Evil Shades Cosmetics Review: Deviant Lipsticks (Zicke, Corset and Obscurity)

Top to Bottom: Corset, Obscurity. Zicke

Time to review the three Deviant Lipsticks I bought! As I said that I totally imagined that Legend of Zelda background music.

In any case, the colors I picked out from the buy two get one lip sale were Corset (I always like lip products that are this color), Obscurity (a purplish blue) and Zicke (a metallic-y lilac). Immediately, I'm going to point out the things that these all have in common. They're all packaged in slim, black tubes with the Evil Shades label and they all have a balmy, moisturizing quality about them. They also have a light, candy scent but no noticeable flavor. I don't notice the scent once the lipstick has been applied. For me, that was pretty much where the similarities ended, because I had very different experiences with all three of these.

I'll start with Zicke.

Zicke

Do you see what the problem here may be? It was way sheer. It made my lips look slightly lighter and pinker but only slightly. When I swatched it on my arm, I had to layer the heck out of this to get any pigmentation. I'm not sure if I got a wonky tube, or what, because the swatches I saw online, including the one on Evil Shades's site, looked like I would get a lot more color than this, but that could be because the swatchers had less pigmented lips than me. I like the effect this had on my lips, but for $4.25? Eh. I might pick it up on sale, but otherwise I doubt it.

This obviously didn't offer much in terms of wear either. It was gone in an hour or two, and wouldn't last through meals if you begged it to.

Next up, Obscurity.

Obscurity

This color gave me much more in terms of pigmentation (not quite opaque, but nearly so... it actually looked a lot like a stain), but it was somewhat difficult to work with, whereas the other two were not. You can see that the application is uneven. That's not my fault. This lipstick just seemed to drag against my lip, despite the fact that it was moisturizing. It was incredibly odd. I expected this to be a bit more purple, but I was happy with the color. I wound up using my MAC lip primer underneath, which basically solved that problem.

Obscurity over Mac Prep+Prime Lip. Sorry about the blur!

On its own, this wore for five hours. It fades very evenly when it finally starts.

Corset

This one. Was. Amazing. Lovelovelove. Firstly, it has the same moisturizing quality as the other lipsticks, but it's also a completely opaque shade with a satin finish. It's also a dupe for one of my favorite lip shades, Kat Von D's Homegirl (side-by-side swatch later in the post)!

Compared to Homegirl, this feels lighter and creamier, (but has the same pigmentation), and costs $4.25, as opposed to Homegirl's $18. The tube of Corset contains .07 oz of product, whereas Homegirl contains .11 oz of product. Doing the math, Evil Shades's Corset is $60.71/oz, whereas Kat Von D's Homegirl is $163.64/oz. Kat Von D's Homegirl is about 2.7 times the price of Corset. My tube of Kat Von D's Homegirl has a glossier finish than Corset, however, I've been told by other people who have Homegirl that theirs is more satin, so it's possible I have an odd tube. I do greatly prefer the tube that Kat Von D's lipsticks come in, because the diameter of the tube of Corset is about half the size of my bottom lip, meaning that despite the fact that it has the pigmentation to be opaque in one stroke, it won't cover my entire lip. I hope that made sense. In the end, however, I believe that after I run out of my tube of Homegirl, Corset will be replacing it entirely because I prefer the formula.

This wore very well for five to six hours, and did alright through meals, as well: only some slight fading. I would normally reapply afterward, but looking at it, I wouldn't feel like I had to.

On to the colors:

Left to Right: Homegirl, Corset, Obscurity, Zicke

Corset is a plum/brown hybrid. It's a touch browner than Homegirl, which shows up more on camera than it does in real life, but in application the difference is impossible to tell, at least to my eye, (especially on my naturally brown/plum toned lips).
Obscurity is a blue with purple tones to it. It looks more purple on the Evil Shades site. This is pigmented, but not opaque. It looks more like a stain than a lipstick.
Zicke had to be built up quite a lot for this swatch. It's a greyish lavender. It's not very pigmented at all. It has a metallic-y sheen not readily visible in the arm swatch, but scrolling up to the lip swatch should give you a better idea of that.

The Good:

• Moisturizing formula.
• It feels light, like a balm. Even a more pigmented shade like Corset, doesn't even feel like it's on after application.
• The darker shades wore fairly well.

The Bad:

• Zicke's pigmentation is substandard.
• Obscurity was quite fussy.

The Neutral:

• The slim tube. It doesn't fit my lips as well as most lipsticks do, but it does look sleek, and those with slimmer lips may really like this.

Overall, I highly recommend Corset. I absolutely adore it. Obscurity is on the fussy side, but if you use primer or warm it up in your pocket it does do better. Zicke might be a nice MLBB shade on lightly pigmented lips, but unfortunately, I can't be sure of that (sample it, maybe?) I like the effect it has on my lips. I would definitely repurchase Corset, maybe repurchase Zicke on sale, and I wouldn't repurchase or recommend Obscurity: I will aim to use it up, because it's not that bad, but in my experience, there are better blue lipsticks out there. I'm very encouraged by just how happy I am with Corset, though, and I'm thinking about trying out Devilista, Fearless and Dark Princess. If you have any recommendations from the Deviant Lipstick range, I'd be happy to hear them!

Deviant Lipsticks are currently $4.25 from Evil Shades. There are also samples available.