Blac Chyna's lip glosses are a style game changer for women of color
LatestIn only three years, Blac Chyna’s star has risen. She’s gone from rapper Tyga’s fiancée and Kim Kardashian’s close friend to Amber Rose’s bestie and Rob Kardashian’s fiancée and future mother of his child. Headlines have shifted from questions about who she even is to what her latest hairstyle is, accompanied by think pieces about whether her relationship with Rob will last.
Yet one thing has remained the same. For as long as Blac Chyna (soon to be Angela Kardashian) has been in the public eye, her face has always been beat—full arched brows, enviable eyelashes, flawless skin, sun-kissed contoured cheekbones, and popping lip colors.
Blac Chyna also has her own line of cosmetic products (a salon and spa in Calabasas) called Lashed by Blac Chyna, through which she sells lashes, skin care products and liquid lipsticks online.
While some have said that Blac Chyna is copying Kylie Jenner, she actually both dated rapper Tyga and launched her cosmetics line (2014) before the young Jenner. And while Kylie’s lip kits—which include a matte lipstick and matching lip liner—are featured on all the mainstream beauty blogs and sell out within minutes, they carry a hefty price tag ($29.99), not to mention that the quality of her new formula has been questioned.
Blac Chyna is trying to reach mogul status: Owning your own business is a key step. With intense shades like hot pink and orange, her lip colors are a shoe-in choice for women of color in a beauty world that doesn’t always look out for them. Add Lashed by Blac Chyna to the list of other makeup brands that make lip shades with black women in mind, like Ka’Oir Cosmetics, MDMflow, and Beauty Bakerie. Her liquid lipsticks are also downright affordable at $11.99, so it’s easy to pick up multiple colors.
In my quest to become more commanding like Blac Chyna—and not twiddle my thumbs waiting for the release of her inevitable tell-all book, which I’ve titled How to Get Revenge and Win Friends—I decided to try her Lashed by Blac Chyna liquid lipsticks for a week.
In doing so I learned two things: 1. Never doubt Blac Chyna. 2. Lip liners are important.
The first thing I noticed about Blac Chyna’s liquid lipsticks is the texture. On the first day I tried the Electric Pink shade and I ended up applying way too much. The website says that you can get full coverage of the lip color with “one easy swipe,” and I didn’t believe them. After over-applying the lipstick, I was proven wrong. My lips immediately began to smudge and the wind outside blew my hair into my sticky lips, smearing Electric Pink all over my face.
Long story short: I looked insane. Before giving up, I reread the directions on the website, re-applied, and fell in love. The consistency of the lipstick is creamy and thick enough so that you don’t actually need to double dip when applying. The highly pigmented colors give a nice luster (due to the Japanese sumac wax ingredient), but not to the point where you think you’re wearing Lancôme Juicy Tubes circa 2002. People lie—and beauty products do, too—but not Blac Chyna.
The second thing I noticed about the liquid lipsticks is their moisturizing properties. Usually I have to add a dab of salve to moisturize my lips before applying lipstick. But when I applied Cherry Bomb, I didn’t need to add the extra step. The lipstick contains vitamins C and E and Actiphyte of Myrrh. It was like getting a 2 for 1: lip balm and lipstick. I decided to wear the same bright red lipstick out for drinks with friends the next night. And while I left with no leather jacket (some rude, rude person stole it), I did leave with moisturized lips. And like Blac Chyna, the lipstick isn’t going anywhere. Even after (I can’t really recall the number) of drinks, the color still stayed on strong.
I have always been anti-lip liner, partly because I’m lazy and partly because I don’t have a steady hand (that’s also why I just learned how to do winged eyeliner last year). But I joined the lip liner fan club when I was applying the Haute Cocoa color. In the bottle, the pinky-brown color is beautiful, but once I applied it to my lips, it washed out my face because there wasn’t any definition. I ended up reading the directions on the site yet again and saw that it specifically instructs you to line your lips first with a “doe foot applicator tip” and then fill in. I tried that by using the Haute Cocoa to line my lips and then filling them in and the color looked slightly better. Then I just went all out and got a brown lip liner from Sephora, and after that? Magic. I am now a supporter of lip liners forever and even bought two more to match my other colors.
Thank you, Blac Chyna, for showing me the light and keeping my lips popping and hydrated.
In Lashed, I have found my go-to line of liquid lipsticks for the summer. Nudes and bright colors are harder to find for my dark complexion. I always have to end up mixing colors together to find the right one. But now, thanks to Blac Chyna (and a host of other up-and-coming makeup lines producing intense pigments for women of color), the task of finding a fun color or one to match my skin tone isn’t as daunting. Electric Pink is for me.
I’m now one step closer to making like Blac Chyna and getting what’s mine (read: respect, adoration, good makeup skills).
Tahirah Hairston is a style writer from Detroit who likes Susan Miller, Rihanna’s friend’s Instagram accounts, ramen and ugly-but cute shoes.