By now, anyone who knows me knows I love Lip Tars. They are great, long wearing, pigmented liquid lipsticks in a massive range of colors. Whatever you are in to, they have a shade for you. The only drawback is the price. It doesn't really put me off them, since you get so much use from one tube...but it is kinda high to just test out some colors. A while back, I saw that H&M had some "lip tints" that looked strangely similar. I was on a mission to find one to compare.
The similarities start with the tube shape and applicator tip. Both have that squeeze tube shape (though the OCC version definitely feels more substantial) and the little puffy-paint-esque tip. This prevents you from trying to apply these directly from the tube, which would give you waaaaaay too much product. The H&M version is also bigger, at 12.5 grams vs 9.35 for the OCC version. Not that you will actually need this much in a lifetime.
Which brings me to the amount required for an application. You need about the same amount for both products. The Lip Tint spreads in a similar manner to Lip Tars, though maybe not quite as far. A little dab will do just fine. I left most of my hand in the swatch pictures, just so you could get a feel for the size of the dots I used. That would be about enough for a layer on my small-to-medium sized lips.
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| a tiny tiny bit of lip tint |
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| same dot, smeared out. |
The finish of these is quite different too. I felt like the OCC dries a lot more matte, whereas the H&M looks matte, but doesn't feel it. I wore the Lip Tint for several hours, and I didn't feel the need to apply any balm. Usually after a few hours, Lip Tars need an infusion of moisture.
Wear time is surprisingly similar on these. The H&M stained my lips lightly, and survived through a drink, soup, and a sandwich. There was some fading, but not catastrophic. Lip Tars can survive far more while still keeping their full color, but for a $5 tube, the H&M lasted longer than I had any reason to expect.
The only real places that OCC keeps the upper hand here are the packaging and the color range. OCC offers over 40 colors, not including the stained glass line. H&M only offers three: Red, Pink, and Raspberry Red. (booooo!) OCC packaging feels sturdy and substantial, and it comes with a wee brush and a heavy plastic pouch. H&M comes in a stiff plastic tube (reminds me of gladware), with no pouch or brush to speak of. To me, that makes it far less travel friendly.
I wanted to see if the H&M red was a dead-on dupe for any of the Lip Tars I had. I bought the 20pc mini set back at Christmas, and it came with a few reddish colors. I wish I had compared it to Psycho, because I think it'd be pretty close to that...but it is currently MIA.
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| my Clockwork separates in the tube. Those damned mini tubes are a pain in the ass. |
Tl;dr: if you like the few colors offered, then the H&M stuff is a great alternative to the OCC Lip Tars. They are affordable and have decent wear time. They aren't dupes, but for $5 they are close enough.
You could buy a few colors and mix them to get different ones too. If you wanted to supplement an OCC red for the H&M one to save some money.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I suppose. I just wish there were more than three H&M colors! Before too long, I will probably just own 90% of the lip tars. Its a sickness, really.
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