Product Review: MAC Viva Glam Gaga II Amplified creme lipstick

It seems like every single girl has a signature lipstick/gloss shade, that she's always trying to find the right version of. Amiright? There are many that love pinks, many that love muted brown tones, many that love plums, many that love reds. There are those that are ballsy enough to constantly sport really shocking fuchsia and orange shades (bless you all, I love seeing you on my morning commute). I am firmly in the nude lipstick camp, having always been a fan of dramatic eyes and that campy porn star lip look. Because my skin color varies so wildly, depending on which self tanner and how often I use them, I've amassed an incredible collection of nude lipsticks. 

Today I welcome into my rotation, the fabulous Gaga II color. Although Myth is my slightly peachy standby for whenever I'm sporting some paleness, I love Gaga II whenever I get my tan on. Though the shade can look slightly gray on me if I experiment with a self tanner that goes at all orange (so word to the wise, girls with a lot of yellow warmth in your skin, may not look that great) I tend to top everything with slightly pigmented lip glosses so as long as I inject a little bit of pinkness in that way, it looks great. Those with olive or very cool medium, cafe au lait skin tones, would look fantastic with just this. The finish is off course a creamy semi-matte, it feels great on the lips, but those are well known and well understood facts about many lipsticks anyway.

Product Review: MAC Suntints SPF 20 Liquid Lip Balm in Pink Tinge

Isn't it almost a job prerequisite for a beauty blogger to be obsessed with MAC? Yes, yes, I fit that stereotype too. I don't quite worship at the altar like many, but if its any indicator of how much I spend there, I finished makeup school exclusively in order to be able to get the 40% discount at the Pro Stores.....

Nevermind my personal spendiness issues, I'm here to tell you about the Suntints. As many other reviewers have noted, these lip balms are extremely sticky (stickier and thicker than lipglasses, so that's really saying something) and contain almost no pigment. I mean barely anything. They do however provide three benefits which in my mind outshine all of that:

1. An SPF of 20, with UVA protection. I have searched high and low and have only found a handful of lip products with adequate UVA protection and believe me it's important. If you worry about thinning of lips, vertical lines, freckles, overall pigment darkening (or God forbid, skin cancer on one of the most sun sensitive spots on the body) and you aren't applying and constantly reapplying UVB and UVA protective products on a constant basis, you are shortchanging yourself. Those pesky UVA rays cause the majority of the trouble and as we all know, prevention is always better than correction.
2. A long lasting formulation: The ingredient breakdown will contain more details on the specific agents which create the semi-waterproof almost shellac-like texture of these balms. So not only does the product stay on the lips even after ingestion of some food/drink, but that means that your sunscreen isn't rubbing away either. In addition, it means that less moisture evaporates from the lip and for those of us with insane lip balm addictions, well we all know what that means.
3. High wattage shine: I am a lover of pigment, so I prefer to put on traditional cream lipsticks and then top them with this for that "porn-pout" look, which some of us against all sanity continue to love. I find it also helps lock in lipstick color, so there's less reapplication of that too.

If it isn't abundantly obvious by now, I will be buying more. To be incredibly honest, I'll probably just buy the other shades for fun, but my natural lip color is so intensely pigmented that the three colors show absolutely no difference. If you have the same issue, don't worry about choosing a shade, they're all ok.