Pat McGrath Labs LUST: Mini MatteTrance Lipstick Trio REVIEW

The attention-grabbing online marketing may have caught your eye or maybe you’ve noticed her products quietly becoming part of Sephora’s landscape. Do black tubes of lipstick with shiny gold lips on them ring a bell? Those are Pat McGrath lipsticks and although Pat McGrath’s brand is young, these lipsticks are already iconic. After eyeballing them from afar I finally made an impulse purchase and snagged the Pat McGrath Labs LUST: Mini MatteTrance Lipstick Trio.

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Immediately taking the cap off of the tube you’ll notice that the texture of these lipsticks is different. It reminds me of the texture of a soft and gentle nail buffer. Swatching the lipsticks is dramatic. One smooth swipe reveals their creamy color and that one swipe is all you need for full-coverage color. No layering necessary.

The LUST: Mini MatteTrance Lipstick Trio comes in 2 shade ranges: Colour Blitz and Skin Show. Colour Blitz contains the shades Obsessed!, Full Panic, and Elson. It’s a collection of reds and a pink. Obessed! is a bright orange-red, Full Panic is a bright fuschia, and Elson is a blue-red. These colors are bold and flirty, but not what I’m focusing on today.

Skin Show is the trio that I chose to purchase when browsing Sephora. Though the colors of Colour Blitz are bold and beautiful, I wanted to go for a more neutral, everyday, wearable collection of colors. Skin Show contains Omi, a mid-tone rose, 1995, a warm light nude, and Flesh 3 a brown rose.

In total the full-size MatteTrance lipsticks are available in 29 shades. Either of the Mini MatteTrance Lipstick Trios are a great way to try out the MatteTrance formula to see how it wears and feels before committing to the purchase of a full-size MatteTrance lipstick.

I’ve already mentioned how quickly the packaging itself is becoming iconic. The lipstick tubes are classic, they’re circular and shiny black. In the middle of the tubes, there is a gold circle where the cap pops off. This gold circle wraps around the tube and is accented with a pair of shiny gold lips.

The lipstick tube is simplistic and chic on its own, but it’s the packaging that contains these 3 minis that’s really fabulous. The MatteTrance minis are sealed in a gold baggie filled with sturdy gold sequins. If you’re into arts and crafts or DIY projects, this is a great golden bonus. You can repurpose these sequins when creating your next glittering work of art. Or, you could throw them up into the air for fun and leave a trail of gold sequins all over your house. Not that I did that or anything.

I am absolutely loving these MatteTrance lipsticks, they are so easy to apply, they’re long-lasting and light-weight. For matte lipsticks, I didn’t find them drying. As some reviews have stated on Sephora’s website, the shades pictured online are deceptive. Omi and 1995 are much lighter than they appear here, they’re more neutral. Flesh 3 is a deep brick red. Purchasing makeup online can always be a little hit or miss when it comes to shades so I don’t necessarily hold this against them. It’s always best to swatch shades in person if you can before making a purchase online.

The price is incredible considering that these minis aren’t that “mini.” Some travel size/trial size lipsticks are impossibly small. They break when you’re trying to put them on or are simply annoying to apply.

When compared to other luxury lipstick trial sizes, these are near twice the size. Full-size Pat McGrath MatteTrance lipsticks go for $38.00, this trio is only $25.00.

What are your thoughts on these MatteTrance lipsticks? Which shade is your favorite?