making faces :: naked days with urban decay

i usually try not to get sucked into hype, but i'd heard so many people go on about the magical urban decay naked palette and how it was basically the holy grail of versatile, neutral shades of eye shadow that i couldn't help being curious. compounding this, there's the fact that, although it's permanently available from urban decay and from sephora, it's been out of stock at the sephora web site for about the last hundred years... so it has the allure of something that doesn't want you to possess it.

add to that the fact that most urban decay shadows are made of large quantities of win [except for the shades with glitter, which are decidedly formulated with fail, but there's none in this palette] and one of the colours included in the naked palette is "sin", which is one of my favourite shadows ever by anyone and which is disappearing at an uncomfortably fast rate from its pan and i basically got myself into a frenzy of consumer madness.

thankfully, a very nice lady in the united states took pity on me and ordered me one. so for the last several days i have been trying out variations on the neutral eye with all the different colours included.

when you can get your paws on one, it's a pretty sweet deal. there are twelve different colours- all neutral, but ranging from light to dark with both shimmer and matte textures- plus a full size brush, plus a miniature bottle of urban decay's "primer potion", which helps eye makeup go on better and stay on better. all this will cost you $48, which works out to $4 a shadow, even assuming the brush and primer are free. of course, the shadows in the palette aren't nearly as big as a regular urban decay shadow, but those will run you $17 a pop for only 0.2g more worth of product [according to the u.d. web site, the fill weight per shadow on the naked palette is 1.3g, on a regular shadow, 1.5g]. so for this not to be a good investment, there would have to be something seriously wrong with the product.

l to r :: gunmetal, hustle, toasted, sin

fortunately, that isn't the case. i compared "sin" to the remains of my individual pot and they seem exactly the same in terms of colour, texture and durability. so occasionally when things look too good to be true, they're still true. doesn't that just make you feel awesome about everything for a moment?

moving on.

the idea behind this palette- which really does seem to have turned into a license to print money for the california company- is to give a range of basic shades that can be used in combination to go with virtually any sort of look. they are mostly shimmery [although there is a matte beige and a matte medium brown], mostly warm [particularly the mid-tone shades] and, yes, they are extremely versatile. a number of the shades are ones that you might have seen before, but the point here is that they're all assembled into one perfect little package.

l to r :: virgin, naked, sidecar, buck

i agree that these shades will suit pretty much any skin tone, dark or light, warm or cool. and each shade exhibits the typical incredible pigmentation of urban decay shadows, so you really get some bang for your buck. if i had to criticise, and this would be under some duress, i'd say that i wish that they'd included one or two less shimmery shades [there's a lot of frostiness, which can be a challenge for those of us over twenty-five]. i hadn't actually "met" urban decay's matte shades before and now i'm happy i did. i'm pleased that they did not include any "glitter" shades, since those were the ones that made me want to write off the brand when i tried them. in fact, there's not a single shade i don't like and wouldn't use here. [the sparkly black "creep" doesn't do much for me, since it's a dead ringer for a lot of "black with silver sparkle" shades that already exist, but the very popularity of those types of shades makes it obvious why it would be included with this set.]

ultimately, this is the kind of thing that almost every woman who wears cosmetics would benefit from having in her collection. for those who want something simple and basic, it offers a lot of alternatives at an excellent price. for those who like to have a variety, it offers the opportunity to grab a dozen urban decay shadows for barely more than the price of two regular ones. plus, of course, the shades are ridiculously easy to use. and you get a brush and a tester bottle of primer. what could possibly go wrong?

l to r :: half-baked, smog, darkhorse, creep

here are a few looks i put together with shades from the naked palette. i'd like to add that, in all of them, i used the primer potion underneath. my initial experience with primer potion was not great, but i put that down to the fact that it was a sample and it was a gold-coloured shimmery version rather than the regular one. and there may be some logic to that. i liked the primer potion much better in its "regular" form. personally, i prefer a primer with a little more colour, because my lids are fairly dark [i look like a racoon in the mornings] and i didn't find that primer potion made shadows last as long as my usual base- mac's painterly paint pot- but it did prevent creasing and it did make the colours nice and intense, which is what a base is supposed to do.

because all the shadows were coming out of a single palette, each of these looks took ten minutes tops to complete. 





