MAC Retro Matte Flat Out Fabulous - review

MAC Retro Matte Campaign Visual

Another pink, this time in a matte, and part of the Retro Matte collection released back in September.

 

I love matte lipsticks - well, if I'm honest I love very slightly creamy just-off-matte lipsticks for their more-wearability-than absolute mattes.  While I absolutely totally and utterly adore the finish of the latter, I've yet to find one (a lippie or a brand) that's not murder on your lips.  This one is the latter - a completely flat matte.

Hee hee.  Nothing LIKE the campaign visual.
And whacked on without the benefit of a mirror, foundation, concealer, lipliner, highlighter or re-touching.
But, featuring my new blue Trilby.  Which is important :-)

I have been hard-pushed to find much of interest from MAC this last year, following on from a few years of demented LE collections, I found myself a little jaded.  Their levels of frosted mineralised products have reached new peaks of late, and it's not a finish which particularly interests me (nor one that I personally can wear all that much, gettin' on y'all).   So this collection, the Retro Matte for Fall '13, was a welcome relief from all of the chunky frosting.

 

Fabulous... I love bold vibrant shades
But... see what I mean about drying?

 

Apparently this collection was inspired by Ruby Woo's popularity and texture.  Five new shades in this  Retro Matte finish were introduced, along with a re-promote of Ruby Woo (a red that I thought I had and now can't find in my stash, hmmmm).  All of the shades are quite bold and vibrant - there are no muted or nude shades here (I love bold shades, prefer them actually, but the collection may not be for everyone).  Along with the lipsticks, six new Pro Longwear Lip Pencils in similarly vibrant colours featured.

Flat Out Fabulous... in more ways than one

Flat Out Fabulous is the one I bought (it's the one on the campaign visual above and the one that really grabbed me out of the six).  It's a blue-based bold, vibrant pink, just shy of shocking pink.  It's a wonderful shade, but not a great finish - it's instantly drying on the lips, and you can feel it every minute that you wear it.  While it's great in terms of last-ability (it fades down to a pigmented stain), it does fade a little too quickly for my liking and boy does it flake off in parts.

 

To wear it, you really need to prep and moisturise your lips properly (any hint of dryness is going to be hugely exaggerated with a matte lip) - I suggest MAC's Prep+Prime lip as it's just brilliant under matte lips as it provides a great canvas with no shine, but failing that, a smidge of a lip balm applied, left sit for a bit, then blotted away (just not a very shiny or greasy one) will do the trick too.  It does tug a bit on application, another reason why prep is important.

 

Le swatch...

You'll need to bring this lippie with you - it doesn't appear to transfer but it does disappear from the lips (currently I'm getting about two hours out of it before I have to touch-up the more obvious faded/flaked away areas - I think for a flat matte like this it needs to look absolutely strong and fierce and any patchy areas do.not.look.good.  And bearing in mind, every time you layer it on, you're drying your lips a bit more (so bring your Prep+Prime/lip balm with you too).

 

Dupes-wise, it's not far off MAC Girl About Town (but slightly more blue) or NARS Carthage (but slightly darker and more fuchsia , if you've got either of them already.

 

I personally love it, but if you don't like the hassle of the prep & moisturisation, the drying nature of a matte formula, and the necessary upkeep every couple of hours during the day/evening, it won't be for you.