This is the perfect deep plum shade for any skin tone!! I am so pale it is so hard to find a dark shade that doesn't wash me out to much, this is the perfect boldness of a dark lip but with the a wide varitey of depth in the deep purples and red shades!! I'm in love with the NARS velvet matte pencils, they are the perfect formula! So creamy and smooth going on, doesn't dry out your lips like most matte lipsticks do! It truly does have a nice matte finish to it, its long lasting, very pigmented hands down on of my go to lippies!!