What is the Best Matte Lipstick? Top Brands to Try

MAC Retro Matte Lipstick is the pick for classic opacity, NARS Powermatte Lipstick for wear, Rare Beauty Lip Soufflé for comfort and Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink if you’re spending drugstore money. Wear time, transfer resistance, comfort and shade range decided every one of them.

A 2020 Journal of Cosmetic Science study from the Society of Cosmetic Chemists started from a plain problem. Long-wear claims had never been backed by numbers, so the researchers set out to develop objective ways to measure color retention and bleeding.

Thirty volunteers wore a silky matte liquid lip color for eight hours. On average the color retained 82.67%, which landed just under the 82.7% that consumer panels judged acceptable.

Which matte lipsticks are the best, ranked by use?

No tube wins everything, so the ranking below splits by the job the lipstick has to do. Every wear claim comes from the brand’s own product copy. None of it is independent lab testing.

Retail prices move with promotions (NARS shows a sale price on its US page), so confirm at checkout.

Best overall: MAC Retro Matte Lipstick

If you only buy one, buy this one. Who What Wear’s UK roundup names MAC Retro Matte Lipstick the best long-lasting matte, and MAC’s own copy, as listed by LookFantastic UK, describes a creamy, ultra-matte bullet that goes on straight from the tube or with a brush.

The color is opaque and classic, and the listing says it won’t fade. What the copy never mentions is hydration.

MAC also sells the Macximal Silky Matte line, which John Lewis lists with far more shades, so check which line a shade belongs to before ordering.

Best long-wearing: NARS Powermatte Lipstick

The NARS product page claims 10-hour wear across 24 transfer-resistant shades.

The slim bullet sets to a smooth matte, and NARS tells users to define the Cupid’s bow with the tip, then start at the center of the lips and move outward.

That ties it for the longest wear claim among the bullets here, since Charlotte Tilbury’s Sephora UK copy also says up to 10 hours. The shade lineup is wide, and transfer resistance is a big part of the pitch.

The catch is size. It’s a 1.5 g bullet, and at GBP 31.50 that works out to about 21 GBP per gram, against roughly 7 GBP for MAC Retro Matte (GBP 22 for 3 g), going by LookFantastic UK listings.

Best comfortable: Rare Beauty Lip Soufflé Matte Lip Cream

Rare Beauty trades flat opacity for comfort.

Sephora UK’s listing calls Lip Soufflé an air-whipped lip cream that stays comfortable all day with no drying or caking, finishing in a soft velvety matte. The texture is lightweight and whipped, and the formula has vitamin E plus a botanical blend of lotus, gardenia and white water lily.

The applicator tip is precise too. The downside is that the copy gives no wear-time figure, and the blurred finish reads softer than a bullet’s flat color. For a bullet built on the same soft-focus idea, MAC Powder Kiss Lipstick (GBP 24 at LookFantastic UK) is the alternative.

Best liquid: Fenty Beauty Icon Velvet Liquid Lipstick

Fenty Beauty Icon Velvet is a soft-matte liquid rather than a flat ultra-matte. LookFantastic’s listing describes it as non-drying, with a doe-foot applicator built for precise application.

The same listing advises exfoliating and blotting the lips first. A liquid still wants prep, whatever the label says about dryness.

You get soft-matte comfort and a neat edge. You don’t get a published hour figure, and the prep step isn’t optional.

Best drugstore: Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink

Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink has the strongest wear claim on this list, at a drugstore price. The directions say to let it dry completely, which makes it a slower swipe than a bullet.

For a bullet at the same end of the market, L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Matte is the one to look at. L’Oreal’s own beauty editors describe a completely matte finish with intense hydration. The Walmart listing gives no wear-time figure, though.

Best luxury: Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution

Bloomingdale’s US lists Matte Revolution at $37.

Space NK describes lipstick tree extract, orchid extract and a blend of oils, triglycerides and waxes in a comfortable matte. It also suggests pairing the bullet with the Lip Cheat lip liner for longer color.

What makes a matte lipstick worth buying?

Wear time is the obvious one, meaning the hours of color before it fades or needs reapplying, whether the brand claims it or you see it through a meal. Transfer resistance covers how much color stays off cups, masks and collars. Then there’s comfort, which just means no tightness, flaking or settling into lip lines.

Pigment payoff is full opacity in one swipe. And the shade range should have enough undertones to find a match, not only reds.

Brand claims for wear time vary a lot.

