Lonely Planet Co, the Sequel: Strange Obsession, New Pleasure & Starr

New Pleasure, Strange Obsession* and Starr liquid lipsticks from Lonely Planet Co

*Strange Obsession was given to me as a gift in an order along with another color, Pet Cemetary, and a thank-you note telling me they enjoyed my last blog post. I also was given some cute handmade earrings (wearing them in that photo) by the owner's mother too! I was not given these with any sort of implicit implication I'd be obligated to review them or anything of the sort, but I still want to note that this particular color was a gift. Starr and New Pleasure were purchased myself without any special discounts or circumstances.

I still haven't seen the sun very much lately. That's a bad excuse, I know, but it does tend to complicate things a bit when you largely prefer to photograph in natural light and our Winter Sad-B-Gone lamp doesn't quite cut it as well as the real stuff.

I got smiled on about two weeks ago, though. "Is that sun??" I said in disbelief as we left the cafeteria. "Holy shit that's the sun! That's totally the sun!!"

Winter here kinda makes you react to the sun like a person reacts to spotting Brad Pitt at the grocery store.

Anyways, long story short I ran home and used the last precious half hour of sunlight I had to do what I wanted: swatch up some good stuff.

Lonely Planet Co Strange Obsession, New Pleasure and Starr in natural light.

Better shot of Starr. These are always so smooth!

Thank you sun.

If you'd like a better rundown of the formula, you can find that here in my first review of these! I do find some of these, like New Pleasure and Strange Obsession, can be a little more runny, but Starr and other darker colors like Brick City are a bit stiffer and more mousse-like. These go on creamy and dry down matte but still retain a slight moisturizing feel to them underneath. They also have a light vanilla frosting scent that dissipates fairly quickly.

New Pleasure is pinker and more muted here than you'd expect going off of their etsy listing. I think their etsy swatch throws people off a little, because it looks a smidge brighter and more purple there, which is why I honestly recommend searching instagram for swatches of these before you buy. I love Lonely Planet because of their muted colors, but I think the muted nature of them naturally makes them difficult to pinpoint with just one swatch to go off of, since they're affected a lot of times by lip pigmentation, skin tone and other factors. I wouldn't say their etsy swatches are inaccurate, because at the end of the day they are actual photographs of the colors and not photoshopped representations, just that there are about twenty bajillion things that can affect the appearance of a color in a photo vs in real life

Wearing Strange Obsession in natural light.
Crooked glasses, whoops!

Strange Obsession is a taupe color with slightly grey and purple tones to it. It's a nice take on the greige lip trend, which is pretty much my favorite lip trend of all time honestly. It is a little sheer on the first coat, so I recommend just going back in with a little more product if you want very opaque color, but overall getting it to opacity is not challenging at all.

Do you like my kitchen? I love my kitchen.

New Pleasure in natural light.

New Pleasure is a mauve-y plum color that is, quite honestly, my favorite. I say a lot of things are my favorite, but out of my current Lonely Planet lipsticks this one is actually, really my favorite. It's got just the right balance of muted pink and purple tones for me, and I love it double over a mauve lipliner (my current go-to is Wild Rose Lipliner in shade 2 from Lumene). This one is a bit more liquid-y like Strange Obsession and will require maybe an extra wand pull for true opacity, but on my lips the sheerness doesn't look overly weird or patchy if I only go for one coat.

I love that one curl of hair that's always trying to escape.

Starr in natural light.

Starr is a deep, dark brown with a slightly red undertone, but not too red that it pulls more dark red or burgundy than true brown. This is one that I'd recommend a brown or nude lipliner under just to tighten it up, but other than that despite being so dark it's very easy to achieve full opacity with about two coats, and there's very minimal issues with patchiness or that weird semi-transparent line of color you get around the rim of your lips, if you know what I mean. Like when you try and get a dark color on the cupids bow but then when you close your mouth some of it transfers so you have a solid line at the rim but it's patchy below that? Yeah, none of that here, which is good. This shade also looks great on a variety of skin colors.

I continue to really love this brand's color range for more unique muted shades, though like I advised above, checking instagram is a really good idea to get a feel on how a color will translate irl. They've become my go-to company when I want a more toned-down mauve/nude/brown shade in a liquid matte formula. I actually play roulette with these, because I keep like five of them in my purse. (Starr is the only one that doesn't go in there, because the darkness requires a bit more methodical application.) Mid-day if I haven't applied lipstick yet and I'm feelin' it I'll reach in, grab one, and that is the day's victor. They're all so easy to wear and flattering that I have zero fear.

Overall, there are no duds here. I own around seven of Lonely Planet Co's lip products now and I haven't come across a dud yet! They have consistent quality with shades that are easy to build to opacity, and the staying power is surprisingly strong despite their slightly more wet feel on the lips, which usually indicates transfer city. If you really want a creamier liquid lipstick or one that's not as drying as traditional formulas, this is totally my pick.


Where to buy: Lonely Planet Co on Etsy.