MAC Heroine review

I recently acquired Mac's newly permanent Heroine matte lipstick - a bright orchid purple, or violet leaning fuchsia, which I've speedily swatched next to other similarly coloured lipsticks I own:

Taken in indirect sunlight, as swatch photos should be!

• Top left: Maybelline Colour Elixir Lip Gloss in Vision in Violet
• Top right: Revlon Matte Balm Stain in Shameless
• Centre: MAC Heroine matte lipstick
• Bottom left: OCC Lip Tar in Hoochie liquid lipstick
• Bottom right: MAC Flat Out Fabulous retro matte lipstick

I'm not going to describe the differences between these varying shades of purple as the above photo gives an extremely accurate colour reference, but I will say that Heroine is not as opaque as I'd hoped and expected it to be. Since I'm insanely pale and without strongly pigmented lips it's rare that lipsticks allow my natural lip colour to peep though (unless of course they're a deliberately sheer formula) and to be honest Heroine is only slightly less than fully opaque - I just expect better from MAC.

Not going to lie - I can't wink, but neither am I going to let that stop me

Since I have no time in my life right now for neat on-the-mouth swatches in daylight (I live in the library during the hours the sun is out) I'm just going to leave you with some snaps of the makeup I did for an event I attended this weekend - as the photo was taken at night under my stupid eco-friendly energy saving lights the colours are naturally slightly off - suffice to say Heroine is the colour shown above on the swatches, not how it appears here on my mouth.

Overall I'd give Heroine a B+ - it was adequately opaque, applied well straight from the tube, was matte enough to be very long-wearing yet also comfortable without patchiness. It did however leave a significant bright pink stain which doesn't bother me in the slightest but is probably something to consider. I'd definitely re-buy it if I lost or finished it because it's such a gorgeous colour and easy to use, but hopefully there's something a little bit better out there!


FACE:

• NARS Oil Free Primer
• NARS Sheer Glow in Siberia foundation
• Illamasqua Hollow contour
• Illamasqua Delirium blush
• Illamasqua Concealer in 105 and 115
• Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder

BROWS:

• Illamasqua Motto Brow Cake
• Sugarpill Bulletproof eyeshadow

EYES:

• NARS and Urban Decay eyeshadow primer (one on each eye - literally no difference)
• Laura Mercier Morning Dew eyeshadow
• Inglot 363 eyeshadow (my absolute favourite crease colour)
• Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
• Fyrinnae Serendipity and Rapunzel Had Extensions eyeshadow
• Sugarpill Bulletproof eyeshadow
• Urban Decay Perversion eyeliner
• Oh My Lash Lucille eyelashes
• Duo Lash Glue
• Misc rhinestones from Amazon

LIPS:

• MAC Prep+Prime Lips
• MAC Heroine lipstick

This feels invasively close

Also here's my other and all time favourite purple lipstick, also by MAC but sadly Limited Edition - Instigator:

Hair's still wet, no one to impress

All FACE and BROW products are exactly the same as above.

EYES:

• NARS Smudgeproof Shadow Base
• Laura Mercier Morning Dew
• Inglot 363 eyeshadow
• Sugarpill Bulletproof eyeshadow
• Urban Decay Pervesion eyeliner
• Red Cherry #48 eyelashes

LIPS:

• MAC Instigator

Hopefully soon I'll find time in my life to post more than just a few snaps of looks I've done for nights out, but until then I'll be living barefaced in the library.


Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com

Lipstick Swatches

Quick post with swatches of all of my lipsticks (disincluding my many OCC Lip Tars and a few I've relegated since upgrading them):

Neat swatching is not something I have time for

So, from left to right in a poor attempt at reading darkest to lightest:

• Illamasqua Pristine - supposed to be matte, is actually satin - C
• MAC Instigator (LE) - matte - A
• NARS Train Bleu (Discontinued?) - so matte it makes the sahara look damp - C
• MAC Instigator (LE) - matte - A
• MAC Dark Side - satin/'amplified' - A
• Rimmel Kate Moss Matte 107 - matte - B
• MAC Studded Kiss (LE) - matte - A
• Armani Rouge D'Armani 406 - cream-matte A++
• MAC Flat Out Fabulous - 'retro' matte A
• Soap & Glory Pom Pom - matte - A
• Soap & Glory Pink Blush - matte - A
• Soap & Glory - matte - Supernude - A

My grading is based on the formula alone - pigment density and evenness, comfort, longevity, feathering, smudging:

• A = excellent in all areas
• B = good in most areas
• C = workable but not ideal
• D = barely functional
• F = garbage

Pristine, Punk Couture, Train Bleu, Instigator, Dark Side, 107, Studded Kiss, 406

It's pretty obvious my preferences lie with vampy mattes and this reason is two fold: purple is my favourite colour and I'm lazy. Essentially if I'm going to wear lipstick I want it to damn well look like I'm wearing lipstick otherwise I just don't see the point, and if I'm going to bother to apply a lipstick it better damn well not need reapplication for at least 6 hours unless I decide to attack a big greasy hamburger.

My all-time favourites are MAC Instigator and Rouge D'Armani 406, Instigator is a great formula but it's the truly unique colour that I'm in love with and 406 has a absolutely magical formula and is my perfect classic red.

107, Studded Kiss, 406, Flat Out Fabulous, Pom Pom, Blush Pink, Supernude

 Flat Out Fabulous isn't as purple as I'd hoped it to be but is still a lovely bright spring/summer shade, and the S&G shades are my nod to natural lips - Pom Pom is a very wearable bold pink, Blush Pink is a muted plum 'My Lips But Better' and Supernude is just there on the off chance I ever want to wear a nude lip (although I'm a little put off by how warm it looks here since I really dislike anything orange).


