MAC Divine Night Mineralize Blushes Review, Swatches and Photos

MAC's Divine Night holiday 2013 collection, features three LE Mineralize Blushes: Lured to Love, Talk of the Town and Lavish Living ($32.50 CA/$27.50 US). These LE blushes are housed in matte black and gold packaging special (and more pricey) for the holidays. Photos in natural light on NC 35/40 skin.

MAC Mineralize Blush: Lured to Love, Talk of the Town and Lavish Living

Lured to Love - Described by MAC as a "coral pink base with pink frost", Lured to Love is a light pinky coral blush with a satin (not frost) finish. The texture is fairly powdery and the finish subtle but fresh on my medium skin tone.

Talk of the Town - Strangely described as a "warm brown base with yellow bronze" by MAC, I would describe this as a frosty pinky beige highlighter with iridescent pink pearl.This blush will not give much colour to most skin tones, and because of the heavy frost, you won't want to build this product up of the skin. Pretty, but a light hand is warranted.

Lavish Living - Aptly described by MAC as a "violet with silver pearl base with gold pearl", this blush is medium dark plum with slight grey overtones and fine silver shimmer. The most strongly pigmented of the three, this blush is also the most unique in terms of colour - I can't think of another blush like it. This blush will be amazing on darker skin tones.

I like that MAC offered three blush shades in one collection that are all very different. I also appreciate that they explored the darker end of the blush spectrum, though my feeling is Lavish Living will prove a challenging colour on most. My reservations are that the formula is powdery and the finishes of Talk of the Town and Lavish Living are very frosty for everyday wear. 

Grades: 

Lured to Love: B -

Talk of the Town: B-

Lavish Living: B

MAC Nudes & Metallics Lipstick Review, Swatches and Photos

Despite having caught this collection online before it's availability became widely advertised, half the lipsticks I wanted to buy were already sold out. What I did manage to buy was Wholesome from the Nudes collection and Pre-Raphaelite from the Metallics collection. Both colours are LE ($18.00 CA/$15.00 US) and are still available online at the time of writing this post. Product photo taken with flash, swatches in natural light on NC40 skin.

Wholesome and Pre-Raphaelite

Wholesome - described as "sheer warm, midtone nude" by MAC. I would say this description is accurate except for the "sheer" part. This lipstick has an Amplified finish and delivers opaque, rich colour with just one pass, it is definitely not sheer! The midtone pinky brown beige is an excellent and very flattering nude lip for anyone with a medium skin tone or with naturally red or pigmented lips.

Pre-Raphaelite - described as a "metallic dirty berry" by MAC, it has a frost finish and is a medium dark burgundy that requires two passes for opaque coverage. This shade is very vampy and lovely for fall. It looks flattering both applied sheer and opaque and perfectly suits it's name, calling to mind the lush romantic palette of the art movement.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Venus Verticordia (1868)

Grade: Wholesome, A+; Pre-Raphaelite, B+

J