Review: Loreal Shine Caresse Wet Shine Stain

Everyone seems to be talking about these, particularly because there are a lot of claims that this is a dupe to the YSL Glossy Stains. I’ve never tried any of the glossy stains and for me to purchase something from YSL it has to be a product I’ve been coveting for a while and can’t get out of my mind. The glossy stains just didn’t seem to have that kind of appeal for me, but when I saw the Loreal version in the drugstore a month ago I figured why not.

I picked up number 188 Coral Tattoo. They come in small little containers with a doe-foot applicator that has a hole in the center (0.2 oz, $10). Apparently this is so the applicator can pick up more product, which in this case seems sort of necessary. On first swipe across the lips it feels super wet and has a really pale, sheer color. This color slightly resembles the color of the product that you can see in the see-through panel that comes on the packaging. However, its a pretty sheered out version. So, I figured I’d apply some more layers to see if the color was buildable. Good news, its definitely buildable. Bad news, it looks nothing like the color of the product itself. Instead of a pretty pinky-coral, I got an intensely bright glossy orange. Now, I have nothing against orange, but in my mind I was definitely expecting a pretty coral and was thoroughly disappointed that what I purchased was nothing like that. The finish is extremely glossy and is fairly transfer resistant. Once it “sets” it feels just slightly tacky on the lips but isn’t uncomfortable. I don’t find that this product stains my lips, but the color lasts for a few hours typical of most glosses.

Overall, this was okay. I’m probably not going to be picking up any other colors just because it’s a wildcard as to what the color will turn out to actually be and there’s no way to swatch these in the drugstore. Also, the name implies a staining property which I just don’t think it had. I can purchase drugstore glosses with the same opacity and shine without worrying about whether they will be true to bottle color. Based on this, I’m probably not going to be trying out the YSL version either unless a swatch somewhere really blows my mind.

Photos of Products and Swatches!