Battle of the Matte Red Lippies!!

  Hi everyone!!  One of my new year's resolutions was to start trying a little harder to look put together.  It's been a wonderful thing to feel free enough to show up any and everywhere sans makeup and there's a lot to be said, I think, for feeling comfortable, beautiful, even (though I never really got that far, lol) just as you are.  But, I've felt ready to step it up a little and have some fun with color again.  Besides, I was starting to really miss my red lips.

  I LOVE matte.  I think it is one of the most fabulous finishes out there.  I picked up the iconic MAC shade, Ruby Woo (review HERE), last summer and it proved to be a pretty, but very tricky, color to wear, formula wise.  I've been on the lookout for other good matte reds since and I found a very nice one in e.l.f. Rich Red (review HERE).  But, there's something about wearing makeup that makes you want to BUY MORE MAKEUP and one particular day of wearing (or more accurately, trying to wear) Ruby Woo had me so frustrated that I was ready to be done with matte altogether and marched right down to Nordstrom after work to check out some other options.  I remembered reading somewhere that MAC Russian Red is a creamier version of Ruby Woo, and I had it on good authority that MAC Red was a great, creamy red choice as well, so I felt confident I'd walk out with a winner.
  I ended up with Russian Red.  Indeed, it is a creamier version of Ruby Woo, sort of... it's still a matte finish, which is GREAT!!!, but after fighting with the nuclear strength (does that even make sense?!) matte that is Ruby Woo all day, Russian Red felt downright buttery.  So now, with three matte red lippies in my arsenal, I thought it was time I did a comparison.

  Ruby Woo is, far and away, the most matte of the three.  It requires special care in application, whereas the other two do not.  To compound its finickiness, Ruby Woo is not terribly pigmented and I always have to apply several swipes to make it opaque (taking care to not layer too thick, lest it start to look cakey).  It's also the brightest and truest red.

  e.l.f. Rich Red is a very blue leaning shade, a little more pigmented than Ruby Woo, and quite easy to apply.  It's in roll up pencil form, so precise application is easy.  The bullet recently broke off and fell out of its case, because I haven't yet learned not to roll my lipsticks up all the way for no good reason.  Anyway, it's a great alternative to Ruby Woo and despite the fact that I really do like Ruby Woo's color a little better, I find myself reaching for Rich Red much more frequently because I line, apply, and go.  It's a super low maintenance matte and a super low maintenance red, for that matter.  It dries slightly creamier than Ruby Woo.

   Russian Red is the darkest and most dramatic of these three, and the most richly pigmented.  Like the e.l.f., it applies with remarkable ease, but it dries to a beautiful, velvety matte.  Formula-wise, Russian Red is my favorite, though the red is so deep that it feels like a strictly winter red (so it's getting a lot of weartime right now).  But, rules are made to be broken!

  

  Here are the two MACs, side by side.

  This is actually a much better demonstration of the formula differences between the two.  It's also two swipes of Russian Red and a whole bunch (I lost count) of Ruby Woo.  Russian Red is pretty much the perfect matte red and I highly recommend it.  However, the color of Ruby Woo is second to none and as timeless and seasonless as it gets.  So, it stays in my stash, and our tumultuous relationship continues.

  Off the suggestion of a lovely gal during one of my recent facebook conversations, I picked up Maybelline Vivids in On Fire Red yesterday.  It's supposed to be a spot-on color twin to Ruby Woo, but creamy.  I adore the Vivids so I'm really looking forward to wearing On Fire Red.  As it stands, I'm thinking about getting ready to go work out and can't decide what I'm going to wear today (I have this urge to go Ruby Woo again today, oddly, lol).

  Soooo do you have a favorite matte?  Experiences with any of these three shades? 

  

  Thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments!! ♥♥