The Hunt For The Perfect Lipstick: Estee Lauder Electric Intense Lip Creme, #726 ("Fury")

Sometimes, after experimenting with new choices, it's best to go back to old standbys. Though I love trying out the new brands on the market--AWAKE, Napoleon Perdis, InsertHotMakeupBrandHere--I'm reminded every so often that the reason such brands as Estée Lauder are still around is that they make really quality products. I've almost never been disappointed by an Estée Lauder lipstick, and been very surprised by several as to their high quality and lasting nature. Here's a look at one of Estée's more recent line changes, the "Electric Intense" lipsticks, in color #726, "Fury".

The short version: The name's right on--this is a bright, furious red. It's electric, intense, long-lasting, and darned attractive to boot.



Candidate: Estée Lauder Electric Intense Lip Créme, #726 (Fury)

Purchased: Gloss.com Presented by Estée Lauder and the House of Chanel

Cost: $22.00

Brand Info: Estée Lauder Cosmetics, Inc.
Founded in 1946 by Joseph and Estée Lauder, the company that would eventually become a US$5B corporation started out with only four products: "super rich all-purpose cream", "cream pack", cleansing oil, and skin lotion. Two years later, they established their first presence at a department store, Saks Fifth Avenue, in New York. The company expanded and went international in 1960, then diversified into a number of specialized brands--Aramis for men, Clinique for specialized skin care, Prescriptives for custom-blend colors, etc.--and purchased others, such as M-A-C and Bobbi Brown. But Estée Lauder maintains its own brand of foundation, lipstick, face makeup, skin care, and a huge range of perfumes.

The Tube: Rectangular. Blue lacquer plastic, with a gold-toned corner of the column that extends from top to bottom on the right front edge. The interior tube is metallic gold. On the bottom is a gold sticker with black print with lots of small print, but the color name and color code number are in good-sized print in the center of the sticker.

The Product: True Red, as red as red gets. The lipstick itself appears almost matte, with a teardrop-shaped delivery point (and a slight concave edge...#sigh#).

The Application: Incredibly smooth. The product name isn't misleading--it goes on Electric Intense in its coloring. Only problem is the slightly concaved edge on the delivery tip sometimes colors outside the lip lines. Color is cherry red, a nice change from what I expected (colors named for fiery things like "Fury" sometimes go on more orange than cherry).

The Taste: Figs. I happen to really love the taste of fig preserves--my paternal grandmother had a fig tree in her backyard and she made "mock strawberry preserves" using figs and strawberry jello, and to this date I still think it's the best jelly I've every had--so I have a special affinity to Estée Lauder's lip products, since they all smell and taste like figs. My mother, OTOH, hates figs, so she gives me all the EL lipsticks she gets in GWP assortments.

The Blot: Bold, bright, cherry red. A second blot is also strong.

The Wear: One of the few things I didn't like about this lipstick was that it does tend to come off easily after application, and you end up staining your fingers if you're eating finger food. Worse, it has a tendency to smear until it sets up, meaning if you wipe off a smudge near your lips, sometimes another smudge gets left behind if your tissue touches the lips while smudging. However, once you've blotted enough to take off the loose coloration, the remaining lipstick has a good 2-3 hour wear time, and because the color is so bright, it gives the lips a bit of a stain so that the wear-down isn't as noticeable.

The Verdict: Not perfect, but pretty darn great. And I love a great red lipstick.