Collection Review # 3: Afterglow Cosmetics Organic Infused Lip Love Lipsticks

Afterglow Cosmetics is a cruelty- and gluten-free company with high standards for ingredient safety and a proclivity for organic ingredients, as you'll see if you sneak a peak below at the ingredients for their Lip Love Lipsticks.  The two above have been part of my collection for 15 months and haven't gone through any changes in quality, texture or smell (which is to say they haven't gone bad).  

Enchant (sorry about the chunk [?!]) & Secret

As you can probably tell from the picture, these lipsticks are super creamy, and they feel very comfortable since they don't dry as they sit on the lips.  With one swipe, they go on a little sheer, but the color can be built to full opacity.  They are pretty long-wearing as well, and last time I wore one without a lip liner, it left my lips with a bit of a stain after I washed it off.  I love the sleek packaging, especially the part at the top that shows the color (this must have a name, but I certainly can't find it).

You can't really tell from the swatch, but Enchant is what Afterglow calls a shimmer; however, the little shimmery bits are so tiny that the overall effect is more of a light frost.  Enchant is a beautiful purple, a pretty even mix of red and blue, and a bit darker than it looks in my swatch.  The little bits are blue.  It would be perfect for a vampy night look, but I actually have worn it for day, keeping the other parts of my makeup look subtle to balance the boldness of the color.  Secret, a very wearable, versatile rose, is matte in that it doesn't have any frost or sparkly bits, but its creaminess creates a subtle sheen on the lips.

All of this said, will I be buying more Lip Love Lipsticks in the future? ... No.  It's all about one ingredient: beeswax.  I recently switched my diet from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan.  Even before this change, I strictly avoided ingredients derived from/produced by animals other than insects in makeup and personal care, but I never really had a "policy" when it comes to insect-derived/produced ingredients (even carmine).  I was a bit on the fence about things like beeswax, but, based on research I've done and, basically, a desire to be more of a purist, I have decided from here on out to extend my taboo on all animal products to makeup and personal care.  This doesn't mean that I will throw out all of the non-vegan products I already own; that would be far more wasteful than I could justify.  And there will still be forthcoming reviews of not-strictly-vegan products on the blog.  But it will influence my future purchases and eventually the blog will feature only vegan products.  

Ingredients: simmondsia chinensis (organic jojoba) seed oil*, barbadensis (organic aloe) leaf gel*, prunus armeniaca (apricot) kernel*, cera alba (organic beeswax)*, candelilla wax (wildcrafted), tocopherol acetate (vitamin E), vitis vinifera (organic grape seed) extract*, punica granatum (organic pomegranate seed) extract*; May contain [+/-] iron oxide (77491, 77492, 77499), mica, titanium dioxide (77891)
*certified organic