MAC Cosmetics

MAC Call Me Bubbles Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC: Call Me Bubbles Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Call Me Bubbles Eyeshadow Quad ($38.00 for 0.19 oz.) includes these shades: Call Me Bubbles (light tan), Fresh Daily (orange), Full of Flavour (coral), and Brash (frosty reddish copper).

• Call Me Bubbles is a light beige with a shimmery finish. The color payoff is decent but there is some underlying sheerness. It has a satin finish–it has more of a frosted look than your average satin. This shade will be a nice highlighter on light-medium to medium skin tones especially. It’s a bit like the shade in Giorgio Armani #1 Madreperla. Urban Decay Skimp is similar but lighter. MAC Bisque is a touch darker and matte.
• Fresh Daily is a medium orange with a tangerine shimmer-sheen. It has a frost finish that looks a little bit like a satin, too (not quite as shimmery as most frosts). The pigmentation is good, and the texture is soft and smooth. Dolce & Gabbana Cocoa has a similar orange but matte and slightly darker. MAC Rule is similar but matte.
• Full of Flavour is a brightened coral-pink. It has a matte finish. The texture is soft, just the tiniest bit powdery, and delivers good color payoff. It’s very similar to MAC Early Bird but a tiny bit darker. MAC Free to Be is also similar.
• Brash is a molten copper with a frosted metallic sheen. It has a veluxe pearl finish. The texture is so soft and smooth, and the resulting color payoff is excellent. Tarina Tarantino Dreamy has a shade that’s a bit more orange, less red. Shades like Urban Decay Baked and MAC Bronze aren’t similar because they’re more gold and bronze, while this is distinctly copper without being too red. This shade is a repromote.

It reminded me a bit of MAC Spring Colour 4 Eyeshadow Quad, which has the same really warm, sunset-ish feel, but it’s definitely different.  This is the warmest palette out of the three.  If you don’t like the way orange tends to look on your skin tone, this is the quad you could easily skip, since two shades have a fair amount of orange in them.  Like the other two quads, the shades included really mesh well.  I like the inclusion of different finishes so you can get more depth out of a look if you only wanted to use the shades included.  You should be able to make a pretty sunset-like eye out of this, though it will have a fair amount of brightness out of it.

Where to Buy: Online at MAC, $38.00

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MAC Shop & Drop Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC: Shop & Drop Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Shop & Drop Eyeshadow Quad ($38.00 for 0.19 oz.) includes these shades: Sugar Snack (light pink), Hypnotizing (frosted greyed mauve), Power Boosted (violet), and Shop & Drop (deep blue).

• Sugar Snack is a light-medium pink with yellow undertones and a matte finish. It’s a really soft, almost buttery, matte so the color payoff is good without being powdery. It reminded me of MAC Pen ‘n’ Pink, which is a touch lighter. Inglot #356 is lighter. MAC Paradise Island is similar, perhaps darker, with inferior color payoff.
• Hypnotizing is a dark mauve-brown with high shimmer. It has a frost finish. It’s soft, smooth, and has good pigmentation. It’s similar to a fair amount of shades, including Tarina Tarantino Fantastical, MAC Winterized, Bare Escentuals Romp, and MAC Tendersmoke.
• Power Boosted is a fuchsia violet with a pearly sheen. It has a veluxe pearl finish. It has decent color payoff, though it is a little sheerer and drier compared to other shades in the palette. NYX Violetta is similar but less iridescent. Bare Escentuals Boudoir is pinker. Urban Decay Purple Haze is similar in color, but it has a matte finish.
• Shop & Drop is a deep smoky blue with hints of purple with a pearled sheen. It has a satin finish. The color payoff is decent to good, but the texture is a touch dry. Inglot #321 is similar in color but matte. Bobbi Brown Blue Onyx is similar but a touch purpler. MAC Blue Storm is brighter.

This is a good palette–none of the shades are duds (which has been a more frequent concern with MAC’s eyeshadow quads).  Both Sugar Snack and Hypnotizing are really nice and easy to work with, while Power Boosted and Shop & Drop are decent to good but could be more pigmented or softer.  Shop & Drop looks less nuanced when worn, especially if you’re using a neutral base, because it does have a blackened-blue base.  Hypnotizing is a shade we’ve seen before, but the other three are new and exclusive to this palette.

Where to Buy: Online at MAC, $38.00

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MAC Colour Added Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC: Colour Added Eyeshadow Quad

MAC Colour Added Eyeshadow Quad ($38.00 for 0.19. oz.) includes these shades: Laundry Daze (light yellow), Colour Added (bright yellow), Pre-packaged (muted turquoise), and Self-Serve (deep grey).

