Sephora FAME Lip Gloss
($10.00 for 0.5 oz.) are new, limited edition shades exclusive to Sephora (and branded by Sephora) inspired by the film. The launch includes five shades: In the Spotlight (shimmering violet), Raw Talent (shimmering light peach champagne), Rising Star (shimmering vibrant pink), Standing Ovation (shimmering bright red), and Starring Role (shimmering pink with gold sheen).
I tested out two shades: Standing Ovation, which is kind of a sheer, fiery red with golden shimmer, and Raw Talent, which is a sheer, milky champagne with iridescent shimmer. They both relatively sheer, but I did find both added some color to my lips. I liked Standing Ovation more for its wearability, as Raw Talent is a little pale to wear alone for me. These glosses are kind of like lip jellies to me, because they’re thick, non-sticky, and pretty hydrating while you wear them. They wear about average–nothing notable either positive or negative–which is about three to four hours on me.
The packaging is a simple and functional, and these are easy to keep in purses or pockets and reapplying without a mirror is easy enough with the squeeze-tube design. The price tag is easy to swallow at $10 a pop and you do get a good amount of gloss for your money (same size as MAC Lipglasses).
Bottom Line: They’re fun, slightly gimmicky glosses – they’re not the best gloss I’ve tried, but they’re decent.
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- Product: 25/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Cute, and if you’re a FAME fan, they’re a decent gloss with a high glossy sheen and lots of pretty sparkle, so don’t feel bad just caving for the logo!
Availability: Sephora
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6 Smoke & Mirrors Eye Shadows
MAC Magic, Mirth, & Mischief Review: Smoke & Mirrors Eye Shadows
A good smoky eye palette is never a bad thing to have on hand. It’s useful, easy to travel with, and it’s classic. I’m not loving this year’s version of the smoky eye palette, because it’s more of a brownish eye, and I’ve always felt the classic smoky eye is monochromatic. I still hold that last year’s was better. (And I still contend that you can make your own smoky eyeshadow quad with permanent MAC eyeshadows just as well.)
6 Smoke & Mirrors Eye Shadows ($36.00 U.S.)
- Fire In Her Eyes is a super soft, slightly sheer beige with a light frost finish. In the swatch, you can tell it hardly shows up on my skin without a base. It’ll make a nice highlight, though.
- Wide-Eyed Wonder is kind of a taupe-y brown with a reddish touch. There’s nothing about this shade that makes it jump off the page for me.
- Black Magique is a velvety smooth deep dark black with brown tones. It has slight gold shimmer, but it’s hardly noticeable.
- Spell No. 9 is a satiny neutral pink. It’s sheer, and it doesn’t do much for me.
- Deception is a sheer, glittery copper bronze. Even though it’s a frost finish, it had more of a lustre feel to me.
- Smoke & Mirrors is a cool-toned chocolate brown with a little gray sheen.
I”m not sold on this year’s. It reads more like a neutral eye palette than a smoky eye palette to me. It’s useful, and the colors are easily worn by many, so in that aspect, it’s a solid choice for those looking for a go-to palette.
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
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6 Mystic Cool Eye Shadows
MAC Magic, Mirth, & Mischief Review: Mystic Cool Eye Shadows
Mystic Cool is an interesting mix of eyeshadow shades. It’s not the most cohesive palette MAC has put out, but if you’re just looking to boost up your color collection and aren’t so concerned with a palette that works together easily, you shouldn’t mind. It’s not to say that there aren’t color combinations to be created from the palette, but it just requires a little more thinking than your average eyeshadow palette where there are so many obvious combinations to work with.
6 Mystic Cool Eye Shadows ($36.00 U.S.)
- Cool Incantation is a frosty golden-white with an almost gray tinge to the white base. It reminded me a little of Nanogold but yellow.
- Blue Enchantment is a deep turquoise with subtle shimmer. Surprisingly, MAC doesn’t have a shade like this in their permanent line. It’s almost as if Shimmermoss and Bottle Green had a baby.
- Deep Secret is a shimmery, jewel-toned indigo-blue. It’s incredibly pretty, and it reminded me of a darker Cinders eyeshadow (one of my all-time favorite limited edition shades).
- Shhh, Don’t Tell is a satiny pale neutral pink that goes on like a dusty rose pink. It was hard to get it to show up really well on my skin tone without a base.
- Rose Potion is a frosty rose. It’s a fairly simple shade, but it’s not one I’ve seen often by MAC either.
- Violet Vow is a cool-toned, dark brown with kind of a purple edge to it. I found this one harder to work with, and I felt like it wasn’t as pigmented as it could have been.
