Matte Liquid Lipsticks - Menow

Swatch spam and first thoughts on some of my rose-brown liquid lipsticks by Menow.

OK. So I stumbled across Menow (or MeNow) when I was doing some late-night Googling for more matte liquid lipsticks. I can't find a base website for this brand, it looks like they are primarily available via eBay or Amazon.
As someone who works in the cosmetics industry, straight up these have two primary red flags, or maybe several.

1. Dupe/knock-off cosmetics or particularly no-name private label cosmetics from certain companies can be at risk of low-quality or inappropriate ingredients which can cause allergies to flare up, skin conditions or worse. I'd recommend Googling something like "risk of cheap knock off cosmetics" to find out more information. Make sure you check with reputable cosmetic ingredient websites which have legit information - not scare stories on news websites etc. 
2. In relation to #1 - these products do not come with ingredients on the packaging, nor are they on the product listings. So essentially, we have no idea what's in them, and that can be a huge problem. With ANY new product you put on your skin or near mucous membranes like eyes or mouth - ALWAYS do a spot check on your arm 24 hours before using it. You always want to make sure that your product isn't going to give you any health issues, especially if it's going to be on your eyes or mouth. As always, contact your GP if you have reactions to any products. Looking after yourself is always the primary factor in life.
3. Not being able to locate a manufacturer or 'head company'. Neither the listings nor product packaging provide a company name, website, address or really any information at all. 
4. The low price tag - .99c? $1.50? That's super cheap, leaving me to assume the wholesale production cost of these is .30-.50c. If it's that cheap, what the hell is really in these?

Now, I don't have answers for some of these points, but I think it's fair and wise to raise them in the interest of keeping yourself informed of the possible risks associated with buying cheap makeup.

So, most of these factors I was not aware of until after purchase however. I did do a spot check on my hand days before using these, and I have found that initially on bare lips some shades gave a slightly stingy/tingly sensation. After feeling that I removed the lipstick; and later on wore them over a balm without any issues whatsoever. So again, I stress that if you do buy these lipsticks, please check them on your arm or hand well before you put them on your lips. And it would also be wise to use them over a base or primer.

Menow #30 Matte Liquid Lipstick
I actually really like this colour, it's a tad more purple-brown in real life. I do feel it has photographed very slightly warmer toned, yet I would still feel it's an accurate swatch. The shade reminds of chocolate milk, but darker. It applies a slighty darker tone when wet however.
You can see a wee bit towards my teeth on the top lip some colour is missing - in hindsight I think this is because this shade was VERY tacky on my lips, even after several minutes. I think the bottom lip pulled some colour off the top.

As you can see towards the cupid's bow, the matte finish is definitely more velvet. On the lower lip it's rather thickish, and I did find it was slightly tacky. I have two coats on the bottom lip, one on the top with a slight touch up at some areas. I would recommend one thin coat to avoid the thickness.

I also feel like here you can see clearly on the bottom lip, towards the inside of the mouth, almost like a raised/sticky edge where the lipstick ends. Again, this one was super tacky and sticky even after several minutes. I am thinking however it may have been due to my thickish application which means I did not wait long enough for it to fully dry.

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Menow #18 Matte Liquid Lipstick
I love this colour, it's like a soft mauve with rosey tones. Very flattering and subdued.On me in real life I feel like it has some grey tones to it as well, it's an awesome colour that I want to wear again.
I think again my application was too thick on the bottom lip - you can see it has the consistency of half-dry paint with a skin (ew). It definitely wasn't wet but did stay tacky and sticky. The top lip is much more ideal, as i tend to do thinner applications on the top.

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Menow #26 Matte Liquid Lipstick

This was one of the worst applications that either I did, or the lipstick is just terrible. I think the application was still too thick but there's obviously something fiddly with the consistency as well.
Here you can clearly see the thick-paint-like consistency on the bottom lip, where it's also streaky towards the inner area. Excuse the flakiness on the top lip here as well, it's from the tackiness of the lipstick.
The colour is nice, a rather tea rose pink with coral tones. I don't feel like it was particularly flattering in my eyes though it suits light skintones well enough.

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Menow #10 Matte Liquid Lipstick
Number 10 is quite an interesting lipstick. It clearly has a frosty shimmer finish (in the tube it looks like a slight bronze frost over a pink-brown base shade). Personally I am not a fan of frost finishes, I do still think it's dated and in my mind I 100% will always associated it with too-dark lip lining, Christina Aguilera in her crazy-perm stage, and late nights watching Charmed. Ugh.

This one had a HUGE amount of stickiness, like, an EXCESSIVE amount. I wore it for at least 3-4 minutes and it was still so sticky my lips nearly fused together. It was absolutely unwearable. I don't want to wait 10 minutes for my lipstick to set, so this one's going in the trash.
Bye, bye 99 cents *waves*



So in regards to this review,  I do feel that I will need to do a follow up and make sure my application is much thinner. Luckily I have another 10 or so to swatch, so there will be at least 2-3 more Menow installments here.

My initial thoughts are the the consistency definitely requires a bit of precision to figure out what is going to work best for you.
The applicator is a standard thin-tip doe foot wand, and is a good one (not big and messy like Australis Velourlips). It allows you to have a better and a cleaner edge.
Dry time seems to be a con, it does take awhile. To counter that, these are incredibly good at not budging. I struggle to get them off easily with my coconut oil - so I imagine that even if you had a greasy dinner with one of these on you wouldn't see much removed, provided you had it over a pencil and wasn't excessively wiping your lips.

You can find these on eBay or Amazon, often for 99c to $2.50 and with free shipping. They have a big variety, about 40-ish shades I believe. Unfortunately some of the popular dark reds/mulberries are harder to find - not sure why, but I couldn't find them from multiple sellers.

Again I want to stress that the lack of ingredients is a red flag - always test these on a patch of skin before putting it on your mouth; and feel free to ask the seller for any required information.

Stay tuned because I will be posting more swatches later in the week.

Thanks for reading!