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It’s time to tell you about all the best purple MAC lipstick shades, after I talked about pink MAC lipsticks, coral lipsticks and red lipsticks a while back.
I’ve written oh so many articles about the best MAC lipsticks for this type of skin tone or that one, and I’m slowly finishing the complete guides to MAC lipsticks – after that, we’ll move on to eye products and face products.
I’ve actually started, with a full post to the best MAC blush for fair skin and pale skin tones a few days ago, if you’d like to know what would suit you best!
For today, we’re talking about true purple and plum lipsticks from MAC – not berry lipsticks nor maroon and burgundy lipsticks, since I’ve written about this already!
10 Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades for All Skin Tones
To be honest, anyone looking for the best purple MAC lipstick shades won’t find this too tricky – it’s nothing like trying to find the perfect brown and nude lipsticks, for one.
And secondly, there are not many purple MAC lipsticks available at the moment.
MAC Cosmetics has actually broadened their collection with more berry and raspberry lipsticks not too long ago, but in terms of bright purple like Heroine and dark purple lipsticks like Smoked Purple… We don’t have that many.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Heroine
Bright purple
The first one, and one of the very best purple MAC lipstick shades for all skin tones is the Heroine lipstick, from the matte range.
There are no words to describe how much I love the Heroine lipstick; on my fair olive skin, this is one of the most beautiful purple lipsticks I’ve ever applied.
The amazing thing about the MAC Heroine lipstick is that it’s cool-toned but bright enough that it can look amazing whether you have skin with cool undertones, or skin with warm undertones.
Plus, since it’s a matte lipstick, you can also wear Heroine as a blush – just blend it out as much as possible, and you’ll see it bring an really unusual, gorgeous flush to your skin.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: P for Potent Powder Kiss
Mid-tone Purple
Next up, and still if you like matte lipsticks, you have P for Potent, which is one of my favorite MAC Powder Kiss lipsticks.
Although the most famous Powder Kiss lipstick shades are Mull It Over, Stay Curious and A Little Tamed, which are all more neutral, more wearable lipsticks, the P for Potent lipstick has a really stunning color.
If you’re looking for the best purple MAC lipstick shades for dark skin, it’s clearly one of my top picks for you, as well as for Indian skin, medium and olive skin tones.
Again, since P for Potent is matte, you can also use it as a blush on dark skin tones, since purple blush is one of the most beautiful on black skin.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Succumb to Plum Lustreglass
Deep cool purple
The MAC Succumb to Plum lipstick is part of the Lustreglass range, which offers some of the most hydrating MAC lipsticks of all, with really sheer coverage that can easily be built up.
Since the color is really dark but sheer, the Succumb to Plum lipstick is another one of the purple MAC lipstick shades you can apply on quite any skin tone.
If you are blonde or are a redhead, you might get more of a vamp kind of look with Succumb to plum, which you could couple with some red eyeshadow, or some dark blue eyeshadow if you really want to go out there.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Smoked Purple Matte
Deep eggplant purple
After the Heroine lipstick, another one of the best purple MAC lipstick shades is Smoked Purple, whose color literally matches the name.
Smoked Purple is one of the really dark MAC lipsticks, really matte, and one I actually prefer to apply on medium and fair skin tones, simply to really bring a contrast between the skin tone and the color of the lippie.
While I do enjoy applying matte lipsticks as blushes, I wouldn’t really recommend doing this with the Smoked Purple lipstick.
Why? It does have more black than red in the color, and would most likely look like a stain rather than a beautiful flushed skin.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Flat Out Fabulous
Bright plum matte
I told you many times about my ultimate favorite MAC lipstick of all times; the Retro Matte Liquid Lip Colour in Tailored to Tease.
Can you still buy it?
No, you cannot.
So what’s the next best thing? The MAC Flat Out Fabulous lipstick, whose color is not too far off from Tailored to Tease, and offers a pretty similar transferproof texture.
Flat Out Fabulous is in my opinion the best purple MAC lipstick, and that’s the end of it.
Any skin color you may have, from olive skin to Asian skin, very dark skin or super pale skin, Flat Out Fabulous will look stunning.
Wear the Prep + Prime for lips underneath if you ever want to see your lips alive again, as Flat Out Fabulous is part of the Retro Matte lipstick range – super drying, but also almost entirely transferproof.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Plum Dandy
Plum frosted with bronze
The MAC Frost lipsticks are some of the most interesting out of the whole brand – in no other range will you find gold lipsticks, for starters.
But we’re looking for the best purple MAC lipstick shades here, so you have Plum Dandy, super interesting, a beautiful plum with slight bronze duochrome.