"naked matte"
like i said earlier, i really loved the matte shades [naked and buck] included with this palette and so they were among the first ones used. as a lady who loves her dark lips, this is the sort of understated eye treatment i often do, so that the focus can be a little lower. this is also the first look i did with musky amethyst, one of the new lipsticks from mac's "semi-precious" collection.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "naked"
urban decay e/s "buck"
mac superslick liquid liner "on the hunt"
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
mac beauty powder "her own devices"
mac blush "darkly my dear"

lips ::
mac l/s "musky amethyst"






"naked smoky"
one of the suggestions on the packaging for use of this palette is that you can do "smoky bronze" looks. i went for more of a "smoky gold", which was exciting to me, because i've never had enough gold shades before to do this sort of thing. again, i went with a very pigmented lip, because, despite the "smoky" effect, i felt that the eye was fairly subtle and could deal with a deeper lip colour. on the other hand, i can also see doing this with a more restrained lip colour. hurrah for versatility.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"
lush colour supplement "jackie oates" [as a highlighter]

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "half-baked"
urban decay e/s "smog"
urban decay e/s "darkhorse"
mac eye kohl "smolder"
diorshow mascara

cheeks ::
mac mineralize skinfinish "new vegas"
mac blush "bite of an apple"

lips ::
chanel "rivoli




"naturally naked"
so the whole point, supposedly, of having a naked palette is that you can do very natural looks. i actually find that the shimmer in a lot of the colours makes this trickier than you would think, but there are definitely shades [hint- the ones i've used here] that capture that nice, slightly pinky flesh-tone and make it into something quite lovely. [note- if your flesh tone isn't pinky, there are probably shades in here that will be a better match for you.]

face ::
lush colour supplement "jackie oates"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "sin"
urban decay e/s "hustle"
urban decay e/s "gunmetal"
mac false lashes mascara

cheeks ::
nars blush "deep throat"

lips ::
mac l/s "made to order"

making faces :: product review [mac "semi-precious" collection]

meet the minereal shadows, 2011

last week, i posted about mineral makeup in honour of the impending release of mac's summer mineral collection. as of today, it's officially in all mac locations [pro locations have had it for a week and it went on line earlier this week]. despite the fact that following mac's constant new collections is starting to feel a lot less like something fun and exciting and a lot more like a chore, since popular items are selling out the day of release, i did make my way down to meet the new collection and see what i thought about it first hand. and yes, a couple of items were already sold out by the time i got to my local mac store, approximately two and a half hours after opening time.

once again, mac have gone way overboard with what's available- a dozen eye shadows, three blushes, four highlighters, four new brushes, five glosses and four lipsticks is a lot to take in. [it's even worse if you go to nordstrom's or the bay, because those locations have their own new collections plus this one launching today.] strangely, with all that to offer, i came away with five items- three lipsticks [which i have to say, i got chiefly because i had a lot of empties, so i was able to trade in and get them for free] and two of the new mineral eye shadows.

meet the extended mineral family, 2011

the blushes, although they have a nice texture, are an orange-peach, a bright pink and a golden brown. nothing that hasn't been done before. if you don't have something similar, they're worth a look. if you already have a fair collection, keep this in mind when fawning over how lovely and smooth they are: you're really only going to notice this when you're applying them. there's nothing in the product once its on your face that is going to stand out as being particularly marvelous.

the highlighters are, in my mind, the very essence of overkill. each one has an outer ring of a shimmery solid colour and an inner "splat" made up of a mix of colours. kind of interesting to look at, but it seems like a lot of work went into coming up with a whole selection of shades that work out to something that gives the skin a bit of a glow and not a whole lot else. some are more glittery than others, which may put some people off and which may appeal to others. my reaction was that i was kind of exhausted just looking at them. there's so much going on for a relatively neutral product. it seemed like a large part of the $33.50cad price tag is probably paying off a team of engineers for figuring out how to execute these.

