Hello everyone!

Whether you love them or hate them, there’s no denying that whatever the Kardashians/Jenners put out would certainly sell like wildfire. The constant bombardment of the family across the social media has sort of voodooed us into splashing our money on whatever they promote and I’m not gonna lie – I’m one of those who have unknowingly been sucked into the Jenners vortex. Ever since Kylie Jenner started her own cosmetics line, I’ve been religiously keeping tabs on her product launches and am now owner to many of her lip kits (which I will find time to review here). Recently, she has also been getting her family involved in the behind-the-scene process and I can’t help but feel excited about what they have in store for us!

So, following the massive success of her collaboration with Khloe Kardashian last year (which prompted three restocks, by the way), the Queen of Snapchat teamed up with yet another of her sisters on a capsule collection two months ago, once again sending fans of the Kardashian clan into a complete state of hysteria. Well, well, well… who could it be?

Yes, it’s the undisputed queen of the nude lip herself! This time, Kim Kardashian, or better known as Kim Kardashian West (KKW) after her marriage to mic-grabber rapper Kanye West, got a share of the pie as she jointly launched a four-piece lipstick set with her makeup maven of a sister under the Kylie Cosmetics label. This collaboration also saw the introduction of a new range of products by the brand – the Créme Liquid Lipsticks.

Featuring a highly moisturising formula, the lipsticks come in four shades of nude to recreate the signature Kim Kardashian look: Kimberly, Kim, Kiki and Kimmie – all variants of her first name – and are packed in a matte, pale pink velvety sliding box which essentially makes this collection the classiest and most professional-looking of everything the brand has offered by far. The liquid lipsticks are full-sized, filled in slightly frosted tubes marked by an unmistakable pale pink drip motif below the cap and.. it’s only US$45 with free shipping!

But unlike the very first Koko collection which sold out in under six minutes, this collaboration met with lukewarm response from the beauty community and were moving relatively slowly off the shelves during launch-time. Either a lot more stocks were prepared or the choice of (really light) nude shades just didn’t go well with most people. Nevertheless, I finally carted mine out after a 15-minute wait on the holding page and was nearly late for work 😒 The sets sold out after an hour but were swiftly restocked three days later.

As always, the company was experiencing high volume of orders so I half-expected my shipment to be held up. But the delay was exceptionally long this time for a domestic order – it took them seven days to ship out my parcel and another eight days for it to reach my U.S. address although I acknowledge that the latter is beyond their control. I was still collating orders to be shipped to Singapore so I wasn’t in a hurry to receive my item. Can you imagine the anxiety and frustration of other buyers, though?

Before the launch went live, there were already comments about the shades being vastly similar to one another (I thought so too but I caved in because of the packaging). The swatches depicted above should more or less confirm that suspicion – they are indeed very similar (especially Kim and Kiki) and, as a matter of fact, boring. The only shade that stood out was Kimmie because it is the darkest of the lot. Still, all of them reminded me of M.A.C lipsticks that I had rated poorly in the past. But giving a conclusive opinion before actually wearing them would be unfair, so here goes..

#1 Kimberly

Channel some serious Kim Kardashian vibes with Kimberly, a light cool beige described as a “true nude” and named after Kim K’s birth name.

It is glossy and has a sheer, barely buildable coverage despite reports claiming otherwise. I had tried applying more layers to intensify the colour but all it does was adding more moist and watery patches that diffuse into the fine lines around the lips. The runny consistency of the lipstick also makes application messy and uncontrollable. The formula doesn’t bleed, but it spreads out to reveal an uneven and wrinkled appearance no matter how I tried to conceal it with more product. Besides, it does not dry down a single bit so it is not at all transfer-proof. The moment it touches something, practically the entire coat gets removed, maybe save for some leftover streaks. Yucks!

#2 Kim

Kim is a light warm beige described as a “peachy nude” with a similar glossy finish to Kimberly. But this goes on thicker with a drier texture while still keeping the lips adequately hydrated. Although sheer, it is slightly more pigmented and buildable. However, due to the watery nature of the lipstick, the product settles into lip lines immediately upon application, therefore accentuating dry patches and that is a big ‘Nope’ right there because I have naturally chapped lips.

#3 Kiki

Kiki, as Kim K’s family so affectionately calls her, is a light coral beige described as a “pinky nude”. In comparison to Kim (because this shade made me doubt my eyesight for a moment so I figured some of you may not be able to tell them apart at first glance as well), Kiki is slightly warmer with more red undertones.

Likewise, it has a lightweight and creamy consistency that is sadly overshadowed by its rubbish staying power due to the fact that it stays liquefied even after hours of wear. Its opacity – or should I say, translucency – is comparable to that of a gloss and the streaky mess is truly a shame. The Crème formula is really basically just gloss under the disguise of a more hydrating Velvet finish, minus the tacky texture. And it is awful.

#4 Kimmie

Despite having ranted against every lipstick in this collection so far, there is actually one shade among the four that I find rather wearable with decent coverage, and that’s Kimmie. It is vaguely (and inaccurately) described as a “deep nude” but I think it appears more as a muted terracotta.

Perhaps because of its darker hue, Kimmie has a more buildable and pigmented payoff and on top of that, applies more evenly and does not cling to the dry areas on the lips as conspicuously as the rest. Still, I cannot ignore the fact that it is short-lived on my lips. Reckoning that this would probably not withstand the test of gluttony and would require constant reapplication on the go, I ended up bringing my regular lipstick in a bullet along for touch-ups when I wore this out. I was so glad I did because it started to budge by the first hour and what was left on my lips after my dinner were a few unsightly powdery streaks.

As a bonus, here’s a lip swatch of all the four shades side-by-side:

All in all, unless comfort wearing is your utmost priority or you’re into creamy liquid lipsticks with diluted consistency and preposterously short lasting power, this new formula is utter garbage and should be avoided at all costs.

I really don’t see the point in this new formula at all. If Kim isn’t a fan of mattes (which is understandable since her makeup artist prefers creamy- and satin-finish lipsticks), she could have just stuck with the existing velvet formula, right? Arrrrgh. What a waste of our money 😒

What are your views on this collection? Let me know in the comments below or take a quick poll!

Thanks for reading! ♥

KKW × Kylie Cosmetics is a limited-edition collection launched on 25 April 2017 on kyliecosmetics.com and restocked in limited quality on kkwbeauty.com on 21 june 2017. now sold out, it can still be found in the reseller market (beware of fakes).

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