MAC mattes still take some beating. My experiences with both their Retro and just plain recent mattes have been pretty positive and I'd rate the ones I've encountered personally in the nineties out of a possible hundred. You can count Studded Kiss and Fixed on Drama out of that circle of awesomeness- they are wonderfully complex colours cursed with frustrating technical issues and that really pisses me off.
MAC D for Danger has a similar intensity to these last two offenders, so I don't understand why they look like a balding concrete driveway after half an hour while the latter is so silky smooth. The difference must lie in the opaque brown pigments that are problematic in many MAC mattes, given that dirty reds and purples are the primary perpetrators.
Happily, D for Danger is a different beast. I picked it up pretty blind because I love all things fuchsia and fruity; it's a safe category for me, so why the hell shouldn't I wedge yet another variant into my ridiculously oversized collection in the spirit of sober practicality? There's plenty of sister-wives waiting to keep it company, as you can probably see from the swatches. Lol. Excessive.
MAC D for Danger has a similar intensity to these last two offenders, so I don't understand why they look like a balding concrete driveway after half an hour while the latter is so silky smooth. The difference must lie in the opaque brown pigments that are problematic in many MAC mattes, given that dirty reds and purples are the primary perpetrators.
Happily, D for Danger is a different beast. I picked it up pretty blind because I love all things fuchsia and fruity; it's a safe category for me, so why the hell shouldn't I wedge yet another variant into my ridiculously oversized collection in the spirit of sober practicality? There's plenty of sister-wives waiting to keep it company, as you can probably see from the swatches. Lol. Excessive.
 This colour fam isn't for everyone and I can understand the reluctance. Exhibit A- MAC Fuchsia Lipmix and its ability to hijack an entire bitch's face on a sunny day (see swatches). D for Danger may be a lot of look but I recommend it to fuchsiaphobes with the assurance that it won't eat the rest of your situation for breakfast. | A shade description is easy. Double-down fuchsia. Bloodied fuchsia. A tall glass of fuchsia hit with a single shot of wine. Like staring into ten fathoms of pure distilled fuchsia in the slanting light of afternoon. Or if MAC Glam and MAC Diva had a past-term, twelve pound baby. It heads in a very slightly coolish direction that's balanced by imposing saturation, so unless you're intensely yellow-warm, you shouldn't have a problem with the tonality. D for Danger sets itself apart from the monster-pink herd by being both rich and yet somehow sedate, backing off the shrieky brightness that can afflict these sorts of shades, she says, giving MAC Full Fuchsia stink eye. It's deep and clean and probably as adult as fuchsia can hope to be  |
 So for those trying to break a basic habit and get into serious colour, DfD is a good place to start, sharing a relaxed, non-shrill quality with MAC Petit Red, which I praised for its balanced, beyond-25 wearability. Wear it casual-daytime with a bare face or trick it out with a monochrome eye. I get a dewy, comfortable off-matte finish, four hours of wear, no bleeding, a decent resistance to a hot lunch and only moderate staining. It doesn't settle into lines or clump on lip flakes. |  |
The closest thing in my collection is possibly MAC Salon Rouge (LE), but like so many swatch half-siblings, they're nowhere close to lip-twins. Salon Rouge reads a definite rose red, whereas D for Danger pulls far more obviously fuchsia. MAC Glam (the LE re-released version) is a tonne pinker. Bite Cranberry High Pigment Pencil isn't a billion miles away but again, it is less blue and more conventionally rosy so the effect is not the same. D for Danger is even further distant from the other recent MAC mattes like All Fired Up and Flat Out Fabulous so don't worry about their being dupes. I love the everliving shit out of it.
L2R in neutral outdoor daylight (MAC unless stated)
Russian Red, D for Danger, Petit Red, Bite Cranberry, All Fired Up, Absolute Power, Flat Out Fabulous, Salon Rouge, Glam.
Please do not use these images without permission.
Russian Red, D for Danger, Petit Red, Bite Cranberry, All Fired Up, Absolute Power, Flat Out Fabulous, Salon Rouge, Glam.
Please do not use these images without permission.
 | < Postscript: when the sun came around the front of the house, I threw a stroke of Mac Fuchsia Lipmix (gold standard true intense fuchsia) and Julia Petit Acai (very close to the generally familiar Rebel) on top to see how much it had in common with those two. Not as much as I would have thought. < Mac Fuchsia Lipmix, Julia Petit Acai. Russian Red, D for Danger, Petit Red, Bite Cranberry, All Fired Up, Absolute Power, Flat Out Fabulous, Salon Rouge, Glam. |
Above - cool midday shade. Below - full warm midday sunlight. I do not use flash.
I think almost all these shades are looking fairly true to life in the final shot below- moderate neutral outdoor shade.
Russian Red, D for Danger, Petit Red, Bite Cranberry, All Fired Up, Absolute Power, Flat Out Fabulous, Salon Rouge, Glam.
Please do not use these images without permission. Ta!
Please do not use these images without permission. Ta!
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