The Perfect Matte Lipstick For Spring

You’re reading this, and I can already tell what’s going through your mind: A matte lipstick? At THIS time of year? Yes, dear reader, a matte lipstick. For you see, I was about to write a piece about where to buy say, a spring-ready tinted balm, and encourage?you all to burn your lipsticks in some sort of post-winter beauty ritual – when these beauties landed on my desk.

Max Factor’s new 7-shade Velvet Mattes Lipstick Collection is the matte lipstick you never thought you’d need in your life; gone is the formula that reduces?your lips to dry cracks and in its place is a moisturising feel and a dense, pigmented finish.

And this lipstick has been a long time coming – did you know that it can take the average woman up to three products to try and create a’moisturising effect with a matte lipstick – combining lip scrubs, balms, and lipstick, to end up with the desired don’t-budge finish – and who has time for that? (Seriously).

Hence the good news: each lipstick in the collection has been specifically formulated to give mattified finish, but with a creamy, moisturising formula inside. So, you’ll get the same intense pigment minus the dry flakes – hurrah! But how do they do it, I hear you ask? Here’s the science bit:

Traditionally, matte lipsticks have an increased quantity of large particle powders in the formula that creates an uneven surface which diffuses light reflection. It’s these powders that are added at the expense of moisturising oils. With the Velvet Mattes Lipstick Collection, the formula has been designed different to traditional matte lipsticks, with no increase in powders or solids.

I’ve worn every shade over the past week and akin to a favourite pair of shoes or the worn-yet-loved?handbag never thrown away, this lipstick may never leave my sight.

The Max Factor Velvet Mattes Lipstick Collection is available now at €10.99 each.