My New Orange-Red Lipstick Love: MAC's So Chaud: matte+crimson

A couple of years ago, when the orange-red J.Crew lip was the thing, I decided to hunt down what color the makeup artists were using on the models. There's something so timeless, yet current about a matte orange-red. Plus, it's not too vampy so it's great for daytime. From my research online, it looked like the colors were a mix of NARS Heat Wave Semi Matte lipstick and NARS Red Square Matte Velvet lip pencil.

Well, I went out and bought Red Square and immediately fell.in.love. It's matte yet not too drying, in pencil form so a breeze to apply, and so daytime appropriate. NARS describes it as a "bright orange red." Looking through my collection, it looked like my cheapie Wet n Wild Megalast lipstick in 970 Purty Persimmon was pretty similar. If you look really closely, Purty Persimmon leans just a little more orange.

Heat Wave had been next on my shopping list, but when I started looking more closely at the ingredients for NARS lipsticks, I noticed that they contained parabens. Ugh! I realized after knowing that, I especially couldn't justify spending $26 on a lipstick. Which means I probably won't repurchase Red Square when I run out. This thought was devastating me. I was legit upset.

L to R: MAC So Chaud, Wet n Wild 970 Purty Persimmon, NARS Red Square

Left: Prestige lip liner in Poppy

Top to Bottom:

MAC So Chaud

NARS Red Square

Wet n Wild 970 Purty Persimmon

Whelp, after letting myself mope for awhile, I pulled myself together and started searching online for a MAC alternative, as I knew a lot of MAC lipsticks are paraben-free. I found So Chaud and quickly bought it. Sure enough, no parabens were listed in the ingredients on the box, yay! I've had it one week, and I've been loving this lipstick at work and at night too. The best part about it is it makes my teeth super white, just like Red Square.

MAC So Chaud Close Up

I have a great lipliner that matches all three orange-reds, Prestige's Poppy. Unfortunately Poppy does contain parabens, so I will look for an alternative in this orange-red shade.