It’s officially spring! And it seems like El Niño (and Karl the Fog) got the memo here in the Bay, because we’ve had nothing but sunshine for the past few days.
Also, now that it’s warming up, I’m busting out the lip stains, which might be my favorite beauty items for the spring/summer months.
They’re crucial! They’re great for naked face days, no-makeup-makeup days, and basically all days that ends in “-day.” I like them because they’re low maintenance, and they last. One of my all-time favorite lip stains is the one I get from a cherry Popsicle. 
But today I’m bringing you one of the latest launches from MAC, the MAC Versicolour Stain Collection, which is a gloss/stain fusion formula available in 16 shades ranging from nudes to peaches, oranges to fiery reds, and magentas to deep purples. There’s a shade (if not, like, three of them) for everyone, and they’re going to be permanent!
The formula is smooth and feels quite nourishing. These are also hella pigmented, with the exception of Long Live the Night, which is a nude. I wore Preserving Passion (a deep wine) one day last weekend, and it lasted all. day. long.
I started the day wearing it as a gloss, and the shine started to wear down about an hour or so later, but my lips retained a satin finish for most of the day after, progressively fading to a matte stain over the course of many hours.
Lip stains can be intimidating because if you mess up, well…you’re done for, but the Versicolour tube and applicator makes application a lot easier than usual. The applicator is a pointy doe foot that doesn’t pick up too much product (for me, anyway). The stopper is also a lot lower than the lip of the actual tube, which makes wiping excess product off of the applicator a breeze.
While I love the convenience of doe-foot applicators, they sure do load on the product sometimes, and that always gets me into trouble, so, needless to say, I’m a fan of lip stain reservoirs.
The collection has a flirty, summer-lovin’ color story that is only enhanced by the shade names. I wouldn’t call the collection groundbreaking…but I do think that these really are quite exquisite lip stains.
First, they’re very pigmented. Every swatch below is just one coat, and I blotted all of the excess away in the bottom rows to give you an idea of how each shade looks as a stain. I have a good feeling that these will perform well on a wide variety of skin tones.
Long Live the Night – Pale warm nude
Constant Craving – Mid-tone blue pink
Tattoo My Heart – Bright pinky coral
Let’s Stay Together – Mid-tone warm pink
Ceaseless Energy – Bright raspberry pink
Always & Forever – Pinky salmon
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop – Intense warm orange
Truly Everlasting – Bright warm pink
Last Minute – Intense pinky cranberry
Forever, Darling – Intense orange red
It’s Never-Ending! – Deep raspberry
Preserving Passion – Deep wine
Long Distance Relationship – Intense mid-tone violet
Perpetual Holiday – Deep grape purple
Available in 16 shades; $24.00 US/$28.50 CAD each.
Coming March 31, 2016 to maccosmetics.com and to stores April 7.
MAC Versicolour Stain Collection Spring 2016: Swatches
Hmm… It’s a tough decision, but my favorite shades are Tattoo My Heart, Always & Forever, and Last Minute. What are yours?
These are very impressive. Much more pigmented than I would have thought they’d be.
Agreed! Not groundbreaking, but certainly not bad. And they definitely stain. Trust me.
Absolutely lovely! I love how you take pictures. And showing your whole face with the lip swatches is very useful for comparing coloring to lip colors. (And I also like seeing your face!! ~^o^~. >o< )
Thank you! I’m glad you like seeing my face. I like seeing the whole face for swatches because you really get a sense of what works overall, and what washes you out. Super important!
before you even said anything, I was thinking “tattoo” looks amazing on you! (and I’m not a fan of orangey anything, usually!)
I like the berries and wine shades best as usual, (and wish I felt like I could pull off that last purple… mayybee!) but it bothers me for some reason that these cost more than a normal MAC lippie… I think because I see lipstick as more substantial than a gloss or a stain? who knows, but I might have to give one of these a shot, if I can get it neatly onto my lips (and only my lips!) 🙂
Thank you! I’m a ginger w/warm brown eyes so I’m not usually a fan of orangey things either, but for some reason Tattoo My Heart resonated with me.
Girl, try it! It’s a stain so you can totally build it up and make it wearable for you, or start subtle, and build throughout the day into the night. That’s why I love stains! It is kind of annoying that they cost more than a normal lipstick, but you are getting a little bit more product. A MAC lipstick has 0.1 US oz, and these guys have 0.28 fl. oz so that justifies the jump a little bit!
true about the price, it’s a mind thing for me, I think, I am more offended by high price tags on some things more than others… for example, the cost of eyebrow/eye liner/lip liner pencils really irks me! it’s like… but… it’s literally a pencil. ? lol twenty dollars for just about anything isn’t terrible, tho, so I’ll hand t to MAC for primarily *not* selling thirty dollar lippies! 🙂
my MAC counter didn’t have them in yet tho, when I was there yesterday, so I didn’t get to test them out. super intrigued by their contour boxes, tho, with the cream highlight and powder duo… I had never noticed them before, but they made me stop and say Ooh! (and I don’t even really contour, haha, it’s the curse of pretty things!)
