Reviews Beauty
Written by Lauren Savoie; edited by Maiya Pascouche
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Taylor Swift is known for many things — leaving Easter eggs in her lyrics, her record-setting Eras tour, and, of course, her iconic red lipstick.
Swift's signature red lips recently caught renewed attention when she was spotted sporting the look at numerous Chiefs games this fall and winter, but the singer has been rocking the look since 2009, when she tried on the style for an Allure cover shoot.
We've scoured through years of interviews with Swift and her makeup artists to bring you all the confirmed shades the singer has relied on to create her signature red lip. As with most products Swift wears, several of these shades are in such high demand that they're perpetually sold out. Where possible, we've provided in-stock alternatives alongside the exact Swift-approved products. You'll find a few more of Swift's favorite makeup items in our gifts for Swifties roundup.
If you're planning to try red lips out for yourself, we recommend taking a note from Taylor and keeping the rest of your makeup simple: "I always make a choice: is it going to be a heavy eye look or a heavy lip look? if I'm gonna do a red lip I'll do a simple cat eye liner," Swift said in a 2013 interview with Yahoo Shine.
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Pat McGrath Labs LiquiLUST in Elson 4
Makeup artist Pat McGrath revealed in an Instagram post the exact products she used to create Taylor's red lip for the Bejeweled music video. While McGrath uses a mix of products, the base of the look is McGrath's own LiquiLUST Matte Lipstick in shade Elson 4. This vivid cool blue is also rumored to be in Swift's rotation during her Eras tour performances. (If you're still looking to catch the show live, we've laid out all your options for how to buy Taylor Swift tickets)
This shade is almost always sold out, but makeup obsessives over at Temptalia have identified Rare Beauty's Lip Soufflé Matte Cream Lipstick in Transform as a 95% match for Elson 4.
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MAC Retro Matte Lipstick in Ruby Woo
"I think everyone knows [it] is a staple," Swift once told People about MAC's Ruby Woo shade. Another blue-toned vivid red, this lipstick is rumored to be the one Swift sported at numerous Chiefs games throughout the last season.
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NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl
Taylor herself has spoken about her love for NARS Dragon Girl and wore the shade to the 2014 Met Gala, a moment immortalized in an Instagram photo taken with her then-bestie Karlie Kloss. Nars recently replaced the Velvet Matte line with its Powermatte High-Intensity Long-Lasting Lip Pencil. The packaging is different, but the Dragon Girl shade still endures, and is described by the brand as a "vivid siren red."
Check price at Sephora Check price at Ulta
Deputy Editor, Reviews & Chair of the Editorial Standards Board
Lauren Savoie is deputy editor of Insider Reviews and chair of Business Insider's editorial standards board. Lauren leads the home, kitchen, pets, and travel teams, and is deeply involved in all editorial decision making, with a particular focus in strategic content planning, career growth of reporters and editors, and strong journalistic standards for the Reviews team.In 2022, Lauren attended The Poynter Institute's Leadership Academy for Women in Media, a prestigious program that recognizes leaders in the journalism industry.Lauren joined the Business Insider team in 2020, first as kitchen editor and soon after as senior home & kitchen editor, where she pioneered original testing methodologies for buying guides and built a diverse team of freelancers and reporters with deep expertise in product testing. You can see some of her work in our guides to the best flower delivery services, the best pillows, and the best sous vide machines.Before her time at Business Insider, Lauren was the senior reviews editor at America's Test Kitchen, where she wrote and edited more than 300 in-depth, unbiased buying guides and reviewed more than 1,000 kitchen products. Her work has appeared in Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, in dozens of cookbooks, on two Emmy-nominated TV shows, and on CNN.com, Fodor's, Yahoo, LifeHacker, the Splendid Table, and more.Lauren is currently Kansas-based, but continues to live like a lifelong Bostonian: drinking Dunkin' iced coffee in the winter, spending summers "down" the Cape, and sharing her home with a cat named Chowder.Say hello at lsavoie@businessinsider.com or @el_savvy on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.Learn more about how our team of experts tests and reviews products at Insider.
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Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at reviews@businessinsider.com.
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