My Red Lipstick Collection! Review + Swatches

My Red Lipstick Collection post features various lipsticks. Some press samples are featured and are marked with an asterisk. Disclosure policy here.

Which is worse – that I have seven red lipsticks or that I think they’re all different enough to warrant the excess?

I switch my stash around often, passing on shades that aren’t getting enough love to friends, so the ones here have earned their places. It’s a pretty good bunch!

L’Oreal Collection Exclusive Pure Reds, Blake’s Red, €11.99.

I think this might be my favourite red lipstick. I gushed pretty heavily about in the full review of the L’Oreal Collection Exclusive Pure Reds, and I’m as fond of it as I was back then.

It’s got the matte look without any of the texture and comfort downsides. It lasts, it feels great and colour is totally opaque. Bonus – it smells like five star jam. I’m not even sure if stars are given to jams, but any awarding body would bend its rules for this fella. It’s gorgeous.

Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick in Defiant Coral, €29

I like Lauder’s Defiant Coral for its consistency in being fancy. The packaging’s sleek but luxe, the formula smacks of quality and this shade is super swish, assuming you’re happy to take my word on what’s classy.

It’s heavy on colour, shine and impart buckets of moisture, but feels light. Some work went into creating this range, and no mistake.

Estée Lauder Pure Color Crystal Lipstick in Twinkling Ruby, €25

This is my Christmas red. Tiny flecks of glitter are carried in shiny, creamy, bright red lipstick. The glitter translates as more of a sheen, unless you’re showing your lipstick to admirers who are nose-to-nose with you. It’s closer to being subtle than it is a 90s frosted finish.

I’ve got a few shades in the Pure Color Crystal range, and they’re invariably lovely. The consistency is thick, rich and creamy. I know we’re close to summer, but this is a brilliant winter option.

MAC Amplified Creme Lipstick in Impassioned,  €18.50

Impassioned sits on the fence. It looks one colour in some lights, and another in different lights. To my eye, it’s a watermelon red.

Its texture, Amplified Creme, is the cream of the MAC finish crop. It’s opaque, glossy and long wearing.

MAC Retro Matte Lipstick in Ruby Woo,  €18.50

Retro Matte lipsticks take work. You need a lip balm, clean lips, an old priest, a young priest and a bible. Ruby Woo won’t go over lips that are too moist, and it drags in patches over lips that are too dry.

If you can get it right, it looks bloody gorgeous. It’s so flat that it looks cartoonish, an effect that you don’t truly get with modern mattes.

MAC Retro Matte Lipstick in Relentlessly Red,  €18.50

This is from the same Retro Matte range as Ruby Woo, but this shade is more chill. It’s tricky, but much easier to work with.

The shade, like Impassioned, sits between proper colours. It’s not anything I can put my finger on. We’ll go with very pinked coral and get on with our lives.

Rimmel Kate Lipstick in 107, €6.99

People were badgering me to buy this lipstick for an age. I’d go to Boots with the best intentions, but get skeeved out by the hack of the testers. Lads, what do people do to get them so messy?

When I finally tried it, I could see what the fuss was about. For such a deep red, it’s surprisingly hassle free. It’s opaque in one swipe and sticks around with the best of ’em.

I like it most for its thin consistency, which feels like nothing at all. It’s not so much comfortable as it is entirely undetectable.

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READ MORE:

Best Nude Lips ~~~ My MAC Lipstick Collection

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