I’ve swatched many of my drugstore red lipsticks - this post has swatches of $2 and under drugstore red lipsticks – but I haven’t swatched all of my many, many red lipsticks. I’ve decided to change that! I’m starting with my mid/high end red lipsticks in this post.

The hardest part was actually deciding what qualified as red.  I picked out the lipsticks that look red to my eye, and included a couple sheer reds, and lipsticks that others says are sheer red on them (even though they aren’t very red on me). I excluded anything I would categorize as a vampy shade or as predominantly berry, pink, or coral, even if it has red tones.  I included liquid lipsticks, but excluded glosses – I’ll swatch my red glosses in a separate post. This left me with eleven shades.

First, skin swatches:

 

And lip swatches:

Nars Cruella // review

Someday I will re-review this; I link to it frequently, and it’s such an old review! I still love it just as much I did when I first bought it. This is my pick for a matte red.

Shisedo Nocturne // review

Chanel Dragon (discontinued) // review

Rouge d’Armani 400 // review

I still adore this one too – it’s my pick for a non-matte bright red.

Illamasqua Encounter (discontinued) // review

MAC Deeply Adored (limited edition & no longer available) // review

It’s a pity that this was limited edition – it’s really a great color. If MAC brings it back and you’re looking for a deep red, I would recommend it without hesitation.

NARS Vesuvio // review

MAC Unknown Pleasures (LE & no longer available)

I picked this up a CCO (a makeup outlet store that sells Estee Lauder brands), and I love both the color and the texture. Again, wish this were permanent! This shade bridges the divide between red and vampy.

Lipstick Queen Medieval // review

This is a very sheer red; the swatch is several layers.  Very easy to wear!

Mac Viva Glam Cyndi (LE & no longer available)

I’ve heard this described many times as a sheer red, but it looks more pink on me; still, I thought I’d include it for completeness’s sake.

NARS Gipsy

This is another (supposed) sheer red that doesn’t look red at all on me, though I do see sheer red in the skin swatch.  I do love it though; it’s very flattering and goes with almost anything.

Still to come: red lipgloss swatches, and more (many more!) drugstore red lipstick swatches.