An Overview: My MAC Lipsticks ~

It seems to me that it's been a while since I've talked about colours and about my lipsticks. So today, I deem it absolutely necessary to pay some attention to my lipsticks, which are screaming blue murder and neglect.

I've always had a slight fascination with MAC lipsticks. Walking into a MAC store, you seriously cannot help but be amazed at their lipstick collection. Well, in my experience, at least.

They have not 10, not 20, not even 60, but 165 (or thereabouts) lipsticks in their permanent collection alone. Yes, one.hundred.and.sixty.five. Yes I checked. Don't believe me? Go count yourself on their MAC website.

I won't profess to intimately know ALL their lipsticks. That would be madness. So instead, today, let's take a look at my humble collection of a mere nine MAC lippies, shall we?

Top row (l-r): Sandy-B (frost), Blow Dry (lustre), Pleasureseeker (glaze), Barely Lit (lustre), Giddy (lustre); Bottom row (l-r): High Tea (lustre), Hug Me (lustre), Strawbaby (lustre), Viva Glam V (lustre)

(Kindly pardon my swatching skills. Much to learn, I have.)

If you look again at the first photo at the top of the post, you'll see my lipsticks in the order as captioned in the second photo. As you can tell, most of my lipsticks are warm toned. And many belong to the coral/peach family, such as Sandy-B, Blow Dry and Pleasureseeker.

Barely Lit is a brown-based nude, High Tea is a pearly-sheer beige, and Giddy is a gooorgeous yellow based warm pink. Hug Me is a wonderful (and much loved) muted warm pink (which looks scarily brown in the swatch), while Strawbaby looks cool but swatches on as a warm berry, even if it has blue flecks. It is a really interesting shade, and a great beginner's red.

And finally, Viva Glam V, which is mauvey pink with gold shimmer. It is a hugely popular shade from MAC.

MAC has eight finishes for their lipsticks: lustre, frost, amplified creme, glaze, amplified, satin, matte and cremesheen. My favourite, if you cannot already guess, is lustre. Of all the finishes, I find this works best for me. It may have shimmer or not, but lustre lipsticks generally feel a little creamy and is easy enough to work with. Glaze, I find is similar to lustre. I love me a lipstick which is just a tad sheer, with a smooth creamy/glossy finish.

I'm not a fan of matte lipsticks, so I've never quite ventured there. Frost I find is well, too frosty for my liking these days (I think I've grown a little older in taste), and amplified is just too pigmented. If you're a fan of strong colours and pigmented lipsticks, this might work out great for you.

I've heard of friends complain that they find MAC lipsticks too drying, which I think could be true of some finishes, such as frost or matte. Granted, some lips are drier than others, but applied with a lipbalm in advance, I have no such problem.

What I also love about MAC lipsticks is the delicious vanilla scent. Like a true junkie, I can scarcely resist taking a good sniff everytime apply my lipstick. If you like vanilla as much as I do, you will love it.

In terms of staying power, I can't really say much as I tend to re-apply my lipbalm and lipsticks quite often. But in my experience, they seem to last a good few decent hours on.

MAC lipsticks cost RM63, the last time I bought one, and price wise, I'd say they fall into the mid-range category. I don't know if they've gone up in price, but the good news is, MAC also has a Back-to-MAC programme. Bring in six empty MAC cases (powder, blush etc.), and redeem a MAC lipstick for free.

Sounds really great. My only problem is, I'll need to work on finishing products quicker!

In conclusion, I really do love my MAC lipsticks. They're relatively affordable, there's a whole variety of finishes and colours to choose from, and they smell incredibly yummy. What's not to love?

Have you tried a MAC lipstick?