Shadow and Shimmer: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain Review and Swatches

Today I have a short review of the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain pencils for you! I have seen a lot of chubby lip pencils in the stores lately but these have to be, hands down, my favorite. They are moisturizing, have buildable color and leave a stain on the lips after the balm has worn off.

These are very similar to the Tarte stain pencils, but they are a lot cheaper. They are a twist up balm pencil in a plastic tube. The outside of the tube matches the color of the balm on the inside. I think I found these at Walmart for around $7 each, and if you hit up Walgreen's when they have the buy one get one 50% off deals on Revlon cosmetics then you can get them for even cheaper!

I found that these feel very balmy (duh) and moisturizing on my lips. They have a light minty smell when you first apply them, but it quickly fades. The color can be applied sheer with one swipe or it can be built up to a much bolder color if you apply more. They lasted (without eating/drinking) for about 4 hours before I wanted to reapply. The amazing thing about these pencils is that they are a stain. So even after the balm has worn off you are left with a really pretty color on your lips, so you really don't have to reapply to get color. Depending on the shade I found that the staining effect lasted a long time. For shades like Romantic and Crush I still had color on my lips at the end of the day. Some of the lighter shades seemed to disappear on my lips after about 8 hours, but I have pretty pigmented lips already, so that may have something to do with that. I would suggest exfoliating your lips before applying these because not only will some of the lighter colors highlight dryness on your lips, but the stain tends to show up more on the dry patches and will cause your lips to look splotchy. Exfoliating is quick and easy and will take care of this problem, and I didn't find it to be something that would stop me from purchasing and using these.

The range of colors is pretty good. I only have these five but you can see that they range all the way from a pale peachy nude, to a deep berry and a bright red.

Charm: pale peachy nude

Honey: nude pink mauve (I think this color is pretty universally flattering)

Cherish: Blue based medium pink

Crush: Deep berry pink

Romantic: Bright red with hints of orange

Overall, I LOVE these and I hope that Revlon keeps these around. I would even love to see some more colors. Maybe a really pretty coral pink and a rose color would be nice.