l to right :: gem of roses, musky amethyst, one of a kind

the glosses are all mac's "cremesheen gloss" formula, which i know many people like because it's light and sheer and non-sticky. i dislike it because it's light and sheer and non-sticky. such is the nature of subjectivity. i like a gloss that has a bit of impact and hangs around and frankly, if it's sticky enough that i have trouble opening my mouth, it's probably just stopping me from saying something stupid anyway. these are easily a skip for me, but i suspect that a couple of the colours [particularly shimmer pink-coral "geo pink", since anything associated with coral is stupid hot right now] will be "fan favourites".

moving on to those parts of the collection i actually purchased from, there are four lipsticks with this collection. three are in mac's lustre formula and the fourth is a frost, but it's so soft and sheer that even the girl who helped me at the mac store referred to it as a lustre. i can understand this, because it's a great formula for summer- not too heavy or clingy.

"lush amber" [a.k.a., the one i didn't get] is a very sheer warm peach colour. it's certainly not suited to my cooler-toned skin and i think people with pigmented lips would have trouble getting it to show up. so it's a colour with a fairly specific target audience. strangely, this one seems to be sold out almost everywhere in montreal...

gem of roses

gem of roses

"gem of roses" [already sold out on the canadian and american web sites, apparently] is a lovely warm "strawberry ice cream" pink. this one, i think, has a very wide potential audience [hence being sold out], because it's fairly pigmented and is balanced enough in tone to suit either cooler or warmer skin. it's a little pinker, a little deeper and more pigmented than nars' "mayflower", a little warmer than the old mac l.e. colour "rue d'bois", but they're all in the same family. i'm actually surprised at how tricky it was to find a close match for this shade, considering that it doesn't seem like an earth-shattering concept for a colour, but there you have it. sometimes, people just don't notice the obvious things that are missing and someone at mac apparently did.

l to r :: mac rue d'bois, gem of roses, nars mayflower

one of a kind

"one of a kind" just screams out to be worn to the office, or to court, or to any occasion where you have to pass for a classy, upstanding citizen. it's what most people would call a "neutral plum", although i'm continuously flummoxed by what people call plum in the cosmetic industry... basically anything that has red, purple and brown in any type of mix is a candidate to be called plum. in this case, i'd say that the colour has a light reddish-purple cast with brown added to make it more neutral. so i guess that fits the industry definition of plum, but i don't think i'd eat a fruit that colour.

one of a kind

if "gem of roses" is "my lips but sweeter" [and it is], this one would be "my lips but more elegant". the closest i could come up with in terms of a comparison with other mac shades was a limited one from several years back called "tempt me". "one of a kind" is sheerer and slightly browner. i think this shade will end up getting lost in the avalanche of products with this release, which is too bad, because, of the three shades i picked up, this one is probably my favourite.

l to r :: mac tempt me, one of a kind

musky amethyst

musky amethyst

last up, there's "musky amethyst" a deep, smoky red-purple berry shade the type of which always follows me home. it's a little bit vampy, but the fact that it's quite sheer means that it works as a summer variant of the dark lip. it's a close cousin of "cunning", another mac limited shade from last year and a sheer version of "hipster" from a couple of years back. if you're like me and love these sorts of shades, it's worth a look. if you have either of the comparisons i mentioned- particularly cunning, which is just a shade redder and less sheer- and don't wear them often, you can easily skip "musky amethyst".

l to r :: mac hipster, musky amethyst, cunning

i picked up three colours because i was able to get them for the price of some empties i had around home. would i have paid full price for any? quite possibly "one of a kind", but probably not the others. they're nice shades, but they aren't special enough to allow my heart to overcome my wallet.

the real headliners of this collection, though, are the eye shadows. they seem to fall into two broad categories: rich jewel tones against a black base, which apply pretty much the same wet or dry and shades that are a mix of several colours and metallic sparkle that apply fairly sheerly when dry and more intensely when wet. i ended up picking up one of each.

