Review, Swatches & Dupes: Milani Power Lip Lasting & Moisturizing Gloss Stain in Raspberry Tart

Mondays are rough. On this one, I overslept by an hour, missed a pedagogy meeting, and sat through four hours of teaching plus two hours of seminar without the benefit of solid food.

See, I’m taking this short course that only meets in November. A very famous 92-year-old Sinologist is in town for the month. While all my undergrads are citing him in their final papers, he’s trying to teach us some stuff about technical writing. It’s so full of esoteric details it’d probably make my skin erupt in hives if I tried to parse it on my own. Like, really– we read this thing about weights and measures, and I was so proud of myself for using eighth-grade math to figure out some stuff about the relative capacity of this vessel. (Squares inscribed in circles, isosceles right triangles!) And then I realized I misread the Chinese….

But whatever. This guy’s pretty cool– he’s got a bookcase necktie, and he let me illegally sip Soylent in a library seminar room while bumbling my way through some commentaries. And my drugstore lip stain survived the experience!

Availability: $6.49 from Milani.com, CVS, Drugstore.com, and Walgreen’s 

Quantity: 0.09 oz

I tend to stan pretty hard for Nyx when it comes to drugstore finds, so Milani’s a brand I haven’t had much truck with in the past. But of course I hit them up anyway during the great drugstore lip stain buy-up of Fall ’14. The brand’s website describes their Power Lip Lasting and Moisturizing Gloss Stain as a “mashup of lipstick, stain and gloss in a handy, clickable pen”. I don’t know if Milani releases this stuff in two different formats, or if the verb “to click” is taking on metaphorical usages I’m not familiar with. But my Power Lip pen definitely twists rather than clicks in dispensing pigment. Whatever, minor quibble. At any rate, you verb the pen, and color saturates the soft little brush that sits atop on top of it as a result. It releases just a little bit of pigment at a time, so you won’t have to worry about a sudden geyser of gloss erupting like you do with some of these pens.

Milani emphasizes that the Power Lip range is “non-drying”, and that’s definitely the case. I wouldn’t call it hydrating, exactly, but it’s comfortable to wear– slightly tacky, but not distressingly so (and I’m a person who objects to tackiness in lip gloss). Aesthetically, I prefer the matte finish of something like CoverGirl’s Outlast Lipstain, but there’s something to be said for the plush feel of this gloss. The flip side, though, is that this stuff transfers pretty easily– it was all over my Soylent bottle after seminar. But the color’s still pretty tenacious. I’d say that the glossiness fades pretty quickly, leaving you with pure “stain”.

I chose the shade called Raspberry Tart– presumably because I was hungry at the time and wanted to eat the referent, which Walgreen’s sadly did not carry. The Milani website describes it as a “berry mauve”. I’d call it a slightly muted, mid-tone pinkish-purple that becomes progressively purpler as you layer it on. If you apply it sparingly, it seems downright reserved– verging on YLBB range. When it fades, it leaves behind a magenta stain.

Raspberry Tart arm swatches, worn sheerly and at full opacity.

Raspberry Tarte on my face

Raspberry Tart lip swatch

Raspberry Tart comparisons and dupes. (L-R): Raspberry Tart, Make Up For Ever 19, Clinique Roomiest Rose, MAC Girl About Town, Nyx Miracle, Nyx Aria. The bottom row is just Raspberry Tart, for comparison.

Here’s the promised selection of dupe candidates, drawn from a fair range of pinkish-purples. Raspberry Tart is actually purpler than all the other shades, except for Nyx Aria, which is less muted and significantly more matte. MAC Girl About Town is far brighter, and Nyx Miracle warmer. Clinique Roomiest Rose has some reddish undertones that it doesn’t share. And Make Up For Ever 19 is fairly similar to Raspberry Tart at lower opacities, although slightly more pink.

Full Face:

Eyes: Too Faced Shadow Insurance Candelight, Too Faced Brow Envy, Benefit High Brow Glow, BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow Palette in Milky Way, Cosmic, and Moon, Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in 23L, Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in West, Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Waterproof Mascara

Face: Skin79 Oriental Gold BB Cream Plus, Make Up For Ever 5 Camouflage Cream Palette in No.2, Nyx Power Blush in Bourgeois Pig, Tarte Smooth Operator Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light and Incandescent Light from the Ambient Lighting Palette