I didn’t fall head over heels in love with this palette, but I did like it. I think there are some great colors in this palette, but long-time collectors may find they have similar shades (at least, similar enough) in their stash already.
- Product: 24/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
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Midnight Madness Mineralize Eyeshadow
MAC Magic, Mirth, & Mischief Review: Mineralize Eyeshadows
Every MAC holiday color collection sees an introduction of new, limited edition mineralize eyeshadows. This year is no different. With six mineralize eyeshadows, each with a crescent of some glittery concoction, MAC really wants to make sure you get your mineralize fix for the year.
I will say that these are some of the smoothest, most pigmented mineralize eyeshadows (this doesn’t include the “crescent” shade, though) I’ve played with to-date. These don’t have to be used wet in order to get decent color pay off, so that’s a huge plus in my book. The crescent pieces are, in my opinion, terrible, because they’re just gritty glitter. Like last year’s trios, I find the crescent portion a let-down.
- Midnight Madness is a cool-toned dirty black-taupe with lighter silver sparkle and a crescent of glittery gold.
- Under Your Spell is a cool-toned, silvery-purple. This one was fairly light in color, but it has a really nifty sheen. The crescent is a glittery copper.
- It’s a Miracle is a rich, jewel-toned purple with golden shimmer combined with a crescent of glittery gold (looks the same as the shade in Midnight Madness to me).
- Blue Sorcery is an intense shade of medium green-based teal with softer green shimmer. It reminded me of an old holiday shade, Tease ‘n Teal, actually. It’s stunning. It’s matched with a crescent of glittery silver.
- Devil-May-Care is a medium purple with a silver sheen and cool tones. It’s nicely pigmented, but I think you could dupe this with one of MAC’s existing purple eyeshadows. The crescent portion is glittery silver.
- Mayhem is a rich copper-bronze with a high sheen/frost finish. It’s like Amber Lights and Woodwinked had a baby. The crescent portion is glittery silver.
I wish MAC would have done away with the crescent portions or had made it the same texture/feel as the larger shade. I just can’t imagine dealing with the inevitable fall out the glittery crescents will have. My top picks would be Midnight Madness, It’s a Miracle, and Blue Sorcery.
- Product: 26/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
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Dazzleglasses: Phiff, She-Zam, Jingle Jangle
MAC Magic, Mirth, & Mischief Review: Dazzleglasses
A few months ago, we previewed Phiff! and She-Zam, and finally, we can check out the third – Jingle Jangle. (Note: I hope to have lip swatches posted tomorrow or this weekend.)
- Phiff! is a sheer, golden-shimmered shade. It really is more about the shimmer in it than extracting any color. This one felt a little flat to me.
- She-Zam is a sheer, super silver shimmered shade. Like Phiff!, it’s all about the shimmer, but this one has a ton of shimmer in it. It’s glitzy and perfect for holiday. It reminded me of shades like Pas-de-deux lipglass, too. It has a kind of grayish cast with all the silver glitter, but there is also pink and dusty shimmer in it, too. I consider this one a must-have, particularly if you like dazzleglasses.
- Jingle Jangle is a medium pink with pink and multicolored sparkle. I think MAC could have really pushed out an ultra red, glitzy-glam shade here, and they went with a very safe, very ehh kind of shade instead.
- Product: 26/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
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Korres Cherry Lip Kisses ($19.50) is a set of three 0.20 oz. lipglosses (that’s full size!) by Korres for the price of just a little more than one single lipgloss. After trying #52 in Red Pink, I wanted to see how the other shades stacked up and if they were as opaque as that one (which was already a darker gloss).
- #33 Nude is a semi-sheer peachy-nude with golden copper sparkle. This one was just okay – there’s nothing really special that drives this color. It looks blah on my lips, and it’s the sheerest Korres’ lipgloss I’ve tried. It’s not a bad shade, it’s just not one I’d actively seek out.
- #25 Natural Purple is a creamy, semi-opaque played down pink with no shimmer. I actually liked this one the most out of the three shades, because it gave me full color, lots of glossiness, and it looked natural. I don’t know why it’s called Natural Purple, but it’s definitely an easy, wearable shade.
- #54 Fuchsia is a semi-opaque medium fuchsia with softer pink fuchsia sparkle. This one settled a bit into lines and applied streaky, so some care needs to be used to apply it and get a more even look. It’s a fun pop of pink, but I’ve seen this color before.
Korres’ Cherry Full Color Gloss is a moisturizing, non-sticky gloss with a high-shine glossy finish that tends to be more pigmented than the typical gloss. Not all shades are created equal, so some shades are more opaque than others. The gloss has a faint scent of cherry, but it’s hardly noticeable (which may or may not be a good thing for you).
- Product: 26/30
- Value: 8/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Availability: Sephora
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