• NARS Powermatte Lipstick claims 10 hours (NARS product page)
• MAC Retro Matte Lipstick says up to 8 hours (MAC copy, LookFantastic UK)
• Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink goes to up to 16 hours, no-transfer (Maybelline listings at Walmart and Ralphs)
• Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution lists up to 10 hours (Sephora UK product page)

Those hours are brand claims, not measured results. Who What Wear names MAC Retro Matte its best long-lasting pick even though NARS claims two more hours, so a bigger number on the box does not settle the ranking.

Transfer wording differs by brand as well. NARS says transfer-resistant and Maybelline says no-transfer, so read the claim literally and test a shade against a cup.

If a favorite shade still leaves color behind, there are ways to make a lipstick transfer proof without switching products.

Which matte formula suits you: bullet, liquid, velvet or soft matte?

Bullets are the easy, portable choice, and liquids give a sharper edge with more stay-put wear. When comfort matters more than flat opacity, velvet and soft mattes are the better fit.

Bullet matte

MAC Retro Matte, NARS Powermatte and Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution are the bullets in this guide.

Brand directions show how much application varies. NARS says to twist the slim tube slightly to dispense one application, and Charlotte Tilbury says to line first and smudge for a blurred edge. MAC is looser about it, allowing the bullet or a 316 brush.

Bullets win on portability. There’s nothing to uncap and no wand to clean.

Liquid matte

Liquid mattes go on with a wand and dry down to a matte finish. The edge is sharper, but prep matters more.

Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink comes with an arrow-tip applicator, while Fenty Beauty Icon Velvet and MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour both use a doe-foot one.

MAC’s directions for the Retro Matte Liquid recommend wearing it over Prep + Prime Lip for the best comfort. That’s the pattern across liquids. Wear is strong, and comfort is something you buy with prep.

Lipstick Queen’s explainer covers what makes a lipstick liquid in more detail.

Velvet and soft matte

MAC developed Powder Kiss to replicate a backstage technique of blending out the edges of matte lipstick. LookFantastic’s product copy says it was tested backstage at New York and London Fashion Weeks in 2018.

Rare Beauty’s Lip Soufflé and Fenty’s Icon Velvet follow the same logic, with color that reads matte without the flat, heavy finish.

If even a soft matte feels tight, satin is the next step down. L’Oreal Paris’s finish guide says satin does not last as long as matte but is easier to apply and touch up, and the full trade-off sits in this comparison of matte and satin lipstick.

Which matte shades suit your skin tone?

Undertone comes first and depth second. Cool undertones tend to suit pink, cranberry, wine, mauve and violet mattes. Warm ones do better in peach, coral and orange-red, and neutral undertones can wear most of the range.

Maybelline UK and L’Oreal Paris sort shades the same way.

A couple of quick checks help before you commit to a shade.

• Green veins point warm, while blue veins or burning before you tan point cool (Maybelline UK and Maybelline India)
• Judge a matte shade in a matte swatch, because the same color reads differently in satin (Maybelline India)

Swatching on the inner wrist and holding it against your face beats trusting the tube.

Fair skin

Charlotte Tilbury’s own guide says nudes with yellow, orange or peach undertones often dull fair skin, and it recommends pink-toned nudes instead. Pillow Talk Original is sold in the Matte Revolution formula.

Makeup artist Elaina Badro tells Marie Claire she recommends a red for fair skin whatever the undertone.

For more picks, see Lipstick Queen’s guide to matte lipstick for fair skin.

Medium skin

YSL Beauty says olive skin can wear pink or brown nudes, but the shade should sit darker than the skin to bring out its warmth.

Red works too. NARS global artistry director Uzo told The Zoe Report that medium and tan skin can wear almost any deep lip color, with a rich red with earthy undertones as the starting point.

A Space NK editor gives a worked example for an olive complexion, choosing Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution in Bond Girl, which is deeper and less pink than Pillow Talk.

Deep skin

Deep skin carries the darkest mattes without strain, according to the makeup artists The Zoe Report interviewed.

Makeup artist Taylor Weiss names mauve, burgundy, chocolate brown and rich red as the strongest families. Spickard favors a warm dark brown and an orangey red such as Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink in Individualist.

If a full matte feels heavy, makeup artist Camille Thompson suggests a satin finish instead (Marie Claire).

For more picks, see Lipstick Queen’s guide to matte lipstick for dark skin.

Which matte lipsticks do not dry out your lips?

Whipped, mousse and cushiony soft mattes dry the lips least, with emollient-oil bullets a step behind. Ultra-matte liquids ask for the most prep.

Sources disagree on whether a matte can be comfortable at all. In a Sephora Community thread on the least drying matte, one reply says matte finishes are drying in general, while others point to whipped formulas, semi-matte bullets or a liquid worn over lip prep.

