Mac Nutcracker Sweet Lipstick - Saucy Little Darling

I haven't always been, but for the past few years I've been a real sucker for MAC. I usually end up buying at least one product from almost every collection they release, even if I'm not really that fussed on it (That's called a problem, Leaha...). Because of this, I have tried and tested a wide range of their products, from foundations to blushers to mascaras, but the one thing I keep coming back to is their lipsticks. 

I used to only shop high street makeup well into my late teens, and a MAC lipstick was the first 'high end' product I ever bought myself (Russian Red, if you were wondering!). Since then, I've never really looked back. MAC lipsticks just look so iconic, and I love the quirky little names they always seem to have! I have to admit, sometimes I will even buy them based on that alone... Ahem, but aside from my weakness for product marketing, I find that these lipsticks rarely seem to fail me in terms of colour payoff and staying power, and that's what really brings me back time and time again. So, when the Nutcracker Sweet collection came out for Christmas this year, I just had to get myself a few little treats! Christmas and lipstick are among my favourite things, after all, so all the better to combine them!

This particular shade is called 'Saucy Little Darling', and is the only lipstick I bought from this collection - surprisingly! It comes with the most beautiful shiny pink and almost matte purple bullet with a candy cane striped box in the same shades - which is a nice change from the usual black MAC lipstick bullets. This particular shade has an amplified cremesheen finish, which typically I find a little harder to work with than cremesheens due to the thicker consistency and brighter colour payoff. I do however find that cremesheens typically last for a good while dependant on the shade (the darker the lipstick the longer they tend to linger on the lips), and this one certainly did not disappoint. It lasted a good 6 hours on the lips, and after the initial sheen and hydration of the lipstick had worn off it seemed to leave a thinner, lighter pink colour on the lips - which I pictured below when the lipstick was worn for around 4 and a half hours. I did find that this settled in to the lines of the lips more than most MAC lipsticks I have tried, but this was easily fixed by simply patting the lipstick in to the lips, which created a really soft natural look which I actually prefferred to the initial coverage. The bullet itself still comes in the classic subtle vanilla scent as do all MAC lipsticks, which I think is really lovely.

In terms of application and colour, the lipstick glided on really smoothly with no tugging at all and had an opaque finish. It was fairly hydrating and smooth, and I thought that it almost felt like a balm, but with a bit of a thicker consistency. The shade is described on the MAC website as a 'deep coral red', but I would definitely describe it more as a coral pink than a red. I think the fact that this lipstick has quite warm undertones can give it a slightly red appearance at times, especially in the bullet, but as soon as it is applied to the lips it loses this and instead maintains a bright pink, bold hue with a tinge of coral. The colour was like a toned down, darker version of the pink shade on the lid of the lipstick. I have pictured the lipstick on my lips below straight after application, for comparison with the photo above after around 4 and a half hours.

If you wanted to purchase this lipstick, you can buy it here for £17 :)