Lips: MAC's Lipstick in "Pander Me" (LE) [The Matte Lip 2014]

PURCHASED

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay - remember when I said I had a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago? Well, for the past week my mom has had fever on and off, and she was finally diagnosed with bronchitis after seeing two doctors. Isn't fall in New York the greatest thing?

Anyway, if you saw my sneak peek post regarding MAC's The Matte Lip collection, then you know that I purchased three of the seven limited edition lipsticks that launched with it, amongst other products. Today, I'm here to share my first of three reviews related to this collection: my thoughts on the lipstick "Pander Me."

In my sneak peek post, I mentioned how "Pander Me" wasn't actually my own pick when I placed my order for part of the collection two weeks ago. It appealed to me at first, and then it didn't, and then it did again and didn't again, et cetera. Even now I can say that if my mom hadn't picked this lipstick, I still wouldn't have had second thoughts about it based on continuously emerging reviews and swatches across the web. Yet here it is with me, and here I am with you to say what my thoughts about this color all amount to.

Let's get right to it, then.




Name: Pander Me
Net Wt.: 0.1 oz./ 3 g.
Price: $16.00
Finish: Matte

On their site, MAC describes "Pander Me" as a "soft peachy mocha." The description is what caught my initial attention back when I first heard about the collection. Soon pictures started popping up, though, and I started seeing a brown and an orange and, overall, a color I wasn't completely into. Now that I have this lipstick in my possession, I would describe it as a terracotta. That inarguably sums the color up. Terracotta. Period.

Truthfully speaking, I see this color and I think "fall." I would say it is the lipstick in my collection that best represents this earthy, depressing season. Okay - ignore the 'depressing' in there, as that doesn't sound appealing at all. This color is appealing. It's a beautifully burnt orange-brown that makes me think of pottery, crumbling leaves, and the softening warmth of summer. It's a straight-up terracotta that pulls either more brown or more orange, depending on your skin tone. Hence all the varying pictures that were scantly surfacing online over a month ago.

I personally wanted more of a warm brown, than a brown-toned orange, but I got something in between the two - perhaps leaning more towards brown than orange (yay). I want to say that the swatch above is the most color-accurate of all the pictures in this post, but it may be pulling a bit more brown than it appears on my lips (or my lips may be bringing out the orange in the color a bit more - who knows).

As for the above lip swatch, where this lipstick clearly pulls more orange, I would say the difference is partly due to the influence of the sun that I use as my (indirect) source of lighting. Either way, the above color is definitely a terracotta as opposed to an orange. I was relieved by this because I almost thought that "Pander Me" might be a neutral orange, much like Revlon's limited edition "Jungle Peach," which I enjoy, but not enough to want a duplicate of. I didn't include comparisons of the two in this post because they are actually nothing alike, thankfully.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough regarding the damn color of this lipstick. As I said before, "Pander Me" is limited edition and, as suggested by the collection's title, it has a matte finish. Of the three matte lipsticks I purchased from The Matte Lip, "Pander Me" wears the most drying. It does apply smoothly, and feel for the most part comfortable on the lips, much like MAC's previous collection's mattes (here and here), but the color just looks drying on my lips much sooner than my other semi-creamy mattes from MAC. This may likely be due to the soft yet bright color, which makes lip lines and any "cakey" pooling harder to hide.

As for the actual finish, "Pander Me" is definitely a matte, even if it starts with the slightest sheen directly after application. And, as a matte, the color is rich and long-wearing.


With all that being said, although "Pander Me" is a lovely warm, earthy color that applies smoothly and wears comfortably for a matte - and is unique in my collection - it's just not my kind of color. I like it, and I will use it and enjoy the fact that it's very different from what I own, but I will always love and, inevitably, prefer colors with some form of pink/purple in them. Brown is actually my least favorite lip color**, and orange is ironically my second least favorite (I say ironically because my absolute favorite color is pink-coral, which is only perfect when it has a noticeable amount of orange in it). Earthy tones are also my least favorite colors in general although, again, I don't dislike them - I simply prefer jewel-tones and pastels.

**Remember this.

I will continue to wear "Pander Me" throughout the season so that I can become more accustomed to its color and appreciate it more. As far as recommendation goes, I recommend "Pander Me" if you enjoy the color and want the matte finish, since the formula is quite comfortable and noticeably nicer than other MAC mattes ("Candy Yum Yum"). Again: don't misunderstand me. This lipstick is a beautiful color. I mean, really - I only spoke about the color in around three chunks of text! Haha.

Would I repurchase it, though? No.

I hope you found this review helpful, and thanks for stopping by. 'Til next time! ('<>')>

~nikki