Make Up For Ever adds new shades to their Aqua Rouge and Aqua Lip products; are the long-wearing liquid lipsticks and liner worth adding to your arsenal?
By Roxana Hadadi
There are some brands that can just do no wrong for me, and every time I try something from Make Up For Ever, my loyalty is further reinforced. To say the brand has a cult following would be an understatement, and now that it’s available at every Sephora, there’s no excuse for not having any of their products. Get on it!
And I would suggest starting with either MUFE’s Aqua Rouge or Aqua Lip Waterproof Lip Liner products; the former is a liquid lipstick available in 17 shades at Sephora and the latter is a lip liner available in 20 shades at Sephora. Both incredibly pigmented and longwearing, they’re some of the stars in MUFE’s product range. MUFE recently added a few new shades to both products, and they were provided to me for review: Aqua Rouge in 16 Fuchsia, 17 Bright Orange, 18 Coral, and 19 Pomegranate Pink, and Aqua Lip in 11c Matte Dark Raspberry, 12c Matte Dark Plum, 13c Purple, and 19c Pomegranate Pink.
How do the new shades fare? For my thoughts, read on!
Make Up For Ever Aqua Rouge and Aqua Lip
First photo, left to right: Make Up For Ever Aqua Rouge in 17 Bright Orange, 16 Fuchsia, 18 Coral, and 19 Pomegranate Pink; Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip in 11c Matte Dark Raspberry, 12c Matte Dark Plum, 13c Purple, and 19c Pomegranate Pink
Second photo, left to right: Swatches of MUFE Aqua Rouge in 17 Bright Orange, 16 Fuchsia, 18 Coral, and 19 Pomegranate Pink; swatches of MUFE Aqua Lip in 11c Matte Dark Raspberry, 12c Matte Dark Plum, 13c Purple, and 19c Pomegranate Pink
Make Up For Ever describes itself as “the go-to color brand for beauty professionals and make up enthusiasts around the world,” and “at the forefront of high-performance, innovative makeup with vibrant shades and truly long-lasting formulas.” The Aqua Rouge (launched in 2012, and with additional shades periodically since then) and Aqua Lip products, along with their Rouge Artist lipstick, form their lip product range. Aqua Rouge is a two-sided liquid lipstick, with color on one side and clear gloss on the other, and Aqua Lip is a fairly straightforward lip pencil. A lot of the shades in these product lines sync up with each other and are meant to be used together, as evidenced by color 19, Pomegranate Pink, which exists in both the Aqua Rouge and Aqua Lip format.
For this review, I received the following shades, many of which were newly launched this spring and summer: Aqua Rouge in 17 Bright Orange, 16 Fuchsia, 18 Coral, and 19 Pomegranate Pink, and Aqua Lip in 11c Matte Dark Raspberry, 12c Matte Dark Plum, 13c Purple, and 19c Pomegranate Pink. As I mentioned before, each Aqua Rouge comes with a clear, shiny gloss, but oh man, are these colors attention-catching enough without that step—16 Fuchsia is a strong, blue-based medium hot pink, 17 Bright Orange is a practically neon true orange, 18 Coral is an orangey pink, and 19 Pomegranate Pink is a pinky rose. The Aqua Lip shades are darker, and would be great for fall: 11c Matte Dark Raspberry is a dusty raspberry, 12c Matte Dark Plum is a very dark purple, 13c Purple is a surprisingly light purple (honestly, almost violet), and 19c Pomegranate Pink is the same kind of rosy red as its Aqua Rouge version.
Across the board, the formula on the Aqua Rouge shades was excellent. Each swatch photo is only one swipe of product, and the lip product is exceedingly pigmented. The color is supposed to dry down matte, and the clear gloss gives you the option to make it shiny; I found both those things to be true. The only tricky point is that the Aqua Rouge dries down very fast, so you have to work fast and be cognizant of that; your lips really have to be exfoliated so the product doesn’t show any flaws or get gunky. Also a little weird is the difference between applicators; the color has a doe foot, typical applicator whereas the gloss has a brush, so you need to be adept at working with both. So ultimately, there is some prep work involved, but the color and wear-time (for me, the gloss lasts about three hours, but the lip color itself lasts about five or six, and fades into more of a stain finish) really makes this product worth it.
I also liked the Aqua Lip liner, but the texture was a bit difficult; it’s not the creamiest product, and has a touch of dryness. The swatches shown are a couple swipes of each pencil because it was a bit difficult to get completely even coverage with just one swipe. I sometimes prefer using lip liner to just fill in my lips fully rather than using lipstick, but I think these products would work far better as a straightforward liner. Nevertheless, they’re well pigmented, don’t migrate at all on the lip, are nicely matte, and actually were waterproof. A little dryness is fine to deal with, given all these other benefits.
Overall, both Aqua Rouge and Aqua Lip continue being great. More new shades, please!
VERDICT: A- for both products; they’re each slightly tricky to work with, but they’re really wonderful overall. Plus, that pigmentation? Can’t beat it.
AVAILABILITY: $24 for each Aqua Rouge, $19 for each Aqua Lip, available at Sephora stores and Sephora.com. Sephora also has an exclusive Ultimate Long Lasting Lip Set, with six full-size versions of each Aqua Rouge and Aqua Lip in the shades 8/8c Red, 2/2c Rosewood, 14/14c Light Rosewood, 10/10c Raspberry, 16/16c Fuchsia, and 18/18c Coral for $140, a $258 value. That comes out to about $11.67 per product, which is an insanely good price if you’re interested in trying a lot of these at once or splitting the set with a friend or relative.
EDITORIAL NOTE: The products featured in this post were provided to Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog by the manufacturer or their public relations company for review. Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog posts are inspired by personal experience and opinion, and are not paid for or influenced by the manufacturer, PR company, or any other organization unless mentioned.
Photos by Roxana Hadadi.
In middle school, Roxana Hadadi was a cosmetics-scorning tomboy; in high school, a glitter eye shadow- and black nail polish-loving trend kid; in college, obsessively committed to dying her hair unruly colors that upset her mom. Now a bit older and a bit more mature, she’s trying to figure out what hair, body and cosmetics products will work for her, you and your family in About Face, Chesapeake Family’s new beauty blog — and she’ll leave the sparkle makeup and neon highlights in the past. Roxana also writes movie reviews for Chesapeake Family’s Popcorn Parents blog.
