Radiant Orchid: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar Swatches and Dupe Hunt - Lydia, Digitalis

Press Samples

You've likely heard that Pantone has named Radiant Orchid the color of the year for 2014. When this was announced I immediately wondered--what shade is radiant orchid? I have pretty strong color discernment and I admittedly tend to get overly analytical when it comes to colors. Rather than choosing an obvious color like lilac  or buttercup Pantone chose the lovely color radiant orchid. I feel as though this has resulted in some interpretation as I've seen everything from deep magentas to bright lavenders referred to as "radiant orchid" in the last month.

Wanting to really get a better feel for the color I optimistically referred to the formula breakdown, which can be viewed HERE.

As you can see in that link, Radiant Orchid is broken down as follows:

RGB color model

• Red - 177
• Green - 99
• Blue - 163

CMYK color model

• Cyan - 33
• Magenta - 72

In the RGB color model the formula reflects almost equal parts red and blue, with almost 25% of the formula being accounted for by Green.

In the CMYK color model the formula reflects just under 70% being composed of magenta and around 30% being accounted for by cyan. 

While this wasn't exactly super helpful, based on what I could see with my eye and what I found in these formulas, I concluded that radiant orchid was a form of (possibly) slightly cool toned pinky lavender more or less. But honestly, I think unless you walk around with the Pantone swatch in your pocket it's slightly open to interpretation within a reasonable margin.

Wearing Radiant Orchid Lips

Of course after determining what I thought Radiant Orchid what might be my next step was finding it within my favorite brands. I'll be sharing additional "radiant orchid" posts as the year progresses and I can find or mix what I feel is a reasonable equivalent. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics was one of the first brands I thought of, however, as they have a wealth of unique and primary lip tar colors. Since lip tars are easily mixable (thought obviously you can mix your lipsticks with a little more effort) I thought it might be easiest to start here on my quest to create "radiant orchid" lips. Looking at swatches of OCC's purples, I hand-picked Digitalis and Lydia from the bunch. I thought Lydia might be a close match and if it wasn't I thought it might be a bit closer if mixed with Digitalis. LeCosmetique, a fabulous online pro beauty e-tailer, was kind enough to send them over for me to experiment with and share them with you!

While I personally don't feel that either color on its own or mixed is spot-on, I do think 2 of these options below are reasonable possibilities.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Digitalis Swatch

As you can see, OCC Digitalis is a whitened pink-toned lavender. To me, this is almost a whitened version of radiant orchid. Too light to be a match, but possibly close enough to be on a gradient scale with radiant orchid.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Lydia Swatch

Personally, I think this has a bit too much red in it to be a perfect match for radiant orchid. It's almost got a maroon tone to it and not enough pink. It's also a bit deeper in my opinion, too.

Obsessive Compulsive Cometics Lip Tar Lydia and Digitalis Mixed Swatch

This was a mix of about 2 parts Lydia to 1.5 parts Digitalis. I think this is definitely closer than the other two on their own, but I still think it needs to be a bit more vibrant lavender with a bit of light pink. I think this could definitely pass for a near dupe ... but I'd really like to get an exact color match to the swatch.

Final Re-cap

Price

OCC lip tars retail for $18 each (.33 fl oz)

Where to Buy

These are available on LeCosmetique's site as well as through OCC's site

Final Thoughts

I definitely think I can play around and get a color that I feel is a perfect match for radiant orchid. I think adding a more vibrant pink, like a teeny bit of anime, to the mix may really help create that medium pinky lavender. Or perhaps starting with a color such as Hoochie and then mixing in a lighter whitened-pink might be a better fit since Hoochie is probably closer as a base than Lydia in tone. I'm definitely going to play around and come back to you with more possibilities. In the mean time, these are both fantastic colors and I highly recommend both on their own or mixed! I also suggest checking out LeCosmetique's site as they carry a number of fantastic OCC products along with some other brands I love. In fact, I'll be sharing a great pro neutral palette from Graftobian with you that they carry soon!

Have you come across a perfect radiant orchid? 

Note: Products in this post were provided by PR/the brand. All opinions stated above are my own based on my personal experience and have not been influenced by PR/the brand.