Maybelline Color Whisper, Petal Rebel

After coming across this image on Tumblr and falling in love with the makeup I was determined to find a lip product that would achieve a similar look. A lipstick seems too heavy, and none of my lip butters looked quite right, but I found my solution in the new Maybelline Color Whisper in Petal Rebel. Though not quite as light and nude as the inspiration photo, it gives the same sort of soft finish to the lips and for once lightens them without completely looking made up with lipstick! Petal Rebel, I must admit, is a bit scary looking neon pink in the tube (my friend gasped when she saw me open the cap), but tones down when it's on the lips to add a light pink glow to the lips. Sadly my little point-and-shoot doesn't quite have the quality to capture the true color but I've added a little color swatch so you can see how actually bright it is. It is the color that the model wears in the ad, and to be honest it's not quite as bright but still a very pretty petal pink. It's not completely opaque (which I like for this formula) but does give a good amount of color and lightens my lips which is a plus because that's what I initially expected.

Formulation wise I think everyone's questions when this first came out was "How similar are these to the Revlon lip butters?" In terms of the general idea of a pigmented moisturizing lip cream in a tube they are quite similar in theory, however once put to use I immediately noticed a difference. The Color Whisper is definitely a lighter formula - more slick, you could say - whereas the lip butters feel a bit heavy in comparison. The color payoff is definitely not as opaque as the lip butters but the Color Whisper leaves sort of a film (and I don't mean that in a bad way) that sets into my lips, so it doesn't slip and slide everywhere but does moisturize as it soaks in. It leaves my lips looking supple and a nice light bright pink color for about 4 hours until I reapply. I also notices that it kind of tastes slash smells a bit like sweet Earl Gray macaroons... Just me? No? Well I'm not complaining, hehe. Overall I'm quite pleased with this! It's different enough from the lip butters that I can justify carrying both around, and is a nice light burst of shine when I want to look a bit livelier and go for a cute (v. sophisticated) look. Have you tried a Color Whisper before -- and if so, what do you think?