Dose of Colors Fall 2017 Liquid Lipsticks: Sleepless & Play It Cool

Today's post has a bit of drama associated with it. Let's talk about the two new Fall 2017 liquid lipsticks from Dose of Color- Sleepless and Play it Cool.

I purchased the pair from Ulta for $18 each, standard for the line. I'm sorry to say that I had to purchase one of these twice and I'm not happy with the whole experience. We'll get to that at the end of the post.

These weigh in at the standard 4.5g/0.16oz each and are in the normal packaging from the brand. The formula is cruelty free, gluten free, paraben free, and vegan.

Let's start with Sleepless.

Sleepless is described as "dusty greige with lilac undertones."

This is the lighter of the two shades, although it's hard to tell in the tube. Since these are online exclusive, I was flying blind when I ordered it.

These have the normal doefoot applicator that I really like:

Take a look at this swatch- I love the swatch shade.

Now, here's what it looks like in ambient, and then studio lighting on my extremely pigmented lips. I'm hoping to get a color payoff like the swatch if I used foundation or Lip Erase; as previously mentioned, I won't do this for reviews.

It's a little cool to wear alone but I think I can play with it and make it a fall staple for me.

Play it Cool is described as "dusty rose taupe."

This is the deeper of the two shades- and the one that originally caught my eye.

Take a look at the swatch- this is more wearable, IMO, but still very Fall.

It still dries down with a cool undertone. First is ambient, second is studio lighting.

Here's the two swatched on my hand so you can see what my lips do the color overall....

Both of these colors are rather cool on me, but I'll use them quite a bit once it really cools down. This is one of my favorite formulas, so I'm always curious to try more shades.

Now, onto the bad part of this post. I'm left with a negative feeling about the experience, mostly from Ulta. Let me say that things happen, and humans make mistakes.

I originally purchased Play it Cool (I only purchased Sleepless when I was forced into a second order) with a second liquid lipstick. When it arrived, I noticed something was wrong.

Left- normal (Berry Me) Right- No Stopper 

There was no stopper in it- I'd received a clearly defective one. Now, anyone who has tried to do online exchange with Ulta knows why I was groaning. Just to make sure, I reached out to the brand. No response via Instagram, but I did get a response when I sent an email that said it looked defective but deal with Ulta.

I understand that's policy, and appreciated the quick response. But there wasn't even a "we're sorry for shipping a defective product to Ulta to send to you." It was just confirmation that there was a stopper missing but I was Ulta's problem. No warm fuzzies indeed.

So I placed a second order with Ulta and took it back to my local store for a return. Since I used some points on the order, I got a whopping $8.75 back from returning the product. It costs $18!

So, really, I paid $27.75 for Play it Cool due to Ulta's return policies when I clearly received a defective item. This whole experience has soured me on online orders with Ulta, and now I question a brand I was starting to fall in love with.