Charlotte Tilbury’s and Rare Beauty’s copy says comfort is built in. That is a claim, not a test, so the traits below are a better guide than the label.

Look for pigments coated in moisture. MAC says Powder Kiss Lipstick uses powder pigments coated in moisture to condition the lips.

Emollient oils matter too, and Cult Beauty’s copy credits sweet almond oil in Huda Beauty Power Bullet Matte Lipstick for a bullet that glides like a balm. A whipped texture is the other signal. MAC Powder Kiss Liquid Lipcolour pairs a mousse-like texture with up to 10 hours of moisture (LookFantastic UK product copy).

Prep advice splits as well. Bluemercury suggests a thin layer of balm, left to absorb and blotted, while Rare Beauty and Maybelline both say to apply to clean, dry lips.

The tube’s directions win. A balm layer adds slip under the color, a risk Bluemercury flags itself.

Lipstick Queen covers the full routine for keeping lips moisturized under matte lipstick.

If the lips are already chapped, its guide to applying lipstick on dry lips is the next stop.

What is inside a matte lipstick, and which ingredients cause dryness?

Most matte lipsticks are built from waxes that hold the stick, silicone fluid, a film former, a volatile solvent, iron oxide pigments and a few emollients. The film former is where wear and comfort trade off.

Published ingredient lists show the pattern. Lists vary by shade and batch, so check your own tube.

Lists from LookFantastic UK (MAC, and Fenty in the shade Bread Winn’r), Harrods (NARS) and Maybelline’s product listings.

Labels list ingredients in descending order of amount, so a silicone fluid or solvent opens every list here, including the NARS bullet. The pattern fits the wear claims earlier in this guide. The MAC bullet, with neither film ingredient, carries the shortest hour figure, while the two products listing both carry the longest of the group.

Carnauba wax and candelilla wax get melted with other waxes and molded into the stick, as a USPTO patent publication on wax-based lipsticks describes. Dimethicone is the silicone fluid that opens three of the four lists above. Trimethylsiloxysilicate is a silicone resin film former that dries hard, and isododecane is the volatile solvent that evaporates after application and leaves that film behind. Iron oxides are the mineral pigments behind most shades.

One supplier sells both ends of the trade-off. Shin-Etsu Silicones of America’s 2024 film former line pairs a hard resin of trimethylsiloxysilicate and isododecane for durability with a siliconized pullulan film former that stays permeable to moisture, oil and oxygen for comfort.

That is the trade-off behind the dryness complaints. A hard film favors durability, and a flexible one favors comfort.

On the regulatory side, every color additive in a cosmetic needs FDA approval, and one approved only for externally applied products cannot go in lipstick unless the regulation says so (FDA fact sheet). Iron oxides are listed under 21 CFR 73.2250 for cosmetics generally, with lead in the pigment capped at 10 ppm.

FDA’s December 2016 draft guidance, which is non-binding, recommends the same 10 ppm ceiling for lead in lip products. More than 99 percent of the 685 lip and other cosmetic products FDA analyzed came in at or below it.

The Cosmetic Ingredient Review, an independent expert panel, found trimethylsiloxysilicate safe as used (2013, with a respiratory-tract qualifier). It also cleared isododecane in its isoparaffin review and candelilla and carnauba waxes (1984). For dimethicone, CIR concluded it is safe as used and noted that studies generally found no absorption after oral or dermal exposure.

Safety verdicts say nothing about comfort, which is why a safe formula can still feel dry.

Lipstick Queen’s page on lipstick ingredients is the place to check the rest of a typical label.

How do you apply matte lipstick so it lasts and comes off cleanly?

Prep and prime the lips, line them, apply the color in thin layers and blot. To remove it, dissolve the film with an oil-based cleanser or balm instead of scrubbing.

Applying matte lipstick

1. Exfoliate gently, then prep the way the tube’s directions say.
2. Use a lip primer to fill fine lines and extend wear. Laura Geller’s trick, reported by New Beauty, is eye primer along the lip edges to stop feathering.
3. Line the lips with a soft pencil close to the lipstick shade. Makeup artist Mally Roncal says liner helps keep lip product from traveling, and Jane Iredale’s Nechelle Turner fills the whole lip with it so the color has something to grip.
4. Apply the color in thin coats. L’Oreal Paris recommends several thin coats over primer and liner for lasting color.
5. Press a tissue lightly over the first layer to blot, then reapply (Marie Claire, Look Fabulous Forever).

Lipstick Queen has a longer walkthrough on how to apply matte lipstick.

Removing matte lipstick

Makeup.com’s roundup names double cleansing as the best way to take matte lipstick off.