Currently on my wish-list are:

• MAC Heroine (violet) - matte; pretty obvious why I want this
• MAC Up The Amp (muted medium toned lavender pink) - satin/'amplified'; a toned down everyday purple
• MAC Relentlessly Red (bright pinkish red with coral undertones) - 'retro' matte; about as far towards coral/orange as I'll go, I think this will look great with a tan over the summer
• Illamasqua Posture (greyed lavender) - matte; to be honest this will probably make me look a bit washed out and ill but... I want it
• Illamasqua Apocalips (dark teal green) - matte; green is my second favourite colour and I want to wear it on my face. That's all there is to it.
• Revlon Matte Balm Shameless (red based purple) - matte; obvious choice
• Maybelline Colour Elixir Lip Gloss Vision in Violet (violet) - gloss; because if anything is going to get me into lip-glosses/allow me to tolerate their stickiness it's going to be something bright purple, plus it's cheap.
• MAC Sin (burgundy) - matte; I probably don't need this as I have Studded Kiss

And a bonus of this week's manicure which is appropriately purple - Barry M nail polish in Cosmo Berry and a random Topshop glitter one.


Sas X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com

Lip Tar Custom Mixes: Preliminary Adventures

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics make a liquid lipstick called Lip Tar - you paint it on as the thinnest possible layer (about a bead half the size of a pin head) with an included brush, it then dries to a demi-matte finish. It's amazingly pigmented, long wearing and comfortable to boot.

I currently own 10 of them - 7 traditional(ish) lip colours I love and 4 mixing colours:

Vintage, NSFW, Strumpet, Nylon, Hoochie, Lydia, Interlace, Tarred, Rx, Traffic, Feathered

I finally have the time in my life (thanks to being partially crippled due to recent knee surgery) to play creative artist with all my new colours (below are A TON of photos - proceed with caution).

Here's the method I use to apply them:

• Moisturise with lip balm and let it sink in for a couple of minutes
• Wipe off the excess lip balm with a tissue paper
• Apply the thinnest possible layer to give a wash of colour and create the lip shape
• Top up to full opacity with another tiny bit of Tar

That will give you a true to Tar colour which is cleanly and easily shaped and doesn't smudge or feather. To then mix an on-the-mouth colour (as opposed to mixing it on a tray/pot) dab on the least possible amount of your second colour and blend out. If you're trying to add a lighter colour over a darker colour (eg red over blue) remember to blot off the excess dark colour first or you'll have to add too much of the lighter colour thus ending up with a gloopy mouth and wasted product.

So without further adu check out my absurdly colourful mouth:

Bare lips

Two coats of Traffic - you can see it's pretty patchy and not as pigment dense as the others

Tried to get graphic and creative: looked like a mouth-flag

Blended it out

You can really see the texture difference between pure traffic and with Rx blended in

Fully blended out and matching my eyes!

Added more Rx, sad green lipstick doesn't suit me as well as I dreamed it would

You can really see the much smoother texture here

Blotted and added Feathered to get a mint green; quick comparison to Lime Crime's Mint To Be (I wasn't trying to colour match here)

Started a fresh with NSFW which is easily the most beautiful true red I have ever seen - neither orange nor too cool.
I originally bought it for mixing as a primary red, but will now definitely wear it alone.

Magical, majestic, magnificent... I'll stop now. It's just perfect

This is where I start getting bored with my regular facial expression

Created an ombre with Tarred but sadly the consistency was even worse than Traffic

Darkened it more - there's a ton of feathering with Tarred and it's really liquid-y, thus sadly this would not be long wearing orpractical to wear out

Blended it together

Added some Rx

Back to bare lips - a reminder of our canvas' original colour

Rx - the pigmentation and consistency was lovely just like NSFW

Added some NSFW and gave up trying to make a cheerfully neutral facial expression

Blotted, added Feathered

Blotted again, more Feathered

Ok so here you can see an issue I ran into: Rx stained my lips badly, making it impossible to get a true purple.
If you're going to be using Rx in a mix always use it second for on the mouth blending as none of the other colours really stain

Stained lips after about half a dozen scrubs with makeup remover

Attempted to roll with it and add Feathered and NSFW on top of the staining

More NSFW

You can still see the staining causing an inconsistent colour and texture. My custom purple/violet/lilac/lavender  dreams did not come true today, but I will try again soon with NSFW as the base colour

I pretty much had to shed 3 layers of skin to get them back to their (almost) original colour

Feathered. Yes, I am so pale I can colour and blend outside of the lines with a pure white lipstick

Unexpected downside: my pearly whites no longer look pearly white!

Im so bored at this point I barely bothered to blend and pose

Feathered and NSFW

After disappointment with the purples this NSFW+Feathered mix really made my night, somehow this photo doesn't do it justice

Not a custom mix but I wanted to wear purple out for cocktails so settled for plain Hoochie

Obviously this isn't anywhere close to the full creative and colourful potential of my Lip Tars (I've got my heart set on a sunset ombre like my Sugarpill eyeshadow look) but it's a great jumping off point. I'll definitely be revisiting this theme/project with both conventional (reds, pinks, corals, purples?) and off the wall colours and combinations.

Also, shout out to Cocktail Cosmetics for being an amazing UK distributor of Lip Tars (and Sugarpill and Lime Crime) - the owner Julie Burford gave me pretty much the best customer service I've ever encountered and my orders arrived amazingly fast and beautifully packaged.

Saskia X

PrettyTrivialities@gmail.com