Ah the infamous OCC Lip Tar. I've wanted to try it for oh so long but hadn't seen a colour which made me desperate to go out and buy one, that is until I spotted Black Metal Dahlia. One of the Lip Tar Metallic range it is a desperately deep plum-like shade that I would have killed for back in my goth days, and still would now so it seems!
Having had a swatch of two of the standard Lip Tar shades at my lovely friend Sophia's house last week I was aching to get my hands on a tube of Demure when I made a quick stop trip to Selfridge's beauty room last week but came up short as it was sold out (as it appears to be everywhere *cry*). I had decided to go for Demure over Black Metal Dahlia as my first Lip Tar purchase because I thought it a more wearable colour for me and I like the matte finish it dried into, but as I say it was not meant to be so I grabbed this baby and boy am I glad I did!
Each Lip Tar comes in a little clear plastic pouch with a small lip brush and a little instruction card. I was actually pretty impressed with the lip brush as it was nice and soft but still allowed a really good amount of control despite its size and I didn't find it tricky to achieve a nice sharp line.
The product itself is easy to apply as it comes in a tube with a fine tip, I just squeezed a little directly onto my lower lip and went in with the brush to spread it out evenly and then to get a nice sharp outline squeezed a teensy amount directly onto the brush before applying very carefully to my lip line.
One thing that really impressed me about this Lip Tar was the texture and weight of it. It didn't feel sticky and my lips didn't feel coated in goo as they do with most standard glosses (this is a tar not a gloss after all) and I was expecting a little grittiness from the metallic, delicately glittery finish but I didn't experience any. I can't say that my lips felt like there was nothing on them, but you couldn't claim that with most normal lipsticks, however I must say the lightness and comfort of the product teamed with its bold colour coverage really impressed me.
The one thing I will be doing is buying a lip liner in a similar colour as I did experience a little colour bleeding after a while. This wasn't exactly unexpected with a liquid product especially as this one doesn't dry to a matte finish as the original Lip Tar's do, and a quick application of lip liner added before the product is brushed on should sort that out for next time.
Yes, I have blurred everything other than the lips on this one. I have PCOS which makes my face very peach fuzzy and my skin is pretty pore-y and awful up close, especially with flash. So sue me.
I must say, I am really really in love with this colour and its impressive metallic finish. A beautiful dramatic shade which would suit make skin tones and hair colours, it is the perfect shade to add a classy but eye catching detail to your spring make-up look. Who says dark shades are only for the fall?!
You can find details of all Lip Tar shades at the OCC website here.
I purchased mine from Selfridges on Oxford Street (they are located next to the Nails Inc polishes in a stand alone display stand) but you can also order them online here.