I have been a Lipstick Queen: Poppy King enthusiast since the Belle of Brockley discovered her products in the early ’90s – Poppy King brought passion, matte red, and drop-dead glam to the beauty market at a time when ‘nude and natural’ was all the rage. Poppy King’s lipsticks were a ray of light in a dull decade, and helped to make Space NK a destination shop. Then Poppy King products became hard to find. The brand gradually dropped from my consciousness until a few years ago, when the Belle gave me a Lipstick Queen Saint Natural, which she had discovered on QVC. Poppy King was back! And my pout was all the better for her return.
The Belle and I watched with interest as new products appeared in Space NK and QVC, and I opened my wallet with alacrity a couple of years ago when Poppy partnered with Boots No. 7 to produce a limited edition range of lipsticks and lip pencils. Poppy King expertise (and all excellently named) available for just over a tenner and often on at 3 for 2! I plumped for Power (pictured below right with Lipstick Queen Saint Natural), whilst the Belle went for Intrigue and Confidence.
This spring, the cry rang round the houses: Lipstick Queen have a concession at Selfridges (pictured left)! And Poppy King will be there to read your lips and find you the perfect colour!
The Belle and I were down there like a shot.
Meeting your heroes in the flesh is always a little nerve-racking, but Poppy is lovely. Friendly, funny and very glam, she is the best possible guide to her product range. And what a range it is …
The heart of the range are the lipsticks (pictured left), available in 20 shades. Each shade is available as a Sinner (a rich, matte opaque with 90% pigment) or a Saint (a sheer, natural lipstick with 10% pigment). There are also five ‘Butterfly Ball’ lipsticks, which are iridescent, shimmering shades. Alongside these, Lipstick Queen offer lip liners, lip pencils, glosses for cheeks and lips, and highly covetable gift sets and limited editions.
The Belle and I knew we loved the Saints and the Sinners, but we’d dismissed the Butterfly Ball colours, not being girls into glimmer. How wrong we were! Poppy showed us how layering a Butterfly Ball with a Saint or a Sinner created extra dimension, a sneaky and subtle hit of wow. I’ve never gone in for layering lipstick before, but now I have been converted. I especially like to add the iridescence in the centre of the lip, geisha style, before whacking the main attraction on top.
With most lipstick ranges, what you see in the bullet is close to what you see on the lips, but this is not the case with Lipstick Queen – some of the colours work very differently on the skin, and if you can give yourself time to experiment, you will find the absolutely perfect shade for you. Poppy showed us a number of colours and combinations that worked for us: each one she applied looked great, but – like the magician of lipstick that she is – for each of us, she saved the very best shade until last.
That Very Best Shade will be the one that suddenly brings you into focus: intensifies your eye colour, brings a flush to your cheek and a disbelieving, delighted smile to your Lipstick Queened lips. It’s there, somewhere in the stand. If you can make it to Selfridges, to try before you buy, then do – and give yourself lots of time! The Lipstick Queen concession is thoughtfully fitted out with a dressing table, and I advise you to use it; really play around with the colours and try things on your lips, not just your wrists.
And if you think you can’t wear matte or strong colour, because it’s too drying, or you don’t have time in the day to keep re-applying? NOT the case with Lipstick Queen. The lipsticks are made with shea butter, and even the densest mattes are comfortable and easy to wear. Lipstick Queen is so moisturising that I wore it through the iciest days of last winter, when the weather was so harsh that a sun-block stick applied skier style might have seemed a more appropriate choice. Also, if you aren’t one for frequent touch-ups, I can testify that they fade in a flattering and even way, so you need not fear ending a busy day with an unsightly ring of colour around your lip-line.
When I asked the Nolita Lolita if, as an NYC beauty, she was familiar with Lipstick Queen, she immediately emailed me some pictures of her much-loved Chinatown pencil (below right) and Medieval lipstick (left), and asked me to send her regards to the brand, saying: “Perfect shades and textures. And they don’t have any smell or taste. I hate lip products that smell. I think there actually may have been a gap around 10 or 15 years ago when I couldn’t find them. But I used heavy, darker colors back in the ’90s. And I remember they had nice shades back then too. I would put the heavy lipstick on and then wipe it off leaving a stain.”
That quote from the Nolita Lolita demonstrates the kind of loyalty that we Lipstick Queens have for Poppy King’s products. They really are a cult buy – and you feel kinship towards your Lipstick Queen sisters. If someone pulls out a CHANEL lip stick in front of me, I have a passing interest in what shade she has chosen, but I wouldn’t dream of making conversation about it. But, if I spy the matt gold case of a Saint, or the matt black tube of a Sinner – I’m going to ask : “Ooh, which shade is that?”, secure in the knowledge I’m talking to a woman of taste and a fellow seeker of pout perfection.
When fabulous PR Rainy Dias gave me a Saint in Pink and a Sinner in Deep Red, I knew that once I’d recovered from swooning over the packaging, and given them a try myself (swatched left), I needed to test them both on beauties who had no pre-conceptions about the brand.
Diana volunteered her hand for swatching purposes (right) – as you can see, the 10% pigment Saint Pink gives only a hint of shimmery gleam against Diana’s skin, and the 90% pigment Sinner Deep Red is a much softer shade on her than it is on me. Diana gave the Sinner Deep Red a try on her lips, and although it looked pretty, it was not The One – she clearly needed a hotter, brighter red and perhaps a hint of shimmer …
Angel however? Angel (left) fell in love with the Sinner Deep Red, as it did with her. On me, Sinner Deep Red is a brazen, blatant blaze of colour, that has a wiggle in its metaphorical walk and says “Come Get Me!” On Angel, Sinner Deep Red has elegance and depth – it’s sexy, but subtle and poised, and says “Naturally you’ll want to try … if you think you have a chance.”
Anna (right) hardly ever wears make-up, but was intrigued enough to try Lipstick Queen. Once the Saint Pink was applied, it became clear that sheer luck had matched Anna with The One. A room full of talkative East End mums broke off their conversations and ‘ooh’ed as one. We all think Anna is naturally lovely, but the Saint Pink, all by itself, with no foundation or extra slap to do any heavy lifting, looked gorgeous. The test of the best lipstick is does it look marvellous on your bare face – that’s how you know you have found the shade that loves you for yourself. Anna went off to Pellicci’s to try it in front of a live audience, as it were, and came back reporting that everyone had loved it on her.
With a RRP of £18 a lipstick (at the time of writing), Lipstick Queen is a thoughtful purchase, not a bung-it-in-the-basket and think-about-it-later one. I think the proof of just how great these lipsticks are, and well worth investing in, is that I was handed cash by Angel and Anna (neither of them beauty loons like me, given to impulse purchases) and sent off to Selfridges to buy them each their own Lipstick Queen Sinner Deep Red and Saint Pink. I can now add Personal Shopper to my Linked-In profile!
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You can visit Selfridges, Bond St., London, W1, or Space NK stores to discover just which Lipstick Queen is right for you. You can also buy online at Selfridges or Space NK.
Don’t have a physical retailer handy and prefer not to shop online? Lipstick Queen is also available through the wonderful medium that is QVC! Poppy King also makes appearances on QVC, so keep your eyes peeled for those.
You can also shop at the Lipstick Queen website. If you’re a Beauty Virgin, like Anna, you can click here to find the Saints. If you’re a Beauty who is confident with strong colour, like Angel, then click here to find the Sinners. And if you’re a Beauty Trollop, like me, head to the home page and then look at EVERYTHING.
Oh, and if you’re after a physical US stockist, then comment below and I’ll ask the Nolita Lolita!
