Karen Stark, the woman behind Silk Naturals, is unquestionably the Bobbi Brown of the mineral makeup world.

Her creations, no matter how extravagant they are in color, are extremely wearable and universally flattering on all skintones. They look equally good on my mother, who has medium olive skintone, my best friend, whose skin is golden, and me, who has light olive skin with just a hint of beige.

I can't really pick my favorite from the seven glosses I have so far: I like them all with equal fervor, either wearing them on their own or mixing them and creating an endless variety of custom shades. Mixing these and coming up with new colors is especially advised to those who, like me, prefer neutral shades, ones that can be worn all day, everyday, for all occasions. (Sorry, I'm still not brave enough to wear an entire rainbow on my face.) As I'm a teacher and can mostly be found in the offices of various multinational companies during the day, I really have to be careful not to overdo my makeup. Also, I'm planning to acquire a more professional look in 2009, and though these lip glosses are but a minuscule step in that direction, I'm still happy to have them in my arsenal. They're sheer, brown-based (I'm quoting Grayburn here!) and practically melt into the skin on your lips leaving no streaks or buildup in the creases. Also, they're as shiny as a mineral lipgloss can ever be, though if you crave that 1000 Megawatt shine, you should probably stick to regular glosses.

Often when I look at them, I find myself thinking: "This is what lipstick should be like."
I've never much cared for lipstick, as it's usually too pigmented, too artificial, and too dry for my taste. Regular lipgloss is better, but still not perfect: more often than not it's sticky and gooey, dries my lips just as lipstick does, and it's just too glossy to look natural.

Silk Naturals "lipglosses" are, in my opinion, the perfect remedy to my predicament. They're less pigmented than a lipstick but still show up quite nicely on my lips, they aren't as saliva-like (sorry!) than glosses, they give just enough shine as to make my lips look moisturized, and not only do they make them look moisturized but they do actually condition my lips like no other lip product I've ever tried. They're definitely the greatest find of 2008 for me.

Forget my raves about EDM's Cozy Night and my adoration of Alverde's Cool Red lippie. Silk Naturals lipglosses are superior in every way.











The Silk Naturals website describes this as "a shimmery, slightly sheer golden red coral", and that seems a very accurate description to me, but let me just add my own two cents. ;-)

I've never been able to wear bright red colors as I've always felt that they either wash me out or look too bold and "just not me". Well, not this one. For one, it has this magic quality of somehow seamlessly blending into the color of my lips, which makes it look natural even though it is anything but. (I mean, look at that bright color. Whoever was born with lips like that?? Scratch that. Bagaela was, and boy do I envy her... ;-))

For another, the color itself seems to get along with my skintone just fine without the two of them playing power-games and wreaking havoc on my face making me the ultimate loser...
This cheerful color brightens up my complexion, reminding me of warm summer days and geraniums in the window. :)







Right. I ordered this color because I recently noticed that when I mix a peachy-coral shade with a brown one I get a really stunning shade for my lips, and I wanted to have a brown lipcolor in my stash to mix it with a peachy one. Now the peachy one was supposed to be Foreplay, but it turned out that I need something much stronger than that ('Peach Melba' might just do the trick).

Also, I'm not quite sure I got the right color: according to both the official description and the reviews Toffee is supposed to be a tan color with warm peach undertones, but I'm sorry to say that I can't detect any of that in my gloss. Not to mention that this tube is the only one that reeks of wax and oils-gone-bad. Obviously, that yummy vanilla fragrance got left out of it, and I can't really see myself wearing this as it has too unpleasant a smell to be worn around people.

Otherwise it wouldn't be a bad color really: I think I'll use smidgens of it to tone down other colors when I need a really neutral tint on my lips.








By the way, Tender isn't the only gloss that somehow reminds me of EDM's Cozy Night. Sweet Nothing is a perfectly sheer mauve gloss, yet again with a tiny bit of brown in it just to make it all the more wearable. It's the most moisturizing of the seven SN glosses I have; at least it feels the creamiest, which is probably due to its sheerness and how it doesn't contain much pigment. Again, a lovely shade, something you can easily pull off on any occasion. I love it!







Seemed a bit pale for me to consider wearing it, but to Ms Stark's credit I can pull this off without a hitch. It has "a raspberry pink undertone with an overlay of gold" and it's a clone of MAC's Viva Glam V lipstick. The cool berry-pink is nicely complemented by the golden shimmer and yet again, we get a lovely, neutral, wearable color from the mixture of cool and warm ingredients.

PEACE

Izar © 2008

I got this one as a free gift with my order as part of Silk Naturals' Christmas special, and even though it's on the verge of being a bit too pale for me, it makes up for its lack in the wearability department with it's yummy sweet peppermint taste. I've never been a fan of minty lip products (or mint in general), but I think I can see the light now. It feels just a wee bit tingly and cool on my lips while I enjoy the sweetness of the vanilla flavoring. Very cool! ;-)

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These glosses are too good not be reviewed in 2008 for the sole reason that I want to include them in my Best of 2008 post coming up in January. Credit for the prompt goes to Grayburn, and if you're a (beauty) blogger too, then feel free to write your own post on the Holy Grails and "can't-live-without-it" products of 2008.


Also, check out Grayburn's post on some other SN lippies and another one discussing their foundations.
I wrote about SN's Gold Blush lipgloss and a few of their other products in a previous post.

EDIT (2009/12/30): And here's another review with lots of swatches.
I have a hunch I'll be adding more to the list soon. :)