[REVIEW] 3CE Mood Recipe Matte Lip Color

I’ve seen thhe 3CE Mood Recipe Matte Lip Color so often on Instagram (you probably do, too!) that I knew I had to get this if I ever stepped foot into Stylenanda Pink Hotel again.

Lo and behold, I became the proud owner of one ?

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Product Description

• Creamy texture
• Well pigmented

Official Retail Price in Singapore: SGD 13.90 (Shopee)

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Swatches

I really liked all the shades in this lippie collection – so suitable for fall, so fitting of the MLBB tag!

I was wondering if I should get the one with 5 minis (which retails for 50 000 won in Korea) but instead settled on a full-sized #221 Mellow Flower.

Review

Packaging

The surface of the packaging is smooth, and it comes in a cuboid shape, which is quite unique because most of my lip products come in a cylindrical packaging. It looks and feels quite luxurious, and does not give a cheap, plasticky feel.

Colour

Look at how gorgeous the lipstick (and the colour) is! The lipstick itself looks like a terracotta red that reminds you of autumn, but in reality, it comes off as a beautiful dried rose pink.

Colour payoff & intensity

The colour application is not as smooth and its payoff not as great as I would have expected from photographs I have seen of the Stylenanda models on Instagram, which is slightly disappointing. It takes me a few swipes to get a really nice and even colour.

Texture

I’ve heard countless horror stories from friends about how drying 3CE’s matte lipsticks are, which was probably one of the reasons I refrained from buying it even though the shades all looked so lovely.

When I finally got around to using it, I realised how unfounded all these stories were. The lipstick applied matte all right (it should anyway!), but it felt comfortable enough without me feeling like my lips were going to peel off into tiny coloured pieces (it’s happened to me before with some other matte products, unfortunately).

Staying power

When it comes to staying power, matte lipsticks usually hold up quite well, and I think the performance of this 3CE lip product is fairly ok. It lasted through one meal and a few hours after, but mostly just left with faint traces of colour, so don’t expect to still have a full lip look after a hearty meal.

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Final Verdict

My only regret about this is not buying more shades when I was in Korea because I realized that I couldn’t get it from Singapore’s Sephora stores only after I got back. I’m actually really surprised that they don’t stock it in Sephora because it’s one of their best-selling items.

I love the colour, period. I know a lot of brands have been jumping onboard the MLBB/autumn lip trend recently, but I would go so far as to say that 3CE has been one of the true pioneers of this trend. The quality is not as bad as people sometimes lament, the colours are extremely gorgeous, and the only thing I would really find issue with is the colour payoff. However, I think it is a problem that can be solved by a few more applications.

3CE, please stock this in Singapore’s Sephora!!!

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Rating

Colour payoff: ???
Ease of use: ???
Staying power: ????
Value for money: ????