Estee Lauder says to massage an oil-based balm into dry skin, include the lips, rinse, then follow with a water-based cleanser. MasterClass lists micellar water for stubborn lip color, and petroleum jelly as well, applied and left to sit two to three minutes.

Dissolve, do not scrub. Celebrity facialist Joanna Czech tells Good Morning America to massage a balm or oil in gently with no aggressive rubbing.

Lipstick Queen’s page on removing matte lipstick is a useful companion for stubborn shades.

When does matte lipstick not suit you?

Matte lipstick works against chapped or flaking lips, fine lines around the mouth, thin lips and skin that wants glow. In each case a softer finish does the job better.

Chapped or flaking lips

Nylon Singapore describes the standard failure as a matte that dries the lips, settles into lip lines and turns flaky. A Sephora Community poster whose winter lips stayed dry despite nightly Aquaphor could not find a lipstick that stopped making it worse.

Until the lips heal, a cream or satin is the safer finish.

Mature lips and fine lines

Thrive Causemetics says matte or satin finishes hold best against bleeding. Makeup artist Lisa Aharon, quoted by New Beauty, goes the other way and prefers creamy formulas for mature lips.

Giorgio Armani Beauty makeup artist Beck Morgan reconciles the two. He names dehydrated lips and fine lines as the main causes of feathering, because dry lips pull moisture and pigment into the lines as you talk, drink and eat.

Michelle Spieler, creator of the Mature Makeup Masterclass, suggests a blurring lipstick and a clear liner.

For the edge itself, Lipstick Queen explains how to stop lipstick from feathering.

Thin lips

L’Oreal Paris’s finish guide positions matte for full lips, where it refines volume, so thin lips lose volume to the finish.

The workaround is the liner. Spieler recommends a soft, thick pencil, and Jane Iredale’s Nechelle Turner overlines slightly for a fuller red, keeping the liner joined to the natural lip line.

Lipstick Queen’s page on applying lipstick on thin lips covers the technique.

Skin that wants glow

L’Oreal Paris warns that matte color can dull a face that craves luminosity.

Best Matte Lipstick FAQ

Is it bad to wear matte lipstick every day?

No. FDA is not advising consumers to change their use of cosmetics based on lead levels in lip products, so the realistic daily cost is dryness, not safety.

A soft matte formula and a gentle removal routine keep that cost small.

Can you put lip gloss over matte lipstick?

Yes, though the result is no longer matte. A Geek Mamas roundup suggests a plumping gloss dabbed on the center of the lips for added dimension.

Lipstick Queen’s page on making matte lipstick glossy walks through it.

How do you fix matte lipstick that has dried out or flaked mid-day?

Blot, rehydrate, then recolor. Wipe the flaking patches away, press on a thin layer of balm and let it absorb.

Blot off the excess, then add one thin coat of color. A second thick coat only sits on top of the dry patches.

How is cream lipstick different from matte?

Cream glides on and forgives lip lines. FZine’s lip primer roundup says creamy formulas downplay imperfections but feather and fade sooner.

Matte gives more opacity and longer wear. L’Oreal Paris says it delivers the most opacity, with good lasting power.

How long does matte lipstick last before it expires?

Plan on 6 to 24 months after opening, and treat that range as product-specific. A Shilla DFS listing for MAC Powder Kiss Lipstick gives exactly that span and notes that period-after-opening and manufacture dates differ by product.

Check the open-jar symbol on the package, and see Lipstick Queen’s guide to expired lipstick side effects for what an old tube can do.

Testing a Matte Lipstick Before You Buy

The best matte lipstick is the one that survives a full day on your own lips, not the one with the longest hour claim on the box.

NARS Powermatte (10 hours) and Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink (16 hours) list the same two film formers, trimethylsiloxysilicate and isododecane, so the ingredient list does not explain a six-hour gap in claims.

Start with formula, matched to your lip condition. Shade comes second, matched to your undertone. The wear test goes last, with one cup, one meal, then the hours claimed.

Formula goes first because a drying texture ruins any shade, and wear goes last because it only means something once the first two fit.

The cost of that order is one full day of wear before you can trust the claim.

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Andreea Sandu

Andreea Sandu is a working makeup artist based in Bucharest. She's been doing makeup professionally since 2010, across bridal, editorial, film, commercial work, and runs Lipstick Queen.

She started writing on the site after fielding the same questions from clients and friends often enough to just write the answers down: which red won't turn orange on a warm undertone, how to keep lipstick from feathering into fine lines, why a "12-hour" formula rarely survives dinner.

Every review on the site follows the same rule she uses with paying clients: wear it first, then decide if it's worth recommending.

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