Hands up if you love saving pennies? I do. Now, hands up if
you love Mac Rebel? I DEFINITELY do. In all honesty I think Mac Rebel is my
favourite lipstick of all time. I simply cannot get over it's gorgeous berry
tone and do not care whether it is considered only suitable for Autumn and
Winter, it is my go to year round. If you aren't familiar with Mac Rebel, shame on you. I joke of course but really, do yourself a favour and check it out, it is glorious.
So from the above you can probably imagine my utter joy when I was sent a new lipstick recently that turned out to be a perfect dupe and is less than half the price! Hells. Yeah. But what is
this wonder twin I hear you ask?
Ladies and gentleman, I give you Gosh Cosmetics Velvet Touch
Matt lipstick in Plum:
This beauty is part of Gosh Cosmetics’ AW15 launch and is one of eight new matte shades in their lipstick collection (£6.99). It was sent to me as part of a #berryorbare challenge that The Mall Cribbs Causeway (Bristol's local shopping centre) is currently running. Beauty Bloggers were sent their choice of either a berry or nude lipstick and we had to create a look and post it on Instagram. Whoever gets the most likes on the Mall's instagram by the 31st August will win some goodies so if you'd like to help me out, please do pop over and like this picture here! Many thanks to the lovely people that do or already have!
Anyway, back to the task at hand, I promised you all a dupe! Now I know the phrase dupe gets thrown around a lot and often what it actually turns out to mean is only “vaguely similar”. You get all excited, go out and purchase your new "dupe" with a super smug feeling. All is right with the world and you relish the jingle of extra monies that remain in your oh so dupe savvy self's purse. But then you get home, try out your new lippie and it is not the coral of laid back summer dreams but a bright orange that brings out every freckle on your face. Note - as an owner and lover of freckles, this is not always a bad thing. But if it is unexpected? No thank you.
But seriously, take a look at the swatches below!
 |
| From left to right - Mac Rebel and Velvet Touch Plum |
Pretty bang on right? Both have the same stunning pinky
purple tone to them which makes them extremely wearable compared to the more
brown toned berries. Apply with a light touch and it gives a wash of colour
perfect for day time or line and apply heavily for an intense night time
look. There is a slight difference in
the finish since Mac Rebel is a satin while Velvet Touch Plum is an all out
matte but apart from that, in terms of look they are pretty damn twin like.
After the swatch I tried applying both to see if there would
be a difference in the finished look and honestly I could barely tell the
difference. Can you?
 |
| Trying out Gosh Cosmetics Velvet Touch in Plum |
 |
| My old faithful Mac Rebel |
Suffice to say, in terms of look they are pretty much bang on. But what about formula?
So here they do part ways a little but certainly not enough to become a problem. Plus to be fair, Mac lipsticks are pretty difficult to match anyway, let alone at half the price. Mac Rebel is intensely pigmented and only needs the gentlest of touches to start building up colour. The swatch above was only one stroke...it's that good.
The Gosh Cosmetics lipstick on the other hand does need a little bit more building up to get a strong colour. In this case though that isn't entirely a bad thing as berry can be a little scary for some! Having a lipstick that lets you build the colour up to where you are comfortable might actually make it even more suitable for some people, all depends on what you are after!
With Autumn just around the corner, well actually given the weather lately it's basically here..it's the perfect time to get those berry lips on! What better timing could there be to find a Mac Rebel dupe?!
What do you guys think of my dupe discovery? Do you think it's worthy of the term or do you have another that I should try? Are you a berry lover or hater? Let me know in the comments!
