Over the summer I was in Birmingham for a few days and Birmingham, the wonderful city it is, is home to a Selfridges. Knowing Selfridges stocked Illamasqua the one thing and one thing only I wanted was their matte black lipstick - Pristine. Black lipsticks are scarce as is, let alone matte black lipsticks so I was not leaving the UK until Pristine was mine. Illamasqua lipsticks are a little on the expensive side and I was so confident it would be worth every penny but I was a little disappointed in this. The colour payoff wasn't intensely black as I wanted it to be and I found myself reapplying it a lot (not to mention the actual product came loose from the packaging after first use), I dealt with this anyway because like, its a matte black lipstick?? Not like you can find one of them anywhere. But that night in my hotel room I was scanning the Illamasqua website to see if there was anything else I wanted to get before I left and the answer to all my black lip problems was there.

When I was buying Pristine the girl selling it to me suggested this and I didn't want it at all, I wanted matte and I wasn't ruining that with a gloss, but when I went back and saw it I needed it. Applied on top of Pristine this gives the most intense black lip ever. The gloss worn over the lipstick makes the colour last a million times longer and I no longer cared about the negatives of Pristine, I wanted matte but I got better than that. Obviously this isn't a lip colour I'd wear every day because no matter how good the product, it's an absolute pain when you can't even eat without staining everything black but I looooove these two products together and I could not be more satisfied with my first Illamasqua purchase.

Where do I start with MAC's Stone? I love this colour more than life itself. Back last year I bought Stone as a lipliner and although in the packaging and when its swatched it almost passes as a nude/taupey brown colour, on the lips it takes a 'muted grey but still kinda taupey' colour and I am obsessed. I originally bought the liner to wear as an all over colour, and I did that and it looked incredible, but then I discovered the beauty of lining the lips with Stone and then blending it with the Velvet Teddy lipstick, absolute game changer, everyone needs to try it and I mean it. So while Stone/Velvet Teddy was my go-to nude lip, to say I was over the moon when MAC announced their Matte Lip collection which included Stone as a permanent lipstick in the collection I could not cope. Naturally, I got my hands on it on its release day and it was everything I wanted it to be. MAC's matte formula is faultless, giving a matte appearance but still being creamy and not drying the lips out to bits and the colour is identical to the liner. Everyone needs this. Everyone.

When I first saw Inglot's new Black Swan matte lipstick line I felt a little 'meh' about it. Although the colours were dreamy, I didn't really need another black lipstick, nor did I need a grey that wasn't Stone in my life. As well as that, when Inglot first came to Ireland, I bought a matte red lipstick and applying it felt like I was using a wax crayon on my lip - not fun. But when I saw this colour in person a part of me couldn't help myself. My hair at the moment is a pastel lilac colour and this lipstick is the exact colour that divides grey and lilac and I loved it. I had heard it was sold out everywhere but when the Inglot I was in happened to have one I just went with it. The formula of their matte lipsticks has improved enormously, they no longer have that crayon feel or have my lips as dry as Ghandi's flip flop. I don't wear this as much as I'd like to but nonetheless, its a gorgeous colour and it looks good with my hair, what's not to enjoy?