If you’ve been here before, you already know I’m crazy about anything duochrome, from duochrome eyeshadow to duochrome lipstick.
Plum Dandy is super wearable for super pale skin tones, fair, olive, medium, Asian, or even dark skin tones – everyone, even if it does look even more beautiful on Indian skin in my experience.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Rebel
Midtonal cream plum
No way I was going to write about the best purple MAC lipstick shades without mentioning Rebel, from the Satin range.
I told you many times about the Rebel lipstick, which offers a strong purple base with a really cool undertone, and is bright enough that it can be worn by any skin tone.
I have always been of the opinion that you can make almost any lipstick work on any skin tone, it’s just that some lipsticks make the job easier.
And Rebel is one of them, with its bright plum color.
Wear it in contrast with some shimmery yellow eyeshadow or orange eyeshadow, with a blush similar to the Rebel lipstick’s color, some eyeliner, and off we go!
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Cyber
Intense blackish-purple
For those who love the Smoked Purple lipstick but feel like it’s too drying, you have almost the same color with the Cyber lipstick, from the Satin range.
Anytime I have to wear really dark lipstick, I’ll always go for something as matte as possible, simply because I always freak out about having my lipstick feather – and that’s the case with the Cyber lipstick.
I would prefer wearing Smoked Purple anytime, but since the MAC Satin lipsticks are actually semi-matte, just wear the Cyber World lip liner around it, and you will be fine.
Wear it with light purple eyeshadow, or a blend of pastel eyeshadow arranged in some kind of soft rainbow eyeshadow look, and you have something really interesting in terms of combination.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: High Drama
Deep dark plum
If you enjoy wearing liquid matte lipsticks, the MAC Cosmetics Retro Matte Liquid lip colour lippies are some of the best I’ve been given to wear in my entire life – and I’ve worn a bunch.
Specifically, if you’re looking for the best purple MAC lipstick shades but don’t want any of the brightness that Heroine or Violetta will bring, the High Drama lipstick will be perfect for you.
I could honestly have included it in the guide to the best maroon MAC lipsticks, but it does have a strong purple base, so here it is.
The Prep + Prime for lips is almost mandatory when wearing a liquid matte lipstick that dark, simply to ensure that the lipstick doesn’t feather or slip into the fine lines of the lips.
Pair it with some shimmery green eyeshadow or some hot pink eyeshadow, and the Nightmoth lip liner, and you’re good to go.
Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades: Violetta
Bright clean violet purple
If you enjoy the color of the Heroine lipstick but fear it’s going to be too drying for you, you should definitely take a look at the Amplified lipstick Violetta.
The color is not that different from one to the other, except that the Violetta lipstick seems to me like it has a bit more pink in the color blend.
It’s yet another one of the best purple MAC lipstick shades whether you have really pale skin, Indian skin or really dark skin.
Also, it’s so bright I would actually wear it only with black eyeliner, and maybe, maybe, a touch of really light blue eyeshadow as well.
10 Best Purple MAC Lipstick Shades for All Skin Tones
There you have them, all the best purple MAC lipstick shades for all skin tones!
I’ve really tried to pick the best purple shades; those I would recommend time and time again to people looking for a new interesting color when I used to work at MAC Cosmetics.
Unfortunately, as I said at the beginning of this guide, there are not a lot of purple MAC lipsticks available at the moment in the brand’s collection.
However, hopefully, you’ll still have found here all you need, and possible pairings with other makeup products!
Until next time!
Other MAC Posts
- The Best MAC Brown Lipsticks
- The Best MAC Brown Lip Liners
- The Best MAC Whirl Lip Liner Dupes
- The Best MAC Soar Lip Liner Dupes
- The Best MAC Spice Lip Liner Dupes
- The Best MAC Velvet Teddy Dupes
Other Makeup Posts
- The Best Juvia’s Place Eyeshadow Palettes
- The Best Beauty Bay Eyeshadow Palettes
- The Best Colourpop Lippie Stix for Brown to Fair Skin
- The Best Revolution Eyeshadow Palettes
- The Best Pink Eyeshadow Palettes
- The Best Max and More Eyeshadow Palettes
- Danessa Myricks Transcendence Palette Review
- Juvia’s Place Rebel Quads Palettes Review
The Working Line
Sam is a certified fashion makeup artist, a freelance writer, a blogger and a digital nomad. Since 2019, she roams around the world, from London to Rome and shares her knowledge about makeup, scented candles, travel, blogging and the digital nomad lifestyle.