There are certain beauty products, usually lipsticks, that stay on my mental wishlist for years, never quite becoming an urgent desire but never quite fading from memory, either. The original version of MAC Heroine is a good example. In 2012, dozens of Tumblr posts brainwashed me into wanting a purple lipstick (real ones will remember the enduring Tumblr popularity of the Meadham Kirchhoff S/S 2012 show), but I just missed Heroine, a limited-edition shade in that spring’s Reel Sexy collection. The purplest shade accessible to me at the time was MAC Up the Amp, a softer, lighter purple than Heroine. I bought Up the Amp and loved it, and when MAC brought back Heroine as a permanent shade at the very end of 2013, I decided I didn’t need both.

Over the next decade, I purchased many purple and lavender lipsticks, but not Heroine. I can’t explain why, since I never came across a real dupe: Maybelline Brazen Berry was sheerer and pinker, NYX Amethyst was darker, Bite Lavender Jam and MAC Forget-Me-Naughty were lighter and bluer, and Gucci Anne Lilac was magenta, not true purple. Then MAC discontinued all its matte lipsticks and, earlier this year, replaced them with the new MACximal Silky Matte range. Heroine returned as Everybody’s Heroine, but I still wasn’t interested, since I’d loved the old matte formula and, on principle, resented MAC for changing it.

But influencing works both ways, and after a blog reader commented on my review of MAC Guessing Game that I might like Everybody’s Heroine, I decided to take advantage of MAC’s Black Friday sale and buy it for 40% off. I also ordered Vex eyeshadow, which I swatched here, and a trio of matte lipstick samples: Ruby Woo, Mehr, and Velvet Teddy.

Part 1: The MACximal Silky Matte Swatches

L-R: Ruby Woo, Mehr, and Velvet Teddy, all swatched with a finger. The top photo is in direct sunlight, the bottom in indirect natural light:

So far as I know, MAC isn’t discontinuing the original (that is, Retro Matte) version of Ruby Woo, which is a relief, because the MACximal Ruby Woo is not the same shade. Yes, they’re both cool-toned reds, and no, your non-makeup-wearing partner probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but the new Ruby Woo is lighter, pinker, and (obviously) less matte. What a bummer. Below, the OG Ruby Woo is on the right and the new version on the left. Top photo in direct sun, bottom photo in shade, as before.

I took the next two photos by the big front window at Ulta on a rainy day. L-R: Lipstick Snob, Candy Yum-Yum (much lighter and more muted than the original, alas), You Wouldn’t Get It, Captive Audience (love this one!), Twig Twist:

L-R: D for Danger, Keep Dreaming, Red Rock, Diva:

Having swatched all these shades, I can report that the new matte formula is not as different from the old one as I feared. It is slightly sheerer and lighter-weight, with a little more of a sheen, but it’s not the silicone-heavy powdery matte formula that so many brands are producing these days. I do still prefer the old formula, but I’ve had a good experience with Everybody’s Heroine so far and would be open to buying more shades. And now for the actual review!

Part 2: The Review

Here’s another shot of Everybody’s Heroine in its pristine state. Like the MACximal Satin lipsticks, the MACximal Mattes are larger than their predecessors, at 3.5 g instead of 3 g.

Never having tried the old Heroine, I can’t vouch for the faithfulness of the new shade to the OG, and it could be that some Ruby Woo-level heresy has taken place. To my eye, though, Everybody’s Heroine looks basically identical to Heroine: a deep yet vivid royal purple that any Phoenician would have been proud to wear. It’s perfectly balanced between red and blue: no white base, no gray or brown undertones. Here’s one swipe in shade (left) and sun:

Here’s Everybody’s Heroine swatched next to D for Danger in the original MAC matte formula. The difference in matteness isn’t dramatic (though it’s there), but the difference in pigmentation is. D for Danger looks richer and more velvety to me. I wouldn’t call Everybody’s Heroine patchy by any means, but it’s representative of the new formula in being just short of opaque.

And here’s Everybody’s Heroine swatched alongside some other members of my arguably overpopulated purple-lipstick family. L-R: MAC Forget-Me-Naughty, MAC Up the Amp (from last year’s Lipstick Bringbacks collection), Everybody’s Heroine, Gucci Anne Lilac, Maybelline Berry Blackmail:

Everybody’s Heroine strikes me as the truest, most balanced purple of these five. Forget-Me-Naughty is lighter and much bluer; Up the Amp looks mauve, not purple, next to the other four; and Anne Lilac and Berry Blackmail, both staples of mine, are pinker.

Unlike Guessing Game in the MACximal Satin formula, Everybody’s Heroine has a solid wear time of a few hours, even if I’m sipping a drink during that time. It fades evenly when my lips are in good condition, but it does contain that annoying magenta pigment that clings to dry spots. The formula feels lightweight and comfortable. No serious complaints!

Here I am wearing Everybody’s Heroine with one of my favorite vintage tops:

Outside in South Florida (you can see a slight unevenness in the pigmentation here):

And a half-assed attempt at a two-toned purple lip with Everybody’s Heroine and Anne Lilac:

I’m currently slogging through my second illness of 2025 (this last month and a half has been quite a decade), so I’ll end my post here. A note before I go, however: I’m once again contemplating a move to newsletter format. My current plan is to publish my posts concurrently on this WordPress site and on Substack, so that readers can follow in whatever way is more convenient for them. Thoughts?