smoked ruby

smoked ruby wet/ dry

"smoked ruby" is a burgundy-brown over a black base. the result is a very dark warm brown, which looks a little like a metallic shade when it catches the light. similar to this one are a deep blue, blackened green and a dirty gold, all of which have this same metallic shimmer in a rich black base appearance. it's a rich shade and i love the fact that the base gives it depth while the shimmer allows it to shift slightly in the light. the lady who served me was wearing this shade and you can definitely catch the subtleties when you see it in person. the colour is incredibly even and blends quite easily. to me, this was the absolute stand-out of the collection, there are other warm, dark browns, but none quite have its edge. that said, any of the black-based shades are probably worth the $24cad purchase price if you're interested. i found that "smoked ruby" appealed to me personally because mac really hasn't done a burgundy variation of this sort, whereas there are golds, blues and greens kicking around that are similar.

l to right :: mac twinks, smoked ruby, armani eyes to kill lust red

unsurpassable

"unsurpassable" is more typical of mac's past mineral shadows. described by mac as a mix of "green, teal, purple and copper", it has a predominantly green base with threads of the other shades drizzled through it. each one is different, which can make you a little leery about making a purchase even after swatching. some of the mixed shades in this collection vary hugely from one unit to another, so even once you've tried one on your arm, there's no guarantee that the one you end up with is going to look the same. basically the only way to achieve certainty is to make the poor mac employees pull out all the units they have and go through them to find one that is as similar to the tester as possible. please, if you're going to do that, don't tell anyone that you read the idea here.

unsurpassable wet/ dry

in use, unsurpassable is a celadon green with a lot of gold shimmer in it. i saw one tester that had a lot more of the purple [really kind of a blue-violet] in it and the resultant shade was much more aqua-tinged. but mine is quite green, semi-sheer when applied dry and more intensely green when applied wet. quite intense, actually. i used my finger to swatch the product wet and it stained my f**king finger green. the amount of gold shimmer makes the colour look almost metallic and i really can't think of something i've seen that matches it. i like the fact that the bright green base gives a strong anchor [although it's nowhere near as bright as it looks in the pan] and you get a bit of a reflect from the other elements.

of the other "mixed" shades, "hint of sapphire", a cornflower blue with pink and copper is quite special and i may go back for it, i found one tester that had a lot more pink in it than others, and this just elevated the shade from pretty to awesome, but i have a strong feeling that that tester was a fluke.

generally, all of the mixed shades suffer a little from what i call the "water colours" problem. remember when you were a kid, playing with watercolour paints and you'd have to wash your brushes off? you'd put one or two brushes in water and the water would turn this amazing new colour. then, as you'd add more and more brushes, the water would gradually turn this sickly grey with elements of all the colours kind of lost. the shades in this collection that are the most successful are the ones where there is a strong base and where the additional colours can add a little dimension without competing. shades where there are a lot of contrasting colours involved, as amazing as they are to observe in the pan, end up with a final shade that looks kind of like that water when all the brushes have gone in. and keep in mind that, even when you can see a lot of dimension to the colour swatched on your arm, you'll see a lot less of it on your eyes. i think that this is one of the reasons why the black-based colours are so successful- there are only a couple of elements and you get the effect of both. beyond that, the more you add, the riskier it gets.

overall, i'd say that what one gets out of this collection is going to depend a lot on how long you've been a mac fan. i think that those who are fairly new and haven't indulged in mac collections before could actually get a lot and be happy. the quality is good and there is a decent variety of shades in most products. old hacks like me are probably going to be less enthralled, because there isn't much that's truly unique.

the shadows have something to offer, but can be tricky to buy, especially if you're trying to make choices over the internet. the good news is that, with such a large collection of colours, i don't think most of them will sell out too fast, so you have some time to think and check on line for swatches. [as i was typing this, i thought that the one exception would be "golden gaze" the black and gold shade. i checked the canadian web site to confirm the name and noticed it's sold out. sigh.]

i'll post a couple of looks with the products put to work in the next few days. 

all products are available exclusively through mac stores and counters or online at www.maccosmetics.com.

making faces :: product review [lush skin care]

it's been a while now since i've gone to bed at what anyone could consider a reasonable hour. the problem with being awake at dawn every morning is that i can't really do much [because i don't want to wake up dom or my neighbours, particularly the irascible ones downstairs who don't like cats], but i feel like i have to do something or else i'm going to die of boredom.

