This spring brought us two jewel-toned lip looks that were seriously striking: Joan Smalls’ amethyst pout at the Met ball in Manhattan (seen below) and Rihanna’s emerald mouth at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in L.A. Ever since, my seatmate, fellow lipstick lover, and Style.com’s social media editor, Rachel Walgrove, and I have tried tracking down similar tubes to no avail. Today, however, we discovered the holy grail of offbeat, opaque colors: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics “Unknown Pleasures” Lip Tars. Our favorites from the range that dropped online today: Vain (a dark indigo with green undertones reminiscent of RiRi); Technopagan (a metallic purple bordering on navy that’s the closest thing we’ve found to Smalls’ shocking violet); Pagan (a blackened plum comparable to another makeup move the model and Style.com/Print cover girl made last year); Covet (a camel color that has normcore written all over it); and Manhunter (a glittery red that is the next best thing to Saint Laurent’s ruby slippers). Commitment-phobes, be warned, these matte, liquid formulas have serious staying power and pack a major punch of pigment that practically requires paint solvent to take off, but our motto when it comes to mouthing off: Go big or go home.
$18 each; occmakeup.com
