For red lipstick lovers, Ruby Woo is without doubt known as the ultimate crimson shade to wear. It has been one of MAC’s best selling products for years and has celebrities like Dita Von Teese name it as one of her favourite colours to wear. As shocking as it sounds, I’ve never actually owned my own Ruby Woo, that is until now!

I knew that it was finally time I bought Ruby Woo when I saw that they were releasing a new Collection Called MAC Shadescents. Six of their most popular colours have been specially repackaged to shade-match each lipstick – with a unique perfume available too.

I absolutely adore the special packaging and design, it is just beautiful and MAC have truly outdone themselves. I know a lot of people like the simple, sleek original design of their lipsticks but I much prefer this, it’s so mesmerizing! I’m actually tempted to buy the other shades in the Shadescents Collection just to have more of these beautiful products, however I like to think that even I’m not that frivolous!

I really hate to say this, but one big downfall of the Shadescent Ruby Woo is that the finish is different to the original lipstick! I bought this thinking I’d be getting the iconic matte texture, but for some reason this special edition is a retro matte instead. As much as I’d love to embrace the retro format, being a huge vintage lover myself, I much prefer matte. I find the retro matte finish to be a lot harsher to apply and feel and look pretty drying. My friend actually has an original Ruby Woo and I swatched both on my hand, the colour slightly varied and hers was a lot more glossy than mine. I am honestly so disappointed that for whatever reason MAC felt the need to change the format for the special edition, why try and fix something when it’s already perfect?

In all fairness, I did contact MAC with my issue and they offered to send me a new one, but I’d have to give my Shadescents back to them, although I’m pretty sure you can’t resell lipstick? I decided against this as I’d rather be able to repurchase it in the store and make sure it’s a matte finish and not a retro matte. I have a lot of MAC lipsticks, I’m guessing around 20, so I’m a huge fan of the Brand, but this is definitely something I was ultimately pretty disappointed with.

To emphasize how much retro matte isn’t for me, I only have one other lipstick with this finish – Relentlessly Red, which ironically I purchased because of the texture! I’ve checked the other shades in the collection and as far as I’m aware they all match the original finishes, it’s just Ruby Woo that was changed for some strange reason.

Ultimately, I’m pretty happy to have this in my collection, simply because it is extra beautiful with the special packaging. Who knows, maybe the retro matte format will grow on me the more I try and get used to it? Ironically enough, after wearing it again for this post today, I did actually quite like the retro matte texture! But I do definitely recommend putting on a good few layers with a lipstick brush first as like I said before, I found it to be quite harsh to apply without. I’ve noticed that I do seem to use a lot more product with a retro matte finish lipstick, compared to the matte textures.

Overall I have not lost faith in MAC, I just like to be as honest and authentic to others as I can be. I wouldn’t want others to buy the Shadescents Ruby Woo for the packaging and get a different format like I did. I love the colour and I’ll just make sure I purchase  the original whenever I can.

All I have to say to MAC is, if it’s not broke – don’t fix it!

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