Half-Red is quite an enigma to me. This is one of those lip pencils that you must try yourself regardless of what reviews describe it to be. I say this because the color changes depending on your skin tone. Even though it is called Half Red, there is nothing red about it on me. Instead, it comes out as pink on my NW45 skin tone. The MAC girl that was helping me tried it on her much lighter complexion and it came out as a deep purple on her! This wears well, lasts a long time and is such a lovely color on me, I can wear it alone. When I am too lazy to deal with reapplying lipsticks, I just shade my lips with Half-Red, line the edges with Cork and finish off with the Viva Glam Nicki Pink Lipglass and I am good for the day.

One of the best lip liner pencils I have used. Works great with YSL Black Tulip lipstck. I had bought a dark violet lipliner to go with the lipstick, but the effect was much better with the MAC Half-Red. Sort of softened the overall violetness effect of the lipstick color. Half-Red is great with Clinquies lipstick A Different Grape. Am going to try it with Revlon's Raisin Rage, sure it will work. What I particularily like about this liner and other MAC liners, is that they are opaque, no little sparklies, the texture is consistant, and it stays put.

Love it!!!
Believe it or not, it looks great under Mac creme cup! I just prime my lips with mac prep+prime lip (which is amazing by the way), thenline my lips and fill them with this pencil (lightly! I also use a lip brush to make sure it's all one color and so I won't need to use as much) and apply some of creme cup (not to much) and blend again with the lip brush. Sometimes I even add a bit of Clinique extreme pink lipstick in the middle of my lips and blend, then some clear or baby pink gloss and voila! The perfect,everyday sexy lip!
Complicated, I know.
My mom uses this under viva glam III (I think!) for a darker look and it's gorgeous, though too dark for me.
This liner looks great on its own or under some clear gloss!
Don't be afraid of it's dark color, it can be toned down.
This pencil is some kind of muted burgundy.
Hope you found this helpful!!

For reference - in nw15-20, rose ivory on Laura mercier silk creme, blue eyes and light brown-dirty-blond hair.

great liner. goes perfect with twig lipstick,

This pencil is MAC's best-kept secret. It deserves to be as popular as Spice. The color is an extremely muted, almost clay-like burgundy, so muted that you can wear it with a variety of neutral-to-cool hues, from light mauve to deep maroon. It also looks great on its own. It doesn't "pop" like most burgundies, but that's the point. Sometimes you want the clean, polished, well-groomed look of a red lip without the bold statement of a genuinely red lipstick or liner, and this is what Half Red delivers. I also like its opacity and evenness of application; they match those of Spice.

HG lip pencil! Brick red that just slightly enhances my lip line. Love it!

I love this lip liner. It's not red in my opinion...more like muted burgandy. It's very creamy and goes with any medium pink lipstick... very sexy and would recommand to have in your stash.

A MAC MUA suggested Half-Red lip pencil to me only because I told her I bought Captive and I wanted a good pencil for it to make the color of the lipstick appear warmer, but now I've decided that I hate Captive lipstick, I feel like I should have bought Craving instead, and now the Captive is just sitting there! LOL

Therefore so did the Half-Red, although on me it's not too different from a fave lip pencil of mine - the Beurre Cremestick Liner. But now that I've bought Snob lipstick recently, the Half-Red lip pencil looks beautiful with that and the Lust lipglass altogether. I'm really glad I have it now! The Half-Red lip pencil didn't totally change or take away from the color of Snob on me, it just made it more wearable and endearing to my skintone. I'm an NC45.

I needed something not too dark, not too brown, not too plum, not too nude, went through 10 MAC liners at the store and found this to be exactly what I was looking for. Really happy with this one.

A nice, toned-down red. I use it with Hot Tahiti and it looks great! Easy application and minimal bleeding, (especially if you use a concealer around the lips.) Use with a lip primer for long-lasting results!