My First Bright Lipstick: Viva Glam Nicki Review and Swatches

Okay, first of all I have to apologize for the long absence. First of all, I recently found out how to schedule posts on Blogger. I know, I'm a bad blogger and very non-tech savvy. But I saw people talking about how they scheduled posts and the brilliant thought occurred to me that I could do that too (I thought maybe they had more advanced blogging platforms, but no). I was actually on a trip to the Grand Canyon and the national parks in that area with my family, let me know if you guys want to see pictures. Anyway, I'm sorry for being AWOL and I'm back with a review!

This was my first purchase of a really bright lipstick, unless you count red lipstick. So I was quite excited. I've been wearing this on weekends, since it's obviously a bit loud for school. Anyway, someone tell me if I'm wrong but this looks VERY similar to Watch Me Simmer and Force of Love, at least in swatches I've seen. But I do have to say that I am in LOVE with this lipstick! I like Nicki Minaj, and her makeup is always super bright and creative. And the money for Viva Glam goes to a great cause - 100% of the money goes towards helping stop AIDS, which is just really, really fabulous.

As always with MAC's lipsticks, the packaging is gorgeous and simple, there's little chance of the lid coming off in your purse.

The inside of the tube has Nicki's signature on it, like all celebrity Viva Glam lipsticks. And the color of this lipstick is just so, so bright! This was an overcast day, so the true boldness of this color doesn't show as much as I'd like it to. I prefer the bullet type lipsticks to the ones where the lipstick takes up the entire casing, since with the latter type sometimes they don't twist down very well.

The formula of this is pretty nice, but my one issue is that it is so dry! I always have to apply lip balm before I apply this, or else it tugs on my lips. :( And after about 10 minutes this settles into the fine lines of my lips, but I can just correct that with a Q-tip and it's fine after. Because this color is just so gorgeous that it's absolutely worth it.

Ignore the purple eyeliner swatch above this, I didn't notice that when I took the picture. I was doing a bit of a swatchfest that day. The color is a yellow based bright neon pink with maybe a tiny tiny hint of coral in there. This lipstick is extremely long wearing, I get around 5 hours of wear from it with a meal in the middle. It does fade a bit unevenly at the end, leaving a nasty lipline so I have to wipe it off or retouch at that point. It's a satin finish, which I like.

Overall, the formula of this lipstick is a bit dry but the packaging is nice, and the gorgeous color honestly makes it completely worth it. A bonus is that the money goes to a fantastic cause. This is a lipstick that I would absolutely recommend. My giveaway ends in exactly two weeks, don't forget to enter! A big thanks to all who have participated so far. Spring break ends today, back to school tomorrow for me. Happy Sunday night!