As I previously mentioned in one of my reviews, the way Velvet Teddy looked was the ultimate way I wanted my lips to look. It has a 90's sort of look to it. Sort of terracotta like. Ever since I was young (90's child) I'd always liked the look of the 90's lips colour. And when I first got into makeup, that was when that frantic search had began for that specific colour. And then it was that day in the Mac store, when one of the mua's had it on, that was when I fell in love, that was when the obsession had started!
I went to the Mac store and I looked for it on the lipstick stand, I'd never seen the lipstick in real life, so I was picking up all the ones that I thought could be Velvet Teddy, scanning the colours, picking them up one by one, checking the labels underneath. I had to recognise it! I just had to! This is Velvet Teddy after all, I have a connection with this lipstick! I considered help, but no this would hurt my ego, I-must-recognise! After about 5 mins of doing this and almost picking up the same ones twice I gave up. I asked one of the assistants if they could find Velvet Teddy for me, she didn't recognise the name ('pffffffttt' I thought) so she asked another assistant, and number 2 said its a beigey colour, 'it's between this one and this one', pointing at Hug Me and Kinda Sexy (if I recall well). So they started looking for Velvet Teddy, then after another 5 minutes, it didn't seem to be there! Hah! My ego remained unharmed! My connection with Velvet Teddy was still intact! So assistant number 2 opened up the storage cabinet underneath and took out a new tube for me... :)
So I walked over to the mirror, Velvet Teddy in one hand and disposable lip brush in the other. I was so nervous yet excited! I was going to try on this much loved and much stalked lipstick for the first time, this was the moment of truth, I had waited for this for a long time...(Cheesy right?). I swiped the colour over my lips and analysed...hmmm...it seemed nice and natural like a nude pink, natural. It was okay, okay enough for me to make it mine, so I bought it! But I'd forgotten, I'd forgotten how much store lighting can be deceiving....
When I got home I tried it on again, and it was a different story.... Da da daaaa! It looked pale on me. A 'little' too pale for my liking. I didnt find it flattering at all. No 90's look, just some fake grey mess with dry dull hyperpigmented lips. I looked over to my sister with a look of grief, I was heartbroken ;( . She took a look and scolded 'dont get disheartened so quickly, you've got to make it work, do your thing, experiment! Try some lip liner or something, add a little gloss.'
I did what she said and played around with it. I rummaged in my makeup draw and took out a reddish brown (terracotta) lip liner, I think it was Jordanas lip liner in Nutmeg. I lined the outer rims of my lips and pressed my lips together to blend slightly, then I applied Velvet Teddy mainly to the centre of my lips and pressed again to blend slightly. I took a step back and scrutinized. My sister then said 'Wow! There! That looks gorgeous on you!'. She was right, it looked lovely! So naturally gorgeous! The perfect balance of beige, pink and brown with a slight hint of terracotta. It was my own 90's lip! It was what it looked like on the numerous girls I'd seen it on. I added a tiny tiny dab of gloss just to the centre of my lips and it was perfection!
Velvet Teddy is from the matte range of lipsticks. Very creamy and very pigmented. It can be a tad drying and chalky on darker skin tones like most nude mattes but lipbalm and gloss helps with this. It's a beige pink nude colour. On fair skins it can look light terracotta-ish, on medium skintones it looks like a nice beigy pink nude and on darker skintones it can look like a pale beigey pink. On my nc40 - nc41 - nc42 skin and hyperpigmented lips it is a bit too pale pinky beige for my liking, I'm not into the whole corpse look. Okay im exaggerating, I didnt look like a corpse but I just wasn't sure about it. But when I have a decent lip liner underneath it gives it a bit more life and looks like a nice beige peachy pink nude. I love it ! Lining my lips and outer rims with a darker lip liner and adding a little gloss in the centre adds plumpness and dimension to my lips.
I really do love it and I want to make it known to those who are of similar skintone to me and are interested in getting Velvet Teddy, that they should give it a try, they should experiment. Its such a lovely colour. I definitely think nc43's, perhaps nc44's too, can wear this and get the same 90's look out of it too and in my opinion Velvet Teddy looks phenomenal on nc30's, nc35's and nc37's. The swatches on my hand can confirm this as I have rather pale NC30/35 hands compared to my nc40-42 face. If it wasn't for the hyperpigmentation around my lips and on my lips it would look great on me too just swiped on straight from the tube, but it doesn't and I need to make it work my own way. Though, I'm content.
As for it being a dupe for Revlons Mauve it over, I will be doing a post on this very soon Inshaa Allah (if God wills) and will discuss the similarities and whether it is actually a good dupe.
Hope this was helpfull, please comment and ask questions if you need any additional info. Thank you for reading this long but informatively meaningful post. Hope I didn't bore you. Peace and love xxxx
*UPDATE*: This Velvet Teddy post is one of my most read posts and the picture quality was terrible back then (cringe). So here are some better quality pictures in different angles. Enjoy!
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