MAC Fashion Sets: Russian Red - review and swatches

MAC has a rare gift of relaunching their permanent collections as new. Thanks to their brand new campaign launching colour matching lipsticks, glosses and nail polishes I discovered their Russian Red. I gave the nail polish a pass for three reasons: first of all it's easily dupable, secondly the shades of the lipstick and gloss differ so there's no perfect colour match for both of them, thirdly MAC nailpolish is much too expensive, hello, it's not  Chanel, is it?

I'm undergoing a red phase, thanks to strong encouragement from my hubby, so I couldn't say no to Russian Red, could I? The Russian Red Tinted Lipglass is a very bright proper red, not particularly cool or warm toned. It's pigmented and opaque and extremely shiny. Lasts on my lips for a decent amount of time as for a lip gloss and feels no gloopier than other super shiny glosses. I also like the doe foot applicator, they are usually very handy and do their jobs well. A great gloss overall. 

The Russian Red matte lipstick is not a perfect match for the gloss. It's a much darker and much cooler red. I absolutely adore the shade although it isn't easy to wear.

First of all as with all dry and pigmented lipsticks it's hard to apply it evenly, you really need to take your time to make it work. Then, because the colour is so dark, the inner part of my lips always remains inadequately lighter. What is more, while the lipstick remains vibrant and almost untouched on most areas of my lips, it disappears really quickly in the corners of my mouth. Needless to say this doesn't looks too good.     

Now for the swatches, you can clearly see thet these two are not the same shade of red, the gloss being much brighter.

And below is a lip swatch of the gloss applied over the lipstick, the best solution for both products, the gloss achieves the desired depth and the lipstick is no longer troublesome, though it lasts for a considerably shorter amount of time.

When I was coming back home with the Russian Red lip gloss it struck me that actually might be a dupe for Illamasqua lipgloss in Succubus, but it isn't. Succubus is more cool-toned and THIS is a perfect match for the Russian Red lipstick. 

As for the nail polish I've found a number of matching polishes in my collection. Christine of Temptalia.com lists Zoya Sooki as a possible dupe for the Russian Red polish. Since I haven't got the polish I cannot specify any dupes but I believe that Zoya Sooki, Orly Haute Red, Nails Inc. Charing Cross  are good matches for the gloss and Orly Candy Cane Lane, Nail Tek Hello Gorgeous, Models Own Pro Come to Bed Red and CK Caught Red Handed are good matches for the lipstick.

Nars matte lipstick in Moscow

I must say that the shade of the producers of cosmetics associate with Russia is usually the most gorgeous red ever. Above and below are examples of two other "Russian reds" which are reds to die for, occupying high positions on my current wishlist!

OPI Vodka & Caviar

Disclaimer: I bought the product myself for my personal use and I am not affiliated with any company. I am not paid to do this review and everything I said here is my genuine opinion.