Ever since I was a kid, I've hoarded lip balms and lip glosses, and as I got older, lip sticks and stains. There's never enough flavours or scents, textures, shimmer or colour to keep me satisfied. But there's one product that eluded me until recently - OCC Lip Tar!

For the uninitiated, OCC Lip Tar is a highly pigmented, paraben-free, vegan and cruelty-free liquid lipstick. It's fantastically popular with make-up artists, bloggers and fashionistas because of the variety of shades, styles and colours, and its fantastic formula. You can buy anything from a soft, slight pink, to a classic red, to a futuristic metallic blue. You can view the colours on their site.

I'd heard so many good things about the brand that during my last big Sephora trip (a VIB Rouge event with Keri from Oh My Swatch!) I made sure to grab a small two-pack by the cash. My kit came with a mini of Lovecraft, the pink/lilac metallic featured in this post, and a mini of Pretty Boy, a rich, bright fuschia!

So here I am wearing ONE small coat of Lovecraft in natural daylight after using the OCC Lip Primer. I put the lip primer on while I did my face and let it dry before applying the Lovecraft. I've noticed that if you put on the lip tar too soon after the primer, it doesn't settle and slides around a bit.

Lovecraft is a good colour because the lilac/pink is a bit different, it's got a bit of shimmer, and it can be built upon to attract even more attention. My next test will be building Lovecraft on top of Pretty Boy!

How long did it last?

This lip tar lasted through a Davids Tea, gelato, Indian food and a beer... but then it was gone. That said, I went for a more subtle look with it, I could've built another layer on top to last a bit longer.

So far I've really liked both my lip tars, but I think I need to try them with different primers to see how they stain vs. how they stay on the lips. Pretty Boy made a nice stain, but Lovecraft almost disappeared once it wore away. That could simply be the difference between the matte and metallic formulas but I won't know until I test it out a bit.

I did notice that the metallic Lovecraft was slightly drying in comparison to the matte Pretty Boy, despite using primer for both of them.

Do you have any OCC Lip Tar? What's your favourite shade, because I need more!