The Lip Bar brand hit the mainstream beauty scene as a business pitch on the television show "Shark Tank" — joining a line of beauty products that have gotten their first big push on the show.
Unfortunately, the Black-owned beauty brand was swiftly rejected by the "Shark Tank" judges in the rudest way possible.
"The chances that this is a business are possibly zero," judge Kevin O'Leary told the owners. "They would crush you like the colorful cockroaches you are."
Fortunately, The Lip Bar founders shook off that rejection, pressed on, and now they're selling loads of colorful lipsticks. The brand has even been picked up by Target!
So many people recommended I try out The Lip Bar, so I grabbed a bunch of lip colors from the now-successful brand and tried them on to see what The Lip Bar is all about.
Would the brand disappoint me or become a new beauty go-to? There's only one way to find out!
I ordered bullet lipsticks, liquid mattes, and a gloss — a decent variety so I could get a true feel for the brand's overall quality and style.
The packaging had me at "hello." Although it's made of plastic, it has a really sleek, edgy vibe to it that will look pretty in any makeup bag.
Here are the liquid lipsticks ($13, Target) I chose.
In order of the swatches, the shade names are: Boy Trouble, Playmate, and Savage.
I couldn't wait to see how the Savage shade ($13, Target) looked on my skin tone.
When I first slid Savage ($13, Target) onto my lips, I fell in love with the color. Unfortunately, once it dried down, my lips started feeling uncomfortable and dry — and they looked it.
Savage is a lovely color to wear but you probably want to add a gloss on top of it or mix it with a creamier brown matte to get a comfy feel.
My experience with the bright red shade Boy Trouble lipstick ($13, Target) was a surprising one.
Once again, The Lip Bar slayed it with this formula's color, but Boy Trouble ($13, Target) was a very, very patchy formula. To achieve a fully red look, I had to do loads of layering. This resulted in a cakier look than I would ever really walk out of the house wearing.
The color also didn't look as red in real life as it does in pictures and video. In person, three people (including myself) felt like the lipstick looked orange, not red.
Luckily, the orange look was still quite cute to me. I wish the formula had been easier to apply so I could add Boy Trouble to my makeup bag as the brightest lipstick I've ever owned!
Maybe next time, Lip Bar.
The patchy saga continued with The Lip Bar's pink Playmate shade ($13, Target).
The Playmate lipstick ($13, Target) looked very messy on me, which *may* have been cleaned up with a matching pink liner to keep the edges in check.
I used to totally avoid bright lipstick colors — probably because I was subconsciously adhering to trash beauty myths about bright hues not looking best on dark skin.
Now that I'm ready to try out some bold colors, I really need for Step 1 of any bright lipstick I use to be that it has a non-patchy formula that allows me to achieve a tidy look. Sadly, Playmate did not give me the smooth formula I wanted.
Despite my unhappiness with the liquid lipstick formula, I was still very excited to try The Lip Bar's creamier bullet lipsticks ($12, Target)!
The shade names in order of the swatch photos are Cocoa Cooler, Cosmo, and Everything.
Since you can never own too many nude lipsticks, I didn't mind trying yet another brown with a creamy finish.
I am totally digging how Cocoa Cooler ($12, Target) looks with my skin tone AND how it feels on my lips. It's definitely a lipstick I will be wearing on a regular basis.
The lipstick is a little sheer with one swipe, but since it doesn't feel like a fire starting on my lips, I don't mind adding a second layer.
It was love at first sight when I saw the golden Everything shade ($12, Target) sitting online.
From highlighter to lipsticks, gold is one of my favorite colors!
I loved how Everything ($12, Target) looked on my lips under bright beauty lights in the Revelist studio, but the camera tells all. This lipstick could have used a few more layers to achieve a really opaque gold look.
If you're like me and don't mind three or four lipstick swipes, then the Everything shade is a decent selection.
The Cosmo shade ($12, Target) turned out to be my favorite lipstick from The Lip Bar bunch.
Finding a red I felt flattered my skin tone used to be such a challenge but lately brands like Fenty Beauty, Kat Von D, and now The Lip Bar have really been giving me a bunch of options.
This Lip Bar Cosmo shade ($12, Target) is something I'll be pulling out of my makeup bag quite often. I love how it isn't a *bright* red but still pops on my skin beautifully as a berry tone.
Of course, I had to grab a gloss ($14, The Lip Bar) from the The Lip Bar.
Basic Bish ($14, The Lip Bar) is not available at Target, and can only be grabbed straight from the Lip Bar website — and I do recommend that you grab it.
I knew immediately I was going to need some brown lip liner assistance to make this cooler pink color work and it SO worked.
I love the shade and it felt so smooth on my lips.
The feel is comparable to the Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb ($17, Sephora) which is non-sticky and really comfortable.
My thoughts overall on The Lip Bar?
The Lip Bar is definitely a brand to watch!
Though I didn't love the liquid lipsticks much at all, I would still recommend the bullet lipsticks to anyone — especially at such an affordable price.
The Lip Bar is also the place to go if you're a brown girl looking for a GOOD brown nude shade.
I'm even open to trying liquid lipsticks from The Lip Bar if they release an improved formula (which a LOT of brands eventually end up doing).
Shop The Lip Bar products on the brand's official website, on the Target website, or in Target stores!
Watch my full try-on of The Lip Bar products and first impressions review down below!
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