Smasbox Be Legendary Long-Wear Lip Lacquer In Bordeaux

I'll start with the bottom line: Smasbox Be Legendary Long-Wear Lip Lacquer is the most impressive lip product I've come across in ages, putting it (for me) in the same category with Ellis Faas Hot Lips, but perhaps even better. There are several lip lacquers on the market these days, and I probably like most of them (Shiseido comes to mind), but Smashbox Be Legendary takes things a step further in terms of formula (rich and nourishing) and an unparalleled longevity: the stain remains fully in place throughout the day, lunch, cake, snack, dinner, several cups of tea, and a late-night bread pudding (don't ask). Then I have to use a(n eye) makeup cleanser to take off what remains.

It's that good.

I was sent the one in Bordeaux as an example of Smashbox doing the Marsala trend. It's a beautiful rich blood-red color, regardless of Pantone and other crazes. I tend to cringe at the "color of the year" thing. The best way to make me avoid something is by telling me that everyone is wearing/buying/doing it, but unlike the vile Radiant Orchid from last year, this is a shade I can fully embrace. It's dark, indeed, but not quite vampy and not overdone. There's something about this particular color that makes it wearable even in a casual/daytime setting. But it could be just me and my love of reds.

The texture is miraculously not sticky, the scent is so faint you need to practically stick the applicator up your nose to smell it, there's no taste, and the feeling it leaves behind is smooth and soft (including on a blistering winter day when the temperatures are in the low single digits).

There are twenty shades in Smasbox Be Legendary Long-Wear Lip Lacquer range, and while not all of them are this complex (or in my ballpark of colors I can and want to wear), my wish list has just gained about four or five new ones.

Bottom Line: see above.

Smasbox Be Legendary Long-Wear Lip Lacquer ($24) is available at Sephora and from smashbox.com. The product for this review was sent by PR.