Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Tarred + Feathered Lip Balm Duo Review and Swatches

In celebration of their 10 year anniversary, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics has rereleased one of their very first products - the Tarred + Feathered Lip Balm Duo. 

Tarred is a black-toned lip balm, and Feathered is a white-toned lip balm. They can be worn on the lips alone or mixed with lip colours to alter their shades. Worn alone, Tarred deepens the natural lip colour and Feathered lightens. The same happens with lipsticks and OCC's own lip tars.

The Tarred + Feathered Lip Balm Duo is vegan (as are all of the OCC products), costs $18 US and is 0.42 oz (0.21 oz each balm).

Swatches - Tarred on the left and Feathered on the right.

The lip balms are very emollient, smell and taste of mint and are pleasant to wear.

Worn on bare lips, they deepen and lighten the natural colour. While wearing Tarred underneath a lipstick or lip tar will not have much effect on the colour, under a sheer lip gloss, it might. Feathered, however, takes away almost all natural colour so any lip colour will read truer. 

Tarred on my bare lips.

Feathered on my bare lips. 

Let's see how it works when mixed with lip colours. I chose a richly-coloured matte lipstick, Relentlessly Red from MAC, and mixed it on the back of my hand with Feathered and with Tarred. You can see below how the two lip balms change the colour of the lipstick from a rich fuchsia to a bubble gum pink (Feathered) and a blackened pink (Tarred). Of course, since I mixed a matte lipstick with a lip balm, I lost the original texture.

MAC Relentlessly Red L-R: on its own, mixed with Feathered, mixed with Tarred.

I also tried mixing it with one of my OCC Lip Tars - OCC's Vintage, a deep burgundy red. I've got Vintage mixed with Feathered on my top lip and Vintage mixed with Tarred on my bottom lip. You can see what Vintage looks like on its own here.

Messy application because I used Q-tips, but you get the idea, I hope!

And here is Vintage mixed with Feathered on both lips. It's a bright magenta.

OCC Vintage Lip Tar + Feathered lip balm.

Here is Vintage mixed with Tarred on both lips, it's a blackened red. 

OCC Vintage Lip Tar + Tarred lip balm.

I love that these lip balms allow for multiple different lip colours. Depending on the amount of Tarred or Feathered used, the lip colour can be darkened or lightened in a variety of ways. These are great for editorial (one-time use), but not so practical for say wearing day to day, unless you mix enough and carry it with you for touch-ups. Otherwise, it'd be difficult to repeatedly create the same colour each time you need a touch-up. 

As for wearing on its own, these aren't shades I would wear out on my own. Tarred is a bit goth for me, and Feathered is a bit too pale for me. I would however wear these under a lip colour. There's more experimenting for me to do!

Would I recommend the Tarred + Feathered Lip Balm Duo? Yes. If you're into edgier looks, these lip balms work well on their own, and they're moisturizing. If you want to get multiple shades out of one lipstick, this is a handy tool for you as well. Bring it with you when you travel as well as one red or pink or purple lipstick and you'll have three or more different shades to play with. 

I'll definitely be using this duo. I often have moments when I look in the mirror and think "I wish this lipstick was a bit darker (or lighter)", so this will come in handy for sure.

Grade: B+