Brown lipstick might not be the most seasonally appropriate choice for May, in theory, but it's grey and wet here in Glasgow and we've lost two years' Autumn and Winters of dark lipstick wearing to Covid and face coverings, so I am determined to make up for lost time.
I posted about the Guerlain Legendary Reds Collection previously, and the Rouge G 940 Dusty Brown is that same velvet formula I talked about in that post - which is super lightweight, soft and powdery on the lips without compromising on pigment. You can blend this formula out, it gives a beautiful feathery edge because of how soft and powdery the lipstick formula is. If you're looking for that relaxed, tres chic French girl approach with no lipliner, this formula is perfect for it (almost like that would be appropriate coming from such an iconic Fench house, non?) But the pigment can absolutely be built up to full, opaque coverage, which is often hard to find in such a lightweight formula - I'm really not exaggerating when I say you can easily forget you have anything on your mouth with this formula as it's so comfortable to wear.
My only 'complaint' would be, with this shade in particular - that it's not that brown. Despite the name being Dusty Brown in English, I kind of wonder if something has been a little lost in translation there (I also think the same in general of the Guerlain 'Mad Eyes' range, I'm not sure Mad Eyes is really the most attractive prospect to be going for with your cosmetics!) This shade is very much what I'd call a deep burgundy red - there are brown tones in it but it's not really a brown. As a stand alone shade, it's absolutely beautiful - it reminds me a lot of the shade Marion Cotillard is wearing in the Chanel No 5 Dancing On The Moon advert, and really is there any time in life I'm not striving to be a bit more Marion Cotillard? - but I'm not sure the name is the most appropriate.
The photos above show the lipstick on its own, below I'm wearing it with MAC's Bittersweet lipliner to intensify the brown:
You can see the liner tones in with the lipstick, so it's not as if it's called brown and is a pillarbox red or anything, it definitely has those brown tones - but if you're looking for a truly brown lipstick, this probably isn't it. I've swatched it here in between two brown lipsticks - MAC's Double Fudge and Antique Velvet:
You can see in comparison to the other two that Guerlain's 940 Dusty Brown really isn't very brown, which can be a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for, but I did think it was worth flagging given the name.
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