During my early years of High School, my acne-prone skin makes me developed a passion for makeup products. I dreamt of those beautiful MAC lipsticks and those highly pigmented Too Faced shadows but I only could afford poorly pigmented drugstore makeup.
It hasn't been that long since I was in High School - I'm not that old! :P But the fact that the makeup that I got my hands into wasn't good enough, kind of makes me grow apart from the makeup world. Just for a while, apparently.
I am not sure if it is that I am an adult now and I simply know better: I do my research before investing my money in something I'll regret buying later on. Or maybe it's just that drugstore makeup has evolved till what it is now. New brands were born and the drugstore makeup game in general has changed. Or maybe is a combination of those two facts.
Anyway, I'm a fresh-college-graduated-young-lady who is seeking for a job in a country that has been severely hit by the current financial crisis situation and whose only earrings comes from YouTube. So I need to be smart when it comes to shopping. And yes, that means that I do not own a single MAC lipstick.
So, yeah, this four introductory paragraphs were aimed just to justify myself spending hours and hours on the internet looking for good drugstore dupes of MAC lipsticks. NYX and E.l.f. are well known for their dupes too, but I'm not lucky enough to have any of these brands in Spanish makeup stores. Maybelline, Rimmel and Revlon have some dupes too, but they're a little bit pricier.Therefore I decided to focus my research on Wet'n'Wild and Essence: I can get plenty of products from these brands on my local stores and their prices are amazingly inexpensive, which is always a plus!
I need to stop rambling ASAP, so let's stop writing and let me introduce some dupes to y'all :)
1. NUDE & NATURAL
- Ok, first things first. That lip liner is just one of the gorgeous things I've ever bought. I normally apply it under the 03 Come Naturally from Essence nude lipsticks collection and it is just so Kylie Jenner and pretty.
- I can't say anything about the MAC blankety dupe because I do not own any of those, but from what I know, they look pretty similar.
- That Bare It All lipstick is gooorgeous too, love it. It is said to be a dupe of Velvet Teddy but it's lighter in my opinion, more similar to Kinda Sexy.
- The 05 Cool Nude from Essence is just beautiful. They're not the most pigmented lipsticks ever, but you can definitely build up the color. Plenty of people have swatched MAC Faux and the Essence shade together and they're soooo close.
- This is definitely going to be my next purchase as soon as I get to an Essence stand. I've already swatched this 06 Barely There lipstick and it may not look exactly the same as Velvet Teddy, but the finish and the formula are pretty similar, which makes it a closer dupe.
2. ON WEDNESDAY WE WEAR PINK
- I do not own MAC Angel neither I do Wet'n'Wild Think Pink, but from what I've seen, they're soooo close. Probably MAC Angel is more creamy, because the Wet'n'Wild Megalast Lipsticks have a semi-matte finish and Angel has more of a frost finish, but when it comes to color they're pretty similar.
- I do not own any of the following two either, but again, from what I've learnt and seen, MAC Syrup and Essence 07 Natural Beauty are really similar.
- I do own the Rosebud shade from Wet'n'Wild and regarding color, it's pretty similar to Fanfare. Again, the Wet'n'Wild one is semi-matte while Fanfare belongs to the cremesheen collection, therefore it is in the creamy spectrum.
- MAC St Germain and Wet'n'Wild Dollhouse Pink may look similar, but Dollhouse Pink is at least one shade darker. The two lipsticks are vibrant pink colors that look really alike, so I think you can cheat people into think that you wear St Germain when in reality you're wearing a 3$ lipstick :P.
- I've seen swatches of MAC Viva Glam Nicki Minaj and Wet'n'Wild Pinkerbell in arms and they look pretty much the same thing.
- MAC Viva Glam Miley Cyrus may be a little bit brighter while Wet'n'Wild Don't Blink Pink is a little bit darker, but one can barely tell the difference between those two.
3. GIVE ME BLOOD AND VAMP ME UP
- I've found that Purty Persimmon by Wet'n'Wild is a dupe of MAC So Chaud and also of Bang from the Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks. I do not own any of these, but the Internet taught me this,
- Apparently Stoplight Red by Wet'n'Wild is a perfect dupe of Ruby Woo by MAC.
- In the flesh and Spiked with rum by Wet'n'Wild are pretty similar shades, the first one is a little bit lighter than the other. Same happens with MAC Twig and MAC Del Rio.
- Mochalicious is far from the red spectrum. Although it does have a hint of red in it, it is more of a brown-ish shade, a dupe of MAC Verve. A perfect shade for Fall, as it happens with all of the lipsticks in this category.
- I've seen all over the internet that Cherry Bomb is the perfect dupe of MAC Diva, but again I do not own any of these.
- This last one it is the most amazing shade eveeeer, I love myself some vampy lipstick. The Wet'n'Wild lipstick in the shade Vamp It Up look a lot like the worldwide famous Cyber by MAC.
Now, before I go I need to make a quick review of the Wet'n'Wild Megalast lipsticks and the Essence Long-Lasting ones. I think Essence lipsticks are really nice for the price you pay for them. They're definitely not the most pigmented lipsticks ever, but they are buildable nice colors. They're not super durable either, but if you use them with a lip liner underneath you won't have to re-apply them for a decent amount of hours.
However, those Wet'n'Wild Megalast Lipsticks... Girl, let me tell ya, they absolutely are the bomb-dot-com. These are by far the most high quality, pigmented, matte and pretty lipsticks I've tried ever in my life. I've never get my hands into nothing high-end, not even remotely, but these have to be the closest you can get to high-end quality while paying 3 freaking dollars. They're said to be so drying, and they might be if you wear them for a really long time without re-applying. Exfoliate your lips and put some lipbalm before you apply these ones and you'll be avoiding any dryness.
I'm going to receive soon my first ever Milani lipstick, so I'll let you know if I find it to be better than my Wet'n'Wild ones, 'cause Milani lipsticks are so popular, beloved and good rated among the beauty community too.
Anyway!! That is about it. Gosh, I need some friends or something, it has been a good couple of hours writing this entry and figuring everything out. Oh! I almost forgot. Please, if you like the images I created and want to share them through Pinterest or any social media, give me some credit! I spent lots of hours editing them and doing my research so it'd make me so happy to get some recognition.
I'll see you very soon, I'm pretty sure of it. Have a nice week!! May Monday be good to y'all beautiful creatures of the internet. Love,