• Laundry Daze is a pale white-yellow with this faint hint of green. There’s just something slightly green in it, but it doesn’t cast or really look green. Whatever it is, it actually works really well with the rest of the shades because it coordinates and blends into them. This shade has a satin finish and has good color payoff. It’s, perhaps, a much, much lighter version of Dior Garden Pastels. I couldn’t think of any other potential dupes.
• Colour Added is a brightened yellow with a kiss of chartreuse. It had excellent color payoff and felt very smooth. It has a veluxe pearl finish. NARS Rated R is greener. MAC Double Feature 2 is noticeably greener but not as green as Rated R. MAC Bitter is closer but a touch greener. MAC Three Ring Yellow is pretty close.
• Pre-packaged is a darkened navy blue with a hint of teal. It has a veluxe pearl finish. The color payoff is good, and the texture is soft and smooth. Bare Escentuals Water is a bit like it, but tealer and more matte in finish. Guerlain Les Gris has a similar blue but a little muted.
• Self-Serve is a medium-dark gray-brown with a subtle pearled sheen. It has a satin finish. The color payoff is horrendous–it’s like a trick eyeshadow! The swatch I managed to capture is a layered swatch; that’s the color built up as much as I could muster. The texture is dry, stiff, and loathes to be blended. Guerlain Les Gris has a similar grayish-brown kind of shade with better color payoff, though it has more of a matte finish. MAC Scene is a bit similar but less brown. MAC Moody is darker and browner but seems to be kind of what they were going for.

Everything was looking SO promising until I swatched Self-Serve, and then the eyeshadow loving part of me died a little inside. I was like, “What? How could you be such a tease?” Of course, a mere swatch on the arm only tells a partial story, so I went to test it in a look. It doesn’t apply much better over bare skin with a brush, but it is slightly better. It definitely needs a primer to yield truer color payoff, but here’s the rub: it’s just as dry, stiff, and difficult to blend applied as it was swatched. This lack of blendability made it a really frustrating shade to work with.

I was loving the quad until I tried Self-Serve.  It has potential, and depending on your level of patience and whether or not you have similar shades to the other three eyeshadows, it may or may not be worth it.   The quality of the other three is much, much higher; the two veluxe pearls feel soft, smooth, and deliver so much color. If we ignore Self-Serve, the quad would have received an overall rating of an A. Unfortunately, Self-Serve is not just a little bad but really bad, which resulted in scores of 1, 4, 1, 9, and 1.5. (Packaging is a single score that isn’t averaged across the four shades since it’s not impacted by the individual shade’s performance.)

Where to Buy: Online at MAC, $38.00

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MAC Vera Plushglasses

MAC Vera: Plushglasses

The collection features four limited edition (and one permanent) shades of MAC Plushglass ($19.50 for 0.14 fl. oz.). These include: Butterfly Dream (mid-tone violet with blue pearl), Confetti (bright orange coral with soft pearl), Fashion Fanatic (creamy pale pink), On a Holiday (bright pink with blue pearl), and Pretty Plush (extra soft pink with white pearl).

• Butterfly Dream is a sheer pinked lilac with silver, teal, and purple shimmer. It looks like a lot of other pink-tinged glosses that go on sheer.
• Confetti is a sheer warm peach with pale white shimmer. MAC Rich & Witty looks a lot like it, just with an opaque base.
• Fashion Fanatic is a sheer, pale milky pink with white shimmer. These glosses are all fairly similar to this shade: MAC Fresh Air, Bobbi Brown Pastel, MAC Going Casual, and MAC Right Image.
• On a Holiday is a sheer medium pink with fuchsia and blue shimmer. MAC Fabulous Fun is more pigmented. Benefit Back to the Fuchsia is similar but more pigmented. MAC Electro Lush is similar in color but the shimmer is different.
• Pretty Plush is mostly clear gloss with lots of pale gold shimmer. This shade is permanent. It looks like a ton of sheer glosses with shimmer.

I can’t wear the Plushglass formula. It’s a brutal product for me to swatch, let alone do a wear test for, because my lips simply cannot handle it. I haven’t done a wear test for these in many years, and you won’t see me doing one any time soon. Even just doing the five lip swatches was difficult to endure; I swear, the stinging factor of the Plushglasses gets higher with each release! My lips get splotchy, swollen (but not in the cute, pouty way), and if I wear these for too long, eventual peeling and bleeding. Today was a little reminiscent of the first time I tried any lip plumper, and it was DuWop’s Lip Venom. I remember being in my first apartment freaking out going, “Is it supposed to be like my lips are on fire or should I remove this?!?!”

Plushglass is non-sticky, fairly thin, and sheer. The formula is supposed to deliver sheer color with a high-gloss finish, feel comfortable to wear, while moisturizing, soothing, and visibly plumping lips. I can attest that these are non-sticky, feel thin (like Cremesheen Glasses), and deliver sheer color. They are vanilla-scented, but it is a different scent compared to the rest of MAC’s lip products; it is extremely sweet and food-like. It’s cloying and lingers. I haven’t worn these for a wear test in a long time, so it’s hard to say just how long-wearing and whether or not the formula is moisturizing. It’s definitely not soothing on me!

