MAC Fabulous Felines: Overall Review & Recommendations

OVERALL, Fabulous Felines has a lot of tones and shades perfect for autumn and certainly a plethora of products to choose from. Despite some of the darker and deeper tones, the collection feels rather sheer, muted, and tame. It doesn’t feel like a bold, rich mix of colors once you actually start to swatch through some of the products. Burmese Beauty is a set of products that easily work for both cooler and warmer skin tones, while Palace Pedigreed complements cooler skin tones best and Leopard Luxe for warmer skin tones. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you can’t wear cooler-toned products on your warmer skin!

Edited @ 8/26:  All products have now been added with full reviews, swatches, and photos.

Product Photos, Swatches, & Reviews

• Burmese Beauty: Eyes, Lips/Cheek
• Palace Pedigreed: Eyes, Lips/Cheek
• Leopard Luxe: Eyes, Lips/Cheek

The SUPERSLICK LIQUID EYE LINERS have a very watery, thin consistency that’s soaked into a long, narrow-tipped pen. The applicator is soft against the skin, and it has enough give to allow you to maneuver around the natural curves of the eye lid. With a light hand, you can get a very thin, precise line, but you can more easily get a thicker line. They’re incredibly smooth to apply, because the consistency is so thin, but it also makes for a very long drying time. The liner was still a bit sticky five minutes after application, though it wasn’t smudging or budging (just sticky to the touch). If you want to use these as a base, I would suggest using a brush or your finger to thin out application so it will dry faster–otherwise it will just crease and dry creased (and then not budge!).

See more of my thoughts on the liners, must-haves, recommendations, and the whole nine yards…

Once dry, these eyeliners are very budge-, smudge-, and crease-resistant. They do seem fairly water-resistant, too. I put it to the accelerated speed test, which is a very hot, steamy shower (about fifteen minutes in length), and it looked as good as new when I stepped out of the shower. I ran my face under the water, splashed it with water, and it passed those tests with flying colors. However, what I will say is that after the shower, it was very easy to rub off the product. This is an eyeliner that reminds me of tube-mascara, which flakes off in tubes with warm water–this product will sort of roll and flake off when you go to remover. I just noticed that post-shower, a simple rub of my finger against my eye lid, and a ton of the liner was flaking off. It’ll hold up if you go swimming, cry, etc., but be careful about how much you rub your eyes afterward. I really like the eyeliners dry very true-to-color and are rather pigmented without having to build up a lot of layers.

I was most disappointed in the eyeshadow quads, because I felt like too many shades applied on the sheerer side and needed layering to get a nice level of pigmentation. None of the quads really stood out to me; there was just something about each one that fell flat for me, so I didn’t even include any in my recommendations. They’re not necessarily skip-worthy, but I feel no pull towards them. I like the pigments, even though over half are repromotes, because nearly all of them nicely pigmented (except Mauvement). The lipsticks and lipglasses have some nice textures, finishes, and a good variety of shades to choose from.

There’s something about this collection that didn’t resonate with me. It’s all very wearable (which isn’t a bad thing!), and I like that the general feel and tone of the collection is just right for fall. As a long-time collector, I’m always eager for new over repromoted items, I recognize the value of repromotes–there are new beauty fans coming into the fold everyday, so it’s a nice opportunity for them to experience old favorites.  It also means less spending for those who have been fans for awhile! I’d rather repromotes than products just renamed!  Unexpectedly, the new eyeliner seems to be the product I liked most.

Even after many years of methodically reviewing MAC collections, the launches like these are still overwhelming.  There is just so much to look at–a lot of information to digest and colors and textures and finishes to dissect.  Not to mention?  Soo cost-prohibitive to buy it all.

Temptalia’s Recommendations

Must-haves: Kittenish Lipstick, Drive Me Wild Lipstick, Lap of Luxury Lipglass, Superslick Liquid Eye Liner (whatever shade catches your eye), Old Gold Pigment

Nice-to-haves: Docile Lipglass, Liquid Lurex/Out Minxed Lipstick, Antique Green Pigment, Lithe Pigment, Bloodline Pigment, Pet Me Mineralize Blush

Skip: The Prowl Lipstick (streaky), A Quiet Roar Lipglass (hard to wear), Mauvement Pigment (chunky)

Skip if you have…

(I’m indicating skip on eyeshadows on an individual level, but keep in mind, you can only purchase the quads as-is; so you may find yourself still picking up a quad, even if one color is a skip–similarly, you may skip a quad because you don’t want any overlay.)

