I have had this lipstick in my stash for a while and never gave it enough love or attention. As soon as the cold weather hit and I started getting paler, I found myself reaching for all kinds of crazy colours for my lips: reds, purples, violets, burgundy... that kind of stuff.
So I decided to be brave and give this bad boy another try, despite the fact that it left me unimpressed in the past. What turned me off about this lipstick is the dryness. Holy cow! Application is next to impossible on bare lips. It won't slide on it's own, let alone contouring the lips and getting a crisp sharp line. I exfoliated and prepped my lips in advance with Burt's Bees Lip Balm, a hydrating but not greasy product, and blotted well. I lined my lips with a NYX lipliner and then I moved on to the lipstick. I won't lie, it was hard... it took a lot of patience and precision to deposit colour in the right amount everywhere, but the balm helped. The finish is, as expected, matte. It works with the colour. It has that wow factor. The lipstick wore well, a few hours with no touch-ups and smudging, and despite my fear of it parching my lips, it managed to dry them but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Not that uncomfortable anyway.
I am still not sold on this lipstick, the formula to be precise. If a red matte lip is up your alley, than this is your product but be prepared to deal with the drying aspect and take the time to prep your lips before.
Labels: lipstick, mac, matte, red, ruby woo
