Maybelline "On Fire Red" & Covergirl "Eternal"

Since my last post about red lips, I've acquired a couple of new colours to try out. I also made an order online from Sephora to get NARS Dragon Girl and a couple of other things, but everything is so backed up from the sale earlier this month. I ordered last Friday and only got a shipping confirmation yesterday (a week later). AND they're saying it won't be here until we get into December. Ouch! I need that shit now, Canada sucks, etc. But in the mean time, here are a couple drugstore products that I really enjoy using as of late. Check it out.

Right to left: Maybelline Coloursensational Vivids "On Fire Red," Covergirl Lip Perfection "Eternal"

Top: Eternal
Bottom: On Fire Red

My face looks like a bowl of oatmeal. I'm not usually instant breakfasts, I promise. This is On Fire Red. 

Let's start with the Maybelline On Fire Red. I only have one other colour of this formula, the LE Midnight Plum. That lipstick has the strangest smell.. like incredibly synthetic strawberry licorice. It's strong, but it goes away once it's on your lips. This one had the same scent, and I'm not a fan. MAC and NYX do well with scents, I can do with the vanilla and buttercream frosting stuff. And I really do love licorice, but this is just strange.

The packaging is nice. The colours in these lipsticks all have different coloured lids, to match the colour of the lipstick itself. My Midnight Plum has a matching dark purple lid. It doesn't feel too cheap, and it's never opened up on me in my purse or anything (I'm looking at YOU, cherryculture lip balm).

I really like the colour. It looks like a true, blue-based red on me. It goes on easily and is opaque in two swipes of the product. It's a shiny, satin finish, but not too slippery. My Midnight Plum takes a lot to build up the colour, but it's nice to be able to do a sheer purple instead of instantly becoming an eggplant.

The only thing is that it stains like a motherfucker. Some people like this because, as it fades during wear, you don't end up with random patches of lipstick that are brighter than other spots. I don't really care that much. My hand is all red from the swatches on my skin.

STAIN.

Overall, this is my new favourite red. It doesn't dry out my lips at all, and the colour is really nice. I wish it didn't smell so strong, but I can overlook that. I think I paid $6 for this at Target, but you can get these literally anywhere that sells Maybelline products. They're really common.

Here's Eternal. What the fuck did I do when I was putting on foundation today? I'm a piece of shit. I'm sick and blowing my nose a lot, so that's why my nose is basically falling off. I give up on life.

Eternal really confuses me. It looks like a really bright pink in the tube with flash, and sometimes in photos it turns out really pink, too. In these photos, I feel like I can compare On Fire Red and Eternal as they look on my lips. But the swatches and other photos are still super different. I feel like Eternal will look different depending on how pigmented your lips are. But to showcase the weirdness of this shade, here's one from last weekend in natural daylight, where it looks very pink:

I take a selfie like this every time I visit my mom and she drives somewhere. Also, if I didn't know better, I'd probably ID this colour as Revlon Lovesick. What the fuck, Covergirl?

Okay, I don't really care. It can be whatever it wants to be. I just don't know how comfortable I feel calling this a "red" lipstick, at least not in the classic sense of what can be recognized as a true red. It's still a fucking amazing lipstick. I wore this last weekend for over 12 hours, only touching up once in the middle of the afternoon. It's a bit more drying than the Maybelline lipstick, and it does stain a tiny, tiny bit. I had to do a pretty good exfoiliate the day after I wore this, but everything was fine. The colour comes off in the center of my lips sooner than anything else, but it has really good staying power otherwise. I definitely want to try some other colours in this product range.

I REALLY LIKE THEM BOTH. They're not exact dupes of each other, they're both good for different reasons. I'd recommend both brands.

What's your favourite red lipstick?