ColourPop Has Gone International! – Guide to All Things COLOURPOP!

Good news for all you International babes out there…ColourPop is now shipping overseas (minus Turkey & China)!!! I absolutely adore ColourPop, though I am constantly frustrated with their never ending roll outs of this and that’s (KathleenLights from YouTube literally just released another collab with them). The good news is that it’s pretty hard to truly break the bank with ColourPop and they have so many options – both in color choice and in type of products! If you’re looking for fantastic, fun, and affordable color cosmetics, you needn’t look further than ColourPop! I tried doing an Overview of ColourPop before, but the brand has grown so much even since then that I feel a need to update a bit. So, to help all of you who may be new to the brand, I’m going to try and give a bit of an overview of the brand’s offerings and mention some of my favorite formulas and colors. Try may be the key word here as there is always a lot to cover! 😉

To make things a bit easier should you be interested only in a certain category, you can jump to each section of the page by clicking the links below (after clicking “Read More”), or just read straight through for all the deets! 🙂
Super Shock Shadows
Lippie Sticks & Lippie Pencils
Super Shock Cheeks (Blushes, Bronzers & Highlighters)
Ultra Matte Lips
Creme Gel Liners
Brow Colours & Brow Pencils
Ultra Satin Lips
Sculpting Stix
Ultra Metallic Lips & Ultra Glossy Lips

Let’s start with ColourPop’s initial offering to the world of cruelty free beauty – the eyeshadows! They are known as the Super Shock Shadows and these little round pots are available in a wide array of finishes. The texture is quite different than really anything I’ve encountered before. They’re like a not-quite cream-to-powder squishy texture. It’s a really interesting and unusual feeling, and they’re intense in pigment with the glittery shades rarely resulting in fallout! 🙂 I find the best way to apply these is usually with my finger, but they can apply with a bit less intensity using synthetic brushes. They blend well, mix with standard powder shadows nicely, and they don’t budge once set! They will dry out if you don’t screw the caps back on tightly or leave them open for prolonged periods of time. I really love the shadows, though I have to admit that I don’t reach for them as often as I should. ColourPop breaks them down into 7 different finishes, and they’re not all as you might think so let’s go through the properties that seem common in each finish:

Metallic: These shadows are not so much metallic as they are chocked full of glitter! Some of the color combinations are weird, but surprisingly gorgeous! Read the shade descriptions to see just what color glitter is paired with the base shade. Actually, read the descriptions just for fun because they have some hilarious ones! 😉

Ultra Metallic: These are more as expected – highly reflective metallics. They are really intense and absolutely gorgeous!

Pearlized: I would consider these to have a sheen to them, but are not as metal-like as the Ultra-Metallics. Pearlized really does explain them best. These are some of my favorite types of shades as I find them the easiest to wear for pretty much any occasion and they are so creamy.

Satin: These are also as described – satin! They have just barely a touch of sheen. They almost look matte on the eyes. Some may have a hint of sparkle to them as well, but it doesn’t really show when applied.

Matte: Again, as it sounds – flat matte. I find these to be my least used mainly because I rarely go for a matte lid and that’s where I prefer to apply ColourPop shadows. They do work as well as the other shades – creamy, blendable and great for putting in the crease or using as a base color. They’re perfectly good shadows, just not the ones I reach for most.

Pressed Pigment: These can have glitter or be entirely matte, but they tend to be a lot more intense than a standard shadow. These are technically not intended for the immediate eye area, but I think most people use them near the eyes without trouble…I wouldn’t put them in the waterline just to be safe.

Glitter Sheer: These shades are pretty rare – there’s currently only one available. Again, they are as sounds – sheer washes that are mainly glitter toppers.

Following the smash hit of the eye colors, ColourPop added Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils, which are as sounds – lipsticks & matching lip pencils. The Lippie Stix are probably my most reached for ColourPop product. They are so convenient and portable, easy to apply, in amazing colors and finishes, wear well with good lasting power, and they’re amazingly comfortable. I will say that their more natural shades rarely seem to look good on me, but their bolder shades and the Sheers are divine! Again, there are a variety of finishes but these are pretty much as named so I’m not going to go over the differences. If I had to pick favorites (that are still available), I think “Frenchie” (matte), “Juice Bar” (sheer), “Whip” (sheer), “Julep” (cream) and “Flawless” (satin) are probably some of my most worn. As for the Lippie Pencils, I’m not a huge lip pencil user so I don’t have a lot to compare them to, but these are incredibly creamy and smooth without being overly slide-y. The colors available match virtually all of their lip colors, or at least coordinate really nicely. They do need to be sharpened, but I don’t mind that. So the Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencils hit it out of the park again!

I believe the Super Shock Cheeks came along next…specifically the blush shades. These are slightly larger than the eye colors, but in the familiar screw top pots and the same squishy texture. These are still intensely pigmented, but seem easier to sheer out than the Shadows. I like to apply a bit with my finger and then blend it out with a stippling brush. You can easily build the color, but in my opinion they’re not the easiest blushes to use. They don’t seem to blend terribly well with just your fingertips because they are a bit drier than a lot of crème blushes, but they do look quite beautiful on the cheeks. Though not my favorite products, I do still like them and feel they’re worth a try! My most used shades are definitely “Fox” and “Between the Sheets.” Not my “must have,” but good nonetheless!

