There was a lot of excitement in the makeup world when news came out that MAC was going to come out with a matte lip collection. Why? Because in the collection was Whirl (I no longer remember what the fuss was all about with regards to this shade, but I'm fairly sure it had something to do with Kylie Jenner and her signature lip) and Stone (because of the huge grey-based lip color that started with Lime Crime's Cashmere and spread like wildfire from there).
I'm a sucker for mattes. I'm a sucker for lipstick. I tend to fall for the hype.
You know where this is going, right? Of course you do! It's right there in the title.
Yup, I had to get myself a few from this collection. There are 22 shades in this collection, and the good news is that they're all permanent. That's right, no need to rush out and search high and low to get your hands on these shades. Another thing to note is that some shades in this collection are repeats.
I picked up eight shades from this collection (I know you guys, I know!). I'm dividing my reviews into three groups: the 'exciting' shades (Persistence, Whirl, Stone), the'nude' shades (Kinda Sexy, Velvet Teddy) and the 'non-neutral' shades (Men Love Mystery, Instigator, Tropic Tonic).
Phew! Let's jump into today's review.

The packaging on these isn't anything special - given that these are part of the permanent line, that's to be expected. It consists of a black metallic tube, with a silver line in the middle. The tube is shaped like a bullet and has MAC engraved on the top. You know, typical MAC lipstick.

Let's talk about the shades, y'all! From the pictures it's easy to see they all kinda-sorta fall into the same category, right? It's almost as if the base shade was the same but the undertones were altered... which I suppose isn't a bad way to put it. Persistence (left in the top photo, right in the bottom photo) and Whirl (right in the top photo, left in the bottom photo) look quite similar, but as you'll find out, I prefer one over the other!
Persistenceis a matte warm peach-toned brown.
Whirl is a matte neutral rose-y brown.
Stone is a matte, grey-toned taupe brown.
These mattes are quite unlike what I expected them to be. I was expecting them to be a little bit hard, and dry, and to tug on my lips. To my (pleasant) surprise, they all glided onto my lips, they felt so smooth and (almost) creamy that I had to double check to see if I was using the right lipstick! I actually took off whatever I had applied to make sure that my lip balm wasn't causing the smoothness. Nope! It was the lipstick.
A couple of things I want to note is that I felt as though none of them were truly, completely opaque in a single swipe - I had to swipe the bullet on my lips two to three times to build up the color to opacity. This wasn't an issue, and in a way I rather like it. Wearing it with a single pass gives a very pretty finish, where the color of the lipstick is there, but the natural color of my lips just peeks out. You can, of course, wear it at full opacity, which is also a great way to wear it. Also, these don't really look like a true matte finish, not at first at least. When you first apply, it's like a demi-matte finish, but it settles in some time to a true matte finish. Finally, because these are mattes, you do need to prep your lips before application, because these will bring out any dry parts on your lips. Even if you think your lips aren't dry, it's worth giving them a quick exfoliation beforehand. It managed to bring out the dry parts of my lips I didn't even know were there!
In the swatches, you can clearly see some similarity between Persistence and Whirl are the same, but Stone is far more greyish than I expected it to be.
Here's another picture that really shows up the difference between Persistence and Whirl:

Wear time is fairly average. I get about four hours with Persistence and Whirl (with mild snacking, and intermittently drinking coffee/water). Stone had a lower wear time, three hours. This could be due to the fact that Stone is a smidge less pigmented than the other two. Stone also had a tendency to slightly settle into my lip lines, while I experienced no such thing with Persistence or Whirl.
The formula is very comfortable for a matte; it almost feels like you have nothing on the lips. It's also not drying, like mattes are traditionally supposed to be; but on the other hand it's not moisturizing. Still, these three have a pretty great formula!
Here's how they look on me:

Persistence is flat out my favorite of the three. It looks so natural, and works amazingly well on my warm, brown skintone! Whirl is pretty too, but personally I like Persistence more. Stone is... interesting. It's definitely an edgy shade and can't be worn everyday, but to be honest I rather like the slightly badass, don't-give-a-shit look it gives me. It almost makes me feel like I belong in one of those action movies, kicking butt and taking villains down! You can, of course, change its tone by using a lipliner under it, or a lipgloss over. Or even by mixing it with another shade (but all those would take away from the uniqueness of the shade that is Stone).
I can recommend Persistence and Whirl for an everyday lip color, but if you are warm toned and have deeper skin, I'd suggest giving Persistence a shot. Stone is a lovely, unique shade, but you need to have some confidence and an edge to wear this as an everyday shade.
BGMM Rating: Persistence - A-
Whirl - A-
Stone - B+

On another note, would you prefer my full face looks to be individual pictures, or collated together into one collage? Let me know!