lipstick formula, but almost as moisturizing. It’s not a bad dupe at all, especially for the price (it’s usually $8-ish).

The sticker on the bottom of the tube got damaged in my bag on the trip home from CVS (that’s what I get for being environmentally conscious and declining to take a plastic bag), so I stuck a Glossier sticker over it…and the three-eyed smiley face didn’t even cover the damaged part. Oh well, it looks cute. I feel a bit sheepish when people scoff at the Glossier stickers and complain that adults have no use for them, because I, uh, definitely do.

And that’s all I have time for today. See you again after I submit a bunch of job applications that are due on Tuesday and turn twenty-nine on Wednesday!

17 thoughts on “Dolce Vita Dupe: Revlon Super Lustrous Sheer Lipstick in Pink Truffle”

  2. Happy early birthday! Early November birthdays are the best – I'll be 25 on the 5th.I commented on your IG post about this that the lip butters haven't been discontinued in Canada – or at least they were still in store. I did some more sleuthing, and it turns out that they haven't introduced the new sheer Super Lustrous replacements, and as far as I can tell, don't plan to any time soon. Very, very odd. I think I prefer the looks of the Super Lustrous over the Lip Butter!

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  4. Happy early birthday/Guy Fawkes Day to you too! Nov. 5 was actually my due date. Hmm, that's really weird. The Super Lustrous Shine lipsticks have been out here for over three years now–they just changed the name to \”Sheer\” after they discontinued the lip butters. I was never a huge lip butter fan: I have a couple of colors (Red Velvet and Candy Apple) that I really like, but the others I tried were all hard to work with in some way. Tutti Frutti was too melty and squishy, Pink Truffle was too drying, Raspberry Pie was too opaque for such a soft formula. Still, I wish Revlon would stop abruptly discontinuing whole lines of lipsticks. It makes me kind of anxious about the ones I actually like.

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  5. To add onto the comment above, we actually do have a few of the new sheer SL lipsticks here, at least in my store. Only three, though – Peach Parfait, Berry Smoothie, and Pink Truffle. They're at the very top of the Revlon lipstick display and there wasn't any fanfare when they were introduced, so they're easy to miss. Revlon also consolidated the Lip Butter line – we used to have two rows of them, and now there's just one. (I only know this because I helped do the planogram change and thus noted what was being discontinued and what was new.)I'm actually interested in Pink Truffle now! I had most of the iconic Lip Butter colours back in the day, but never Pink Truffle – it was a bit too brown for me, so the updated colour is cool with me. Is it less slippery than the Lip Butters? That's why I ultimately couldn't get on with them. Obviously a sheer lipstick isn't going to have a lot of lasting power, but I don't want it to feel like it's sliding around my lips.I also lost my NARS lipstick (in a rental car, I suspect). Like you, I'm giving it a bit of time to see if it turns up before replacing it. So sad!

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  6. Pink Truffle was actually the least slippery Lip Butter I tried, and the updated version is a bit more slippery than the Lip Butter version, which means it's about as slippery as the rest of the Lip Butters. Like you, I'm not a fan of lipsticks with a lot of slip, but I don't find this one too annoying.I hope you find your lost lipstick! Such a bummer, especially when it's a pricey one.

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  7. I do frequent a drugstore with the most behind range of products ever (yay for the sparseness of rural New Brunswick drugstores?), so thanks for the clarification! I might do a more careful study of the Super Lustrous line next time I'm over there.

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  8. Happy early birthday! Hope you have a wonderful time on the actual day!I saw your early gifts on Instagram. What do you think of Florabellio? I love Diptyque but haven't sniffed Florabellio yet.P.S: Pink Truffle looks great on you! Reminds me that I'm still on the search for my own MLBB. The closest shade to an MLBB on me is Dior Fluid Stick in 784 Chic, but I want a finish that is more matte. Ah well, the search goes on…

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  9. I never would have gravitated toward Dolce Vita otherwise, but Sephora's 'Give Me More Lip' set in the Spring had a full size of it, plus another full size lipstick and lipliner (Marc Jacobs!) and two minis for $28. Those kits are the best, so much variety and bang for your buck. I love Dolce Vita for those low-maintenance days when I don't want to think about my lipstick…but still need to wear lipstick cause I don't feel like myself without it :p The Burt's Bees tinted lip balms are my other favorites for that kind of thing.

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  11. Wait, am I following you on Instagram? What's your username?I LOVE Florabellio. I'd been wearing samples for months before my boyfriend got me the full bottle. The description makes it sound like a summer fragrance, but I think it works year-round because of the coffee and salt. It's quirky without being bizarre.I just looked up Chic and wow, you must have quite pigmented lips!

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  12. The NARS sheer lipsticks are so great in general. I also have Flamenco, which is a nice low-maintenance neutral red. I never look at those Sephora lip kits, but maybe I should, because that really is a good deal!

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  17. I’m sorry, which one on your arm is Revlon’s Pink Truffle bullet lipstick? And am not at all sure what OG stands for. I love the darker one and would like to get it. Or Shameless, also by Revlon that looks similarly nice on you. Thanks.

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