I feel you. The price tag on eyeliner, brow pencils, and mascara these days boggles me because of how often you use them! I don’t use lipliner everyday, so I don’t mind paying a little bit more for it, since it will last a while longer. At least MAC has the Back 2 MAC thing so you can get a free lipstick. That kind of comforts me.
They’re available in stores April 7th! I’ve been in LA recently (it’s pretty warm here) and these are perfect for the warmer weather. Tattoo My Heart gets lots of compliments. I can’t wait to see more people wearing these. They’re so comfy.
Oh and I just tried the contour boxes! Keep your eyes out for my little post on them. The packaging is pretty dang adorable. I think they’re mostly geared towards strobing, since there’s a cream highlight, powder one, and a sculpting powder. They’d be great for traveling & weekend getaways!
Tattoo My Heart is also one of my favorites! In general I really like all the redder shades on you, they suit you really well!
Thank you! Tattoo My Heart is gorge. I want everyone to try it!
The reds! The purples/berries! Gosh those are pretty. I also like the oranges on you, too. But then again, those are also the colors that I’d like to see on myself 🙂
Thank you! I think those colors are the ones that are most likely to suit a massive variety of skin tones. I love the bright berries!
I salute you for having lip swatches of everything, that must have been quite a process to go through!
I was thinking the same thing!
It definitely was, but I thought it would be useful & something not many other people would do because they’re responsible human beings that don’t abuse their lips for beauty. But that isn’t me! Took one for the team.
Omg, thanks for the swatches! I hope your lips aren’t about to fall off
🙁 I think the darker, more opaque stains will suit me.
You are so welcome. Someone had to do it. It took some planning & a lot of coconut oil to keep the swatches accurate. I love the darker stains. I’m pretty fair though, and would love to see the darkest/brightest purples on deeper skin tones. I bet they would look fierce.
Wow, these are incredibly gorgeous! Are these brand new products to MAC, too, because I swear I’ve never seen these before!
Yup, new and now permanent!
Thank you for showing us these as glosses and as stains! My favorite is Long Distance Relationship. I appreciate the short wands on these — I find it difficult to apply accurate edges with long wands.
You’re welcome! I’m with you on long wands! The short wands make application a breeze.
Have to give these a try! I love Mac lipstick and lipglass. What do they smell like?
They smell subtly of vanilla!
Your photographs are absolutely beautiful, and as a beauty blogger I give you a hats off for managing to lip swatch all of these stains! I can’t even imagine how you removed each stain well enough to show the color of a new stain next. Kudos!
Jessica
Thanks Jessica! It took some planning to make sure I approached the shades in a way that kept the swatches true to color. It took a pretty long time, with a lot of breaks, but coconut oil helped a lot. So did a burger.
Burgers always help! 🙂
Ooh, I definitely need some of these! I love Long Live the Night and Always and Forever!
Yes! They’re so good. Perfect for the warmer months coming up too!
I like the lighter, warmer shades on you. Would you consider yourself warm toned?
Are you wearing foundation?
Thank you! I’m wearing a little bit of Nars Sheer Glow in Siberia. I’d say I’m generally neutral toned and as pale as they come.
Thanks for showing us photos of the full color and stain! These look great, long wearing stains are a favorite of mine. I like Tattoo My Heart, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and Forever Darling the best! I’m going to check these out!
Let me know how you like them, Denise! Tattoo My Heart is pretty rad. I think a lot of people will like it.
I’ve actually been surprised by these!
Wow, those all look terrific!!! Are they LE or are they going to be a permanent line? I LOVE lip stains and those all look really good. I’ve been wearing nudes lately but these make me want to put on some color!
P.S. if I had read your post carefully, I’d have had the answer to my own question, they will be permanent. I was just hyperventilating when I saw them!!
You should give these a go! They wear quite beautifully as the day goes on. Tré impressed. You can also take a more vibrant shade and use less product to get less opacity. Sometimes I’ll put on some lip balm first to sheer them out, too.
Can’t wait until they arrive in the store.
Oooh I think Ceaseless Energy and Long Distance Relationship also look fantastic on you! I can’t wait to swatch these on in store.
Thanks for the thorough review, it was really helpful because I didn’t got to see the i stain on other reviews, and I wanted to know how it looked like after a couple of hours. And they look great on you! You are also very pretty 🙂
Thank you!
I’ve gone back to this post several times because I was so impressed with how great these look on you. I love the fact that you showed how they look both when first applied and later as a stain. I love lip stains, and based on this post, I’m finally going to go get at least one of these, maybe even two! Great post, thanks!
Thank you so much! I’m still wearing these almost everyday. I highly recommend them!
This is my favorite post out of all of the many beauty blogs I read. I have it bookmarked for reference. Thanks for such thorough information and great pictures.
Thank you for showing pictures of product as both the gloss and stain! I have super full lips so I was looking to use this product just as a stain. You blog is the only one that I could find pictures of the product as a stain. Can not thank you enough!