Review: MDMflow Liquid Matte Lipstick in Mink & Billionaire

Ahhh lipsticks! Your can never have to many lipsticks! Apart from loving lipsticks, you might also know that I love discovering new makeup brands. MDMflow was created by London by a smashing young lady, Florence ‘Madame Flow’ Adepoju. The lipsticks are of course also made in the UK, which makes them that little bit more special. I love that the brand’s aesthetic is based on the 90s hip-hop movement, so you will find some gold lipstick bullets and gold caps on the liquid lipsticks (magpies unite!). MDMflow has a line of traditional lipsticks, matte liquid lipsticks and a mascara. I decided to try out two liquid lipsticks on a whim (ordering them online before swatching them in person of course – because that’s what someone with self-control does right?! 😉 ) as I am still a little liquid lipstick mad atm and couldn’t help myself…

I ordered two pink shades – Mink, a light, bright pink (which looked medium toned in swatches online….) and Billionaire, a muted medium pink which leans almost a little plum. I looked at swatches of these two shades online before purchasing (as you do) even though there wasn’t to many reviews out at this stage. I mention this because it seems that the swatches of these liquid lipsticks, tends to look darker on your hand than they are on the lips or in the tube. I’m not sure why this is, but when my liquid lipsticks arrived, I was a little surprised! Mink is a white based pink, which means it is very light and cool in tone, almost looking neon on the lips. I cannot do white based lipsticks (they just look oh so wrong on me) so I was of course very disappointed. This wrong colour choice falls squarely on me. I didn’t expect Billionaire – the medium toned pink liquid lipstick – to almost fall into the pink/plum category, but nevertheless, it’s a gorgeous shade. Luckily for me (in a way) Mink seems to be the more difficult colour out of the two, but unfortunately neither of these beauties are ideal. Let me explain!

Above: Wearing MDMflow’s Liquid Matte Lipstick in Mink. You can see that the bottom lip line isn’t perfect.

Because Mink is a pink that has been created on a white base, it is exceptionally bright. The liquid lipsticks have a good texture to them – they spread on the lips easily, aren’t to watery or thick. They also smell like watermelon (hello lipsmackers!) which is definitely a nod to the 90s! As Mink has a white base however, it is a little streaky. This means, that if you haven’t applied the liquid lipstick perfectly in one swipe (I can’t say that I’m a pro in that regard) it will be very difficult to fix mistakes, without making your lips look uneven. After a little practise, I did get the colour looking reasonably well on my lips (but you wouldn’t want anyone assessing them up close). If your lips are a just a little bit flaky, you can also forget about wearing this colour. It clings to dry patches and looks darker in some places and lighter in others. This isn’t the lippies biggest downfall however (the streaky-ness). The biggest downfall is that this liquid lipstick is insanely sticky on the lips. Yes, you need to let the lipstick dry down and ‘set’ (which takes about a minute) but even then your lips will feel like you have used a glue stick over the top of the liquid lipstick (you know, to keep it in place – ha!). When you press your lips together, it almost feels like the colour will just peel off at any moment. It isn’t a pleasant feeling at all. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It lasts relatively well, but can go a little patchy if you’re eating or drinking (so for me, that’s every 3 hours or so!).

Above: Wearing MDMflow’s Liquid Matte Lipstick in Billionaire. Much more even and much lighter than expected (compared to the colour in the tube)!

Billionaire is a medium pink, that leans a little plum and is cool toned. Luckily, this colour isn’t streaky at all and applies like a dream! All the liquid lipsticks come with a doe foot applicator (I didn’t take a photo of it, because my camera wouldn’t focus on it, grrr…) but they are a little smaller and thinner than most. Billionaire dries down and sets also after a minute and is still a little sticky thereafter, but no where near as badly as Mink. This makes it much more comfortable to wear and extends the wear time I believe. I get about 4-5 hours out of this liquid lipstick (looking in pristine condition!).

Above: A swatch of MDMflow’s Liquid Matte Lipstick in Mink (left) and Billionaire (right) without flash.

Above: A swatch of MDMflow’s Liquid Matte Lipstick in Mink (left) and Billionaire (right) with flash. Please note how much darker Billionaire looks on the back of my hand, as opposed to on the lips!

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in these liquid lippies. The market is saturated with liquid matte lipsticks atm, so you have to be on your A-game to get recognised. They aren’t the cheapest since it is a little niche brand, so I was expecting that little bit more from them. For liquid matte lipsticks, they don’t dry out your lips terribly – you aren’t left with ‘sultana’ lips after a few hours, but I just don’t find them comfortable because of their stickyness. I do think the stickyness makes them slightly less long wearing too. I bought mine from Look Fantastic for $43.25 Aus dollars (they provide free worldwide shipping but you need to wait for your goodies 2-3 weeks) and I also used a coupon code that I was saving. MDMflow is now available at Mecca Cosmetica in Aus, which is fantastic – but they come in at $54 a pop. You can also buy directly from the MDMflow website (and they also ship worldwide for a reasonable price – but it isn’t free lol). Between Bourjois’ Rouge Velvet liquid matte lippies and these MDMflow’s liquid matte lippies, I would go Bourjois because they are cheaper, pigmented, easy to apply and more comfortable to wear – with a mousse like texture. It breaks my heart to say it, but it’s true. I also wonder if these texture issues are because the brand tried to formulate their goodies with as few ingredients as possible, utilising ‘natural’ ingredients over synthetic ones. This is why the box will tell you that it is best to use up the liquid lipstick in 6 months time (something I have trouble accomplishing, even with colours I love). I will continue to wear Billionaire at least but I don’t think I will be trying any of the other colours. I would like to try their ‘regular’ lipsticks, which come in some brilliantly bright shades, so I hope the brand will surprise me yet 😉

Have you heard of this brand beauties? Does it intrigue you? As a 90s tribute, here’s the best song ever recorded by 90s British girl band All Saints 😀 Not hip-hop I know, but still awesome (although this US version of the music video is pretty bad..). Enjoy!

Catch ya next time!

Beauty Bee~

Please follow and like us:

#pinklips #MDMflow #BritishBeautyBrands #MDMflowLiquidMatteLipstickMink #MDMflowLiquidMatteLipstickBillionaire #matteliquidlipstick #mattelips