• Skip BURMESE BEAUTY EYESHADOW if you have CLUB or BLUE BROWN; the eyeshadow is merely a lighter version of Club and less intense version of Blue Brown pigment.
• Skip PRIZED if you have DAZZLELIGHT or SHROOM; it’s a beautiful satiny highlighter, but it’s easily duped by other existing highlighter shades.
• Skip TO PAMPER if you have CALL MY BLUFF, as they’re very similar.
• Skip PALACE PEDIGREED if you have PLUM DRESSING or NOCTURNELLE, they’re all close siblings.
• Skip RUSSIAN BLUE if you have PLUMAGE, which is a slightly lighter version of Russian Blue but with much better pay off and texture.
• Skip BEST OF BREED if you have CHILLIN’, as they serve essentially the same function, though Chillin’ is shimmer-free.
• Skip DOCILE if you have CULTURED, LUMINARY, ICESCAPE, ETC.; it’s just an icy milky pink with iridescent shimmer–very pretty but there are many past and present options, too.
• Skip LAP OF LUXURY if you have ODYSSEY; though Odyssey is a lipstick, the two are similar enough that you could skip if you’re on a budget.
• Skip STYLE PREDATOR if you have STRAW HARVEST–the two are close in color, but the reflective qualities differ.
• Skip LITHE if you have DAZZLERAY or JARDIN AIRES–unless you want something with less frost in it.
• Skip A QUIET ROAR if you have ALMONDINE; they’re pretty much indistinguishable from each other.
• Skip SCHEMER if you have GOLD DUST–the former seems a little more pigmented, but they’re similar enough.
• Skip POWERFUL if you have INFUSED WITH GLAM; they are so close, I’m not even sure what the difference is between the two.
• Skip OF ROYALTY if you have VG GAGA, SNOB, SAINT GERMAIN, ETC.; they’re all quite similar.

Don’t forget to…

Check your stash for SHOWSTOPPER (repromote), SKINTONE 2 (repromote), ANTIQUE GREEN (repromote), GOLD STROKE (repromote), LIQUID LUREX (repromote), MAUVEMENT (repromote), NOTORIETY (repromote), OLD GOLD (permanent).

Recommendations by Skin Tone

Please note that this section is merely suggesting shades that would complement a particular skin tone better than other shades, but these lists are meant to be rather exhaustive of the entire collection; it’s not reflective of must-haves for your skin tone. When it comes to cooler/warmer skin tones, these are products that lean noticeably cool/warm and therefore complement the corresponding skin tone better (but it does not mean you can’t wear a warmer product if you’re cooler!).

• Best Picks for Lighter Skin Tones: Palace Pedigreed Eyeshadow Quad; Superslick Liquid Eyeliners: Defiantly Feline, Signature Blue, Marked for Glamour; Pigments: Antique Green, Mauvement, Lithe; Lipglasses: Fancy Cat, Best of Breed, Docile; Lipsticks: Kittenish, Pet Me Please, Aristo-cat, Cunning, Out Minxed, Of Royalty, Superior; Pet Me Mineralize Blush
• Best Picks for Medium Skin Tones: Burmese Beauty Eyeshadow Quad; Superslick Liquid Eyeliners: Treat Me Nice, Signature Blue, Smoky Heir, Pure Show; Pigments: Antique Green, Gold Stroke, Old Gold; Lipglasses: Spree, Lap of Luxury, Wildly Refined; Lipsticks: Kittenish, Drive Me Wild, Out Minxed, Powerful; Pet Me Mineralize Blush
• Best Picks for Darker Skin Tones: Leopard Luxe Eyeshadow Quad; Superslick Liquid Eyeliners: Treat Me Nice, Signature Blue, Smoky Heir, Pure Show; Pigments: Antique Green, Gold Stroke, Bloodline, Old Gold; Lipglasses: Lap of Luxury; Lipsticks: Kitennish, Cunning, Drive Me Wild, The Prowl
• Best Picks for Cooler Skin Tones: Burmese Beauty Eyeshadow Quad, Palace Pedigreed Eyeshadow Quad, Superslick Liquid Eyeliners: Nocturnal, Signature Blue, Smoky Heir, Marked for Glamour; Pigments: Antique Green, Gold Stroke, Bloodline, Mauvement, Old Gold; Lipglasses: Fancy Cat, Spree, Best of Breed, Docile, Lap of Luxury, Jealous; Lipsticks: Kittenish, Pet Me Please, Aristo-cat, Of Royalty, Superior, Cunning; The Soft Meow Mineralize Blush
• Best Picks for Warmer Skin Tones: Burmese Beauty Eyeshadow Quad, Leopard Luxe Eyeshadow Quad; Superslick Liquid Eyeliners: Defiantly Feline, Treat Me Nice, Signature Blue, Smoky Heir, Pure Show; Pigments: Antique Green, Gold Stroke, Lithe, Old Gold; Lipglasses: Schemer, ; Lipsticks: Kttenish, Liquid Lurex, Aristo-cat, Drive Me Wild, Out Minxed; Pet Me Mineralize Blush

What are you loving? What are you looking forward to?