Review: Revlon 'Just Bitten' Lipstain

I picked this up when it was first released in the UK, and have been using it ever since. Despite it being a felt-tip marker type thing, it has not dried out! I've been using it since about June, not every day but fairly regularly.

The first downside to this product is that the packaging colour isn't much like the actual colour of the product, so I'd recommend using a tester on the back of your hand instore before you buy. I'm guessing the majority of my readers will be users of vintage red lipcolours rather than plums or browns, and the packaging of the two red shades is almost exactly the same - 'Flame', an orangey-red which is the colour I use, and 'Gothic' which is a deep, blue-based vintage red and would be great for Winter, so read the label carefully!


To get the shade shown here, you'll need to apply about three coats of the stain. It is great for gaining a gradual change of shade depending on the occasion, time of day or how deep you like your colour. However, any dry bits on your lips will pick up way more colour if you just apply one coat, so either go for the full coverage of a few coats or make sure your lips are well buffed before applying.

The stain itself is alcohol based, so you draw it on, wait about thirty seconds for the alcohol to evaporate and the colour is stuck firmly to your lips. The other end of the applicator contains a clear balm which you layer over the top, this adds a subtle shine and stops the lips from feeling dry. Apply all the layers of colour you need before adding the balm, don't try to apply colour over the balm or you'll ruin the felt tip.


This is what the lipstain looks like on a drunk woman at a punk festival at 1am. Here I had been wearing the stain for around thirteen hours, had reapplied it maybe once, and added more balm a couple of times. I had been drinking pints of cider (that's the kind with alcohol, Americans), eaten a greasy dinner of chips (fries) with pickled onions and baked beans, and the heat in the venue was around 30C. All I lost was a bit of colour from the centre of my top lip so it looked a bit pinker, less orangey - no feathering, minimal reapplication and no dryness as long as I kept adding balm after eating. Since, this lipstain has survived nights out, trips to the Chinese buffet, three-hour swimming sessions and it's also totally kiss-proof! It's also pretty difficult to remove... not a problem if you wear lipcolour every day, but if you're planning to go bare-lipped after wearing it you may wish to try something like a waterproof makeup remover or isopropyl wipes to get rid of the last traces.

I would't be without this lipstain now... I'm only hoping that the obviously 'Twilight' inspired names ( Midnight, Gothic, Dawn, Twilight, Instinct etc.) don't mean that this is a flash-in-the-pan lipcolour that will be withdrawn as soon as the interest in glittery vampires wanes. They're now up to fifteen shades in the US, so hopefully it'll continue to flourish here in the UK too.


The other great thing - it's vegan! I'm not 100% that all the shades are, but the ones I examined the ingredients labels of certainly were. Revlon also do not perform any animal testing, highly unusual for an American firm where vivisection in the name of beauty is still commonplace (although they do use animal ingredients such as silk and cochineal in some of their other products).

Revlon 'Just Bitten' Lipstain is currently on offer in Boots for £5 instead of £7.99 (although their colour chart is way off - this set of swatches is fairly accurate, though obviously they'll look different depending on your skin/lip tone.)