0 MAC Nocturnal pigment sets haul

It's been quite sometime since I last updated this blog and during this period of time, I've acquired a no of new make up items, but have no time to review them as of yet due to work commitments. Anyway here are some of the cosmetics from my latest haulage.

From MAC nocturnals,

I bought the purple pigment set and the black and gold pigment set. For the price of one set of pigments, it's high value for money as compared to their full sized ones. So if u have not tried MAC pigments before, this is a good time to get their pigment sets and try them out while getting value for your money.

Each set contains of 2 glitters and 3 pigments. The pigments are multi purpose and depending on the color, u can either use them as eye color, highlighers for the face and even lip colors. As for the glitters, as they are really chunky i would advise using a synthetic damp brush to press them onto the eyelid (withe a GOOD eye primer). The pigmetns are pretty ok for me to handle, just that the glitters doesn't adhere too well to the skin and need a bit more work for me to apply without getting glitters all over my face.

Packaging

I prefer this packaging to the previous years packaging for the pigments (excluding the crushed metal pigment sets) as the opening of the bottle is bigger and easier for me to pick up the color using my brush and slightly more stable the the old pigment set bottles which were slightly thinner and more unstable. 

Will update this post for swatches of the pigments at a later time. =) Have a happy holidays!

0 MAC Guilty Passions Haul - Crushed metal pigments

I swear this yr's Holiday collection has to be the biggest holiday MAC haul that i've ever hauled. I find it quite confusing that MAC has divided up the holiday collection in to two parts - Fabulousness (Face kits, brush kits, Eye bags, Lip bags) and Guilty passions (which consist of the crushed metal pigments & lipgloss sets) . Eh why can't they just launch everything in just one big collection XD...

Initially i had wanted to pass on completely Guilty Passions, But when i saw the crushed metal pigments, I fell in love instantly with the colors and ended up buying the Tenderly warm crushed metal pigment set (Gold / Brown) and the Sweetly Smokey set (Purple/Pink). So far I've only used the Tenderly warm pigment set and I'm loving it, especially Ever elegant (the dark brown color). It is a perfect combo with Silk stocking (Gold) from the same set The other colors in the set kinda looks similar to some other colors from other crushed metal pigment sets which I own previously. 

Without further ado here are pics and swatches of the products. 

I feel that the star color for the Tenderly warm crushed metal pigment set has to be Ever elegant. Even though it's still quite chunky, but as compared to the rest of the colors in this set, It's not as glittery and has very good color pay off and blends very smoothly. To be honest, the main reason why I bought this set was because of Ever elegant.

As for the Sweetly smokey set, my  colors has to be Feminity. Feminity kinda reminds me of MAC Stars N rocket e/s but it's like a more sheer and frosted version of it. I really like the blue undertone in Feminity. It is also very pretty when u apply a bit of it on the lips when wearing other pink or fuschia or purple lippies. Feminity pairs very well with Dusty Desire giving a purplish bluish kinda smokey eyes. 

Tips for applying the crushed metal pigments:

1. Apply excess loose powder under the eyes before applying the pigments, so that if there's any fall out, the loose powder is able to catch the fallout and u can easily dust it away after completing the eye make up

2. Use either fingers or a synthetic brush like the #242 to PACK / press on colors. Blend out softly and gently. Don't blend too hard as it may cause excess fall out of eye

3. Can be used wet for a stronger color intensit.

4. Eye primer is higher recommended to use with the crushed metal pigments so that it can adhere to the eyes better

And last but not least I won't suggest using more than 3 colors of  the crushed metal pigments together on the eyes as it may be a bit too glittery or frosted. 

0 MAC Vera Neumann Haul

Oopsss... Bought these 2 mths back but have not got about reviewing these till now...

Being a die hard blush addict, I bought both pearlmatte face powders in Sunday afternoon and flower fantasy. Just like the previous pearlmatte face powder from MAC in lilyland, these face powders have a sheer finish, reminiscent of the sheertone blushers, only that MAC has added in a highlighting area in each of the face powders. U can mix the colors or use the colors seperately by themselves. As the words and ladybird pic is embossed right into the powder, I don't have to worry that they will go away after a few uses.

  

 Flower fantasy pearlmatte face powder

 Sunday afternoon pearlmatte face powder

Being a sucker for greens and turqoise colors, I also bought the crushed metal pigment set in Butterfly party (loving the combination of purple turqoise, silver and blue in this set). Also bought Aloha crushed metal pigment (though Aloha kinda reminded me a little of the warm one in the one released from Spring color forcast). As the crush metal pigments are much more chunkier than the normal pigments which are much finer in texture, I usually will crush the pigment on my hand into smaller bits before patting the color on my lid either with a 242 brush or fingers. I find that synthetic brush like 242 works better for the crush metal pigments rather than brushes with natural bristles. Would advise patting on the lid rather than sweeping, as sweeping the pigments will cause quite a fair bit of fall out

 Butterfly party crushed metal pigment

Aloha crushed metal pigment

Also bought the plushglass in confetti. I like the coral-ness of this plushglass which provides some color on my lips and is non sticky, and as well as plump up my lips. I love coral lipstuff loadss..so I had to get this.

 Confetti plush glass

0 MAC Surf Baby collection

Didn't really bought much from this collection as usually I'm not a bronzer / summer kinda person. The only items I bought were Sun blonde e/s, Surf USA e/s, the cheek powder (yes, by now all of u would know that I'm totally a blush person) and the Surf the ocean crushed metal pigments (the silver - gold stack).

