Lovely Regrets

Every few months I clean out my stash (which you can blurrily see in the background), removing items that I don't use often (or at all) and setting them aside to give to others. Normally this encompasses eyeshadow, as I previously did not have a lot of lip products - not to mention sharing used lip products just seems a bit unsanitary to me (I don't any of the sanitizing/alcohol sprays at the moment). Even with the items I purge, there's rarely any regret in my purchases, I get rid of things to make room for new(er) purchases.

I re-swatch everything before I give it away, and on my most recent 'clean-up' I took a look at my lipsticks, and pulled out Blooming Lovely, which I couldn't remember using often... and couldn't remember why I hadn't been reaching for it. However once putting it on I suddenly remembered... my experience solidified 'Blooming Lovely' as being a major buyer's remose case :(

Blooming Lovely

Blooming Lovely just washes me out and looks SUPER lavender on my lips :( If I look at myself under fluorescent/indoor yellow-ish lighting the colour doesn't look bad at all - just a paler pink, but in natural light (this picture was taken near a window, with no flash) the colour screams LAVENDER to me. It's not really a look I like for myself. But since I don't give away lipsticks and didn't want to throw it out or return it (I love the packaging too much) I thought I would try making it work using other lip products in my stash.

Blooming Lovely + Bourjois 3D Effet Gloss in Framboise Magnific

My first experiment just made the colour shiny, but no less lavender (at least to me). I was actually surprised as the Bourjois gloss LOOKED fairly pigmented on my hand, but I don't think it mixed well with the lipstick. It's actually a dark fuschia (though it didn't impact this colour at all).

Blooming Lovely + Dior Addict Gloss 377

I picked a medium-pink Dior gloss to try next; this looks more wearable to me: almost a MLBB shade, but I can get similar colours with using one product so I am not as likely to use two... save for the sake of using up this lipstick! Probably would only use this once anyway though, since I'd have to bring two products to touch up on the go.

Blooming Lovely + Maybelline Watershiny Volumy 015

This look is a bit pinker but there are still some lavender undertones visible... and again, I hate 'needing' to layer products.

I'll probably keep this lipstick and keep experimenting until it's gone though, but I'd love any suggestions to tone down the colour - liner, gloss, other lipsticks - all suggestions welcome!

Have you ever had anything that just didn't work but you couldn't get rid of?