We tested (almost) 100 red lipsticks to find the best one

Introducing The Kit’s new editor-tested shopping awards, the Shop Smart Guide. The idea is simple: Every month, The Kit editors exhaustively test-drive items in desert-island categories — not the season’s exciting yet ephemeral trends but the evergreen essentials you’re most likely to buy now and wear or use forever. We’re talking mascara, jeans, retinol serum, black turtlenecks, white sneakers, etc. Our hope is that Shop Smart helps you reach that mythic shopping ideal: to buy less but better. Here, our guide to red lipstick.

When you make a purchase through the links in this article, we may earn a small commission. Our journalism is independent and not influenced by advertising. Learn more.

Shiseido Modern Matte Powder Lipstick in Exotic Red, $35, shoppersdrugmart.ca SHOP HERE

Winner: Shiseido

The cost: $35

The colour: A dark blue-red lipstick with a hint of brightness — and berry-adjacent vibes

The review: The range of Modern Matte Powder Lipsticks from Japanese beauty powerhouse Shiseido are beloved for a reason. Launched in 2018 — an eternity ago in the fast-paced beauty world — the lipsticks have a formula that delivers on every promise: It really is weightless, nondrying and long-lasting. The pigmentation is rich enough that you can eat a meal without worrying about the dreaded lipstick “ring,” as though you’d emerged from a 1993 time capsule clutching only a lip liner and a Backstreet Boys CD.

The fragrance-free range has 24 shades, including a handful of excellent reds (if you like a very bright true red, Mellow Drama might be the shade for you). Exotic Red tops my list because it edges toward the bluer end of the spectrum while retaining brightness. It’s an approachable red lipstick. I wore it out to dinner and to my son’s soccer game. This red lipstick doesn’t say, “Right, sorry, too glam to listen, ha.” It says, “Isn’t this fun?!” Pair it with a big smile and you’re golden.

Bonus: The angular tip is genius. I once had a boss, prone to blithe pronouncements, who said that every woman ought to learn how to apply lipstick without a mirror. This lipstick tip offers such pro-level precision that one could imagine being at a dinner party and, while still seated, smuggling the tube from a clutch to reapply in a flash while your wine glass is being refilled. Ta-da!

Bite Beauty Power Move Hydrating Lipstick in Tannin, $28, bitebeauty.com SHOP HERE

Best for matte lipstick devotees: Bite Beauty

The cost: $28 (a steal for this quality! Also, it’s currently on sale for $14!!)

The colour: A powdery blue red

The review: If you like matte lipstick, you will love this offering from Canadian favourite Bite Beauty. I’ve been wearing this lipstick for a couple of months now, and I still find myself fascinated, Keanu-Reeves-in-The — Matrix-style (“Whoaaa”) by the texture of its formula. It’s made from tapioca pearls mixed with fatty-acid waxes, which creates a singular velvety matte finish. Unlike, say, the featherlight Shiseido lipstick, you feel this lipstick on your lips but in a fun way: Sometimes, I press my lips together to blot just for kicks. (Note to self: Get out more.)

This Tannin shade is billed as a brick red, but on me, it has a pretty pinky undertone. If you’re looking for a bright red, I’d also reco Hot Tomato, another beautiful Bite shade.

Bonus: Bite Beauty recently reformulated its formulas to remove beeswax, which means that its lipsticks are now vegan. Vegan red lipsticks are rare, because, as The Kit’s beauty and lifestyle director Katherine Lalancette told me, many formulas feature both beeswax and carmine, which is made from beetles. Bite’s investment paid off: The original lipsticks were great, but the new ones are even better.

Guerlain Rouge G Luxurious Velvet Matte Lipstick in 1925 Roi des Rouges, $42, thebay.com SHOP HERE

Best for that French woman vibe: Guerlain

The cost: $42

The colour: A cheerful true red

The review: The major claim from Guerlain about its matte and creamy Rouge G lipsticks is that the colour lasts up to a staggering 16 hours. Friends, I can confirm it does. I tried this again just last week, applying for the day at 8 a.m., and then wiping off the still-vibrant remaining colour before bed around 11 p.m. (That’s with three meals, a thousand cups of coffee and some kissing thrown in.) Now, let’s hope we all have lives where we have time to re-slick our lipstick sometime in 16 hours, but the long-lasting quality — due to intense pigmentation — is impressive. All Rouge G lipsticks have a signature scent: a mix of lemon, rose and vanilla. I don’t love fragranced lipsticks, but this one is lovely and very subtle.

