swatch and review NYC City Duet 2 in 1 Lip Colors

Ok, I have been WAY heavy on the nail polish posts, lately (not that that's a BAD thing)... What do ya say we switch gears and do a good ol fashioned swatcn & review of some lipsticks?

Here we have NYC's new for 2012 City Duet 2 in 1 Lip Colors:

(click photos to enlarge)

They come in (I think) 10 different duos and retail for around $2.99. I found mine at Walmart and of course I went for the 2 blue-based duos: The Hot Pinks and The Cherry Blossoms.

This is the dark side of the Hot Pinks duo. (All pics are taken outside in natural but sadly sunless light--what I get for living in New England in the spring)

Here we have the light side of the Hot Pinks.

and here's the split side. It's cool looking, isn't it?

Unfortunately, my camera wants to make this shade look much warmer than it is. Swatches are from top to bottom: dark side alone, light side alone and both sides blended together. The dark side of this duo is an awesome blue-based fuchsia that  has the most amazing blue flash to it (LOVE!!!!). The lighter side has less of a blue flash but it is still subtly there; it's a fun icy baby pink. Both sides are shimmers and both sides are nicely pigmented. When blended together, what you get basically is a slightly toned-down version of the dark shade. The lighter shade seems to neutralize some of the blue flash when layered on top of the darker shade. 

This is the dark side of The Cherry Blossoms duo

The lighter side.

As split as Eve's personalities!

(top to bottom: dark shade alone, light shade alone, dark and light shades together)

Again, my camera is warming this shade up more than it is in real life, but not as badly as it did with the Hot Pinks shade. The dark shade here is a gorgeous blue based red with a satin finish. The lighter shade is a peachy pink shimmer. When layered together, they create a subdued shimmery red (yea, it's not rocket science we're dealing with, here). This one is also very nicely pigmented.

Over all, I like these lip duos. Nice pigmented formula & they feel nice and moisturizing. One thing that will definitely slap you in the face when you first get them, though, is the scent. They have that STRONG super sweet perfumy scent & flavor that all lipsticks of the 80s used to have (seriously, smelling them nearly gave me flashbacks). I can STILL smell the scent on my arm even though I wiped the swatches off long ago. I, personally am not bothered all that much by the smell (I'm not really 'sensitive' to scents in that way), though I definitely notice it. I will say though that the scent seems to fade and 10 minutes later, I don't really smell it anymore (but, like I said, I'm not very sensitive to scents--I can see how these lipsticks would drive someone who IS sensitive crazy). 

Anyway, all smellyness aside, the colors themselves are beautiful, but I admit, I would rather have them each as individual lipsticks. This is just me, though. I am ridiculously OCD a smidge anal retentive and it drives me crazy when one of the shades ends up all over the other half of the lipstick. I feel like I waste half the product just trying to clean both sides so that the color is true to what it was when I first got it. Also, when the shades are blended together, I'm kind of like "meh"...it really doesn't do much for me. I prefer wearing the shades on their own and I prefer the darker halfs of both shades--which means I'm going to end up with one skinny lipstick that I'm only going to get half as much use out of. One thing I am happy to say is it is easy to apply each shade on its own without getting it mixed up with the other shade--even straight from the tube--because the lipstick is a perfect, slightly flattened bullet shape with each shade perfectly split. 

So anyway, in the end I guess what I'm saying is I would love to see NYC come out with individual lipsticks of the darker half of both of these colors. If they do that, then I wouldn't buy these duos again. But I WOULD buy the duos again if I couldn't find those shades individually because I am that much in love with the color, formula and pigmentation. So the 'duoness' of the lipsticks really doesn't do much for me in the end. (that makes sense, right?) :::eye twitches:::

Do you have any of these lip duos? Are you a fan of combination cosmetics like this?