Review: New Prestige Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick

Back in January when I previewed the new 2011 releases from Prestige, I must admit that I was most excited about all their new brow products. Well, now that I have received and tested all of the new products for review, I've got to tell you that the most surprising product, for me, was the new lipstick! So that's why I'm starting this series with the Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick.

In this review, I'm going to try my best to explain to you in detail why I'm so excited about this new lip color. It's absolutely 100% unlike any other drugstore lipstick I've ever used (I know that's a bold statement but it's completely true).

From Prestige:

Prestige Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick

Long-wear and Comfort Unite, Thanks to an Impressive, Unique “Inner Active Technology”, for the Ultimate Long-wear Lipstick.

With Prestige Cosmetics’ Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick, lips stay amazingly soft and supple while the color lasts for hours!

Prestige Cosmetics has announced a new, innovative long-wear lipstick that not only has striking color that lasts for hours, but has a unique inner core with intense moisturizing properties. Enriched with ingredients including Lipsphere HA, Radvon Oil, and Pro Vitamin B5, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E, this “inner-active” core, allows Prestige Cosmetics’ newest lipstick to provide something that most long-wear lipsticks lack – moisturization.

Most long-wear lipsticks tend to dry out the lips, so in order to get a long lasting color, women sacrifice that comfort of soft, supple, hydrated lips. Prestige Cosmetics has brought something new to the market – the first truly comfortable long-wearing lipstick, which also provides numerous benefits beyond it’s incredible staying power.

Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick prides itself on instantly moisturizing lips, preventing water loss in the lips to keep them hydrated, decreasing lip chapping, acting as a free-radical scavenger, and keeping lips supple and firm by encouraging natural collagen production.

Launching in ten eye-catching shades, this ingenious lipstick will be part of Prestige Cosmetics’ permanent product line and will be available for purchase beginning in January 2011.

Prestige Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick

(retail: around $7)

I know what you're thinking: most of us have tried lip colors in the past that have a "moisturizing core" in the center. I'm the first to say that this is often gimmicky and can lead to a) a lipstick that feels too greasy on the lips or b) a lipstick that lacks pigmentation because half the lipstick is colorless. This is absolutely not the case with this new Prestige lipstick.

I've been on a quest for two decades for the perfect long-wearing lipstick that doesn't dry out my lips. I've also been a quest for a tinted lip balm that has A LOT of pigmentation and not just a "kiss" of color. Well, Prestige has managed to create a lipstick that feels, looks and performs like an insanely pigmented tinted lip balm, with color that lasts and lasts.

Dare I say this is my ideal lip product?

The more I wear Color Persist, the more I'm inclined to believe it's true. But let me be clear here: if you're looking for a lipstick that's opaque and behaves like a normal lipstick, this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a lipcolor that's sheer, yet highly pigmented, goes on like silk (literally, it's like buttah--no tugging or pulling whatsoever), and wears for upwards of four hours, this might be your dream-come-true.

(I love that this product doesn't migrate into my fine lines!)

I hope you can see that Enduring Blush is not completely opaque like a traditional lipstick. It's sheer, but it's so packed with color that it almost looks like a normal lipstick on the lips. As it wears, it looks more like a lipstain (you know how much I love my lipstains!) and this shade, Enduring Blush, gives my lips the perfect berry flush that I would gladly pay $20 a tube to achieve.

Something totally surprising to me was the fact that, after I applied this lipstick and gave it a few minutes to set, it didn't feel nearly as slick on my lips as when I first applied it (it's so slick at first that I was afraid it would turn greasy). Once this sets, it almost feels like a traditional long-wear lipstick, but then you quickly realize it's NOT. It then takes on a balm-like quality and it never, ever gives my lips that standard, sticky, odd, dry feeling that I get from traditional long-wear lip colors.

This is probably the most difficult lip product I've ever had to try and describe for Nouveau Cheap because I honestly can't think of a single product I can compare it to--it's a lipstick-balm-stain hybrid!

In the photos above, I tried to show you that, with very little pressure at all, you're going to get a nice wash of color on the lips. Applied with a bit more pressure, you'll seriously increase the pigmentation.

I was scared to compare this to a tinted lip balm because I was so afraid that some of you might jump to the conclusion that it's not pigmented enough to be a considered a lipstick. Totally not true. It's just that it feels and behaves like a very good tinted lip balm, yet it's got the color payoff of a semi-sheer lipstick. And the longer you wear it, the more it looks like a lipstain, while all the while FEELING like a lip balm (hydrating, smooth and moisturizing on the lips).

FINAL VERDICT: The new Prestige Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick is truly the best of all worlds when it comes to my lip color needs. Part lipstick, part tinted lip balm and part lipstain, I can think of no other drugstore lip product that gives me everything my heart desires all in one tube. A sheer wash of intense color, four plus hours of wear, and fantastic moisturization, this one's got it all if you love the look of a stain, the moisture of a balm and the convenience of a lipstick.

Prestige Color Persist Long-wear and Care Lipstick is now available on the Prestige Website, the Ulta website, and should be available in-store at Ulta as well. I haven't seen it at my local Rite Aid yet, but I'm sure it will be in the Prestige display soon.

A sample of this product was given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.