MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick Swatches, Photos, Reviews (Part 1)

Christine — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:45:23 +0000

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick: Bare Again, Behave Yourself, Can’t Get Enough, Can’t Resist, Full Speed

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick ($14.50 for 0.12 oz.) is a brand new (but permanent) range of lipsticks. According to MAC, the lipstick has strong, saturated color but comes with a modern glossed sheen, and these are moisturizing (but without tackiness). With fourteen shades in the line-up, I’ve split up them up into three parts, to control the volume of photos being downloaded per load. This post includes: Bare Again (pinky neutral beige), Behave Yourself (light blue pink), Can’t Get Enough (beige neutral), Can’t Resist (golden purplish red), and Full Speed (bright clean yellow pink).

Bare Again is an opaque, pinked-kissed beige with a semi-gloss finish. It is rosier than Cherish; slightly lighter than Kinda Sexy; more opaque version of Hug Me.
Behave Yourself is a semi-opaque, cool-toned cotton candy pink with white shimmer. This looks a little patchy and uneven on me, no matter how much I tried to get it to look soft and smooth, it just didn’t quite get there. It seems most similar to Snob but the finish is different.
Can’t Get Enough is a semi-opaque, white shimmered peached brown with a semi-gloss finish. It seems like a lighter version of Sweet Ever After.
Can’t Resist is a semi-opaque, gold shimmered berried red. It’s not quite as red as Fresh Moroccan but seems similar. It also reminded me of Rose Maiden a little.
Full Speed is an opaque, brightened, watermelon coral pink. It reminded me of Red full Stop (Trend F/W ’09). Perhaps if Lustering and Vegas Volt had a baby, it would look something like this.

my thoughts on the formula: Sheen Supremes are light to medium-weight lipsticks that provide some moisturization and wear for three to five hours (lighter shades like Bare Again go for three, while deeper shades like New Temptation hang on for five). Some of shades seem to settle into lip lines a bit, and as they wear and fade, settle even more into lip lines. These have a part-shine, part-gloss finish, though it is more sheen and shine than a truly glossy finish. They are vanilla-scented.

Interesting enough, these actually contain more product than regular MAC lipsticks (0.10 oz. vs. 0.12 oz.), but they are the same price. The packaging is obviously different–cylindrical, glossy black tubes with caps that close with a “click.” The glossy finish will hold fingerprints, though. If you remember the packaging from MAC’s Prolongwear Lipstick line, these are just like those, except with a glossy finish. Going back a few years, Mattenes and Slimshines had a similar relationship; these were both packaged in skinny, cylindrical tubes, and the Mattenes had a matte black finish while Slimshines had a glossy pewter-black finish.

This brings us to the inevitable comparison of the new Sheen Supremes against Slimshines. Personally, I don’t really feel these are like Slimshines. I even dug out an old Slimshine (Kissable), to see if perhaps I remembered the formula inaccurately, but no, the Slimshine was just as I remembered–very creamy, thicker, and incredibly glossy. Sheen Supremes are more like the middle ground between MAC Amplified Cremes and Slimshines–if I had to somehow force these into a box. Slimshines just had a plushier feel and look–really glossy, juicy looking finishes–and Sheen Supreme doesn’t get quite as glossy. I think the change in glossiness might be that modern take MAC was going for.

Slimshines were also amazingly moisturizing, but I still find myself needing a little balm after wearing Sheen Supremes for a few hours. I do think the Sheen Supreme formula is moisturizing, but it is not the most moisturizing formula I’ve tried. My lips feel a little dry after these wear off, which is to be expected after four to six hours of wear, but the most moisturizing lipsticks leave your lips feeling moisturizing during and at the end. With my lips in a relatively healthy state, these are plenty moisturizing enough for my needs, but if you have really dry, cracked, or chapped lips, you may still need to layer balm underneath.