RubyHue Lipstick Review: Hourglass Velvet Rouge Raven

Let's get my one lonely objection to this item out of the way first.
​I haaaaaate the broad squared-off tip shape.  ​Hate it.

I might be the only one left in the slap-wearing world who had never worn an Hourglass product until very recently.

To my mature, somewhat jaded eye, there's always been something... nonessential about the brand.  It's so moyen.  Mid-price, allegedly mid-performing, middling colours... I was never inspired to try it until someone dangled an Hourglass red in front of my nose for cheap.  Snapped at it like a great white at whale fat.  And I'm glad I did.

This huge spatulate excrescence makes it almost impossible to apply straight onto my boofy, sharply defined and somewhat petite cupid's bow without all manner of awkward, unintuitive postural fuckery, which is bloody annoying. You might drive a large, flat lip shape and find the square end perfectly delightful, but small mouth-havers will probably need to dig their brushes out.  That's the sum total of my hateration and it's a purely subjective gripe.

Hourglass Velvet Rouge Raven suffers from the kind of arse-about-face nomenclature that had me avoiding it for no good reason.  Velvet Rouge sounds like a line of those cheap, housepainty liquid mattes that have been so ubiquitous until very recently and that had given me a case of the hell nos.  But it's the opposite of that nasty shit in actuality and has slid into high rotation for me because of that rarest of lipstickish attributes; genuine red buildability.  Where most reds just appear piss-weak at anything less than full strength, Raven really does work at many levels of opacity, morphing from a warm persimmon stain through to a mid-bright flattish marmalade, and finally into a big hot total red with robust yellow-tomato undertones.  If this is characteristic of the Velvet Rouge line per se, I'm sold on them all.

You can see what I mean in the squiggle swatch below, where it appears at both smudge-strength and full opacity.

Shade-wise, it's a near dupe of Nars Heat Wave with its cheeky hit of mellony coral, though the texture is softer and looser, spreading a little more easily and furnishing impressive lip-comfort.  Do you need both of them?  Probably not.  Raven is the one I'd recommend to the general population as it is slightly glossier, a bit more deeply red and definitely more glassily translucent, allowing you to adjust the level of colour to something you are comfortable with. 

This sort of red so often inspires an extreme love/hate response and I used to be on the hard-no end of that spectrum until I discovered that it's far more wearable if you avoid the thick matte versions.  For this reason, Raven is infinitely more doable than MAC Lady Danger and other such one-note traffic cone business. 

While these shades are obvious choices for golden-toned complexions, Raven's diverse undertones mean it can be a tasty contrast on a cool face, too.  And while it might not be able to claim subtlety it is truly more striking than gaudy and that is the real test of a good orange red. 
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Raven doesn't move around too much or even really bleed on an old trout like myself.  No matter how thickly you slap it on, it never feels too greasily built and settles into a supple, lasting satin that imparts a big whack of old-skool glamour.  I find little to no staining after wiping it off, and a decent application will last through dinner; there's not much of a scent and I don't find it irritant in any way.  

Not for shrinking violets but Raven gets my fuck yes seal of dramatic approval.

L2R MAC unless stated: Russian Red, Hourglass Raven, Nars Heat Wave, Lady Danger, UD F Bomb, Tenor Voice, Nars Iberico 
Outdoor natural light.  It's really important to turn your device screen to its optimal viewing angle to convey nuance between these sorts of hot reds because they push colour gamuts in direct light.
​For effective comparison, Iberico is a pretty straight true orange.

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