i do try to sleep, of course. i stay supine for as long as i can, until some unbearable random thought just practically propels me out of the bed. last night, for instance, it was the sudden realisation that there are no decent tiki bars in montreal. i mean, it seems like every city has at least one place with a koi pond and drinks served in coconuts, but i couldn't think of one. [turns out that the only one is actually a kind of horrible vintage place in the east end that i now feel i must try.]

since i was up and i could already see the ravages of sleeplessness on my face, i decided to try giving myself a facial with some of the lush products that dom was given to test on himself and me before he officially starts work there. i'd already tried this once, but i figured that since my skin, like the rest of me, was really fatigued at this point, the results should be even more obvious.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED, BUT IS THERE GOOD SKIN?



step 1 :: toner tabs
toner tabs are like large vitamin pills you dissolve in very hot water and allow your skin to absorb through the magic of steam. it works sort of like your grandparents probably remember vicks working, where you fill a bowl with freshly boiled water, drop your medicine in and then make a tent with a towel [or dom's favourite damned t-shirt, which i apparently got all messy in the process and he had to clean in the sink] over your head and the bowl, trapping all the steam and opening your pores to let in the goodness.

today i tried the vitamin c tab [i'd previously tried the vitamin e], which is supposed to be good for dry and aging skin [mine is both, although all skin is aging, technically]. after about a minute, i definitely felt like my skin was "happier"- fresher, livelier, more "awake"- although whether that's because of the tab or just the benefits of holding my face over a pot of steamy water, i can't say. my skin was noticeably softer, though, which i think would be the result of the tab.

a word to the wise- store your tabs somewhere they can't get knocked around. i wasn't quite so careful and i was greeted by a lot of white powder going everywhere when i pulled the tab out of its wrapping. 

$1.95ea

step 2 :: ayesha face mask

this is one of lush's truly "fresh" products- meaning that there's a lot of vegetables and fruits in them and they'll last less time than the cheese you buy the same day. it's best to buy these in small increments, since they really don't keep that long.

i'm usually a little iffy about masks, because so often, they have a clay base which is great for sucking the oil right out of your skin, but not so great if your skin needs to hang on to the oil it has. however, this mask is exceptionally soft and gentle and is actually very moisturising. although it apparently does have some clay in it, i didn't get the uncomfortable tightness that normally accompanies playing around with a mask. that said, if you're skin tends to be oily, i wouldn't really recommend this, as i don't think it would offer the toning and balancing such skin would need. i also wouldn't recommend it if you're very picky about smells. i didn't mind the scent myself, but for sure some people will find it "funky". [it's loaded with asparagus. you can tell.]

as with most facial masks, there is a bit of mess involved and i'm assuming that it was in a fit of insomnia-induced insanity laziness that i likely dirtied dom's shirt by wiping my asparagus-and-kiwi pulp-covered hands on it.

once it's on, of course, it occurs to me that the superintendent could be coming by at any time to fix the living room window frame, which sustained some water damage and caused a nice little rainstorm in the apartment last week. if he were to arrive at this moment, he would see me sitting in front of a table with a bowl of dingy water, a lot of white powder and what looks like a pile of baby shit smeared on my face, with five very wired contraband cats [although everyone knows i have them, i've never been specific about how many of them there are] excited that mom is up to keep them company. it also occurs to me that i'm supposed to leave this mask on my face for half an hour, which means that even if he does arrive, i'd just have to kind of nod and act normal, or else my time will have been wasted.

fortunately, he didn't drop by, but just take this as a word of warning: make sure that you are going to have the time to use these masks properly [twenty to thirty minutes, not including prep and cleanup time].

