Lancome La Laque Fever (Plum Wave, Berry Gold, Dynamic)

I probably would have felt a lot more charitable towards Lancome's La Laque Fever lip gloss had it not been for the outrageously exaggerated description and promise:

From the moment of application, densely pixilated pearls combined with unique polymers give multi-dimensional shine that truly holds to your lips: no touch ups for 8 hours.

Seriously?

Lancome La Laque Fever is actually a great gloss and definitely longer lasting than a regular product. It completely coats the lips and clings to them nicely. The added benefit is protection from any drying environment, resulting in a healthy and full look. Le Laque Fever also offers a significant amount of shine, both in the shimmery and the cream formula. But the only way this gloss will last for eight hours with no touch ups is if you lock yourself in a bubble, avoid food, drinks, talking and preferably not move at all. Even a dedicated product tester like me can't do that, so I've been sticking to my unfortunate human lifestyle and have been leaving gloss prints on my water bottles, tea cups, spoons, the husband and any cat I happened to kiss while wearing it. Some pigment definitely remains on the lips, but the finish wears off after a while and I certainly need a touch up after eating or drinking.

 La Laque Fever is probably Lancome's alternative to Chanel Rouge Allure Lip Laque, Chanel's formula is clearly superior.

I love the soft and wide Lancome applicator. If I remember correctly, it was first introduced for the regular Color Fever gloss (the color On Fire is still one of my favorite lip glosses of all time), and allows for a quick and precise application. I wonder why other brands don't have anything similar.

The colors I chose are Dynamic (a red-based pink, cream finish), Berry Gold (warm shimmer in a raspberry red base) and Plum Wave (shimmery and cool-toned). As you can see, on the applicators it's really hard to tell which is which. If you buy more than one  La Laque Fever fever gloss, I highly recommend you keep them in their boxes, because the names on the bottom of the tube are in the tiniest print possible and very hard to read. As far as color pay off goes, if your lips are pale, you should be fine. On more pigmented lips the shades appear more shear. For the swatch photo I really piled it on- you can clearly see that the bottom part of Dynamic and Plum Wave swatches where I left it at one coat is much lighter. When I tried adding more coats some of the gloss ended up on my teeth until I blotted the inner part of the lips.

Bottom line: Far above average, but false promises make me cranky.

Lancome La Laque Fever ($26.50) is available from all the usual suspects, online and in store. If I remember correctly, I ordered mine from Lancome's website.

All photos are mine.