Sunday, June 1, 2008

MAC Lip Erase

MAC Lip Erase comes in two colours, Pale and Dim. Dim is the darker colour of the two and I picked it on the advice of the SA as the other would've made me look more washed out.

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I have really pigmented lips. An annoyingly pigmented red. I find a lot of colours don't show up on me at all, or they'll look like I just added clear gloss on my lips.

If I try to use darker colours, the colour ends up intensifying the redness of my lips, making me look like I have red lipstick on. That might be great if I want a red lipstick look, but it gets quite annoying if I do a smoky eye and my natural lipcolour is just overpowering the look :(

So I really like Lip Erase because it helps make lipsticks look like their actual colour on me.

I know that a cheaper alternative often used is concealer on the lips. However concealer has never worked for me because it washes me out a lot more. I also have super dry lips, and concealer always ends up accentuating the lines/any flakiness on my lips.

I've heard of some people using MAC Myth satin lipstick as well to mute their lipcolour. I don't have MAC Myth, but I have MAC Fleshpot, which is somewhat similar to Myth. I compared the two and the effect is quite close. However the Lip Erase formulation is smoother and seems to make a better base on my lips compared with the satin formulation of Fleshpot.

Note that I do have to use lipbalm before applying Lip Erase. However it still glides on easier and spreads more evenly than concealer or Fleshpot.

Unfortunately it doesn't cure all my problems. It doesn't work well with sheer glosses, because it mutes my lips to a beige colour that looks quite odd unless there is an opaque colour on top. If only there was a product that would mute my lips to a natural nude pink colour, that'd be perfect.


Some pictures to give you an idea:

Lip Erase on the left half and none of the right. Topped with MAC 40s Pink lipstick. As you can see, lip erase helps show the true colour of the lipstick better.

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Bare lips

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With Lip Erase

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With Viva Glam IV lipstick on top - a light berry colour

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With Viva Glam VI gloss on top - a bit more glossy and a bit more colour

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If WITHOUT Lip Erase

VGIV lipstick with only lipbalm underneath

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With VGVI lipgloss on top - it looks like I used a red lipstick but I didn't.

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Man, somehow these pictures don't show the effect of Lip Erase that well. Its hard to show how annoyingly red my lips are in real life.

FYI, here is how the lip colours I used really look like:

Left: VGVI lipgloss
Right: VGIV lipstick

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My verdict: Lip Erase is good to have if you have really pigmented red lips naturally, and concealer has never worked for you. Unfortunately, it is only sold at MAC Pro Stores so it may be hard to get a hold of. But if not, I'd recommend MAC's flesh coloured satin lipsticks, as for me the effects were quite close. I just ended up preferring Lip Erase because it IS smoother to apply on my frequently dry lips.

14 comments:

Chiara said...

Rats, I have the same pigmented dry lips problem but I've no pro store nearby! I may end up picking up the Smashbox Eye and Lip primer instead.

BTW, I love the new Final Fantasy music ;]

Anonymous said...

I've been really, really been wanting this! Unfortunately there are no MAC PRO stores near me. The closest one is like over 4 hours away :(

ilurvemakeup said...

Very nice comparison. I've been wanting this since Nessa posted about it, but way too lazy to go to the store to get with the increase in gas prices and all :/ I wish we can order it online.

Violet Honeybee said...

Hehe I used to use concealer but it dried out my lips so I just use a foundation that's not my color to neutralize my lip color which works pretty well for me. ^-^

♡ Nic Nic ♡ said...

Aww lip eraser isnt available here >_< I think my lips are quite dark too, not red, but quite dark lol. But I'm really glad the product is working very well for you!

cheryl said...

great review there! is the lip erase comfortable though?

watercoloursky said...

chiara, pgbeauty, ilurvemakeup: maybe you could order over the phone? i know they do that but don't know how much shipping is. I would offer to custom purchase if only the prices in Canada weren't already 20% more than in the US.

violet: aww u're lucky foundation works :) foundation doesn't work for me, its too liquidy and won't stay properly on my lips to let the lipcolour go on uniformly.

nicnic: even if you think they are pigmented, at least you still seem to be able to pull off a variety of lipcolours !

cheryl: it is, as long as you don't use too much, and you moisturize your lips well beforehand too. Its definitely way more comfortable than concealer/foundation/satin lipstick because it has similar ingredients to lip balm (i forgot the name of the ingredient and am too lazy to get out of bed and check right now lol). I think thats why it spreads more uniformly on my lips than concealer/foundation.

Paint Me Gorgeous said...

blue, did u know that many would kill to have naturally red lips? LOL

Grayburn said...

Hey, I have the same issue and my solution is to apply balm, then powder my lips with a face powder (I choose from pinkish, beig-y and ivory ones depending on the result I want).

Give it a try and see if it works for you :)

Grayburn

ChyiX2 said...

it looks really nice on you and certainly makes your lips look less red and the real color is showing. I'm going to recommend this to a few friends of mine.

na said...

Argh. I've been holding off on my lemming for this, but looks like I might just have to take a look at it next time I go to the Pro store. Sad thing is, I'd probably use it once and forget all about it. Haha.

jing said...

At least your bare lips still have a pretty color. Mine is definitely ugly when bare. I use Myth, but it took me awhile to figure out how to use it. I never tried concealer, I gave up with just the thought of its consistency and texture on my lips. I wondered it wouldn't be safe if swallowed. Thanks for the helpful review!

theChas said...

Oh wow! You can definitely see the difference in just the bare pictures. However, not that I don't believe you, and I don't know if it's the pictures or not, but in the comparisons where you have the lipsticks and glosses on, I honestly don't think it looks all that different. Then again, I could be stupidly blind or something hehe. :P

Miss Shopcoholic said...

wow! you natural red lips *envy* i have this too in DIM. love it!

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