Up the Bass is what I imagine my downstairs neighbours scream to each other, as I spend yet another hour listening to the droning bass of their television, and the dull, complementary voice of Mr Neighbour. Mr Neighbour lives in sin with Mrs Neighbour, who likes to leave dead plants in the communal hallway, and giggle incessantly at 1am on a Wednesday.
But I digress, this post is about lipstick, and not the noisy fuckers who live downstairs. Ahem.
Up the Bass (by Nyx) is cool, and not just tonally. It’s a prune-y shade, that looks purple in the tube, but somehow acquires grey-ish (Prey? Gruple?) properties after it’s smeared on your lips.
Up the Bass is a true matte, which is great, as many of Nyx’s matte lipsticks claim to be, but then acquires a sheen when placed on the lips. If there’s one thing I hate more than noisy neighbours, it’s shiny lipstick. Up the Bass is smooth and easy to apply, but does require a couple of coats to avoid patchy application. A deep purple liner would work well with this to vamp up the colour and bring out the purple undertones. Even without lip liner, however, this lipstick will stay where you put it, with no bleeding.
It’s the colour I wanted Urban Decay’s Asphyxia to be, which I purchased as a teen, before Urban Decay jumped on the beauty guru bandwagon and was still an edgy brand, at least to my fourteen-year-old eyes. Ah, youth.
Up the Bass delivers that cool, purple with a little something extra that my inner goth adores. It’s also a nice halfway house between grey and purple, if you’re not sure if you can pull off the former.
All of Nyx’s matte lipsticks are available for the princely sum of £6-£7 and can be found online or in Boots.