Lipstick Queen Medieval Tinted Treatment

It takes a special kind of gumption for a young girl of 18 to start her own lipstick line because she is unsatisfied with the options around her. And that's exactly what Poppy King did in 1992 when she created her original, eponymous line.

Fast forward 20 years to the modern incarnation of that same spirit: Lipstick Queen. If you're not familiar with the brand, you should know that you won't find an eyeshadow or a concealer anywhere in the line. Poppy's passion is lips and you will find all nature of lip glosses, lipsticks, and lip balms to suit your every fancy. Her most well-known creation is the two-pronged selection of lipsticks, each shade available as a Saint (with 10% pigment for a sheer application) or Sinner (with 90% pigment for all the opaque drama you could want).

But the item that drew me initially was Medieval Lip Treatment. I have a minor in History with a focus on the Middles Ages, and will happily geek out over anything related. So a lipstick billed as the perfect universal shade that comes packaged as gorgeously as this? I'M THERE.

(If you go to the LQ website, you can learn a little bit about the image used by scrolling over it. )

I can't vouch for this being the perfect shade for everyone, but it IS very sheer and despite the colour of the bullet, not particularly red. It is truly a lip balm rather than a lipstick.

It is extremely wearable. I found that applying it straight on and trying to build intensity resulted in a glossier look than I liked, with the pigment sliding into the lines of my lips. My preferred way of wearing this is to apply it like a balm, let it sink in a bit for the treatment it provides, and then tapping most of it off until all that's left is a faintly shiny, pinkish stain.

It is quite hydrating - loaded with shea butter, mango butter, sunflower and meadow foam seed oil - so the effect is of plumped, naturally flushed lips. It has a comparable feel to something between a Revlon Lip Butter and the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, though it is not as moisturizing as the latter.

Medieval veers slightly to the cooler range, but because it's so sheer I do think that it will suit a wider variety of skin tones that something more intense might. It is a "your lips but better" shade.

Natural light.

Applied straight from the tube.

Blotted for stain effect.

Availability: Nordstrom, Beauty.com, Space NK in the US. Price is 20$ USD. It is available in Canada from Saltridges, for 22$ CAD.

Pros: Beautiful, evocative packaging. Nicely hydrating. Super sheer, quite possibly universally flattering colour.

Cons: Balmy texture can turn slippy and bleed or collect in lines on or around the lips.

(I purchased this item from Beauty.com)