Make Up For Ever Metal Lab Shines Review, Photos, Swatches
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8, M10, M12, M14, M16
Make Up For Ever Metal Lab Shines
Make Up For Ever Metal Lab Shines have nine shades. According to a phone call to the Make Up For Ever Boutique in NYC, these will retail for $18 for 0.09 oz. and are currently available. According to Make Up For Ever PR, these aren’t officially launching until Spring 2011. My lovely friend Pursebuzz was so nice as to be my personal shopper at IMATs last week, and she grabbed me one of each of the Lab Shines they had (I think they were missing two or three). This post features five of the nine Metal shades, and part two will follow with the other four.
- M0 Onyx is a semi-opaque black with silver sparkle. In the swatch, it’s certainly black and glossy, but it’s not 100% opaque, so on its own, it looks a bit messy. Definitely needs a very dark liner to make it look opaque.
- M2 Grey Pearl is a metallic warmed-up pearly silver. It’s very much the color of pearl, with a little silver cast. Kind of like a platinum shade. It’s semi-opaque with a frosty finish. Surely not designed to be an ultra wearable shade, but I could see it working for some more avant garde looks or layered over a darker lipstick.
- M4 Tobacco is a soft peachy brown with chamagne beige and gold shimmer. It has the same frosty finish as M2, and it’s semi-opaque as well.
- M6 Hazel Brown is a darker brown than M4 but not by much. I had some streaking issues with this one – the color just didn’t want to lay down nicely for me. It has light copper and gold shimmer.
- M8 Brown is a plummy brown with multicolored shimmer and a semi-opaque look. This is the most universally wearable of the ones featured in this post!
The Metal Lab Shines use Make Up For Ever’s Metal Powder in the lip gloss (which is where it gets its name). These are supposed to be the most opaque shades out of the 35 in total, with each formula getting progressively sheerer. I found that these were semi-opaque but intensely so. Some shades were nearly opaque, but the majority are semi-opaque, particularly the lighter shades.
The formula itself has this lightly sweetened fruity scent–I want to say melon or grapefruit (why does my nose suck?)–with a non-sticky texture. It’s almost like thicker lip balm on lips–maybe like a thinner Lip Gelee. It has a good amount of slip and slide, but it doesn’t slide right off lips. I don’t get ultra long wear out of these (two to three hours), and they don’t seem to leave much of a stain behind. They have a brush-flecked applicator, so you get plenty of product out for each application, and you have some precision to get a crisp, defined lip look, too.
I like the packaging a lot more than other Make Up For Ever lipglosses–it feels more solid and sophisticated; more suitable for the price tag of Make Up For Ever products. Unfortunately, despite the solid and thick feel of the packaging, they don’t pack much product in those tubes–just 0.09 oz., while the average lip gloss is around 0.17 oz. (Make Up For Ever’s Fascinating lipgloss contains 0.20 oz.). I don’t know if the addition of their Metal, Star, or Diamond powders should merit 50% less at the same cost, you know? Kind of feels like a MAC Dazzleglass situation (though those are worse — more than regular lipglass and 0.06 oz.).
I like the gloss, but I’m not sure I love it. I like that these shades are on the more pigmented side, wear decently (though not long-wearing), and look pretty on. They’re also very moisturizing and comfortable on lips. Not quite weightless, but they’re very jelly-like, so it’s not heavy or clingy.
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ! 🙂
- Product: 27/30
- Value: 6/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
RECOMMENDATION: For semi-opaque, frost-metallic finished lip gloss, you may like the Metal Lab Shines.
AVAILABILITY: Make Up For Ever Boutiques
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8, M10, M12, M14, M16
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8
Make Up For Ever Lab Shines: M0, M2, M4, M6, M8
Make Up For Ever #M0 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M0 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M2 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M2 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M4 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M4 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M6 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M6 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M8 Lab Shine
Make Up For Ever #M8 Lab Shine
I love the pigmentation of these. Can’t wait to see part 2.. Those are more my colours!
Whatever shade of black that is, it really works with your skintone! The closeups are a little bit scary looking, but the full face shot is good.
I imagine that one would be great with a dark purple liner, or burgundy underneath.
Yeah, haha – I didn’t have lip swatches done for all 9, so I figured I’d do the 5 “less wearable” at once, and then the 4 “more wearable” shades separately 🙂
wow… when I saw the picture for the first one, all i saw at first was your eyes!! lol made your eyes seem very dark.
I was just about to say the same thing! The first and last one really bring out your eyes — what a stunning effect for a lip colour!
Thank you!
