TREND MODE OF ARTIST 2012: OCC Lip Tars

I've been very anxious to try OCC lip tars since I first saw them. I finally broke down and bought some recently after agonizing over which colours to order.

OCC lip tars are a cross between a gloss and a lipstick. They're described as a liquid lipstick and they are INTENSELY pigmented. Creamy, opaque and vibrant, they're a wonder to play with as you can mix shades to create your own colours! Hence my agonizing about which shades to get. Do I choose the colours I can play with or straight-up colours I can wear?

I opted for the latter and I chose three brights as well as a nude shade that I could use to play a little and tone down the bolder shades.

OCC Lip Tars are available on the OCC website and retail for $13 USD each. They contain 8 mL of product and a very little bead of lip tar goes a long, long way, so these are great value. They're also vegan.

A tube of MAC lipstick next to a tube of OCC Lip Tar to show size.

And here are the colours I chose (bear in mind, I'm still learning how to apply these):

Grandma, an oddly named "clean and classic true coral". This was my first choice, I knew I needed to get this shade. I love a great coral. This shade, of the four I bought, is the most wearable.

Grandma

Queen, is an "intense, nearly-neon red/pink". It's one of OCC's Fall 2011 colours and oh, is it intense. I had to reapply and rephotograph this swatch three times and I still didn't get it quite right. The Lip Tars take some effort to apply since they're like a very, very pigmented gloss. I think I applied a bit too much too.

Queen

Va va voom, right?

Trollop is a "pink, cranberry coral" that photographs far more subtly than it appears in person.

Trollop

And finally, here's Hush, a "fleshy, natural pink". This I figured is a very neutral, pale pink I could wear on its own or could use to mix with the others to create new shades. Here it is on its own.

Hush

OK, so it's definitely not an everyday lipstick but I might wear this with a dramatic black smoky eye for a night out.

I wanted to show you how you can mix these so I used Queen and a bit of Hush. In the below photo, there's about 2x as much Queen as there is Hush, but I ended up using equal amounts of each. I also used waaaay too much, it's easy to do that with the Lip Tars, a little goes a very long way.

Queen + Hush

There's enough of this new shade for about six applications. Ooops. Ah well, it's a learning experience. The finished shade is a bubblegum pink. Fun!

The finished shade.

Ah, OCC Lip Tars, I think I love you! You're going to take a little work but you're a lot of fun.

What I learned:

OCC Lip Tars work like a lipstick. You can apply once, blot and then apply again. I did that with the Grandma swatch above. The other three I did only one layer. Going forward, I know to be less anxious.

OCC Lip Tars are long-wearing. The glossiness fades away but these can last and last and last. They're definitely high-maintenance though, you'll get smudges and smears like with any lipstick or gloss.

OCC Lip Tars have a minty scent, flavour and tingle to them.

Have you tried OCC Lip Tars? Tell us!