Recently on a little jaunt to the new Marshalls and Homesense that opened near me - SUPER EXCITING! - I saw the City Color Collection Decadent Kiss Mauve Lip Trio and I was intrigued enough that I just had to pick it up. I've found some real winners from City Color in the past, particularly their matte blushes, so when I see something from the brand that looks really interesting to me, I just have to grab it. I've actually found some really great products at Winners and Marshalls by taking a chance on smaller brands, so I definitely think it's sometimes worth it to just pick up the things that look interesting. 

Anyway, to see what I think about this collection, keep reading!

The thing that jumped out at me most about the set was obviously the colour. On my skintone, one of the most flattering shades is definitely mauve, so I tend to have quite a lot of mauve lip products and when I buy them I know that they're the ones I'm most likely to actually use. This set contains a lip liner, a lip cream, and a matte lipstick. I figured that getting to try all three formulas from the brand for around $6 was a pretty great deal. 

City Color Collection Mauve Matte Lipstick

I've actually tried a matte lipstick from City Color in the past, but that one was definitely too dry and pulled quite a bit on my lips so I decluttered it a while back - I think! Because of that, I didn't have the highest of hopes for this lipstick, but I did actually find the formula of this lipstick to be a little better than that one. Now, don't get me wrong, this is definitely more of an old school matte lipstick formula that doesn't have the creaminess and slip of the more modern silicone based matte lipsticks, but I do find that this one doesn't pull too badly on my lips. Unfortunately, this still isn't my favorite formula. I find that it can be a little bit of work to get a smooth, even application of the colour and it does start to feel quite dry on my lips quite quickly. The wear time is good and ultimately I managed to get a good look on the lips, but this just isn't something that I think I'll really reach for that often. 

I wasn't sure what to expect with this, because I wasn't sure if it was going to be matte or creamy, but it's actually somewhere in between. It applies really smoothly and feels creamy and it doesn't set, but when I press my lips together as I'm wearing it, there's almost a powdery texture mixed in with the creaminess that's a little bit foreign to me. It's not super dense with pigment, but I did find that I could easily get full coverage on my lips and I didn't really experience any bleeding. I also found that this left behind a pretty obvious stain on my lips as the product wore away and I thought it was a pretty colour. Unfortunately, I just didn't like the feel of this on my lips. It was a little bit thin, a little bit strange in texture, and as it wore it ended up feeling a little bit dry. Now, I will say that I've never been a big fan of this type of product, so this could be a great product for someone who likes a matte liquid lipstick that doesn't set and leaves a stain behind on the lips, but I'm not sure!

By far, this lip liner is my favorite part of this collection and the one I've been putting to the most use. The shade is really perfect for a lot of neutral lip looks that I do, which makes it a good staple lip liner. I also really like the formula, which is really creamy to apply but sets quite well to help extend to wear of other lip products that might disappear a little bit more quickly than I might like. Because I like this lip liner so much, I'm actually planning on keeping my eye out for City Color to put out a set of just lip liners, which I would absolutely happily buy. 

As you can see in the swatches, there are slight variations in colour but all three do fall firmly into that warm rosy mauve tone. This definitely isn't a grey or blue based mauve, so if you're looking for a more cool toned lip this probably isn't for you. I'd also say that all three of these shades pair really well together, so it would be easy to pair them for different lip looks. 

Even though overall this wasn't an out of the park set for me, for the $5.99 I paid I'm definitely happy that I tried it out. I think that the formulas of the two all over lip products just weren't to my personal taste, but they'd definitely have fans in people who like those particular types of formulas. For me, the real winner is the lip liner and I'm really, really hoping that I get the chance to get my hands on more of them soon! 

Have you tried any of these small City Color product sets? If you've had success with them, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!