First Look| Benefit Lollitint for 2014 Pantone Color of the Year: Radiant Orchid

Although I'm not a worshipper of Pantone's dictatorship of colors over the years, I think Radiant Orchid will be a huge hit. As for Benefit's Lollitint ($30 retail), I don't think it is worth the price...

...which sucks major donkey gonads, because I really enjoy the color of this lip and cheek stain. The performance was lacking in every way which has tainted my experience of Benefit's stain products 5eva.

Here's the ingredients in case you care. I'm curious what those hieroglyphics at the bottom mean. Perhaps "educate yourself, apply makeup, and then throw this out in 12 minutes. Oh wait, months." 

When I first saw promotional pictures, I sincerely thought it would be a dolly light pink stain that would look amazing sheered out on the cheeks. Similar to their liquid highlighters, Lollitint comes in a nail polish-esque bottle with a paint brush. 

This is a quick swatch under indirect lighting. It's orchid leaning lilac/purple, NOT a pure pink.

Pros

• Stains your cheeks very well, which also means that you should work one cheek at a time so that you have time to blend before there's an obvious streak of color. 
• Very natural and pretty color. 
• Looks dewy and fresh on the skin and lasts all day. 

Cons

• I absolutely hate this packaging...it's about as sanitary as dipping your face into a vat of E Coli. Well, not really. But still, ew. Even a twist up paint brush (like an undereye concealer click up pen, perhaps) would be much more clean. 
• The color does not show up on my lips, and it frankly feels too drying to be used as a lip product in the first place. 
• Again, the application is very tricky because it stains anything the moment that it goes onto that area. You have to blend it out quickly, but it's also so liquidy and runny in texture that you have to sort of pat and blend at the same time. UGH. 

 I don't reach for this one very often, and I'm contemplating taking it back to Sephora for a return. It's just not worth the work to apply the product in the morning, even though I thought that it would cut down my getting ready time. I think that Benefit should go back to the drawing board with the packaging and formulation for their stains. If it was a slightly thicker consistency in a click up pen, I would definitely purchase.

xo Be