Round-up: MAC x Maleficent Collection Overview & Thoughts
MAC x Maleficent Collection
MAC x Maleficent Collection will be available online May 8th and in select MAC stores and Macy’s locations on May 15th. Internationally, it will be available at select MAC stores and Selfridges in June 2014 (excluding China). The quality of the collection is fairly good, but it’s just disappointing to me as a long-time customer, collector, and fan of the brand. It’s nowhere near as exciting or interesting as Maleficent’s Venomous Villains collection. This year’s collection has a lot of repromotes of permanent products, and the few new shades are more dupable than unique. I like the idea of smaller, more edited collections, but if it’s mostly repeats, then it’s less exciting–and Maleficent deserves better than that. Even the packaging is more standard than interesting/different (Alluring Aquatic’s packaging completely overshadows this in terms of uniqueness/originality).
Im looking forward to the sculpting powder!
Yay!!
I’m a huge MAC fan but since that nude collection in January I’ve been underwhelmed with their releases this year. Do you have a favorite collection from them in 2014? Am I maybe missing something great and just too focused on other brands? I like the idea of Maleficent but the actual product and packaging are just not compelling. You look amazing in reds generally and even those shades didn’t quite hit the levels of so many I’ve seen on you in the past. Oh well, more money elsewhere.
I like a lot of Alluring Aquatic, even though the colors kind of read fall-ish to me and aren’t quite what I’d expect in their big summer collection. I also liked that MAC made some lipsticks and blushes permanent this year. None of the collections really hit it out of the park for me, personally, yet!
Thanks! I’ll check out the aquatic. Those eye shadows do look lovely.
At some point, in any brand….repeats are inevitable…..and tweak the color slightly….to give the product a new name and packaging.
Oh, yeah, I agree. It’s hard to be unique/original in the grand scheme of things, even more so when it’s a brand like MAC that has an extensive catalog of shades released.
I was extremely disappointed with this collection. For a theme like this, I did not expect all of these permanent shades.
Me neither!
The throwback to the old collection made me wish they’d just re-promote that. It was released about 6 months before I got really interested in makeup, so I missed it. None of their new stuff is a must have for me so far this year. The things I was interested in were a real let down in quality 🙁
I definitely think having a past version really hurt them, because you saw the better version and know they could have done more!
Ugh. I love Sleeping Beauty (favorite Disney movie EVER) and thought that MAC could do so much better than this. Where are the greens and purples? I’ll definitely be skipping this.
It’s really easily duped!
This is pretty disappointing though not at all shocking. MAC has showcased so many things over the years that eventually you’ll see a ton of repeats, which is fine I suppose. I’m just more or less bummed out by the packaging than the product. I know her wings are a huge focus for the new movie plot but anyone who has seen or knows of Sleeping Beauty knows Maleficent’s iconic horns. Maybe they also didn’t include the horns because they wanted to deviate away from the images used for Venomous Villians? Even though Maleficent is my favorite character in all of Disney, I’ll be skipping this collection.
Such a bummer that as a fan, you’ll be skipping 🙁
A character like Maleficent deserves an over the top collection. The lipstick colour and black eyeshadow I expected, but the rest of the collection falls short. The packaging is horrible. Overall this collection is very disappointing.
It would have been fun to see a better variety of shades/textures!
Most boring MAC collection ever! Money saved 🙂
Phew!
I was looking foward to this collection so much and then everything was something I already own or not exciting. I agree that venomous villains was great and I bought a lot from that. Maleficent is one of my favorite characters and this collection was such a let down! They really could have put more effort and made it amazing. It’s almost like this collection was an afterthought!
I agree, Traci!
The lipstick and lip gloss are the only things that catch my eye. This collection looks very simple and basic which is not good in my eyes.
Everything is just so easily duped 🙁
Wow. I was literally looking forward to this collection since I heard they were going to be coming out with one for the movie. I was hoping it would be a lot like the venomous villains because that was soooo pretty and I was never able to get any of that one!!! I am sooo disappointed with this collection. They literally took FOUR PERMANENT shadows and slapped a Maleficent logo on it and called it a collection. The lipstick is just another bright red and the powders are a dime a dozen. I won’t be purchasing anything from this… tsk, tsk, MAC!!!!
Such a shame! 🙁
I completely agree, I think I’ll be giving this collection a pass.
Aww! I totally understand 🙁
That lipstick looks really good. That was the product I was looking forward too.
Yay!
This doesn’t really look hugely exciting, like you said all the products are pretty dupable, I think I’ll focus more on getting products from the Alluring Aquatic collection instead 🙂 xx
Sounds like a good idea to me!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who was disappointed with this collection.. I was so excited about it when it was first announced 🙁
It’s just such a weird collection to decide to go really simple, edited, and fill it with permanent products – why do it on such an iconic character and collaboration?
I’ve been wanting sculpt and in this cute packaging… how can I resist?!
Yay!
I agree that they could have done so much more with this one. Yet, I’m buying Sculpt for sure 🙂
Yay for Sculpt!
I was so excited for a mac collection with Disney, I was waiting for this collection and now I am so disapointed. This collection is so boring!!
