MAC Red Balloon Lipstick: my pick from Playland Collection

Hi! Today’s post is about my pick from most recent MAC Cosmetics collection: the Playland Collection. At the beginnig when I saw the colour story from this collection I was very excited about its concept and colours theirselves: all springful, bright lipsticks – most of them comes in Amplified finish! – and the return of Casual Colours, a creamy cheek and lip product launched some years ago. Casual Colours in Playland Collection aren’t repromotes though, since they come in all new colours; they’re all really pretty and I’ve been drooling over them but I have too many cream blushers and multi-purpose cheek and lip products to buy another more. Plus, they’re huge! Seriously, a Casual Colour will last a lifetime.

But the standout product in this collection are lipsticks. I couldn’t see MAC Toying Around because it was already sold out. My attention have been caught from MAC Happy-Go-Lucky and MAC Red Balloon, the boldest and fuchsia toned in the collection. They both have Amplified finish, one of best MAC finishes in my opinion along with Satin and Matte. When I swatched them MAC Happy-Go-Luckly suddenly seemed to me a little flat and not so unique, or maybe only not for me 😀

MAC Red Balloon gave me a completely different feeling. I immediately thought “oh my God it is so me!” and felt that I had to have it in my stash. MAC Red Balloon is a quite complex shade, I’m not sure I can describe it properly. I see it as a mix of fuchsia, red and berry. It’s a well balanced tone, I could see it well both on warm and cool complexions.

MAC Red Balloon

I was worried that MAC Red Balloon could be too similar to MAC Moxie. If you see them in the tube they may be appeared as dupes, but once you swatch them they’re completely different. Of course they’re in the same colour family, but MAC Moxie contains a lot more red in it and it has a saturated colour due to its Retro Matte finish. Thus MAC Red Balloon – thanks to its finish – is less saturated, shinier and less deep and dark. Furthermore it is a lot pinker and more delicate. It is completely different also from Nars Luxembourg which is a lot similar to MAC Moxie: Luxembourg is redder and much bolder.

MAC Moxie (left) – MAC Red Balloon (right)

MAC Moxie (left) – MAC Red Balloon (right)

MAC Moxie (left) – MAC Red Baloon (centre) – Nars Luxembourg (right)

As I previously said, MAC Red Balloon is an Amplified lipstick: this means that it’s a creamy, comfortable, moisturizing and long lasting lipstick. It can be applied without worrying about anything: it doesn’t need a lip liner because it doesn’t bleed and it’s not slippery. It is forgiving about dried out lips because it doesn’t mark flakes such as sheerer or matte finishes usually do. It lasts well about 5 and half hour, then it starts fading gradually and evenly.