Top to bottom: Composer, Founder, Ground-Breaker, Dancer, Artist, Inspirer
Maybelline’s Superstay Matte Ink liquid lipsticks are, hands down, my favourite lipstick. They are as close to infallible as I’ve ever found a lip colour to be, able to survive even eating a burger with only minimal wear-off on the inner lip, and their slightly tacky but transfer-proof feel keeps them comfortable all day.
Their original launch included 10 colours, followed by their Un-nude collection which included 10 more in, as the name suggests, both expected and unexpected neutral tones. Their latest expansion, the City Edition, adds 10 more shades to the range, but I struggled to find any swatches of the shades online when the colours launched. Impatient as I am, I did as much sleuthing as I could online before winging it with an order for the shades I thought most likely to suit me from Superdrug.com, where they were included in their famous 3 for 2 offer.
I’ve got 6 of the 10 new shades swatched and detailed for you below; Composer, Founder, Ground-Breaker, Dancer, Artist and Inspirer. Let’s go!
Swatches with flash and without flash in natural light
Inspirer
Inspirer: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
A soft medium pink, a perfect neutral shade for daily wear.
Artist
Artist: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
A rich dark pink with slightly plummy undertones, great for ladies prefer rich pinks over bright pinks.
Dancer
Dancer: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
A bright true red, filling the gap between the red shades Pioneer (rich, deep brick red) and Heroine (very bright orange red, almost coral) released in the Matte Ink original launch. A that will work red for most skin tones.
Ground-Breaker
Ground-breaker: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
An orange-toned rich terracotta, the Weasleys in lipstick form. I found this shade very hard to accurately photograph, but it’s a gorgeous autumnal rust that I was surprised to find I truly love.
Founder
Founder: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
A dark but muted raspberry shade, great for ladies who love the idea of berry lips but worry about shades that pull too purple or apply darker than they look in the tube.
Composer
Composer: Top left in natural light, bottom left with flash
A dark burgundy with brown undertones, almost exactly matches my hair colour.
This is the only shade that I found didn’t apply smoothly and with solid pigmentation. It was a little streaky when I applied, but gets progressively darker with each layer applied while attempting to even it out. I think applying with a lipbrush rather than the doe foot applicator might make it easier to get an even, non-streaky finish that doesn’t darken the colour dramatically beyond the 1.5-2 layers I applied in the pictures above.
Dancer
The only shade I was a bit disappointed with was Composer, not purely because of the slightly patchy application but also because it turned out to be much darker than I would typically wear, which is my fault for not heeding the warning of the very dark packaging. The rest, though, are lovely, and once I can find a local store with testers available I’ll be interested to see if Globetrotter or Self-starter might work for me too.
Miss Amy May 
Hi Miss Amy,
I’d love some lip colour application tips. It takes me forever to get it right.
Thanks,
Michelle
LikeLike
I noticed that with a darker shade I have too – patchy application, not as smooth or pigmented as the others. I wonder if that’s a dark shade issue or just coincidence? Hmm..
LikeLike
I do think darker shades are harder to formulate, because I’ve had dark shades from other brands that were patchier than lighter shades in the same product ranges, as well as darker shades that didn’t last as well as a true red or light colour from the same range. There must just be something about mastering the formulation that isn’t the same
LikeLike
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this line….I’m (almost) ashamed to say I have 90% of them
LikeLike
Pingback: My Current Favourites | Miss Amy May
Thank you for the review! I own Lover and Pioneer shades (and adore them), and now I lust for all of these. I wonder how do Lover, Inspirer and Artist compare?
LikeLike
Pingback: Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink City Edition Swatches + Review — Miss Amy May – Bon Bon Lifestyle Webazine
hi miss amy may!
can you give some feedback about these two shades because i find founder and artist just the same?can you tell the difference? and also can you do the other swatches for this edition? i qant to know if transformer is okay too. thank you in advance!
LikeLike
Founder and Artist are different, they wouldn’t release identical shades. Artist is more a raspberry (pink tones) and Founder is more of a berry (purple tones.) The swatches in this post are the only shades I bought from this collection because the other shades won’t suit me, so I can’t help you with Transformer I’m afraid. I’m sure there are other swatches online that can help you figure it out.
LikeLike
I have Groundbreaker and I am so in love with it!! I was wondering though whether Globetrotter has almost the same color..? Aren’t they in the same shade family as Amazonian and Fighter?
LikeLike
From what I can tell, Globe Trotter seems much more brown compared to Groundbreaker’s rusty shade. I think you’re right it’s more in the shade family of Amazonian and Fighter, but I don’t have any of the brown toned shades because they’re not my kind of shade
LikeLike
Thanks so much for this thorough review of each of the colors in this collection! This is my favorite lip color. I purchased Inspirer and Dancer. Thanks!!!!
LikeLike
Those are two great colours, I hope you love them as much as I do!
LikeLike
Pingback: My Current Makeup Faves | Miss Amy May
Pingback: New Maybelline Superstay Matte Ink shades January 2020 | Miss Amy May
How does Groundbreaker compare to Dancer and Globetrotter?
LikeLike
Dancer is a bright true red, Ground Breaker is an autumnal rusty red, and Globetrotter is a brown terracotta
LikeLike