I had mentioned in The Lipstick Tag that my favourite lipstick is the Elizabeth Arden (EA) Exceptional Lipstick in Breathless (#17), which was sadly discontinued. In the comments of that post, the fantabulous fivezero informed me that EA still had the shade Breathless in their repertoire, but in a new formula called Beautiful Color Moisturizing Lipstick (renumbered as #31). I was SUPER excited! I mentioned this to my co-worker and it turned out she had received an EA gwp which included Breathless that she didn’t want. She was planning on giving it to her mother, but instead she gave it to ME (sorry, mama). So I decided to do a comparison of the 2 Breathlesses… (what’s the proper plural for that?)
The original Breathless is a slightly warm toned MLBB shade in a hydrating cream formula. It’s very comfortable on the lips yet manages to last a remarkable amount of time on my lips (~4 hours). I wear this shade whenever I want to look polished and put together.
When I first learned of the possibility of a reincarnated Breathless lipstick, I was momentarily taken back by the new packaging – this gold nightmare:
Yikes, EA is shoving Red Door down our throats!
Thankfully, the gwp version of the Beautiful Color Moisturizing Lipstick is in a basic black plastic tube, phew! The original Exceptional Lipsticks were in a squared off sturdy plastic casing with EA’s name etched into a golden band around the middle portion. A bit old lady-ish, but at least it wasn’t gaudy like the gold tubes are now.
Upon opening the Breathless #31 and comparing it to the original Breathless #17, I could tell that the shades are not identical:
#31 has a slightly pinker tone whereas #17 has a tinge of coral. It was difficult to capture the nuanced colour difference (and in fact, some of my photos made it appear that #31 was warmer than #17 which is not the case in real life at all). Perhaps the swatches can show the difference better:
#17 is definitely warmer toned, which I really liked about this MLBB shade. Regardless, #31 is a very close match, I used the eyedropper tool in my photo editor program to isolate the main colours of the 2 lipstick swatches to show the differences – sometimes it’s easier to see the colours against a solid white background:
I also put the new formula to a wear test. Application-wise, I found the Beautiful Color Moisturizing Lipstick to be slightly more moisturizing (as suggested by its name) but not as long lasting as the Exceptional Lipstick (a common trade-off between moisture vs wearing time). A positive aspect of the new formula is that the lipstick smells a LOT better than the original, which had a synthetic “lipstick-y” smell that I disliked.
The Exceptional Lipsticks contained 4g of product, were made in the US, and cost $24.50, whereas the Beautiful Color Moisturizing Lipsticks contain only 3.5g, are made in Canada (I double checked that the gwp vs regular tube are the same – they are) and now costs $32.00! I’m undecided if I would ever purchase the new Breathless #31, since I still have the original #17 and now a full tube of the gwp of the #31. It might be a fun project for me to try to dupe the #17 from MAC or even a drugstore brand! 😛
Do you have any favourite products that have been discontinued – have you tried to find replacements for them?
stash matters 
Thanks for the comparison. This was a really interesting read. I love that you used the eyedropper tool to pick up the colors. I can almost never tell how well something matches
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You’re welcome! Yes, the eyedropper tool is very useful for reviewing colours without the surrounding areas which can distort the shades. I am always surprised at the true colour of things especially skin tone!
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Great post! Both shades are really beautiful!! 🙂 xo
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LOL I have checked with the eyedropper tool, as well. I also use a Firefox plugin called ColorZilla that lets you grab the hex value of any color on a webpage! Super useful for the geeky. 🙂
I am so sorry that the new Breathless isn’t the same! Annoying that they used the same name. Both are pretty, though I can definitely see why you prefer the original. The new one seems far more easily duped. I hope you can eventually find a dupe.
I have definitely tried to dupe discontinued lipsticks. I’m forever on the hunt for dupes of NARS Spanish Red (thinking of doing a post of all my fails so far) and Cargo Plume. Both original tubes have turned, so I don’t even have backup anymore 😥
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Oooh neat plugin – I will have to check it out. I used to be ALL about Firefox but it got super annoying / buggy with all the updates. I’ve been on Chrome for about a year now and it’s really good.
Lipsticks are probably the hardest things to dupe! I’ve heard about that service from Three Custom that will recreate any lipstick you send to them – it’s very pricey though as I recall.
http://www.threecustom.com/home.php?cat=253
I just searched Breathless and didn’t find a result. I searched Nars Spanish Red and Cargo Plume and they have them in their archives!
From the site:
If your shade name appears below, it means we have matched that shade previously for another customer and the formula is in our permanent archive! Although we do recommend that you send us a sample, you are also welcome to order directly from the archives.”
Pricing:
$60.00 – for 2 tubes, pots or wands of the same shade.
$21.50 – each additional tube, pot or wand at that time of ordering.
$6.50 for US Mail, $15.00 for UPS Ground or $25.00 for FedEx Express Saver 3 Day Service (within the contiguous 48 States) – $15.00 International shipping via US Mail.
I suppose, with all the money spent on finding dupes, it probably adds up to the cost of this service! 😛
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Hey, I remember 3C! I don’t think I liked their lipstick much, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers 😀 Hmm $75 for one lipstick is pretty steep. Thanks for the link!
I thought about switching to Chromium (rather than Chrome…this kind of stuff is creepy http://ultraculture.org/blog/2015/02/13/google-chromes-new-feature-spying-google/ even though yeah, all browsers track what you’re doing) but my setup is nice on Firefox so I am way too lazy to change 😀
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Oh well, I guess Google will know that I do a lot of makeup searches! 😛
Yeah I was thinking about what the quality / formula of the 3C lipsticks would be like – fine they match the colour and all, but the feel has to be good too.
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I love this comparison post! Both are great lipsticks 😀
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Thank you! Yes, they’re both good lipsticks – I just wish I had found the same shade as the original! Ah well.. 😛
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MAC Spaced Out blush 💔
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Lol that new packaging is something else! I definitely like the warmth of original better. I’m sure you can find a closer dupe!
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Great post and comparison! There is nothing in my HG status that has been discontinued yet, thank goodness! 🙂
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Knock on wood! 😛
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I’m fairly certain that cosmetic companies discontinue products so often just to tech us to panic and buy back ups. It seems like at least half of my stash has been discontinued (even some of the newer items!)
This is such a lovely shade! I really like that you isolated the shades against a white background, it makes it so much easier to see where the tonal differences lie.
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I concur! The lifespan of a product line is so short now. I firmly believe companies do it to spur on shopping and hoarding behaviour. We need to be smarter than those big corporations!
I’m wearing the original Breathless today! Such a great wearable colour. 😀 (I should buy a back up lmao)
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Lol! Too funny. Seriously though, they have my thought patterns totally figured out.
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I know quite a few marketers who have psychology degrees… so there’s that. 😋
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That makes a lot of sense AND makes me feel a bit better 😀
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Yes! I loved the L’oreal Glam Matte Gloss which was only released a few years ago… I’m pretty sure they repackaged it and are calling it Infallible Pro-Matte Gloss now
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That’s total BS! And I bet they’re charging more for it too.
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