You just kissed a Boom Boom baby...

Apologies for the snappy title! I'm gonna write a review of MUA's Lip Booms, and when I explained what they were and showed them to my boyfriend, his response was: "Haha! Boom boom!" (Because I have 2, for further explanation as to why we find this funny, see here )

There's been a lot of hype on the web over MUA's collaboration with pop singer Alexandra Burke, Lip Booms, and a lot of folk have been raving over them. I now have 2, so I figured I would tell you lovely people what all the hype is about...

The snappily titled Lip Booms come in 8 shades, ranging from neutrals to bright, vivacious reds and deep plummy shades. Each Lip Boom is doubled-ended: one end being a matte lipstick and the other is a glittery highlighting gloss, and the concept behind this is that you can wear these 4 ways, according to MUA's webstore:

"1. Lipstick alone for a matte look.
2. Lipstick with highlighter applied just to the centre of your lips to create a full volume illusion.
3. Lipstick with highlighter all over for a super-glossy look.
4. Highlighter alone for a sheer pearl finish."

On the left we have "It's a Situation" (all the shades are named after sayings that Alexandra Burke reportedly utters... judge this as you will) and on the right is "Doin' Good." "It's a Situation" is an utterly fabulous shade of plum with a tad of reddy-pink thrown in, with a matching highlighting gloss, and "Doin' Good" is a lovely neutral pink shade. Below I have swatched each shade:

Sorry the light's not great! (N.B. I was gonna show you guys what they look like on, but the lighting throughout my flat was just not playing ball. In the flesh both shades look grand, "It's A Situation" looks incredibly goth-tastic and dramatic on me in particular!) 

My only gripe with these is the gloss. It has a lovely vanilla scent, but it's more glittery than highlighting, and when I say glittery I mean gritty. Used sparingly to highlight the cupid bow, it's not so bad but if you want to use it all over the lip I'd be careful. Having said that, the lippy end is so lovely on its own I just tend to use it without the gloss. The lipstick lasts well, and I found I could go a good 2/3 hours between re-applications. For £3 (currently on 2 for £4 from Superdrug and muastore.co.uk) you get plenty of product, and some rather fabulous colours to choose from.

In summary, fab, longish-lasting lippy, shame about the gritty gloss! Still bargainous though...

Christina xo