NOTO Botanics - Organic Multi-Benne Stain Stick (For Lips + Cheeks) | Clean, Natural, Non-Toxic Beauty (FIVE, 0.9 oz | 2.6 ml)

I saw a video with the founder of Noto using this stick as cheek contour and blush, and it looked so good. So I tried it, and sure enough it’s better than any bronzer or contour stick I’ve tried. It defines my cheekbones with just one light line blended upward, and gives color when applied to the apples of my cheeks. It’s also a super lipstick. LOVE LOVE LOVE

So, I wanted to love this because it’s listed amongst the many lip stains in the EWG Cosmetics Database as NOT being toxic. Everything else I searched was sketch! re: toxicity, like cancer causing, reproductive health and immunity affecting, as are most mainstream cosmetics. However, I was specifically looking for a STAIN, not a lipstick, which this is. It tingles, seems moisturizing enough, but the color that I got made me & my skin tone (light-medium neutral olive) look goth instead of vibrant. I rubbed it off hoping to see a stain after leaving on for about 5-10 minutes (applied twice) and I got a greyer, more dull version of my own lip color. I ‘overlined’ but got nothing. So if you’re looking for a STAIN, sadly, this product is NOT it! I’m only writing this review because I hope the company will actually come up with a real stain that lasts all day if at all scientifically possible (without being toxic) because I would DEFINITELY try again. I hope they do well and go on to create ALL the products that we need and want. Cheers!

So pissed off that I actually carried my laptop to the window to natural light to show you how OFF the color is. It's just literally a totally different color than advertised. It's "pinkier", and doesn't have any red tone. It's more blue/purpley. Now, I wanted a cool tone--those work best with my skin. But I didn't want a dainty demure pink, I wanted a lusty flushed color. The color advertised is a pink version of a cool tone red, but also not a red. What I got was a flat pink, period. When you are selling beauty products online, your photos better be color-perfect. IT HAS FREAKING PEPPERMINT OIL OR SOMETHING MY LIPS ARE TINGLING LIKE ITS MENTHOL FLAVORED. Who likes this?! I don't want to "feel" my lips for an hour after applying a product, like it's windy inside my house. The peppermint notes cover up the slightly 'off,' chalky, clay formula smell that you sometimes but not always get with these more "natural" products. I wonder if it's covering future potential rancidity or something, with a shorter shelf life being a "natural" product. In my opinion it's the more amateur brands without a lot of investment in their product R&D that smell like this. Additionally, I don't think there's as much gloss as in the pictures. The matte look it gave my lips emphasized dry patches--guess I have to do a lip scrub before using. Ugh. All hype on this one. I'm just sick of these products where in order to make them look decent you have to smear and dab the crap out of them to diffuse the color and texture. I love higher end cosmetics and this just doesn't match up at all. This should be $12. I wouldn't be so mad if it were $12. It looks and smells and feels like $12. Milk Makeup used to make a lip product that was what this was TRYING to be, but failed. Too bad it's out of production. Sigh.

Why do these companies keep calling products lip stains when they do not give a lip stain? This is a moisturizing lip product but it’s definitely not a stain.