It is underwhelming!
Well to be completely honest, it really does go with the makeup Angelina’s wearing in the movie, so why would they go with bold purples and glitter when her style is more sophisticated evil than Disney evil? The only thing I’m not interested in is the quad, and only because I already have Carbon, so this collection’s fairly exciting to me anyway! I’m in love with the sculpting powder already.
I could easily imagine shades inspired by the story, the character, wardrobe choices, etc. If they’re just going to show you how to “get her look” using their existing products, that could have just been a face chart, IMO! 🙂 It just doesn’t seem like a real collection or a collaboration to me, but I’m glad these are products that interest you! The eyeshadows are classic permanent shades.
Totally, they should have just released a face chart, haha.
This collection looks completely boring and underwhelming to me. There isn’t a single item that I would think to buy. MAC seems to have run out of ideas when they put this collection together. From the packaging alone, it looks more like costume-y makeup rather than makeup you’d want to splurge on. I don’t know why MAC bothered with this collection unless they were going to put more effort and originality into it. Well, at least I know I can save my money with this collection.
More money for something else more interesting 🙂
It feel like they didn’t even try with this collection. There are so many other possibilities they could have explored. Think it was the timeline of launching it around the release of the movie?
It’s hard to say, but I doubt it was because they weren’t prepared!
I think… I was most disappointed in the packaging on this collection actually. The colours are warmer than I’m really into, but that’s fine. It just…well, as you say, it doesn’t really look that special next to the Alluring Aquatic stuff! Especially since they could have done something so cool with the Maleficent theme…
Maybe because this time it’s for a specific movie, Disney had a say in what the packaging was going to be like, and they wanted just that batwing image?
I’m sure Disney had plenty of control over the end result (packaging, presentation, etc.), since they’re, you know, DISNEY! though I wonder who decided on just the standard compacts, just glossy.
If this was the best a Disney designer could have gotten collaborating with MAC, man, give me that job and I’d do it a hundred times better with zilch in designing knowledge.
I will probably buy the lipstick. I can never get too many red lipsticks 🙂 The sculpting powder and the Natural Beauty powder will be swatched at least.
As for the rest it’s just a big sigh.
At least something appealed to you 🙂
I was really, really looking forward to this collection – I have a penchant for characters with a “villainous” and powerful nature and Maleficent counts herself amongst them, even more so when portrayed by one of my favourite actress.
Other than the lipstick, there was nothing that particularly caught my eye. It is such a shame because I saw the packaging for Venomous Villains and I am stunned. But this was kinda subtle and although I like the wings a lot, it didn’t stood out as much as the Alluring Aquatic collection – that collection really pops and literally screams “look at me, drool over me and cry when you can’t get me”. 🙁
Yes, it definitely pales in comparison when you have Alluring Aquatic right on its heels! 🙁
I think the lips and the powders are the stars here.
Will you be getting anything from this launch?
I came across something that says the Alluring Aquatic collection even won an award for best (summer collection) packaging.
On another note, a big part of my high expectation on this collection is Angelina Jolie being Maleficent. Even though she may not have had a hand on the collection, I can’t help but think about how she would have curated this collection.
Jolie looks stunning as Maleficent, which I think really set the stage for the buzz of the launch of the movie + collection!
Not even close to Venomous Villains , i…. want to cry < x~~U
Aww!
I clicked on the Venomous Villains link and, yeah, that was awesome!! I would have loved any of those products! I really don’t want any of this collection and I think it deserved a heck of a lot better.
Agreed – so much build-up for the movie + collection in general, so this was a let-down!
I don’t understand what wearable neutrals have to do with Maleficent. Their Venomous Villains collection was so much better!
A few readers have pointed out that it more readily replicates the makeup used on Jolie in the movie (at least from the clips released), so that might be why they went that route. As a customer/fan, I totally disagree with that approach, but that’s the only explanation that makes any sense at all.
Is it similar to the artchie girls Pearlmat face from the Betty line?
No, I don’t think so!
This collection has already been available online for almost 24 hours, and the only thing that’s already sold out, is the sculpting powder. Which, is available most of the time on the MAC website, only difference, Maleficent special edition packaging; therefore bumping up the cost on the product by 6 or 7 dollars. Such a shame.
I know a lot of people wanted to get Sculpt in its own compact – MAC used to sell Sculpt in a compact, I believe, for a few years, but they stopped so now it’s only in palette form!
I’m debating the lip liner. I can’t tell if it’s a unique color that matches the lipstick or if it is easily duped. Also, is the lipstick close to “Red Racer” (I have it) or should I invest in this “Maleficent” one? I’m a collector of red lipsticks just don’t want to have identical colors, ha!
If you have Red Racer, I would skip the lipstick. They’re not exact dupes, but they’re close enough that I don’t think you’d need both if you really want a diverse selection of reds in your stash.
All the lip products have different names but they are all the same color and the lipstick is not a matte which I prefer for red, so I got the liner to help make it more precise. I have yellow undertones and prefer a blue based red, this is a very warm red…not my fav.