While dark red lips are definitely an Autumn trend, I’ve been on the search for deep red/berry lipsticks for over a year now. Berry and Oxblood reds are my favourite colours to wear, but also very hard to find – my lips tend to pull things cool, so berry reds that have purple hints turn into full on plum shades on me, and berry reds with pinky tones end up as deep pinks on my lips. And that’s fine. But it’s not what I want.

So far I’ve found that only Suqqu Ichijiku and Guerlain Samsara satisfy my dark red craving, but now I can add another lipstick to the mix: Burberry Deep Burgundy Lip Cover.

The shade

Deep Burgundy is a red wine (funnily enough) shade. It has very slightly pink undertones but otherwise reads as a deep neutral red-brown.

The formula

The Burberry Lip Cover formula is good. It’s not my favourite (Suqqu Creamy Glow, Guerlain Rouge Automatique, Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge are some of my favourite lipstick formulas), but I’m not complaining.

• It has a fair amount of slip – a little bit less than I’m used to – but it’s definitely on the creamy side so it glides on quite easily.
• It’s moderately moisturising, which on my lips is fine, but it could be an issue for those prone to dryness.
• Lasting power is good. In my mind it’s not fantastic, but I tend to favour very very stainy products, so take that with a pinch of salt. For a normal lipstick, lasting power is very good.

I’m not 100% sold on the formula because I tend to feel it on my lips, even when I’ve just blotted it down to a stain. It’s difficult to explain, but with most of my lipsticks, especially when I’ve blotted them down, the only way that I can tell that I’m wearing lipstick is by looking in the mirror and seeing the colour. With the Burberry I’m very aware of the lipstick sitting on my lips and it makes me a bit uneasy. It’s an irrational uneasiness because when I touch my lips with my fingers, they don’t come away coated in lip product, and the lipstick doesn’t smudge all over my face etc. but it’s an uneasiness nonetheless.

The swatches

Guerlain Rouge Automatique Samsara, Burberry Lip Cover no.21 Deep Burgundy, Suqqu Creamy Glow #17 Ichijiku (reviewed here).

And just to be annoying, the swatches are swapped around:

Suqqu Ichijiku, Burberry Deep Burgundy, Guerlain Samsara

The swatches are deceptively similar on my arm. However, the tonal differences – while they register very faintly on my arm – are amplified when applied on lips, so these slight changes in nuance are important.

• Ichijiku : Similar depth, but with a terracotta/brick base
• Deep Burgundy : A deep wine red, slight pinkiness
• Samsara : Similar depth, less opaque base, and leaning more pink

The application

Apologies in advance for lack of makeup, and slightly damp hair (I washed it the night before and apparently it takes about 16 hours to dry…)

Here’s Deep Burgundy freshly applied, full intensity.

Here it is blotted down

The verdict

I adore this lipstick shade, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and it’s a great addition to my (tiny) collection of vampy dark red lipsticks. While the depth is the same, Deep Burgundy’s lack of prominent pink/purple/orange undertones makes it very different from other berry and oxblood lipsticks I’ve tried.

Burberry Deep Burgundy is great if you’re on the hunt for an autumnal berry red, but if your lips are prone to dryness, you may want to try before you buy.

What are your favourite vampy lip shades? As I mentioned, my vamp collection is tiny, so I need ideas to build it up!