The 1925 Roi des Rouges is a perfect classic red shade — bright, bold, inviting, très French. This is definitely a shade that Camille from Emily in Paris would wear.

Bonus: Customization, baby! First choose from one of 15 shades, then choose from multiple mirrored cases — from a red leather tweed to a glossy black. A note: The cases are sold separately and will add another $30 to $40 to your purchase.

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Fenty Icon The Fill Semi-Matte Refillable Lipstick, $25 (case, $15, sold separately), sephora.com SHOP HERE

Best for the eco-minded: Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Fenty

The cost: $25 ($15 case sold separately)

The colour: A bright poppy red

The review: Leave it to perennial boundary pusher Rihanna to be on the cutting edge of sustainable beauty packaging. (Dior is also doing this in a big way.) These refillable lipsticks pop into a reusable case, helping to reduce waste and pass on savings to the customer. Once you’ve got the case, the price is right: $25 for Fenty Beauty lipstick is amazing. The (vegan!) formula — plumped up with hydrating hyaluronic acid — has a semimatte texture. On me, it’s a mostly-matte with a hint of gloss, the beauty equivalent of a fashion piece that moves from desk to dance floor.

The MVP shade is listed as a blue-red, but I found it veered closer to a true red. It’s bright, but with the subtle dullness of a brick red that adds a touch of effortlessness (very Rihanna, honestly). Like everything Fenty, this shade is gorgeous on all skin tones.

Bonus: I found it easy and intuitive to snap the bullet into the case. That is really saying something — as my husband occasionally lovingly says, “Sometimes I do wonder about your relationship to the physical world,” usually after I’ve put together a bookshelf backwards. Still, my research revealed that some people find it tricky. If you’re one of them, let this YouTuber walk you through it.

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution in Red Carpet Red, $40, sephora.com SHOP HERE

Best for black-tie glamour: Charlotte Tilbury

The cost: $40

The colour: A deep, dramatic blue-red

The review: Listen, a Charlotte Tilbury lipstick is pretty perfect. The shiny gold case, the square shape of the bullet, the creamy formula infused with orchid extract — divine, as The Kit‘s executive editor, Rani Sheen might say. The brand’s iconic beigey-pink “Pillow Talk” is still the only lipstick I’ve ever completely finished — by the end, I was reduced to dipping a pinky in to the tube like an armadillo rooting around in a log, hoping for treasures.

Red Carpet Red is my all-time favourite liquid lipstick, and I love it in lipstick form, too — it’s deliciously creamy. The only reason it isn’t my overall winner here is that I find the shade slightly too dark, and thus, slightly too dramatic — a double exclamation point instead of a single. During events seasons, it will be my go-to shade, but for every day, it’s a little intense.

Bonus: This is one of the most long-lasting shades I tried (along with the aforementioned Guerlain). The real bonus, though, is Charlotte Tilbury herself, a legendary makeup artist and beauty mogul. One of our editors interviewed Tilbury in 2015 and learned that she wore a full face of makeup while giving birth. I think about that all the time.

Chanel Rouge Allure Luminous Intense Lip Colour in 99 Pirate, $52, chanel.com SHOP HERE

Best for blue-red perfection: Chanel

The cost: $52

The colour: A creamy, extremely easy-to-wear blue-red lipstick

The review: In many ways, pulling a Chanel lipstick out of your purse and applying it is a modern measure of aspiration, like the sports car in that Shel Silverstein poem:

At the age of thirty seven

She realized she’d never ride

Through Paris in a sports car

With the warm wind in her hair

In other words: If you’re applying a Chanel lipstick, life is probably pretty good! (If you’re applying it in Paris, with the warm wind in your hair, say a little prayer for all of us.) Sure, the cachet of the Chanel brand helps, but the formula exceeds any hype. The Rouge Allure shades are like satin on the lips, infused with a moisturizing blend of green tea and sweet almond oil.

