The Lip Bar Target Showdown: Rebel vs Curlfriend Shades

The Vegan Matte Matrix: Where The Lip Bar Fits

No competitor builds a combined cruelty-free and vegan matte lipstick matrix, so here is the honest version. The Lip Bar is both vegan and cruelty-free, which means no animal-derived ingredients like carmine, beeswax, or lanolin, and no animal testing. In practice, vegan mattes replace beeswax with plant waxes like candelilla and carnauba. These waxes set slightly differently, which is why some vegan liquid mattes feel a touch drier than conventional ones, though The Lip Bar's formula is widely considered comfortable for the category.

The matrix buyers actually need compares vegan status against performance. If vegan is non-negotiable, The Lip Bar competes with brands like Axiology and KVD Beauty on the vegan side, and it beats most of them on price and shade range for deeper skin tones. If vegan is a preference rather than a requirement, conventional mattes from Maybelline and L'Oreal offer similar wear, sometimes with slightly creamier textures from beeswax. The key check is the ingredient list, not the marketing. "Cruelty-free" does not mean vegan, and "natural" means neither. The Lip Bar is one of the few drugstore-priced lines that is genuinely both, which is a real differentiator at Target prices.

For more long-wear options across the vegan and conventional divide, our best lip products for color that lasts all day rounds up formulas worth comparing on wear, not just claims.

Rebel and Curlfriend on Deep Skin Tones

Shade guidance for deep and dark skin tones stays at generic undertone level in most roundups, so here is the specific read. Rebel's deep burgundy is a natural fit for deep skin. It has the pigment density to show true color on rich skin tones, and burgundy flatters warm and neutral undertones beautifully. On very deep skin, Rebel reads as a rich evening shade rather than a dramatic one, which makes it more wearable daily than the name suggests.

Curlfriend's mauve pink is the trickier shade on deep skin. Mauve can go ashy or disappear on deeper tones if the formula is sheer, but this formula's pigment load carries it. On medium-deep skin, Curlfriend reads as a soft everyday nude-mauve. On very deep skin, it works best layered over a deeper liner, with the liner adding the depth the shade lacks. The undertone check: Curlfriend leans cool-neutral, so warm-undertoned deep skin should test it in daylight. Rebel's warm burgundy is the safer blind buy for warm undertones. Both shades photograph beautifully, which matters because deep burgundy is one of the most photogenic lip colors in existence.

Center Fade Fixes for Liquid Mattes

The inner-rim fade gets advice but no per-formula fixes, so here is the liquid-matte version. With The Lip Bar's liquid formula, the center fades first because eating, drinking, and lip-pressing wear the middle while the edges stay put. The fix depends on the situation. For a quick refresh, blot the faded center with a tissue to remove the broken film, then apply one thin layer only to the center. Never do a full second coat over set liquid matte, which pills and flakes.

The preventive strategy works better. Apply a matching lip liner across the entire lip, not just the edges, before the liquid matte. The liner acts as a stain base, so when the liquid fades in the center, color remains instead of bare lip. For Rebel, a deep burgundy liner underneath also deepens the shade. For Curlfriend, a mauve liner keeps the soft color true. And the simplest all-day strategy: accept one midday refresh as part of wearing bold liquid matte. Even the best formulas fade in the center by hour six. Planning the refresh beats fighting it.

General staying-power tactics are covered in our long lasting lipstick guide on making any lip color stay put, including the setting tricks that help liquid formulas last.