Review: e.l.f. Lipstick in Voodoo

If you don't know by now, let me tell you that I have a thing for sheer red lipsticks. So when I heard that there was a sheer red in e.l.f.'s $1 line, it took me all of about 10 minutes to hop in my car, drive to my nearest Target and pick it up. As far as I'm concerned, sheer reds are the quickest way to brighten up my face and give it a pop of color without feeling overdone or too "nighttime". Opaque or shimmery reds are too over the top for me to pull off in the daytime, but sheers? Perfection, especially when I've got minimal makeup on the rest of my face (which is almost always the case during the week).

So how does e.l.f. Voodoo compare to the rest of the sheer red lippies in my stash? Let's see...

 e.l.f. Lipstick in Voodoo

(retail: $1, 0.12 oz)

As you can see, the case is nice! I like that there's the little window in the middle of the tube so that you can easily identify the shade when it's in your makeup bag. Also, the stick itself retracts ALMOST all the way down into the tube, which is good because it's frustrating when I nick my lipstick on the lid when I'm putting the lid back on. Don't you hate that?

In the swatch on my arm, this is what it looked like after two passes of the lipstick on my skin. The first pass was pretty sheer, but the second pass definitely made the color more visible. On my lips, I used two coats of Voodoo and as you can see, it's not super sheer, but yet it doesn't look like a creme. I LOVE it, and I love that you can truly build the color to your liking. One pass on the lips will give you a nice stain-like quality, but a few more coats and you've got some serious impact.

I also LOVE the fact that, unlike tons of other $1 lipsticks I've tried through the years, this shade is RED and not magenta. If I had a dime for every time I've purchased an inexpensive "red" lipstick over the years only to have it turn magenta on my lips...

Voodoo is a nice, versatile brick red in real life, but it's got a TINY bit more blue in it than what you see in the pics above. But honestly, it's not dramatically different than my pictures.

If find the consistency of this lipstick to be totally shocking considering it's just $1. It's got a nice, creamy/borderline slick feel to it, and I find it extremely moisturizing on my lips. It's a very comfortable lipstick to wear, and the staying power is decent (I can get about 2 hours of wear from it, but after that it wears down to a nice, very subtle stain). 

The fragrance is mild--to me it smells like fruit punch. The flavor is sort of fruit-punch-y as well and I don't find it strong over overbearing. 

FINAL VERDICT: If you love wearable, user-friendly sheer reds, I think you might love e.l.f. Lipstick in Voodoo. For a one-dollar lipstick, I think this one's a gem, and I think it's the ideal lipstick to carry in your purse or keep in your car for emergencies for when you need a quick pop of color. Heck, I might buy several to keep in all of my purses--for a $1 you can do that and not feel guilty. Heaven knows, we all have those "emergency" situations when we need to slap on a lipstick to quickly bring a little color to our faces, right? This is one of those no-effort shades that can do just that, and it feels surprisingly nice on the lips to boot!

Do you own any e.l.f. lipsticks from their $1 line? If so, what shades do you own, and how do you like them?