My MAC lipsticks

For one reason or another, I don't seem to buy as many MAC products as I used to. This doesn't mean to say that I don't reach for the items I already have on a daily basis. I have quite a few lipsticks and remembering how much time I spent pouring over lipstick swatches in the past, I thought it might be of interested to share some swatches of my collection. All of the pictures in this post can be clicked to enlarge.

Barely Lit, Hue, Blankety, Hug Me, Patisserie

Syrup, Cosmo, Up The Amp, Plum Dandy

Patisserie, Hug Me, Blankety, Barely Lit, Hue

Plum Dandy, Up The Amp, Cosmo, Syrup

Lip swatches 

I thought it was very interesting when I looked through my collection that almost all of the lipsticks are either Lustres or Amplified Creams. I do like the Lustre formula very much for the moisturising feel of the lipsticks. I like the Amplified Cremes for the pigmentation but these aren't the most moisturising and my lips tend to feel a little dry after a days wear.

I shall start with my bare lips for reference. I was actually a little shocked by the lack of pigment in my lips these days. I still think of them as being quite pigmented but it seems that they are losing some of their natural rosiness with age.

Barely Lit was one of my first MAC lipsticks and it was a limitied edition from the Smoke Signals collection . It's a Lustre finish and the colour is a peachy, bronze nude colour. It's a nude that I can actually get away with as some of my natural colour peaks through.

I have shown you Hue before. I do worry that it is too light for me but it is a pretty pale pink. It's the only Glaze that I own. I do find it hard to cover up my natural colour with the lipstick and I tend to wear this with a lipgloss as I feel better able to carry off the colour that way.

Blankety is a dark nude on me. It's quite brown in tone which I like. It's an Amplified Creme and is richly pigmented. I find it easy to cover my natural lip colour with this except for very centre of my bottom lip. I often wear it with Bare Necessity Dazzleglass for a glossy nude lip.

Patisserie is the latest addition to my lipstick collection. This is another Lustre finish. I find it's quite similar to Hug Me but it has sparkles and is a bit glossier in finish, it's a little darker too. I know I'll get a lot of use from this as it's a lovely everyday shade.

Hug Me is a real favourite of mine. It's a nice, flesh toned pink. The Lustre finish makes it a very comfortable lipstick to wear. I reach for this whenever I want a lipstick that adds colour without making a big statement.

Whenever I have photographed Syrup the colour comes out a bit 'wrong'. To me this is slightly darker and less pink than the photo suggests. It is another Lustre finish. I like the colour but don't reach for it as much as I should.

I am very fond of Cosmo (I also seem to pick a lot of similar colours as I explained in this post). It's an Amplified Creme which MAC describes as Pink Coco. I think of it as being quite a rosy colour. However you would describe it, for me it an easy to wear, my lips but better sort of shade.

Up The Amp is another of my Amplified Cremes. I apologise for the sloppy application, you get a a bit blaze once you've got to the 8th lipstick swatch! I like this colour very much, it's violet purple shade which on paper sounds like it would be difficult to pull off, yet I find it totally wearable. It's not a colour I wear everyday but when I'm in the mood for something different, I'll pull this out.

This lipstick was part of a Christmas set that also included Angel (I gave up trying to make Angel work for me long ago!). It's the only Frost I own. It's quite an unusual shade, it's plum with a bronze frost. It's probably the lipstick equivalent of Trax. I admit the last time I wore this was Halloween last year. It's rather a good witchy colour on me. Make of that what you will!


I have had other MAC lipsticks, both successes and failures. The great successes were Modesty (Cremesheen) and Viva Glam V (Lustre) which are the only lipsticks I have ever used up. The failures were Creme d'nude, Angel and Girl About Town. In fact GAT wasn't really a failure. I like the colour but it's a very bright pink, almost neon and I wore it so rarely it was re-homed.

I hope the swatches are useful. Are you a fan of MAC lipsticks? Am I missing any must haves? Just for future reference you understand. I mustn't forget the spending ban!