The star product which attracted me the most was the turqoise e/s in Surf USA. Being a turqoise e/s addict, I had to swatch this on my hand when I saw it. It looked beautiful in the pan and swatched beautifully. It has a wonderful color pay off and excellent texture. For ladies who love colors and turqoise especially, it's a must have. It isn't similar to any other MAC turqoise / teal e/s that I own.

 Click for enlarged pic. Left to right: Surf USA, Parrot, Big T, Pompous Blue

Click for enlarged pic. Left to right: Surf Baby, Parrot, Big T, Pompous blue

As for Sun blonde e/s, it's kinda a mustard Yellow. It's not Yellow Yellow as Bright Sunshine (a PRO color) or chrome yellow is, but still a pretty wearable color. It's kinda similar to gorgeous gold but minus the green undertone that gorgeous gold has. It also has a pretty decent texture and color payoff. 

 Click for enlarged pic. From left to right: Sun blonde, Gorgeous gold, Going bananas, Bright sunshine, Chrome yellow

Click for enlarged pic. From left to right: Sun blonde, Gorgeous gold, Going bananas, Bright sunshine, Chrome yellow

I understand from some posts in Specktra that some ladies have difficulty in making the crushed metallic pigments to work for them. The crushed metallic pigments have thicker consistency than the normal pigments and yes, they need to be crushed before using (hence the name Crushed). They swatched wonderfully on the hand, but when applied, isn't as pigmented, BUT, the color can be built up. I find that instead of using a cream base, a powder e/s base is better to help the crushed pigments to adhere to the skin as I find that the crushed metallic pigments has a bit of a creamy texture to it. Less is more, slowly build the color instead of loadin it all at once on the eye, other wise u might experience lots of fall out. So far, I've tried the silver and the gold on my eyes and I'm loving both. The silver kinda reminds me of Pro pigment in platinum and I have nothing similar to the gold. It looks somewhat of a tarnished gold. Definitely not as yellow as golden lemon pigment.  I find the crushed metallic pigment personally to be quite a good buy than the normal full size bottle of pigments as u get a lot of product and only a little is needed for application. I can see this lasting forever for me. Here's Surf the ocean crushed metal pigments which i bought.

 Click for enlarged pic

Click for enlarged pic

Click for enlarged pic

Last but not least of all, the My paradise cheek powder. This was the first one to be sold out at our local MAC counters - most probably due to its beautiful hibiscus imprint of it. Even though i've 100 odd blushers from MAC, I don't have any thing that's similar to it. It's kinda of a orangy coral with more orange rather than pink undertones which most of my other coral blushers have. It's definitely not similar to Goddess blush (also a LE) which is much more orangy than this. To be honest, I bought this mostly for collecting purpose and I probably won't be using this. I don't wanna ruin the Hibiscus imprint :P

 Click for enlarged pic

Swatch of Hibiscus blush to be coming up soon....

0 My make up collection part III - MAC pigments

If you are by now wondering whether my make up solely consists of just mac products, the answer is no. Although the majority of my cosmetics is from MAC (about 70 - 75%), I do have other brands as well. I Just want to be more organized in my posts - I will first post all my mac make up first, after that I will post pics of cosmetics from other brands. So here's part III of my make up collection - MAC pigments ( a multipurpose product that can either be used on the eyes, lips or cheeks depending on the color)

 Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

 Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

 Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

 Click for enlarged pic and names of pigments

 Solar bits in Sunpower and Black ore; Stacked pigments from Spring color forecast '10

 Mini pigment vials and sample pigments.

0 MAC pigments -green

I love love love MAC pigments, but unfortunately most of the people around me (both my beauty junkie friends and non beauty junkies) find them a bit messy to use. But wth, the color intensity is much stronger than the normal e/s ... and I find MAC's pigments to be one of the best in the market (the other is MUFE, but I have a problem with some of MUFE's strong pigment colors, they actually stain my eyes, but no such problem with MAC pigments)

What are pigments

Most people would define pigments as loose powder e/s, but actually pigments are pretty versatile. Depending on the color, they could be :

1. mixed with a gloss to become lip color, or 
2. used as highlighting powders / blush colors and
3. they could also be used in bodypainting.
4. Eyelining if mixed with a mixing medium

.So in MAC's website, they are put under Multi-purpose products rather than in any specific one category. They are definitely much more pigmented than your normal eyeshadow.

How to apply pigments

For application of pigments i would recommend using a MAC 242 brush to PAT on the e/s instead of sweeping to prevent fall out. And in order to prevent fall out on all over the face, dust a layer of excess loose powder under the eye area. So after u are done, if there's any fall out u can just dust them away together with the loose powder from the face.And u can either use them wet or dry

As for packaging, I still prefer the old packaging. They are much more stable than the new ones, which are slightly taller and the openings smaller than the old ones. They feel very wobbly to me. Here's the comparison of the old and new packaging of the pigment bottles. And obviously, the old one contains more pigments.

Without further ado, the following are pics and swatches of my green mac pigments

From top to bottom, left to right: Pastorale, Glided green, Spiritualized, Golder's green, Antique gvreen & Nightlight. All LE

From left to right: Pastorale, Glided green, Spiritualized, Golder's green, Antique green & Nightlight

From top to bottom, left to right: Kelly green, Landscape green, Emerald green, True Chartreuse & Teal

Frome left to right: Kelly green, Landscape green, Emerald green, True Chartreuse and Teal