The original version of Ilia Beauty’s lipsticks were beautiful and highly pigmented in the first place, so it’ll be interesting to see if any changes they’ve made will improve an already good formula.

The first thing I noticed about the ingredients list of the Colour Block High Impact Lipstick, is that it’s grown substantially from the previous one. It’s packed full of more nourishing butters and oils like apricot kernel oil, mango seed butter and raspberry seed oil. They’ve omitted beeswax, which now makes this vegan. The only down side I can see is that now only the castor seed oil is noted as organic, whereas the previous lipstick was 85% organic.

Expiration is a typical 12 months after opening and they retail for $28.00 USD for 4g or 0.14oz. For Australians they’re available at Mecca Cosmetica for $43.00 AUD and since I last checked they stock testers of all the first 12 shades released. I know Ilia Beauty have since created another 4 but I haven’t been able to find them here.

Ingredients:

They haven’t changed their packaging and I’m happy about that, considering the matte silvery grey was so pretty to begin with.They’ve removed the sweet scent that I could only just make out in the original version. In terms of opacity and texture they’re equally as creamy and strongly pigmented as the original. The major difference is their staying power. Flame, Tango, Knockout, Rumba & Ultra Violet have a shockingly strong, deep pink undertone that stains and will stay through daily wear. You know you’ll be covered for the entire day, maybe even through to your end of the day makeup cleanse. I struggled to scrub my lips clean with a wash cloth!

Grenadine, Flame, Tango, Knockout, Rumba & Ultra Violet

Grenadine

My favourite kind of red … Softer than a true red because of the hint warmth and a pink undertone. This one doesn’t stain as strongly as the rest. I’m glad I purchased a full size of this one, as it’s my favourite.

Flame

A bright, warm red that feels a little glossier than the other shades.

Tango

A deeper red with more balanced undertones than Flame or Grenadine.

Knockout

A bold magenta that will suit many skin tones as the blue undertone isn’t too dominant.

Rumba

I think this is the replacement to Lucy’s Party from the original collection and I have to admit, I preferred that one. I have no doubt it’s hard to create and they nailed it with that one. This is a beautiful deep oxblood but it’s just not quite the same.

Ultra Violet

It wasn’t until I removed this vibrant purple that I saw the ultra fine blue shimmer. It’s hardly detectable but does give this shade an interesting edge to other purples I’ve tried. Another thing I liked is that this is probably one of the smoother, with more even coverage purples I’ve tried. It’s a super hard one to formulate, so they’ve done well!

Final Word

I’m definitely happy that the scent is gone. I understand why they’ve updated the formula so it’s suitable for vegans, I just would have hoped they’d been able to keep the same amount of organic ingredients. That said I still think Ilia Beauty are still one of the stronger companies when it comes to clean beauty in terms of effectiveness, branding and everything else that comes in the industry.

If I’m going to try and compare from the original to these, performance wise they’re very similar other than the staining. I only tried one of their darker shades from the previous range but I don’t remember it staining as strongly, so that aspect has definitely improved.

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