Lipstick may well be my favourite makeup item (OK, so I love a good blush too). It’s such a grown-up, sophisticated product, which can totally transform your face – or switch up the shade or finish, and it can be completely girly/loud/crazy/you name it.
I didn’t really wear lipstick at all until fairly recently. Shocking. At school, like every other girl, I wore lipgloss (Lancome Juicy Tubes were my weapon of choice). Then I had a few rosy-pink Estee Lauder lipsticks which were passed on to me by my mother, the queen of the everyday bright pink lip, who never wears a neutral – her current favourite is the classic
Revlon Cherries in the Snow, which I also own and love (and which will feature in the bright pink series shortly!).
I thought about doing a post on my lipstick collection, but swiftly realised this would be intolerably epic, because I have so darn many. Rather than dividing them up just by brand (which would be ridiculously MAC-heavy, I’ll be honest), I decided colour groups was the way to go. And, in the spirit of my rediscovered love of
Mad Men, what better place to start than
RED. This will be a series of posts on what I would class as classic, bright reds. Starting with:
MAC
L-R: Ruby Woo, Russian Red; Cherry lipliner
Top to bottom: Ruby Woo, Russian Red, Cherry
Ruby Woo was my
first ever MAC lipstick purchase. Momentous stuff. I was heavily influenced by a glamorous American friend on my course, who wore Russian Red to class, had rockabilly bangs, and always looked amazing. So we went to the MAC counter in Debenhams one afternoon, where I picked up Ruby Woo and Cherry lipliner (ah, the classic MAC girls and their sulky hard sell). Despite it being the driest lipstick known to humanity - so dry it actually skids on the lips! - I loved the shade and the matte finish (and even the bizarre vanilla-esque scent) so much I wore it to every formal event for a term. It even bears the scars of being dropped under the table in hall after too much wine. I can't say I wear this often now, but it's a gorgeous blue-based bright red if you don't have issues with drying lipsticks.
After my love affair with Ruby Woo, it was inevitable I would purchase
Russian Red at some point. It's another classic red, a bit more neutral in tone I'd say, and a tad deeper in colour. It's also a matte finish, but the formula is much, much easier to wear, which was a major factor in picking this up. Out of these two, I would probably choose Russian Red for the better texture (more forgiving on the lips and easier to apply being two particular advantages), but I do love the bright blue red of Ruby Woo!
Cherry is a good all-round bright red lipliner, which I'd wear with pretty much any bright red lipstick. I find it quite dry, which makes it a bit laborious to apply (especially in winter when it's cold!), but I suppose this means it lasts longer on the lips.
I don't think I'll be acquiring any more reds from MAC, if only because I have
more than enough choice as it is. If there was a bright red in the Amplified Creme finish, which I love, I'd probably have to get it (full disclosure: I have
Dubonnet and
Dark Side - more of which later). So far I've steered clear of the other popular matte reds such as
Lady Danger, because I'm cautious about wearing orange-toned reds - while I'm not shy about bold lips (for some reason I own an actual orange lipstick), the warmer reds clash with my skintone and certainly don't whiten teeth!
I'm going to post this as it is rather than tagging on all the other brands, to stop it becoming hugely long! Suffice it to say I have Revlon, Rockalily, Chanel, NARS, and Estee Lauder coming up next (oh the suspense!).
Till next time,
Josephine x
