Luxury on your lips
It’s possible to indulge in quality products without making a serious dent in your pocket.
YOU’VE been eyeing a lipstick or lip gloss, love the colour and packaging, but not the price tag. In other words, you want a little luxury for your lips, but you feel it’s really not worth that hefty sum.
There’s hope with Covo, a Malaysian brand under the Voir Group created by general manager Julie Wong, a trained make-up artist who worked her way up the ranks in the beauty industry.
Like many other beauty brands, it offers a variety of cosmetics products such as lip colour, foundation, blush, mascara, eye pencils, primer, make-up brushes and skincare. Based on a “luxe for less” concept, the brand aims to enable women to enjoy quality cosmetics and skincare at more affordable prices.
“When you can buy something by Karl Lagerfeld in H&M today, it means more people can enjoy high-end products at a fraction of the price. Similarly, I felt that Covo should be a luxury product that is affordable,” she says. Wong adds that Covo products are manufactured abroad, incorporating the best ingredients, without harmful ingre- dients and are animal cruelty-free.
For the brand’s newest product, Covo Kiss-proof Matte Lip Fluid, Wong sent samples to established Italian make-up artist Francesco Riva for his feedback. With 20 years of experience in make-up artistry, he holds brands like Chanel, Christian Dior and Givenchy under his belt as well.
Given his experience in editorials, fashion runway shows, advertising and film shoots, it is obvious that he has used enough lip colour products to know what works and what doesn’t.
“The main issue I have during a photo shoot is the constant need to retouch the model’s lips,” says Riva, who’s on contract with Chanel in Italy.
“When I used the Covo Kiss-proof Matte Lip Fluid on the models, the colour stayed on longer. It has vitamin E, which is moisturising and protects lips from signs of ageing. The creamy texture helps the colour slide easily over lips,” he says.
Riva adds that “it offers a high-impact colour in a single swipe, and I like the matte-finish which is ultra-thin and provides comfort more than any lip gloss or lipstick.”
If you like the shade but prefer it to be less striking, Riva recommends using your fingers to dab the colour onto your lips.
“The models I work on are always asking me where they can buy Covo!” he points out.
The lip fluid comes in six shades and what’s neat is that it comes with a built-in mirror.
Thoughtful detailing in Covo is seen in the lipsticks as well as they come with a pop-up mirror and are light enough to carry around. The Waterproof Shadow Liner comes with a sharpener embedded in its cap, so you’ll never lose the sharpener!
“For someone with fair skin, choose a pink, red or cherry lip colour which brings radiance and luminosity to the skin. Someone with tan to dark skin should go for pinky browns or a little darker shade. For very tan skin, go for fuchsia, deep reds or coral orange to bring contrast and flatter the skin tone,” Riva advises.
“While this acts as a guide I feel that women should not have to follow so many rules, and they should have fun putting on make-up.”
Going forward, Wong says the brand is always evolving so customers can expect an anti-ageing skincare range, lip treatment and scrub from the brand soon.
Price: RM45. Available at Covo counters nationwide.