I’ve tried all the red shades in this range, and 99 Pirate reigns supreme: If you want a perfect blue red lipstick, this is the one to buy.

Bonus: It’s my favourite tube by far, with classic black-and-gold colours and the delicate magnetic “click” packaging.

Clarins Joli Rouge Velvet in 742V Joli Rouge, $34, thebay.com SHOP HERE

Best vacation lipstick: Clarins

The cost: $34

The colour: A bright, glossy true red

The review: Clarins is a prestigious French beauty brand that knows how to have fun. (Have you tried its great lip oils yet?!) This lipstick is pure fun. Billed as a matte twist on Clarins’s legendary Joli Rouge lipstick, I found it actually had a soft finish and a glossy texture — so, not matte at all (?), but I liked that. The 742V Joli Rouge shade is a full-on “look at me!” red with a distinct fragrance thanks to the infusion of mango oil. (The scent might be a bit much for some.) This is the lipstick I wore every day while on vacation, and then in the withdrawal week afterwards. It looks, feels — and tastes! — like summer.

Bonus: The shape of the lipstick tip is exaggerated in a point — much more so than is shown in the photo — which makes application a breeze.

Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick in 538 Power Trip, $43, esteelauder.ca SHOP HERE

Best red lipstick for everyday: Estée Lauder

The cost: $43

The colour: A statement red with a hint of blue (not pink, as suggested by the photo)

The review: This is the red lipstick you bring everywhere. Thanks to its rich, inviting shade and hint of shine, it’s subtle enough to make sense during a grocery store jaunt and bold enough to give you a boost of confidence before a job interview. The “sculpting” portion of the name is due to what the brand calls “multi-faceted pigments” that add dimensional colour. Certainly, I noticed that my lips looked particularly defined (sans lip liner) when I looked at photos of myself wearing this lipstick, but my favourite part of using it was the hydration factor. Of all the lipsticks I tried, Estée Lauder had the most moisturizing formula. So fresh.

Bonus: Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick has so many shades of red! I chose 538 Power Trip, but I also loved 340 Envious — slightly more of an orangey red — and 332 Bold Face, a truly breathtaking red-magenta.

Lancôme L’Absolu Rouge Hydrating Lipstick in 151 Absolute Rouge, $45, Nordstrom.ca SHOP HERE

Best for red lipstick neophytes: Lancôme

The cost: $45

The colour: Classic true red

The review: Don’t you always feel safe in the hands of Lancôme? The French beauty giant is trusted globally, and the newly designed L’Absolu Rouge Lipsticks show why: They glide on like silk and stay put for hours. The Absolute Rouge 151 shade is the one I’d recommend a true red lipstick beginner try: It’s an elegant red, not too bright, not too dark — just right. It enhances, never overpowers. It’s the kind of lipstick that might make you see yourself in a whole new way. That was my sister’s experience — she’s a devotee of coral, pink and plum, but she’s since bought her own glorious Absolute Rouge 151. She only wears it occasionally, but it’s enough.

Bonus: It has a scent that tastes like roses. I can’t imagine ever tiring of it.

Tom Ford F—ing Fabulous Lip Colour, $72, sephora.com SHOP HERE

Best major splurge red lipstick: Tom Ford

The cost: $72 (!)

The colour: A vibrant (almost) true red — it has some subtle pink tones

The review: Tom Ford lipsticks are emblematic of the Tom Ford brand: They stand alone. Unlike almost every other lipstick I tested for this challenge, the tube is almost defiantly rectangular, a matte black mini Mies van der Rohe that weighs as much (almost) as a small dog. Honestly, I love it. The formula is so creamy that I felt like I was rubbing a stick of butter on my lips — dreams — because it’s infused with Brazilian murumuru butter (also chamomilla flower oil). The only drawback is the price: $72 for a single lipstick is prohibitive, unless your last name is Musk. Still, if your budget allows, it’s a worthy splurge.

Bonus: The name!

When you make a purchase through the links in this article, we may earn a small commission. Our journalism is independent and not influenced by advertising. Learn more.

Laura deCarufel is the editor-in-chief of The Kit, based in Toronto. She writes about women and style. Reach her on email at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter: @Laura_deCarufel

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