Since I feel like I really can’t make an accurate assessment of the product on two major factors for the rating, I’m just not issuing a rating.  I suspect that wear will be a little below average given how sheer, thin, and non-sticky the formula is, based on the hundreds of lipglosses I’ve tested over the past five years.  I know that on my lips, given that the end result is peeling, bleeding lips, hydration is probably not happening.  But realistically, my reaction is just that, and it’s certainly a more extreme one.  I mentioned it on Twitter earlier today, and several others commiserated with me, having experienced something similar with these, but since they’ve been on the market for years, I imagine the majority doesn’t have that reaction to them!

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MAC Al Fredo Nail Lacquer

MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC: Nail Lacquers

The collection features three limited edition shades of MAC Nail Lacquer ($16.00 for 0.34 fl. oz.). These include: Al Fredo (bright acid green), Kid Orange (coral), and Salad Dressed (mid-tone dirty aqua).

• Al Fredo is semi-sheer dirty yellow. Honestly, it looks a lot like Deborah Lippmann Yellow Brick Road on me, with the same sheerness, but with a less jelly-like finish. The bottle looks a bit green-tinged, but the polish just looks yellow against my skin tone. It is a bit difficult to work with some streaking, and the consistency was a little thick. I did two coats for swatches, and it was clear that there was going to be visible nail line even with three coats.
• Kid Orange is a orange-coral with a cream finish. It was opaque in two coats, and it had the best formula of the three shades. It wasn’t too thick or too thin, so it applied evenly and easily without bubbling or streaking. MAC Oriele is a bit lighter. Essie Meet Me at Sunset is a bit redder. Essie Braziliant is pretty close. China Glaze Life Preserver is redder.
• Salad Dressed is a medium teal-blue with a cream finish. It was mostly opaque in two coats, but I did have some issues with it being streaky. It had a longer drying time, and it would benefit from patience–you really need to let each coat dry. The consistency is on the thicker side as well. MAC Ocean Dip is greener and darker. Essie Turquoise & Caicos is greener. China Glaze For Audrey and Chanel Nouveau Vague would be the closest dupes, though they seem perhaps lighter.

The formula on Al Fredo and Salad Dressed left something to be desired, and MAC did not indicate that Al Fredo was going to be as sheer as it turned out to be.  It wasn’t just slightly under-pigmented; it was the type of sheerness that I would expect to be called out explicitly.  Kid Orange applied beautifully and had good color payoff, though.  Salad Dressed had better pigmentation but still had some streaking and formula issues.  At this price point, MAC really needs to fine-tune their lacquer formula so it’s consistently good.  Keep in mind, the rating is an average of the three shades, so while Kid Orange is higher than a C+, Al Fredo is lower.

Where to Buy: Online at MAC, $16.00 each

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MAC Kissable Lipcolours

MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC: Kissable Lipcolours

The collection features five limited edition shades of MAC Kissable Lipcolour ($19.00 for 0.17 fl. oz.). These shades include: Enchantee (light blue pink), Flaunting It (grey mauve), Scan-delicious (blue fuchsia), So Vain (muted dirty coral), and Woo Me (light pinky nude).

• Enchantee is a pale milky pink with blue undertones. It has a slightly streaky appearance, because of the glide and slip of the formula combined with the light color. It delivers mostly opaque color, though. MAC Infinitely Likeable is slightly darker, less blue-based. MAC Viva Glam Gaga is also similar but lighter.
• Flaunting It is a plummy purple with a little bit of pink. The color coverage is mostly opaque and even, and it looks rather creamy applied. MAC Real Posh is much redder. Illamasqua Move is pinker.
• Scan-delicious is a pink-red with fuchsia shimmer. The color coverage is mostly opaque and even. Milani Photo Flash is a bit darker, less pink. MAC Wicked Ways is redder. NARS Strawberry Fields is slightly lighter.
• So Vain is a soft coral-orange with a glossy sheen. The color coverage is opaque, but the lightness of the color means you can see slight streaks. Dior Pink Veil is pinker. Chanel Genie is lighter, peachier. MAC Viva Glam Cyndi is darker. Benefit Spiked Punch is a touch lighter.
• Woo Me is a light beige nude with subtle shimmer. It has opaque color coverage and mostly even color, though some streaking is apparent. MAC Perennial High Style is slightly warmer. Chanel Bikini Peach is similar but less opaque.

Kissable Lipcolour is a formula that’s designed to have the comfort of a lipstick with the shiny finish of a lipgloss. MAC describes it as feather-resistant, that it wears “for hours,” and it has a lightweight feel. These came out with Peacocky just over a year ago, where I reviewed them in full. This collection see five shades repromoted from the original set released.

They are vanilla-scented, come in long, skinny tubes, and have a doe-foot applicator. Some shades wear better than others; shades like Scan-delicious wear for six hours or so, while shades like Woo Me tend to disappear after four hours. They have the glide of a liquid lipstick with the shine of a more traditional gloss, though that glossiness disappears after two or so hours of wear.  Fun side note: these went up $1 since they were initially released.

Where to Buy: Online at MAC, $19.00 each

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