This past Christmas, for my student club secret santa event, I received my very first MAC lipstick. Being the makeup obsessed freak that I've become in the last couple of years, it's a big surprise that I never went out and splurged on a MAC lipstick. Yes, I say splurge, even though these lipsticks don't cost nearly as much as some of the higher end lipsticks out there ($18). But still. I live on a very tight, measly little hostess budget. Especially with the taxes and gas price in Vancouver.. I think I'm just going to stick with buying 6 dollar lipstick from Walmart. It's true what they say though, you really can't judge something unless you've tried it. And honestly, I haven't even had the chance to wear this lipstick yet... but just holding the slick black tube in my hand... swatching it over and over, taking photos and admiring it... I've already fallen in love. 

Something about a MAC lipstick just feels so... right. It was pretty much love at first touch. 

The one that I received was MAC's classic matte red lipstick, Ruby Woo. I was absolutely lusting over the Ruby Woo variation that came in the rose gold packaging for Rihanna's line with MAC, but I heard it was pretty much the same lipstick, just in a different tube. 

Usually I don't tend to gravitate towards the matte lipsticks just because I've been cursed with super disgustingly dry and chapped lips most of the time. However, because it is a MAC lipstick (something a little more special and luxurious than my average drugstore lippie) I'm sorta glad I got a matte one. It seems to make it more special, and it's something that I probably won't wear as often.

Which to me, isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just means I'll have this pretty little thing for longer.

Anyways, when I first swatched it, I was actually a little surprised. In the tube, Ruby Woo looks like a very classic blue-toned red. But swatched on my hand (and maybe it's because of my skintone?) it turned out to be a brighter, more warm-toned (almost orangey) red. Like I said, I haven't gotten the chance to wear this lipstick yet, so I don't know what it'll look like on, but from the swatch above, you can see that it doesn't come out as cool-toned as you think it would. 

So what's the first thing I do after swatching this lovely new baby of mine? Try to find a color dupe in my collection.. DUH. 

So here is my little collection of red lipsticks. I don't have that big of a variation in brands, but as you can see, I still have quite a few reds. 

So from left to right in the above pictures I have : 

Wet N' Wild - Red Velvet

Maybelline - On Fire Red

MAC - Ruby Woo

Wet N' Wild - Stoplight Red

Maybelline - Red Revival

So here are the swatches for all the above lipsticks. Please ignore my dry hand. It's going from winter to spring here in Vancouver, and usually when the season changes, my body goes absolutely bonkers and completely dries. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. It just happens. 

So the swatch at the very left is Red Velvet by WnW. I thought that Red Revival (the swatch at the bottom) would be the closest to Ruby Woo when I first glanced at it, but it turns out Red Velvet turned out to be a much closer match than Red Revival. Stoplight Red (the one at the top) also matches pretty well but I still think Red Velvet is the closest. Other than the texture and finish of the lipstick (Red Velvet is creamier, and more moisturizing) it would actually be a pretty good dupe for MAC's infamous Ruby Woo. 

How are you liking the qualities of these pictures by the way? I've been playing around with my friend's T3i and I've been absolutely loving it. I'm planning to take some of my saved up chinese new years money and buy myself one ! I'm going to be using the T3i to film a make video soon too to see how it works in the video department but so far I am adoring this camera. Get ready for some way better quality pictures for this blog.

Hope you guys are having as great of a day as I am.

Talk soon, lovers.