LA Splash Limited Edition Lipsticks

A couple weeks ago, LA Splash announced a pre-sale for their limited edition lipstick collection, featuring bold, eccentric colors, undoubtedly inspired by Melt Cosmetics, an indie brand who was the first to introduce a daring collection of muted, yet noteworthy shades in addition to a few megawatt brights. The demand for Melt lipsticks were high…but so was the price tag. In response to this, LA Splash was quick to release their own collection of Melt dupes. I was able to pick up a bundle of five for the pre-sale price tag of $35, as opposed to the $19 apiece price of Melt lipsticks. I chose Envy, Vanity, Romance, Wrath, and Greed. Here are my lip swatches, straight out of the tube:

My assessment of each individual shade is as follows:

• Envy: meant to be a dupe for Melt's Blow. It's a really beautiful shade of deep teal with just a hint of metallic shimmer. Though advertised as "ultra-matte", I wouldn't consider it to be a matte lipstick. It's densely pigmented and applies evenly in a single pass. I think I could almost consider wearing it out.
• Vanity: Doesn't really resemble any shade that Melt carries, so I would consider it the most original of the bundle that I ordered in terms of color. It's a matte, radioactive purple that's very vibrant, matte, and opaque. Definitely an eye-catcher.
• Wrath: meant to be a dupe for Melt's Space Cake. A medium shade of blue-gray, it's pigmented, opaque, and truly matte. Probably the closest to resembling a Melt dupe from the bunch that I received. The color itself is gorgeously understated, but makes a huge statement when worn.
• Romance: possibly an attempt at Melt's 6six6, it looked pretty promising in the tube, but didn't really meet my expectation when worn. It's more of a fuchsia-orchid shade with a hint of purple, was only semi-opaque and was more of a satin finish, definitely not matte. It had more slip than the other four shades and took a few passes to obtain an even coat of color.
• Greed: definitely meant to be a dupe for Melt's famous DGAF. This one was the most disappointing of the bunch. It was pigmented, but didn't apply evenly or opaquely and definitely wasn't matte. I tried my best, but you can see how splotchy the color is in the image, despite my efforts. This shade of blue is extremely difficult to do, I'm sure. I have yet to own one that works successfully. My guess is that, if you want to wear this shade of blue and wear it well, you're probably best off investing in the real deal.

In a nutshell, I highly recommend Envy, Vanity, and Wrath. They are unique, densely pigmented and apply very opaque and evenly. The quality definitely exceeds the price, I feel.

To be honest, I would skip Romance and Greed. The colors are beautiful, but the formula definitely needs tweaking. I'm sure there's a perfectly good dupe for Romance somewhere out there, it's not an uncommon color. If you're considering purchasing Greed as an inexpensive dupe for Melt's DGAF, I would recommend saving your money towards actually buying DGAF.

Those are my thoughts! Hope some of you found this review helpful and thanks for reading

Hugs,

Cat