$5.95

step 3 :: moisturiser

i tend to tone my skin with either orange flower water or rose water. they're cheap, i can pick them up with the groceries and i can use them for baking as well as skin care. so having rinsed, i use some orange flower water and then apply moisturiser to face and around my eyes.

for the eyes, i've been trying "enchanted eye cream", a very gentle, neutral cream with no real fancy science behind it, no magic ingredients that send micro-gnomes to rebuild your skin, but that imparts moisture to this area where the skin tends to be fragile and prone to damage. the good news is that mostly what the area around your eyes needs is simple hydration, because it's an area that can't retain moisture terribly well on its own.

i was given a sample of "gorgeous cream" to try as a facial moisturiser, which is probably meant as a description of the product, but that always just makes me think of the episode of family guy where the volcano insurance salesman tells peter he obvious bought a store full of "handsome cream". [i think that makes me peter in this situation.]

as far as i can tell, this is the most expensive item that lush sells that isn't a gift set. the cost is driven by the natural oils used, apparently and in this case, the price is particularly high because there is a greater concentration of pricier ingredients like evening primrose oil and a less of cheaper ingredients like cocoa butter. the price is horrific when you compare it to what prestige brands charge for their creams [not all of which have serious science behind them, no matter what they claim], but i think it is a leap for the average lush customer.

the good news is that you really don't need to use much product. although it's recommended for normal to combination skin, i found it quite rich for me [slightly dry to combination].

enchanted eye cream :: $24.95
gorgeous cream :: $85.95cad/ $89.95usd

you may notice that i only have one set of prices listed for most products, rather than different ones for canada and the u.s. that's because lush, as far as i can tell from scanning their web sites, maintains no differences in price as a baseline [i'm assuming that deviations from this are due to import levies on specific ingredients, although i haven't asked]. so that makes them a free trade angel on the currency gouging index. way to go lush!

my bad

all in all, while i think that those looking for products to address more serious skin concerns might want to look elsewhere [or at least include other products in their regimen], these are some excellent products for hydrating, toning and soothing the majority of skin types, without a lot of synthetic additives. if it can make my insomniac face feel revived, it should do wonders for normal people.

all products available at lush boutiques. all products except the face mask are available on the lush web site. [where you can also search for a lush location close to you.]

[editor's note :: in case it wasn't clear from my flippant intro, these products were provided free of charge, not to me, but to dom, who is secure enough in his masculinity to work for lush. i chose to review them, honestly, of my own free will.]

making faces :: product review [mac "bloggers' obsessions" collection]

it's been a bit of a disappointing run for me with mac in 2011. granted, their 2010 line-up was so good that some things were bound to be a let down, but other than the "peacocky" collection in january with its incredible "mega metal" eye shadows and "kissable lip colour" liquid lipsticks [kind of a lipstick/ gloss hybrid and, ironically, not kissable unless you want a mess on your face, but lovely nonetheless], their collections this year have really seemed kind of anemic. they showed some signs of returning to their winning ways with their recent summer "surf baby" collection and then launched this- an online only collection of shadows and glosses each designed by a different beauty blogger. it's a novel concept and one that once again points to mac's strengths- the ability to see an important trend [the increasing reliance on and proliferation of beauty blogs] and the agility to organise a collection and bring it to market before larger competitors.

there are five lipglasses [mac's famous thick gloss formula] and four eye shadows available for a limited time [until august 2nd, while quantities last] and in limited locations [canada and the u.s. only]. i have to say that that last restriction seemed antithetical to the notion of a collection geared largely towards the readers of blogs. yes, all the blogs selected are u.s.-based, but they have a readership that's worldwide. that's part of the magic of the internet. location isn't as important as it once was.

SEE SWATCHES, COMPARISONS AND A COUPLE OF PRODUCTS IN ACTION...



the nine finalists were selected from a pool of eighty bloggers who were invited by mac to submit their ideas for a shadow and a gloss, with the winning submissions getting one of their products made. all the bloggers were flown to mac's headquarters in toronto in april to meet with their "lab partners" and design their shade, which indicates that this whole program was turned around with remarkable speed. keep in mind that most companies have their fall and holiday programs set and shipping now. fashion-based industries are shockingly inflexible. so bravo to mac for the effort. but what about the products?


