Maybe it was the name that put me on edge – I kinda suspected these wouldn’t be too successful. But I was still curious and had to give them a try. Hey, it could be fun for New Years! You know what they say about first instincts and them being right? Violent Lip’s Temporary Lip Tattoos do not work well.

Perhaps if they were actual “temporary tattoos,” they might not look outright ridiculous. Except these are basically stickers that sit on top of your lips. Each “lip” comes in a huge format that you have to cut down and trim to fit (which is nearly impossible). Then you need to bend it in order to conform to your own lips, which are obviously three-dimensional and curved in a way paper just can’t, so there is no way to get a perfect fit.

Here’s what you do: take the sticky film off, then get a wet cotton ball and moisten the paper side. After much mess, the sticker will peel off and adhere to your lips. Just not very smoothly! There are inevitable creases, as you can see on my lips.

I messed up the top lip, so I had to discard it and only did the bottom one. Maybe my technique was flawed, but even if I got it to fit perfectly, you still look like there is a sticker on your face. On top of that, the thing feels awful. I had to fight against every instinct not to gnaw it off long enough just to get a picture taken.

The professional picture might look just fine, but we’re talking about a professional ad that a lot of work went into. In real life, you will look like a sloppy clown. Violent, indeed. At Sephora for $15.