Welcome to what I’ve decided to call Lipstick Wednesday, where I’ll be cataloguing swatches and thoughts on the sixty-eight lip products that currently live in my makeup stash.

Well hello! It’s been a whole second week of wearing lip colors I own. And while I started out on the mild end of the spectrum with demure nude and pink shades, this time around I had THREE red lipsticks to wear: Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Color in Velvet Morning, Velvet Ribbon, and Velvet Jazz. I’m going to be honest, at first I had a hard time jumping into wearing these colors out and about, and I procrastinated a little.

School pickup is one thing, but the week I was scheduled to wear these colors, I had some bigger time commitments, like parent-teacher conferences and my daughter’s dance class. I wasn’t sure how to fit these bolder shades into my every day life, so I put off wearing them. To buy myself time, I shot a couple of other medium-range Violette_FR bisou balms, kind of as a warm-up. And then I realized: I’m doing it again! The exact thing that got me to Lipstick Wednesday in the first place – avoiding wearing lipstick I like because I’m afraid of what people will think.

So I did it! I just wore the lipsticks, and everything was fine (of course it was fine!) and I felt great. And as I was looking back at the photos to write this post, I’m realizing a funny thing. I think I’m actually getting more comfortable with seeing lipstick on my face, and it’s changing my assessment of how “strong” a lipstick looks. When I started out, Painterly (the first and lightest shade in this batch) felt like a statement mauvy-nude to me, and now I can’t even see the “statement” part. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the shade, but it just looks like…my lips. And even by the time I got to Velvet Jazz (the darkest of this batch), it just felt like part of my face for the day, and not at all like the scary thing it felt like before. I think that means this experiment is working? Anyway, on to the swatches!

Lisa Eldridge Luxuriously Lucent Lip Color in Painterly

Even though I have a big soft spot for slightly warm and brown-toned pinks (hello, did you see my last lipstick post?), lately, I’ve been trying to branch out into cooler and mauve-toned nudes. Painterly is exactly that; the official description is “a deep mauvey-chocolate hue with a blue undertone.” I think for me, this is the perfect “my lips but better” shade, and I’m smitten with it!

Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Color in Velvet Morning

On to the other end of the spectrum, with a matte finish orange-red. The color is absolutely lovely and has the same luminous velvety effect as the rest of the True Velvet shades.

Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Color in Velvet Ribbon

Um, hi? Can we talk about this shade? Because I LOVE IT. It’s a classic, full-on, blue-based red, and it’s everything I imagine when I think about wearing red lipstick.

Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Color in Velvet Jazz

This shade moves a little more toward the brick end of the red spectrum, and on me, I think it has some subtle dark berry undertones. While it’s definitely deeper than Velvet Ribbon, it’s also more muted and a little bit dramatic – it’s giving me major fall vibes.

And that’s a wrap on my Lisa Eldridge lipstick collection! Have you tried any of these shades? I’d love to hear what you thought!