Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode has just dropped its much-hyped Peptide Lip Shapes, but can they convince our lipstick-averse beauty editor? We put them to the test…
Let me start by saying that, despite being a beauty editor for over 12 years, launches of new lip products never, ever excite me (unless it’s an untinted balm promising to cure dry lips for good). While I will sometimes reach for a clear gloss, I never wear lipstick, lip liners or even tinted lip balms as I truly think I look better without them.
However, I have been really impressed with the products from Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode (the Pocket Blushes are the best I’ve ever used), so when I saw that she was bringing out Peptide Lip Shapes, £24 – pitched as chunky, easy-to-use crayons that sculpt and contour the lips rather than precisely define them – I just had to see if they would make me change my mind. And the results totally took me by surprise…
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Pros
- Really easy to use – they glide on smoothly and you don’t need to be precise
- The three shades I tried are very flattering
- Make the lips look plumper if you overdraw them a little
- Look very natural – ideal if you don’t normally like the look of lipstick
Cons
- I find the smudging tool on the end a bit pointless
- Wear off after a few hours
- If you’re already confident at applying and wearing lipsticks and lip liners, I don’t think you’ll be a bit underwhelmed by these
Rhode Peptide Lip Shape review
On first impressions, Rhode’s Lip Shapes do seem quite unique; not a lipstick and ‘creamier and more seamless than a lip liner’, they’re enriched with skincare ingredients and designed to contour the lips rather than neatly line them, giving the effect of a fuller pout with ease. Rhode recommends drawing them on and around the lip edges then blend inwards (you can, of course, also apply them all over).
Despite hardly ever wearing any sort lip product beyond basic balm, I realised that I have unwittingly been liking the ‘contoured mouth’ look for some time; I’ll often run my favourite Victoria Beckham Contour Stylus lightly underneath my bottom lip, and one of the few lipsticks I do like is Giorgio Armani Colour Sketcher in the now-discontinued mauve-y shade 6 Nuda, which isn’t too dissimilar in design to Rhode’s. So I thought if any lip product was going to make its way into my make-up bag, it would be these.
And I was right. As someone with absolutely no skills at make-up application, it’s impossible to go wrong with these; the colours look so natural, and they glide on really smoothly with a velvety finish, before blending easily with fingers. I like to run them a millimitre over my natural lip line, and you barely even need to use a mirror.
The three colours I was sent out of the 11 – Lift, Press and Bend – were spot-on for my fair complexion. Lift is the lightest, most neutral of the bunch and the nearest to my natural lip colour, and probably the one I’ll reach for most often; it makes my mouth look subtly poutier and more defined.
I can see Press being very popular too, especially with any fans of Charlotte Tilbury’s iconic Pillow Talk lipstick; it’s a little bit deeper and pinkier than Lift, and gives a nice flushed look.
Bend is billed as ‘soft peachy beige’ and, despite looking quite warm on my hand, actually really suits me too. I can see myself reaching for this one more in summer, when my skin’s a little more golden.
My one minor downside is that I find the silicone smudger on the other end fairly useless. Rhode advises using it to diffuse the product into the centre of the lip, but I find your fingertip is better for this. Hailey demonstrates that it can also be used to neaten up edges.
Peptide Lip Shape also isn’t the cheapest lip product you’ll find, especially for one that you can’t try the shade of beforehand. However if, like me, you like the idea of a modern, fuller pout but don’t like the look and feel of traditional lipsticks, I think these are worth a try. As a lipstick-phone, this Rhode crayon has become an unexpected new favourite in my make-up bag.