Can I just say how weird it is to have a red lip liner called Iris? Like, really, how is it that a red lip liner is named after a blue-violet flower? Oh well.

Moving on, here I have a first impressions-like post about the Guerlain Le Stylo Levres aka The Lip Liner (everything sounds posh, expensive, and complicated in French, doesn't it?) in #25 Iris Noir.

 First thing you might have noticed is that it's a retractable liner. Some of you might like that but personally I'm not a big fan of such packaging. Retractable liners in general tend to break easily on me probably because I use it the same way I use regular pencils when I should be more gentle with it. But no worries, I already know how to use retractable liners properly so I was able to swatch and use this without it breaking on me. Kudos to Guerlain as well because this lip liner is kind of tough and yet creamy at the same time.

I'd describe Iris Noir as a berry red similar to bearberries and lingonberry jam. It's somewhat a brown winey red that, by what I think I see, has a faint blue undertone. The pencil's texture is a bit hard and dry but when you smudge it it's creamy like a kohl pencil. Pigmentation is sheer to medium and it's definitely not as pigmented as the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencils or the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencils. Though I think this is good for those who are testing the waters on red lip colors since the shade isn't that shocking upon application.

As always, lip liners are best applied on well hydrated and well lip balmed lips. When I used this, my lips were kind of dry which explains the difficulty I had when I filled my lips. Thankfully, it's creamy when smudged so in a way I guess it's not as drying as regular lip pencils. Since I had dry lips, the liner made the flakes on my lips more obvious but that's always the case with lip liner so no big deal there. :D

Boohoo. Apologies for the bad skin I have right now. It's crazy that zits just popped out of nowhere, making me feel like a pubescent teen. :)) But that's what the lip liner looks on me. I really like the color but I wish the pencil was creamier and more opaque. Overall, I think it's a good liner. But I feel that the color is dupable and you can definitely get a similar shade somewhere that costs less than this. But for the meantime, I'll be enjoying Iris Noir, especially this month. Ah, red lips on holidays. Classic.

Guerlain The Lip Pencil, $31.00 in Sephora.com (Thankfully I bought mine on a sale so I didn't have to pay the full price. Teehee.)