OVERALL, some of the palettes offer long-time MAC fans colors they haven’t seen before. As always, the warm palette suckered me in, though I’ll use it once or twice and it’ll get forgotten–I just know it! The lip palettes were surprising, because I’ve never been too drawn to them before, but I found two shades I really wanted to have. I only succumbed to the Coral Lips palette (again, bad move on my part), but the Plum Lips is tempting. Ironically, the Plum Lips is probably more wearable for me than the Coral Lips palette!

Quick review of the brush sets: The brush sets are $35 at Nordstrom’s. Yes, $35, down from $49.50. I do not know why, but I only know that this was confirmed by the Nordstrom MA. So get your brush sets at Nordstrom’s if you can! The brush sets are just like previous years’ sets–the handles are just a different color. This year the handles are a shiny bright holiday red with darker, metallic ferrules.

You can get official descriptions here as well as product photos here.

Detailed reviews…

Devoted Poppy: 6 Classic Eyes

• Sweet Eyes is a soft, satiny light beige with a touch of gold in it.
• Amorously is a rich, coppery color with a nice metallic sheen. It’s similar to Amber Lights in color, but not as frosty or shimmery.
• In Awe is very matte-like in texture. It’s a very dark brown, almost with a touch of black. It reminds me of Smut, but with a semi-matte texture.
• Young Thing is a soft light peach, very pale and low in shimmer.
• Awaken is a glittery pale, pastel green. It reminds me of one Lustreleaf.
• Fall Deeply is a mid-tone bule crossed with periwinkle for a very nice shade of blue not currently available in the permanent line.

Intriguing Scarlet: 6 Warm Eyes

• Sweet Joy is a soft, pale peach-gold color. Obviously the highlighter of the bunch!
• Well Spiced is a warm-toned mid-tone brown. It reminds me a lot of Arena or Texture (permanent colors).
• Real Drama is a burgundy-toned dark brown, so I can appreciate the dimension in the shade.
• Warm Suede is an antique gold with flecks of green, making it both colors depending on the lighting.
• Gentle Heat is a soft golden taupe-gray. It’s hard to describe. It’s brown, and yet there’s gray in it and flecks of gold.
• Grand Entrance is a dark, satiny forest green. It’s got darkness and intensity, but the green is still visible.

Infatuating Rose: 6 Cool Eyes

• Satisfy is a chalky whitish-pink color. It’s not frosty, though, just very pale and pigmented.
• Bonfete is a pale frosty pink; it reminds me a lot of Pink Freeze, but with better color payoff and texture.
• Feast is a pretty shade of berry-pink. I don’t know if this shade has been done before.
• Cavort is a purpler Stars ‘n Rockets. It has some of the dimension that Stars ‘n Rockets has, but this is clearly a bright lavender purple.
• Platonic is a grayer purple with a periwinkle base to it. It’s like a lighter Cinders (an old holiday shade).
• Deep Feelings is an intensely rich blue-black-purple kind of shade. I guess that makes it indigo, but I think it has a little more purple to it.

Fascinating Ruby: 6 Smoky Eyes

• Scant is a satiny beigey-peach shade. It’s a little chalky to me, though not in a bad way – just a way where I’d have to be careful with it on my brow bone.
• Satin Taupe is a permanent color, but this seems a lot lighter than what I already have.
• Dark Devotion is a matte-ish dark brown. It doesn’t stand out in a crowd, that’s for sure.
• Gorgeous is a silvery-white shimmer shade. It reminds me of Electra, but maybe a shade or two lighter.
• Ambiance is a semi-matte textured mid-tone gray with silver flecks.
• Carbon is a matte black, and if you don’t own it, you should. That’s really all there is to say about Carbon!

Devoted Poppy: 3 Coral Lips

• Transparent Love is a peachy-orange color; more of a coral-peach thank anything. It has soft multi-colored shimmer in it.
• Devoted is a cherry-toned coral. It’s kind of like red and orange, but more pink-red still.
• Soft Talk is a more intense version of Devoted (not sure why they’re so similar!). It’s richer, more pigmented, and it has brighter gold shimmer in it. This shade is stunning! It reminds me a little of Red Flame/Orange Flicker prolongwear.

Intriguing Scarlet: 3 Cool Pink Lips

• Sheer Vision is a frosty pale baby pink that goes on pretty sheer.
• Make Me Melt is a blue-based mid-tone pink with soft fuchsia shimmer.
• Overjoyed is a muted pink with yellow undertones.

Fascinating Ruby: 3 Plum Lips

• Mutual Attraction is a rosy-berry sheer shimmer gloss with some color, but not a lot.
• Insinuate is the stunner of this palette. It is a light raspberry shade with the most gorgeous gold shimmer.
• Marvel is a sheerer version of Insinuate in a sense, but the shimmer is less gold and more pink.