Archived Post

MAC Cosmetics Cremesheen Lipsticks Review and Swatches

OVERALL, Cremesheens offer a good range of shades and hues, but definitely don’t offer replacements for all the amplified cremes being discontinued. The texture is smooth, but they’re not overly creamy or pigmented. Of course, some are more intense than others, so your mileage may vary depending on your natural lip’s pigmentation. Ultimately, I went in with high hopes, because I love lipsticks, but I wasn’t particularly impressed. None of the colors grabbed me in way that made me go, “OMG I WILL DIE WITHOUT IT!” and the texture wasn’t as creamy as I’d like. These don’t do a lot of sliding around once you apply them, which IS a good thing, though.

Get detailed reviews and swatches!

Cremesheens

  • Brave Red is a bright tomato-ish red. It’s creamier than the majority of the cremesheens.
  • Creme d’Nude is a sheer pinkish beige nude color, very warm, which is not always easy to find in a pink-beige. Because it’s not opaque, you can avoid the corpse-lip effect if you find that an issue from other nudes.
  • Crosswires is a decently pigmented coral kind of color, more pink-coral than orange-coral.
  • Dare You is a deeper, darker red, but not anything too dark. It has some brick red to it.
  • Fanfare is a creamy pale pink color with low level sheen.
  • Hang Up is the darkest of the cremesheens with its wine-berry shade.
  • Hot Gossip is a cool purple-pink kind of color. I don’t think it’d look particularly good on me, so even though it intrigued me a little, I passed.
  • Modesty is a pretty shade of nude beige with gold shimmer to it. I might go back to get this later.
  • On Hold is a reddish coral with peachy-gold shimmer. It’s pretty, but it’s not terribly unique, and in fact, looks similar to fellow cremesheen Party Line.
  • Party Line is a lighter, pinker version of On Hold.
  • Ravishing is an orange-coral with subtle gold pearl/shimmer. I was hoping to like this one, but I find it too orange-based for my complexion.
  • Speak Louder is the boldest, brightest pink. It reminds me of what tropical pink looks like. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of shimmer to this, just sheen.
  • Speed Dial is a pale pastel pink, some coolness to it, but it’s not overly so. It’ll be a nice go-to instead of Fun Fun, which is a cool purple-pink kind of shade.
  • Stay In Touch is the brownest of the cremesheens, but it’s more of a peach shade with brown to it.

Nail Lacquer

  • Seasonal Peach is a creamy peachy-pink color. It doesn’t look as bold as the promo photo when I put it on at the store, but we’ll see when I put it on later on.

68 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
macaddict Avatar

Same as for Suite Array, saw some of the Cremesheens a few weeks ago and even tried some of the darker coloured ones and wasn’t impressed. NOT amplified at all!!! I already have tons of lippies anyways, but, if I need l/s, I definitely will not buy those! The nice ones swatched form YSL look way better to me.

Nicole Avatar

Modesty, Speed Dial, Fanfare and Party Line caught my attention. I have to check them in real, because I can’t wear warm tones and peaches and corals.

kellie Avatar

totally agree w/ your review of the nail polish. It looks nothing like the promo photo to me. Just looks like a normal pink. I didn’t see much shimmer in it.

desert_sara Avatar

I went and tried some of the colors today. I was disappointed and only grab 3 pearlglide eyeliners. I hope they come up with more colors in the future since it’s going to be a permanent line.

kat Avatar

Which amplified cremes are becoming discontinued? How do we know which products are becoming discontinued and when? Because sometimes I hold off buying something but if it’s going to disappear it may change my mind D:

Brenda Avatar

Looks like I’m going to skip this one, but I heard that amplified cremes from all the MACs in the city (I wanted to make sure.) are most likely going to stay though I’m not certain if they were really certain about it though =/

Rose Avatar

hang up does not look at dark as i had thought. i was about to order it, too. i guess i should have known by the name ‘cremesheen’ oh well. at least i saved 14$

LocaLoli Avatar

I got creme d’nude(awsome!!!!!) and dare you(has a realy nice shimmer). Some of the pinks reminded me of already existing colors (Angel,Lovelorn)so I passed on those. Oranges and corals dont look good on myskin so none of those either. Im kinda wishing i got hang up tho might go back for that one.

JillyB Avatar

I bought On Hold. I was disappointed when I tried a couple of these on that they weren’t as creamy and moisturizing as I expected. I like the color but I probably won’t wear it as much as I do my Lustre colors.

Annie Avatar

I am so so SOOOOOO upset that amplified might be discontinued. My favorite lipstick of all time is Underplay – and this stinks that the new creamshines are not like amplified. Bad bad bad idea MAC..

Rowan Avatar

These colours are too warm for me 🙁 And I love amplified cremes, my favourite finish damnit! I hope they keep them. Bad enough they discontinued Powerhouse, the perfect red…

ludivia Avatar

How do you compare Modesty and any other nude lipstick from MAC? Is it really similar with Hug-Me? Because Hug-Me is 100% perfect for my lips.
Thanks 🙂

Susan Avatar

I bought Missy last week because I loved the colour but it lasted seconds on me so was hugely disappointed but I’m thinking I might buy Ravishing, especially if it has more pigment.

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!