Ok… still processing this! A black lipgloss… didn’t know they even made that… not gonna buy, def… but very interesting to see! And actually, it doesn’t look bad on you. Maybe with a deeply pigmented red lippie underneath, would look even better?
Oh wow! The silver actually looks really good! It doesn’t seem to emphasize any lines
I was just wondering.. Could you also include photos of the application wands in the lipgloss reviews? I’d be just curious to see them too 🙂
I’ll try to remember, but I usually don’t since they all look the same.
do you think m4 kind looks like mac’s Thrills Lipstick (from to the beach) ?
Kind of – not so much of a multi-shimmered color, though. A little flatter.
hMMM idk idk…
XD I lovved the black one , I dunno why but loved it lol
I like the silver one M2 but that’s it. I’m still curious about the other colors. 🙂
great colors, but i can’t tell a difference between m4 and m6. and do you mind posting pictures of the applicator in part 2? i’m not exactly sure what a brush-flecked applicator is.
Instead of a doe foot, it’s a brush – like it has bristles.
All the photos for part 2 are done 🙁 Sorry!
Oooo I can’t wait to see the “wearable” shades in Part 2! These do look nice on you though 🙂 You caught my attention when you wrote “like a thinner Lip Gelee”! Something to look forward to in 2011…at least our wallets can rest after MAC In the Groove.
Semi-opaque black gloss just looks a mess to me. I picture the smear it would turn into the moment you move your lips.
M2 looks neat on, especially w/ your skin tone.
as always, great post and swatches. can’t wait till it arrives here in the Philippines. 🙂
Beautiful is M4, but I want to see more colors for example M16 🙂
i would have to say leave it, even though some are lovely. simply because my colouring is SO discriminating that i can tell just by looking that most of these won’t look good on me.
Gaaah, why isn’t MUFE sold in Sweden?? WHYYYYY?
Stunners, some of them. Love the pigmentation.
M4 is super nice..!
Man, I was so excited because I was sure the black was going to fully pigmented like Illamasqua’s Intense Lipgloss. I really want a REALLY nice black lip gloss.
the silver actually looks really good on you! the finish looks so smooth and even!
I want the grey pearl!
OMG I can’t wait to see the rest!!!
M4 + M6 are really pretty on , the rest I cant say that for
hey christine!
i was wondering. i want to try out different lip products, but i don’t want to buy anything that doesn’t go with my skin tone and waste my money, you know?
but. my skin tone is impossible to identify! i’m somewhere between MAC NC25-NW25 (but i have to put in concealer to lighten it up just a shade. 20 is too light, 25 too dark). i’ve tried all kinds of ways to identify my tone but all these sites just confuse me.
i have brown hair, relatively fair skin that tans to a yellowish hue (should mean i’m warm toned), brown eyes with green (not necessarily hazel) and a blue ring around them (which generally means i’m cool toned)…
i’m just so confused! and i love all the lip products you put up on the site but i don’t know how to go about buying what’s right for me!
so is it possible to be both warm and cool toned?
If you’re not really warm, not really cool or feel like you’re both, then you’re neutral 🙂
is it really that simple? lol after all this time of being frusterated!
so does that mean i should buy Neutral toned foundations? Do they make those? and can i basically wear whatever i want in makeup if i fit into both?
Some companies do, not a *ton* though. But yes, you can 🙂
thank you for helping! and for being so quick with your responses! i really appreciate it christine 🙂
Damn, you looked good in that black lipstick. Usually i think that’s mostly a color for very pale gothic people, but it looked really good on your picture.
Oh no, I was so hoping that they would be really long lasting 🙁
Actually, the whole Lab Shine range will be 35 shades! but in different effects / coverage:
Diamond Lab Shine (shimmer effect) will have 12 shades for super sheer coverage
Star Lab Shine (pearly effect) will have 14 shades for medium coverage
Metal Lab Shine (chrome effect) has nine shades as per the review 🙂
Hi JC,
I believe this is what I stated — 35 in sum, 9 in the Metal line-up…
As I was scrolling down..I was contemplating if this were creamliners….I was wrong. It was a gloss. A black gloss?!
I bet the onyx color would look very pretty over black lipstick. I wonder if the silver sparkle would show through if it was layered on top. I’m very curious to try it.
M2 looks sooooo much like MACs bubbles lipstick. M4 is my fav out of these. Nice shimmer and would layer nicely over a nude lipstick
Is it weird that I like the streaky black look? :/ haha, it looks like black distressed jeans, and pretty wicked.
I like the new angle on the swatch photos. more straight on. very cute!