Rocking Rockalily Mae Hem

Some times you discover a brand that is so achingly cool you naturally assume that there's no way the products can really live up to the hype. Well, not this one.

Image used by kind permission of Rockalily. How beautiful is the model, Banbury Cross?!

Rockalily was set up by ReeRee to create lipsticks that really hit the spot when she couldn't find what she wanted already on the market. When you buy a red lippy, you want it to be the right texture, shade and finish and most of us know that's often hard to find. When I discovered Rockalily - somehow through the wonders of the interwebs and probably Twitter - I really wanted to try the products but couldn't quite bring myself to part with £14 for a lippy I didn't know much about and couldn't try before buying - currently Rockalily is only available online and at The Powder Rooms in Soho. So when Christmas rolled around, I got a lovely surprise in the form of a limited edition shade Mae Hem! (Not a huge surprise since I sent Mr BB the link to buy it... he did wrap it cleverly so it wasn't lipstick-shaped so a surprise nonetheless!)

Rockalily lipsticks usually come in four core shades but there have been a few limited edition shades (more about that at the end of this post!). I think the introduction of this shade was bound to push me into purchasing my first Rockalily lippy - Christmas or not. It is everything I want in a shade. It's so hard to find the right coral lipstick that isn't just plain old orange.

Here's my top-down review, starting with the packaging. Rockalily lipsticks come in a black envelope emblazoned with the mantra: 'Life is too short not to wear lipstick'. My sentiments exactly. I love the fact ReeRee goes to the effort of choosing envelopes that are just that bit different - it's the little things!

The box and the bullet are good quality and beautifully designed - every girl knows the packaging is important right? The bullet is a smooth matte black and a sort of satisfying shape and size - you feel like you've gotten a serious product for your money! This was a really pleasant surprise for me. I expected such a small brand to just not be up to the standards of your MACs and Illamasquas, perhaps I'm stereotyping here but I just kind of expected a lower quality of packaging.

Before I go on to the product itself, I have to mention two little things about the packaging that really make the product that bit more unique. The box cleverly has a circle cut out of the bottom so you can see through makes the box a bit different and I would imagine helps Rockalily to be able to produce limited edition shades without spending a lot on small print runs for each shade. Clever and edgy!

The other twist on the design I like is the tip of the lipstick itself. This is a really tiny thing but I've never seen a lipstick like it. The tip of the product is really small compared to a standard lipstick. I have no idea why or if it's significant, I just like it because it's a little bit different!

So here's Mae Hem in all it's wondrous glory.

I can safely say I love everything about it. It is a creamy matte coral-red which applies like a dream. You can apply it straight from the bullet without too much effort or faffing about with a brush - I wonder if the small tip helps with that...? It's easy to wear without a lipliner, it doesn't bleed and it stays on for hours. I put this on in my excitement just before lunch on Christmas day (not before I had taken pictures of it obviously...), and it was still there several glasses of bubbly, one huge Christmas dinner and a Christmas pudding later. Awesome. 

Rockalily Mae Hem - left: lightly swatched once, right: heavily swatched once

The shade is orangey without being obviously orange which is what I look for in a coral shade. As it's a limited edition which technically hasn't been released yet, there is no proper description but ReeRee calls it: 'a creamy matte, and is an orange red shade, in a fabulously fully pigmented lipstick.' And that it is. 

Here's a scary shot of me wearing it...

A few more Mae Hem facts:

- It's named after Mae West, a bit of a sex symbol and trailblazer for women in the early 1900s.

- Like all Rockalily lipsticks, it is not tested on animals and doesn't contain parabens.

- There is no official release date yet but you can buy it from Rockalily here. It costs £14 plus p&p.

- If you like bold lipsticks, you need this one.

So what do you think of Mae Hem? Or have you got another Rockalily favourite? I've already pre-ordered new limited edition shade ZOMG! from ReeRee's pre-order list here. I'm also going along to the ZOMG bloggers' bash next week. If you're coming, let me know so I can say hi! xx