With online shopping becoming so popular, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and let our eyes get bigger than our wallets. One of my guilty pleasures is buying makeup online, but unfortunately, I ended up with some shades that were…not so pretty. So I decided to experiment and find a few hacks to fix them, because I don’t know about y’all, but I definitely don’t have money to waste on a lipstick that I can’t use.

So here are the offending colors from left to right: Lime Crime velvetine matte lipstick in Squash, Colourpop ultra matte lipstick in Midi, Colourpop ultra metallic lipstick in 3-way, and Dose of Colors matte lipstick in Truffle. It’s worth mentioning that 3-way and Truffle are fakes that I brought from the Wish app, so that more than likely accounts for their bad quality. Also, a quick disclaimer about buying fake makeup online: it’s important to know what risks you’re taking when you buy makeup from online sellers like Wish or Aliexpress. Usually, these products are coming from countries like China and their regulations are different from what the FDA has in America, so you never really know exactly what they’re putting in your makeup. I honestly don’t mind taking that risk, because hey, if it doesn’t work out, at least I’m only spending $2 or $3 rather than wasting $15 on an original that might even have the same harmful ingredients, because you’d be surprised what the FDA allows in things nowadays.

But I digress. Back to my tacky lipsticks.

The other two are definitely real deal, straight from the website, OG originals though, so Lime Crime and Colourpop had no excuse for those lipsticks to look the way they did. You’ll just have to see for yourself how bad they were.

So to begin this roasting session, let’s start with my least favorite of them all: Squash

I don’t know how I decided that orange lipstick was the shade for me. I read the name and thought “ooh, squash sounds interesting! They’re usually pretty colored, right? It should be perfect for the fall!” More like perfect for Halloween. And on top of the color being terrible, the actual quality of the lipstick was bad too. It went on really patchy, had a weird consistency, and dried my lips out way more than a normal matte lipstick should. Not what you expect from a $20 liquid lipstick, right?

Hack #1: Adding lotion

So as crazy as this sounds, this hack actually worked out pretty well and I ended up doing it for all of my unwanted lipsticks. Not only did it improve the consistency, it stopped the matte lipsticks from drying out my lips too much. You can use a small eyeshadow brush to gently place the lotion in the lipstick tube and then use the lipstick applicator to mix everything together.

The after-look:

After I mixed in the lotion, I also patted a little bit of gold eyeshadow on top just to give it a little bit of sparkle. It’s still not one of my favorites, but at least it’s a small improvement. Ah well.

The next lipstick on my “fix-it” list is Midi, and Lord, does this one need to be fixed.

I just…I can’t with this color. All I wanted was a cute baby pink and instead I look like a clown. Colourpop usually has amazing shades, like Tulle or Zipper, but they really tried my whole life with this shade. Got me outchea looking like Dave Chappelle.

Hack #2: Mix in another lipstick

I actually used this hack for both Midi and Truffle since it worked so well. I used an old school Fashion Fair red lipstick for Midi and a bronze Black Radiance lipstick for Truffle. Since these were lipsticks that I no longer plan on using, I just scraped off the top of them and mixed them into the liquid lipsticks. Make sure to use small pieces and gradually add in more as needed, otherwise your lipstick tube will overflow and get all over your black shirt that you just got finished washing.

The after-look:

I absolutely loved how these ones came out. Midi went from being entirely too light for me to being this perfect shade of bubblegum pink, and the Fashion Fair lipstick mixed in made it super soft and silky on my lips. Truffle turned into this gorgeous mauve, almost nude kind of shade with a little bit of metallic shine to it from the Black Radiance lipstick.

Speaking of metallic, that brings me to my last shade: 3-way

I’m sure the original shade would have been gorgeous, but this fake just wasn’t cutting it for me. It was really patchy and sheer, it dried a little too quickly, it seemed really liquidy. It was just weird altogether.

Hack #3: Add in a few tiny scoops of eyeshadow

After adding in the lotion and concealer to thicken the mixture a little, I also added in a few scoops of eyeshadow to help it keep it’s metallic finish. I used the shades Animal and Sunset Blvd from Colourpop. A little goes a long way with this hack.

The after-look:

This was another one that I wasn’t super impressed with, but it definitely improved the overall feel of the lipstick. I might go back and add another color to it, just so it doesn’t look so bland.

Overall, I’m pretty content with how the new colors came out. I’m glad that I was able to find a use for them and not have them go to waste. Have any other lipstick hacks to add? Or have you tried these ones out before? Let me know in the comments section below!