We tried Wonderskin’s bestselling ‘peel and reveal’ lip stain – here’s what happened

How it works

The lip kit has two stages, or three if you include exfoliation. First up, you’ll need to buff away any dry skin with a lip scrub to ensure even colour pay off and long wear. Then you apply two to three coats of the lip masque, making sure to cover every part of your lips. After waiting 10-45 seconds, depending on the colour intensity you’d like to achieve, you spray your lips once or twice with the activator spray, before peeling off the blue film to reveal the final look.

The process

The first thing we noticed was that the instructions for the Wonderskin kit weren’t hugely clear. There’s plenty of tips on how to achieve the best results, but we had to read over the steps a few times to get our heads around all the timings. That said, once we’d cracked the details, it was an easy kit to use, considering it’s quite technical.

The lip masque feels really soft and nourishing on the lips, with a pleasant fruity scent, but the formula itself is quite difficult to apply evenly. We kept experiencing blotchy areas where the product just wouldn’t stick to our lips, despite exfoliating beforehand. To combat this, we’d suggest working quickly but in thin layers, allowing the first coat to dry evenly before applying the second. You do need three coats to completely cover your lips in pigment, as the brand advises. The applicator is quite long and thin, which makes it difficult to hug the contours of your lips when applying. We think a doe-foot applicator would have given better results.

We didn’t notice any irritation or stinging while we waited for the masque to set, and opted for the full 45-second period to achieve the best colour pay-off. Applying the activator spray is quite messy, as it’s a heavy spritz rather than a fine mist. The whole bottom half of our face got wet as we aimed for our lips but, luckily, the spray didn’t disrupt our foundation or powder, so it wasn’t a deal-breaker.

After leaving the activator to do its thing for a few seconds, we managed to peel the blue film off with ease. This was definitely the most satisfying part of the process, as we were keen to reap the benefits of all our efforts. There was no blue residue left on the lips, and the film peeled off in one fell swoop, making it a mess-free process overall.

The final result

The shade “adore” left us with a just-bitten red tint that looked really flattering on the lips. Long-wearing lip products can often feel uncomfortable and drying, but our pout felt soft and hydrated and the pigment covered our lips evenly. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, after eating pasta for lunch, about an hour after applying the lip stain, the colour faded significantly to a barely there hint of pink. At this point, we felt the need to reapply the kit, which is a real shame, given it’s supposed to last all day whether you’re eating, kissing or drinking. A few hours later, the tint had practically disappeared, leaving us quite disappointed. If the colour had been long-wearing, we’d happily go through this process each morning, but having to top it up is quite laborious.