| I adore MAC Chili and abhor MAC Lady Bug. Chili is the well-behaved child that you just end up taking for granted while paying far too much attention to its more temperamental siblings. Like the shiteous Lady Bug. Are you looking for a red that promises a world of glossy tomato-y goodness in the bullet but instead coats your mouth in a pointless slick of greasy warm blah? One that refuses to adhere to the midst of your lips and disappears from the rest of them as soon as you put the tube down, basically? Perhaps you'd like your lips to feel like they've been stuck to a chalk cliff afterwards? No? Well, stay away from Lady Bug. The lustre formula should be enough warning for MAC veterans but if that's insufficient deterrent, let me assure you that the colour is both mediocre, endlessly dupable and in any case- blink once and you've missed it. I don't think I've experienced wear this fleeting since Friday night met the balconette bra. |
But it looks sooo pwitty! I know, alright? So does methylated spirits, and you don't rub that shit on your mouth either. I'll cop to persevering with fucking Lady Bug for far too long because well, I paid money for it. But I hate it so much that it's going in the bin rather than being sold or swapped away. No one deserves that. (Did I say no one? Silly me.)
BELOW, L 2 R: MAC Lady Bug, Chili. Maxed out / sheered out. Neutral afternoon daylight.
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Let's move on to something more pleasant, shall we? Chili is one of those unglamorous workhorse mattes that everyone forgets to credit when they're amending those overhyped LE shades. Texturally it reminds me of one of the best LEs in recent times, MAC Ruffian Red. It's massively, smoothly opaque and in fact possesses something approaching pigmentation reverse-polarity, more difficult to sheer out than to achieve full coverage. It does this without clumping, never bleeds, wears for most of the day and ravages neither your labium superius nor inferius otis.
BELOW L 2 R Chantecaille Tiger Lilly, Urban Decay F-Bomb, MAC Lady Bug, Russian Red, Taupe, Chili, MAC Lipcreme in Orange. bright warm outdoor daylight.
The warmer right-hand shades in the swatch above are really accurate while the reddish things are pulling a just wee bit pink- on my laptop monitor, anyway. Lady Bug really is just a sheered- out Russian Red. If you're looking for something like it, go for MAC Brave Red or the Chantecaille Lip Hydra Chic instead. They're much nicer formulas. I know I said I hated the Chantecaille at some point in the distant past, and I still hate the arse-numbing price tag, but I changed my mind about it on the whole, which is a bitch's prerogative.
Chili is the colour of yellow-toned brick, bright chestnut horse or fox-ginger hair, composed of medium rust brown and saffron orange in equal measures. For a brown, it's somehow incredibly clean-looking. Redheads, green-eyed peeps and golden-skinned lovelies should run out and buy themselves a tube, stat., because it does all of those things 100% right. It is warmly organic and wonderfully flattering. These orange-browns were somewhat popular in the 90s but not as thick on the ground as the red-browns (trust me, I was there), and today it looks clever and unexpected, at least in my humble opinion.
I use Chili a lot in mixes with all those near-miss shades that I can't afford not to use. Hot tip; know all those too-sheer/too-dolly/a bit fucked-looking corals you spent all that $$$ on (I may be projecting here)? A smidgen of Chili can make them right. You'll be amazed how much it improves this often wayward colour and the same goes for all those semi-unwearable fashion-bitch oranges. I use it to tame crazy shit like MAC Morange or Lady Danger when I don't want to look like a stop sign. To knock the ashiness out of neutrals. For a subtle ombre with some warm reds. Your lipstick life is not complete without it.
I use Chili a lot in mixes with all those near-miss shades that I can't afford not to use. Hot tip; know all those too-sheer/too-dolly/a bit fucked-looking corals you spent all that $$$ on (I may be projecting here)? A smidgen of Chili can make them right. You'll be amazed how much it improves this often wayward colour and the same goes for all those semi-unwearable fashion-bitch oranges. I use it to tame crazy shit like MAC Morange or Lady Danger when I don't want to look like a stop sign. To knock the ashiness out of neutrals. For a subtle ombre with some warm reds. Your lipstick life is not complete without it.
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