Added to the cheek colors are bronzers & highlighters, both still known as Super Shock Cheeks. I have really only tried one Bronzer (“The Golden Child” which is gorgeous on the eyes btw!), but I have a bunch of the highlights, though again I tend to reach for other things first. Don’t get me wrong, the highlighters are beautiful and in some incredible and unusual shades, I just find powders easier to use. These are easily applied with your fingers and can also be blended nicely without brushes if you prefer. My favorite shade is probably “Monster” because it’s just a gorgeous duo-chrome that’s so stinking unusual! Really pretty and worth a try!

Pretty sure that the craze that are the Ultra Matte Lips were released next. As I understand it, these were reformulated after their initial release and I haven’t really tried them since. Initially, they were definitely on the dry side and they tend to emphasize my liney lips. I didn’t find them terribly comfortable, though I’m not a huge liquid lipstick person anyway, and I don’t reach for them often. They do wear like iron and can actually be a bitch to remove, but the shades are really beautiful. Not my favorite liquid lipsticks and they seem to be either a love it or hate it kinda product. Again, I have heard that these were reformulated and are now more comfortable, but I cannot vouch for that.

Moving right along, we have the Crème Gel Liners which are eye liners available in either potted crème gels or retractable pencils. I haven’t tried the potted gels, but I absolutely love the pencils! They glide on really smoothly, last well and are budge-proof. The color selection is fantastic. Whether you’re looking for neutrals or bold brights, ColourPop has you covered! They don’t include a “sharpener,” but there’s a helpful color guide at the end of each skinny stick so you have an idea of what you’re grabbing. Every bit as good, if not better, than other gel pencil liners! Definitely pick up at least one of the Crème Gel Liners.

I think the Brow Colours (pots) and Brow Pencils were released around the same time as the Gel Liners. Again, I have only tried the Pencils and, though they’re not my favorite size of brow pencil (I like the thicker triangle-shaped variety), they are great! There are 8 shades available for basically any color brows…unless you’re after purple, but that’s what the Gel Liners are for! 😉 There is a spoolie opposite the pencil and it’s actually surprisingly good! Not too scratchy, but grooms the brows into place. Really great! I can’t decide which shade works best for me (it’s between “Blondie” and “Dope Taupe”), but I feel like any of the three I have works just fine. If you like skinny micro-brow type pencils, these are certainly worth a try.

And that brings us to one of the most recent hot launches – the Ultra Satin Lips! These are identical in packaging to the Ultra Matte Lips, but they have a more comfortable satin finish. They don’t fully dry down and suck the life out of your lips, though they are every bit as pigmented as their matte sisters…and they are not sticky or tacky either. They will transfer a bit initially, but they still wear extremely well. I will probably always prefer the Lippie Stix because I find them easier to apply than using the doe foot applicator of the Ultra Satin Lips. It’s actually a great applicator – the same as the Ultra Matte – but I find any doe foot applicator is not as user friendly for precision, especially with the more intense colors. If you’re looking for a highly pigmented liquid lip color that’s comfortable and don’t mind a bit of transfer with barely a touch more sheen than traditional matte liquid lipsticks, than the Ultra Satins are for you!

Another newer launch are the Sculpting Stix which come in both contour and I believe matte highlighting shades. They are skinny sticks that twist up to reveal a narrow cream color. Perfect for highlighting and contouring really! I’ve just starting testing out a few of the contour shades as they seem similar to the Smashbox Contour Pencil, which I reviewed and since discovered doesn’t meet my criteria for “cruelty free.” So far these seem ok, but they’re not as creamy and easily blended as I would like. Not sure I love the color range either, though at least there is a range from light to deep! I believe there are 7 of the contour colors and 7 of the highlight colors. I don’t want to praise or bash these at this point because I haven’t given them a fair try. So far they seem promising, but could use some improvement in bendability.

Next I’m grouping together the Ultra Metallic Lips and the Ultra Glossy Lips because they are the newcomers to the family. I don’t own any of the Metallic shades as it’s not really my thing and none of the shades really speak to me…plus they’re constantly sold out! The glosses haven’t actually been released yet, but mini sizes came as a bonus with my last order so I can only assume they will be launching soon. Both come in the same Ultra Matte / Satin Lips doe foot applicator type packaging. I actually must say that I do love the way these beautiful clear tubes of liquid lip wonderous-ness look! The packaging is perfect. Again, I can’t really say anything about the metallic formula as I haven’t really had a chance to try it yet, and upon brief wear of the gloss (which appears will come in a number of intensities/finishes) it is incredibly comfortable! Should you be interested in either of these, both finishes are coming soon…in theory! 😉

I think that covers it. It’s quite amazing how quickly ColourPop has grown as I believe they’re just over 2 years old. They are constantly releasing new shades (as well as discontinuing old ones) and the new formulas keep rolling out as well. It’s an impressive company with a great line up. The prices range from $5-$8, which you can’t really beat! I absolutely love the humor and subtle…ok, not always subtle…raunchiness of their names and color descriptions. Definitely read them while you’re on the site because they’re amazing. 😉 All of the items are cruelty free (of course) and a large portion are also vegan (see the FAQs for the exclusions)! The only drawback I find to ColourPop is that you can’t view the items in person. Still, there are so many swatches of things online, on Instagram and often on the ColourPop site that you can make a good guess as to the colors you’re buying. Besides, at $5 each, maybe you should test out that green lipstick you’ve always been curious about. You may find it’s your new go-to shade! 😉 Great job ColourPop and so thankful that the whole world can now appreciate your incredible efforts!