here's the listing of what's available ::

eye shadows

hocus pocus :: dark, sooty grey with silver pearl [the makeup girl]

jealousy wakes :: seething emerald green with teal and gold pearl [temptalia]

parisian skies :: mited grey-blue [lipstick powder n paint]

sparkle, neely, sparkle :: deep rusty brown with champagne-coloured sparkle [beauty blogging junky]

lipglass

all of my purple life :: deep purple grape with subtle sparkle [afrobella]

caqui :: persimmon orange [beauty maverick]

evolution revolution :: warm peachy-pink with subtle purple, green and blue microglitter [makeup and beauty blog]

nitro:licious 2046 :: intense shiny red [nitrolicious]

sonoran rain :: deep coral-red with gold and silver pearl [the shades of u]

all products are $14.50usd/ $17.50cad which is pretty bad on the currency gouging index. 

here's a look at what i got, my thoughts on the products and some comparison swatches, since these products are both limited edition [two are already sold out on the canadian web site] and online-only. [and may i add, mac's thumbnail images are particularly poor and they made the unwise decision to skip a written description, thus pushing the onus for marketing the collection onto the bloggers involved.]for the swatches of specific eye shadows, please note i've included a "heavy" swatch done with a q-tip and a "light" swatch done with a finger for reference.

shadows

hocus pocus :: this is indeed a very "sooty" dark grey. it has a rich brown undertone, to the extent that other greys look positively blue in comparison, and it packs a lot of punch. i'm a sucker for greys of all kinds, but when i saw this, i was totally drawn into its pewter-like qualities, the metallic sparkle buried in its dirty base. personally, i think that it's worth the hunt, because the rich, shimmering payoff absolutely makes this shade stand out from any of the greys currently available on the market. certainly, mac has never done a shade this deep and at the same time this multifaceted. i love grey shadows, i have a ton of them and i'm still excited about this shade.

by comparison, i think that this colour is darker than most of the obvious comparisons. silver ring, the sort of "standard" mac silver, looks very purple by comparison. among other greys in my collection, i still found that hocus pocus was pretty unique. about the closest colours i found were shu uemura's me olive and sisley's stardust, which are two and three times the cost respectively and which are both several shades lighter.

this is an awesome colour for darkening the eye crease and for adding a rich, deep texture to any look. after less than twenty-four hours it shows as sold out on the canadian web site and i'm not a bit surprised. i seriously can't think of a complexion that would find this shade difficult to work with. and, even more interesting to mac observers, it fills a gap that is wide open in the current mac lineup.

l to r :: mac "silver ring", mac "glamora castle", mac "hocus pocus", shu uemura "m/e olive", mac "the family crest" pigment, sisley "stardust"

jealousy wakes :: i guessed a month ago that this would be the home run. as christine mielke, the blogger behind this shadow, shared with her viewers- it's difficult to make an ugly green eye shadow. well, i'm not sure that i agree, but i think that, starting from the absolute truism that a real emerald green is completely absent from mac's standard lineup and those of most of their competitors, it might have been hard to come up with an undistinguished green.

that said, this shade is truly something special. although i found it a little powdery when i first swatched it, i absolutley loved the fact that it outdoes the various teals and grass-greens mac has thrown out to fans as a substitute for having a permanent blue-toned green [without being teal] in its collection. despite the initial powderiness, the shade is a perfectly true green with a gorgeous teal and gold sheen that reflects the light and that displays perfectly evenly.

this shade is absolutely something that mac should have in their permanent range and, if they don't, it's something that other companies should be striving to include. what's bizarre is that none of them are. virtually every company's green shades stick to more yellow tones, or, where they run cool [e.g., yves st. laurent's "slate green"], they're quite dark. this is a bright, lively shade and the extent to which it is needed is reflected in the fact that it's already sold out on both the u.s. and canadian mac sites. one hopes that the faeries at mac can churn up another batch...

l to r :: mac "sassy grass", mac "jealousy wakes", mac "kelly", mac "surf usa"

parisian skies :: this shade was apparently inspired by the blogger's love of monet and the shade of cloud-tinged blue he made his sky in a particular painting.

i have to say that i have a reak weakness for grey-tinged anything and this shade made me wonder. after all, there are a lot of tones in monet's sky that could represent the final shade...

