Meet the Purrr-fect Barbie Pink Lip Pencil

My beloved MAC Pink Nouveau stub.

 You guys know I love my hot pinks and bright pinks. But just awhile back, it suddenly hit me that I couldn't find a good strong, bright medium pink liner to match these lipsticks.

Most pink lip liners on the market are either too pale, too nude, too beige, too red, too coral, or too deep.

MAC Pink Nouveau swatched beside liners (R-to-L): NYX Dolly Pink (pale blue-pink), Rimmel 018 Addiction (nude-pink),  Rimmel 005 Pure (coral), NYX Fuchsia (blue-based magenta), MAC Chromagraphic in Process Magenta (true fuchsia)

To illustrate it, I lined up the pink pencils I own and swatched them all beside Pink Nouveau. No go.

After searching high and low through high- and low-end brands, I was amazed that all these companies (MAC, Make Up Store, NYX, etc,) with huge color ranges didn't cater for this particular color tone when it was so popular.

And then I found it.

Barry M has a lip pencil called #12 Fuchsia, which I had dismissed time and time again because the color representation online was totally inaccurate, and because I associate the word "Fuchsia" with a much deeper pink.

Shown here: Barry M #12 Fuchsia Lip Pencil (and China Glaze Sea Spray Nail Polish)

Now let me tell you, this is not a perfect match. But it is the closest to perfect that I have EVER found.

Lip match: MAC Pink Nouveau lipstick swatched with Barry M #12 Fuchsia Lip Pencil

If you own Pink Nouveau, you will know it's a bright pink, but it's not quite neon. The real perfect matches with Barry M #12 Fuchsia Lip Pencil are the more fluorescent pinks such as Lime Crime Countessa Fluorescent and Barry M 62 Vibrant Pink. If you're wearing it with a slightly softer shade like Pink Nouveau or Dolly Pink, make sure to fill in your lips rather than just outlining them, as you don't want it to catch the light when a camera flashes and give you a neon ring around your mouth (tried and tested by yours truly).

Texture wise, it's smooth and pigmented to apply, and when you color in your lip with it, the color is not streaky or clumpy. It's also vegan-friendly, and costs a very fabulous £2.99. I totally stocked up on it.

MAC Pro Longwear Lip Pencil Swatches and Review: Kiss Me Quick and What A Blast!

Pro Longwear Lip Pencil swatches with matching lip colors

I've started to use lip liners more regularly just to keep the borders of my lip colors crisp and defined, and realized I didn't own a single good true-red and strong orange. On a recent getaway, I popped by the MAC counter near my hotel and happened to see a beautiful orange and it turned out to be the Pro Longwear pencil in What A Blast! (Yes, exclamation mark included.) 

The color was perfect, and since I hadn't tried any of the Pro Longwear pencils before, I decided to get my basic red pencil from the Pro Longwear line as well, instead of the regular line as well. The Pro Longwear Lip Pencil equivalent of a strong deep true-red is Kiss Me Quick. 

Nib close-up of Pro Longwear Lip Pencils in Kiss Me Quick (left) and What A Blast! (right)

These are regular pencils that require sharpening (not automatic), and when I swatched them in the store, I really wasn't expecting the texture to be just as soft and pigmented as any of the regular pencils. You'd think long wearing pencils would be harder and dryer, but these aren't. They don't drag on your lips and they do not darken and clump on the lips. The color goes on true, and you can definitely wear these on their own as super-matte velvety lips (see image below for a thicker filled-in swatches).

Daylight swatches of Pro Longwear Lip Pencils in Kiss Me Quick and What A Blast!

The lipsticks I'm personally using with these are swatched along with the pencils in the top image.

Kiss Me Quick, being a basic deep red, is extremely versatile and goes with just about any strong red lipstick. The flash brings out differences in tones, but the shades are extremely good matches in real life.

For the oranges, I had intended to match it to Lime Crime's My Beautiful Rocket (What A Blast! is just slightly deeper than My Beautiful Rocket, which makes it perfect as a definer for that lipstick), but it works with a more reddened coral like Barry M Sunset as well.

The drawback for me is that the Pro Longwear pencils (1.2g) are shorter than the regular MAC Pencils (1.36g), but cost more. Then pro is that you really do need to reapply these less throughout the day.

MAC Pro Longwear pencil lined up cap-to-cap with MAC Chromagraphic Pencil in  Process Magenta.

Why should you buy these?
They stay on incredibly well. For something that is so pigmented and soft, they really last. I'd actually swatched them and then left the store without purchasing anything. (I figured I could always order NYX liners from Beautyjoint for a fraction of the price.) The next afternoon, after showering and lots of hand-washing, I discovered that the liner swatches were still there (though more faded) on the back of my hand, and rubbing hard with a tissue couldn't remove the traces. It finally took an oil based remover and lots of vigorous rubbing to get these off completely.

 I was sold. I went right back to the nearest MAC store and got them.