April 2, 2012

All For One & One For All - The Lipstick Bandits' Universal Lipstick


The beauty of makeup is all the different shades you can play around with. Still, it's great to know that there are some shades that work for a wide variety of skin tones. So the Lipstick Bandits were wondering, is there such a thing as a universal lipstick shade?

We emailed back and forth, making suggestions (actually, I mostly just said I would agree with anything people liked :p); and Tracy came up with The Chosen One -- MAC Viva Glam V.




I will admit, when I first swatched this baby, my immediate reaction was: "oh..."

That was a disappointed "oh," in case you didn't realize.

"This looks nothing like the photos I've seen online," I thought.

Here's the thing, I can't say I'm in love with this particular shade. It looks good on me, I'm just not a fan of the finish. It's growing on me, though... Slowly, but surely!

Now, being a Lustre, this lipstick applies really smoothly. It glides onto my lips without a fuss and is so easy to work with. It also feels like I'm not wearing anything more than a balm on lips. Bonus points, yo!




MAC describes Viva Glam V as a "neutral pink with pearl," and frankly, I think it's the pearl that makes this lipstick look a bit 90s. This is very much an MLBB shade that compliments my skin tone very nicely, though it leans a bit too brown for my taste. Can you tell I have an aversion to 90s-style lipsticks? :p

The lip swatch is the closest I could get to what it actually looks like on me; but in real life, it definitely looks more brown. Still, I quite like this shade! In fact, I'm surprised at how much I do like it considering my reaction when I swatched the lipstick at MAC. That said, I would cross over from in-like to in-love if the lipstick looked more pink on me and if the pearl finish wasn't so obvious.

This colour has taken some getting used to, for sure, as I normally don't wear brown lipsticks. But I've seen swatches of this lipstick on others and it looks absolutely gorgeous. It's probably the colour of my lips that's making this lipstick lean more towards brown... They are fairly pigmented on their own, you see.

That said, I find that applying a few thin layers of Viva Glam V over lip balm makes it look more nude and less brown (almost like Jubilee). The pearly finish also becomes less pronounced; it's still there, but looks less... "90's."* And it works out well because this lipstick isn't exactly hydrating.

*90's is now an adjective I use to describe things

So this is how Viva Glam V looks on me... Curious to see how it looks on the other Bandits? Check out my fellow Lipstick Bandits' posts:




Are you a fan of Viva Glam V?





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