as it happens, parisian skies is a medium-deep grey [not as dark as hocus pocus] with a lot of blue shimmer. the satin finish means that it appears light than the veluxe pearl shade love lace [l.e., 2009], which is its closest analogue. in fact, the closest real dupe i can think of would be "early morning", another blue shimmered grey shade mac released a long time back and that, if memory serves, was lighter in its base. parisian skies is a beautiful, cool stormy grey with a lot of blue shimmer pushed right to the front. it's unusual to see a base colour and an added "sheen" colour work in such perfect balance.

of the three shades i purchased, this one is probably the easiest to match from past shades, but it's still not something you can easily replicate from your collection.

l to r :: mac "suave intentions", mac "parisian skies", mac "love lace"

lipglasses ::

sonoran rain :: this shade, inspired by the majestic landscape of the sonoran desert, is an intense coral-red shade with a lot of gold shimmer. [i didn't notice the silver shimmer, but it may well be there.] i'm given to understand that this may be similar to mac's "wonder woman" lip gloss from earlier this year. i don't own "wonder woman" because i hated the over-sized gloss tubes that splattered everywhere. from my own research into my red glosses, this shade is similar to... nothing.

seriously, this shade stands out in a field where there are way too many players. it seems almost impossible that a warm shade of tomato red with a lot of gold shimmer would be completely unique, but it is. there is no shade that matches the intensity of the base colour alone. throw in the eye-catching shimmer and you have something truly special.

i'd also like to mention that the formula on this gloss seems particularly excellent. the application is perfectly even, more so than i'm used to from mac [despite the fact that i love their glosses]. this shade is an absolute home run.

l to r :: mac "brash & bold", mac "red devil", mac "sonoran rain", mac "viva glam cyndi", chanel "myriade", mac "cult of cherry"

all of my purple life :: apparently, the blogger in question went to mac with a copy of prince's "purple rain" album as an inspiration. how awesome is that?

those of us who adore purple and who have been waiting patiently for mac to do a properly purple gloss will finally have had our prayers answered here. this is not a berry shade. this will not look magenta or cool pink when applied. this is a true blue-toned purple, the gloss equivalent of mac's "go for it" lipstick released in limited edition last year. the shade is most creamy with just a hint of shimmer and it read purple, real purple, across skin tones.

with all of the so-called "purple" shades that mac releases, you wouldn't think that it would require outside intervention to get them to produce a real purple gloss, but it apparently did. i compared it to a number of supposedly "purple"-tinged glosses in my collection [hint- i love purple, so i'm a pretty fiendish collector of all things purple... there isn't anything i'd say was that close. if anything, i'd say it bore the strongest resemblance to the much-in-demnd "boys go crazy" dazzleglass, although it is a thicker and heavier formula.

l to r :: mac dazzleglass "boys go crazy", mac "all of my purple life", mac "lap of luxury", mac "ban this!", mac superglass "fab frenzy"

my overall impressions? it really shows that each of these shades had one person lovingly guiding it through its life cycle. the thought that went into the backstory of each colour ["sparkle, neely, sparkle" was inspired by "the valley of the dolls" and "nitro:licious 2046" was inspired by wong-kar wei- i'd feel like less of a person if i didn't mention that], the depth of each shade and its uniqueness within the mac lineup; these are all unique to this collection.

the shades that are available tend to be "heroes"- not quiet, understated colours, but ones that will stand out in a collection or in a specific look- which is understandable, given that they are the choices of bloggers seeking to make their mark with a signature shade. my advice would be to grab a shade or two, or four, or however many appeal to you, because you are unlikely to come across another collection where each individual product has such exquisite attention to detail.

and here's a quick look i did with a couple of the relevant products. it merits mentioning that i combined "hocus pocus" with one of the closest matches i could find for it, but the difference was still clearly visible [the shu uemura shade was much lighter]. i'll have another look tomorrow, i'm sure, but i really wanted to get everything posted tonight...


face ::

nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
mac e/s "dazzlelight"
inglot e/s "352"
shu uemura e/s "m/e olive"
mac e/s "hocus pocus"
mac fluidline eye liner "blacktrack"
diorshow mascara

cheeks ::
mac magically cool liquid powder "truth & light"
mac blush "bite of an apple"

lips ::

mac l/g "sonoran rain"