REVIEW: Battle of the Glossy Stains - L'Oreal Vs Maybelline

I have a love hate relationship with lip stains.  Initially I started out with Benetint and the stain was watery and the color would bleed around the edges of my lips or settle into the cracks as it faded unevenly.  Vigorous exfoliation did not even seem to help.  It kind of drove me crazy because people RAVED about lip stains and I just could not MAKE IT WORK.

Overall it was a very unsatisfying experience.  I kept trying them tho, searching for that elusive combination of strong pigment and long wear.   I don't know if this just makes me an optimist or a masochist, a poorer masochist.  When they showed up in the drugstore in the form of those felt tip pens, I tried those too.  The lack of hydration combined with the uneven wear down made for a very sad and chappy looking kisser.

Now, the blogosphere has been agog over the new L'Oreal Color Caresse Shine Stains which have been described as a duplicate of the YSL Glossy Stains.  Not all that surprising since L'Oreal owns both cosmetic brands.  The price difference however is major - around $32 for the YSL version and $10 for the L'Oreal.

I figured that I'd do a comparison of two different drugstore "glossy stains" so you can see what the differences were and which brand wins out overall.

Contestant #1 - Maybelline SuperStay 10hr Stain Gloss in Cool Coral 150 (retail $8.99)

The claims:

• Vibrant and shiny wear, never flat
• Feels fresh all day, never dry
• Glides on wet and smooth, never drags
• Shine enhancing formula provides lightweight layer of lasting color

Contestant #2 : L'Oreal Color Caresse Shine Stain in Endless Red (retail $9.99)

The claims:

Discover a stain that thinks its a gloss.  Now hydration and shine meet lasting lightweight color.  Leaves lips soft, comfortable and hydrated for up to 8 hours.

Let's get started shall we?

One of the first things I noticed was that there is 10.5ml in the Maybelline  and only 6.3 ml in the L'Oreal version, score one point for Maybelline.  The packaging on the L'Oreal version however looks and feels more high end than the Maybelline.  Pretty eye candy but in the end, the formula always wins out.

Both have a doe foot applicator that allows for very precise color placement.  This is pretty important because both colors are quite dark and stain quickly, the fewer mistakes in application the better.  I found that the pointy tip was perfect for carefully tracing the edges of the lips.

The two colors I picked look nearly identical, even tho one is called a Coral and the other a Red.  Since I was going to wear one on half of my lips and the other one on the other half, it worked in my favor that the shades were pretty close.

On first application, I noticed that the Maybelline formula was much smoother feeling on the lips than the L'Oreal which had an unpleasant stickiness to it that I did not like.  The Maybelline also applied more smoothly, and you can see the edges show no feathering or bleeding or patchiness that the L'Oreal has.  The L'Oreal was a good bit shinier but the Maybelline had a more intense color to it.

At this point I am loving the Maybelline version.  It feels smooth and my lips don't feel dry or sticky. I'm very happy with how vibrant the color is and am rather excited to see how it wears down to a stain.

Initial application

To my utter surprise, the Maybelline ended up choking at the finish line.  As you can see after some hours of wear, the L'Oreal wore down evenly, leaving a nice stain on my lips, where as the Maybelline only seemed to stain the outer lip line and the inner part of my lips, one of my pet peeves about lip stains in general.  This was really disappointing to me because just comparing the initial feel of the two I was ready to go and buy more colors of the Maybelline Gloss Stain.  It left my lips looking like I'd only put a lip liner one.

Now I'm stuck with the dilemma that I like the Maybelline version all the way up to the stain, but the L'Oreal clearly out performs in the stain department, but I can't get over how sticky it feels until the gloss wears off.

The L'Oreal did last for over 6 hours after it wore down to just the stain.  The Maybelline only made it to the 4 hour mark before the weird stain outline thing started to appear.

After 6 hrs of wear

Since there is 40% more product in the Maybelline version and I enjoy the feel of that one on the lips the most, I'd recommend getting that one and just reapplying it every 3-4 hours or so.

Winner by a TKO - MAYBELLINE SUPERSTAY 10hr Stain Gloss