Collection Review # 4: Zosimos Botanicals Lipsticks

Collection review time. I'm doing lipsticks yet again and I feel no shame (I lied, I feel shame because my lipstick collection is so very, very unnecessarily large). These barely-used lipsticks by Zosimos were among the first things I pulled from my collection when I initially started planning blog posts back in May. At the time, they had been in my collection less than 8 months, and already (spoiler alert: this is another one of these posts) two of them were rancid. I'm not sure I ever even wore them, and the third (the one that isn't bad) I only tried recently. I definitely have to accept some blame here. It's true that less than 8 months (how much less I can't say) is a short shelf life for lipstick, especially given that I never let them get exposed to heat. But if I didn't own so stupidly many lipsticks, I would actually have a chance to wear them all before they went bad. That's the downside to having such a large lipstick collection: some of them inevitably wind up forgotten. Strictly speaking, I'm not even supposed to be buying lipsticks anymore. But lipstick, man. It's like an addiction. I just bought one about a week ago, for no particular reason. It isn't even all that different from other lipsticks I own. I have a problem. 

Anyway. On to the review. 

As I said, these aren't lipsticks I tended to reach for. Now that I've actually taken the last lipstick standing, Redbud, out for a spin, I don't feel quite so bad about the others' demise. It isn't a dreadful lipstick by any means, but it's also not terrific. It has a tendency to settle into the small lines on the lips, especially when worn in a lighter layer. Some lipsticks give even, sheer color with one swipe. Some give bold, opaque color. This does neither. It goes on patchy when I try to create a sheer wash of color (at full opacity, the color makes me look strikingly like Lorde, which isn't really what I want for a day at the office). Applying it over a lip balm goes a long way to fixing this problem, but even when I go for a full-on look by building up the color, it still isn't quite even. The lipstick is pretty matte, which could be a pro or con depending on your preferences. It lasts for a decent length of time and leaves behind a stain on the lips. 

L-R: Burgundy, Redbud, Terracotta Spice 
(sorry for the sloppiness – the texture made the off ones difficult to swatch)

Naturally, the two that went bad are the ones I prefer in terms of color. Burgundy is particularly beautiful: as the name implies, it's the color of a burgundy wine. Redbud is maroon with a tiny tinge of brown and Terracotta Spice is a warm brick red. I bought all three as part of my quest for the perfect natural red lipstick (for the record, this is pretty much it, in my opinion). Prior to my greenification, my favorite red was NYX's Extra Creamy Round Lipstick in Snow White. It was deep and blue-based, but I could detect just the tiniest, barely perceptible touch of brown – basically, the perfect blood red. It also contained tasty ingredients like BHA (a likely carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, and restricted for use in cosmetics in the EU because of it) and polyethylene (plastic, just what I want to be ingesting), in addition to synthetic fragrances and delicious toxic dyes. The Zosimos lipsticks are a vast improvement, ingredients-wise, and they're vegan and gluten- and soy-free (Zosimos clearly labels every product to indicate whether or not it's vegan and also has a detailed resource page for customers who are vegan and/or have allergies). 

So, why did two of these go bad so quickly? As I said, they've never been exposed to heat in the time I've owned them. I bought them in the fall and they went into the fridge as soon as the weather got warm. Based on the ingredient lists from a few of my favorite brands for lipstick, I'm thinking the lack of vitamin E or another antioxidant to prevent rancidity, and/or the inclusion of ingredients with comparatively short shelf life might be the culprit(s). It could also be that these particular lipsticks were made a long time before I received them. 

There is a difference between the ones that went bad and the one that didn't: Redbud contains a hydrogenated oil (castor). I like to avoid hydrogenated oils in makeup (and definitely avoid them in food), but these lipsticks provide an example of why even natural companies might be tempted to use them: it lends a decidedly longer shelf life without including an ingredient that can't be labeled natural without blatant lying. 

This whole experience may very well have been a fluke, but, given that these aren't the cheapest lipsticks ($20 apiece), I don't think I'll risk buying them again.

Any Zosimos-lovers out there who've had better experiences than I did?

Burgundy & Terracotta Spice Ingredients: Organic Castor Oil; Organic Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter; Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil; Wildcrafted Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax; Organic Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Oil; Castor Wax; Organic Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil; Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Butter; Organic Macadamia Ternifolia (Macadamia) Nut Oil; Mica; Iron Oxides; Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Butter.

Redbud Ingredients: Organic Castor Oil; Organic Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter; Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil; Wildcrafted Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax; Organic Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Oil; Hydrogenated Castor Oil; Organic Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil; Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Butter; Organic Macadamia Ternifolia (Macadamia) Nut Oil; Mica; Iron Oxides; Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Butter.