MAC Cosmetics Matte Lipstick “Velvet Teddy” | Review

Hello friends!

While I can’t remember exactly where/when I got this particular lipstick, I’m so excited! MAC’s Velvet Teddy has always seemed like a color that would be perfect for me. It wasn’t too pink, and was neutral and dark enough to look good on my lips.

Color: Velvet Teddy is described as a “deep-tone beige” on the MAC website. I actually feel like the website pictures don’t look quite as accurate to real life. It looks a lot more bright and peach; if I saw this shade just from their website I would actually say it was not a good color for me, so I’m surprised.

I would say this is a mid-tone neutral peach. It definitely has a pinky peach lean to it instead of the standard neutral, but it doesn’t go straight up orange like a lot of pinks and warm nudes can. It’s a great color for people with more pigmented lips who still want to rock a pretty neutral peachy pink shade, in my opinion.

Finish: While not as matte as the retro matte line, the regular line does still have a definite matte look. There is just the tiniest bit of a satin in the swatch, but on the lips it does look flat, with no hint of a shine.

Packaging: My particular lipstick is actually a mini and not the full size, but the packaging is identical to a normal MAC lipstick, just smaller! It’s a black tube and cap with small silver glitters throughout. The cap has MAC written on it in silver, and the mechanism to twist the bullet up is silver and has MAC printed on it as well.

Applicator: With this being a mini, the shape of the bullet is just a little different, as it’s not as wide as the normal MAC lipsticks. It still has a very distinct tear drop shape and the tip of the lipstick is a point. I actually feel like with it being smaller it would make applying this easier for some people, as you don’t need to worry about it going outside of lip lines.

Application: Despite being a smaller bullet, I didn’t really feel like there was any difference in the way this applied for me. I still found it easy to get a smooth application across both lips without needing to go back and touch up. The color is pigmented and slightly smoother than the retro matte formula, meaning I didn’t have to go back and forth to get even application.

It has a soft vanilla scent that dissipates upon application.

Transfer: As a bullet lipstick, the level of transfer is much less than the glosses I’ve been trying recently, but honestly more than I had originally expected. When drinking my coffee, I had a lot of lipstick come off onto the cup. It does appear that this was the excess product that wasn’t sitting directly on my lips, as when I went to look and see how the wear was, my lips looked like nothing had changed, just that some extra product was gone.

Fading: I was shocked by the fact that even after eating a meal of soup and bread (and I was very messy while doing so), the color of the lipstick was still prominent on my lips. When I reapplied on top, there was no actual change to the shade of my lips, just the level of opaqueness! This was a definite surprise, as I was sure it would have faded much more. It will wear off throughout the day, I think around 6 hours is when I’d touch up, but this is a longer wear time than a traditional cream bullet lipstick.

Comfort: I would actually put this on par with the retro matte in terms of comfort, which surprises me. I thought it would be more comfortable, seeing as it is less matte. I believe the difference is that the regular matte feels a bit thicker on the lips, which is something that I pay close attention to. The thickness is likely due to the fact that it is more creamy. All that said, I still found this to be comfortable enough to want to wear throughout the day without feeling like I needed to take it off at any point.

I actually think that to help combat the thickness problem, I could try blotting off the excess right away, which should help with the feeling of a bunch of product sitting on my lips.

Overall: I’m actually surprised to say that I enjoy this formula less than the retro matte formula, but that said this is still a really nice lipstick and I adore the color! It’s hard for me to find pinks or peaches that I feel actually look flattering on. I also know I like this formula enough to continue to wear other colors in it, of which I have many.

Price Point: The price for the full size lipstick is $21, which is more than when I originally bought any full size lipsticks (I believe they were $17 at the time). That said, if there’s a color that you are obsessed with, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the formula. As mentioned, I was impressed with the wear time and it is comfortable. I’m also curious to try the other finishes, and see how they too compare with each other! This lipstick can be purchased on the MAC website, or Ulta; you can also find it at multiple department stores.