Do you ever wonder why it's named that

[jardinaires]

Some of my favorite products at MAC have such strange color names. Phone number eye kohl, Romp eye shadow, Contrast eye shadow, Beauty sleep eye shadow, Subculture lip pencil.. but WHY were those names chosen??? It seems like such a random thing for a color of eye kohl to be "phone number". Don't get me wrong, I love the creativity of the names (even though recently that's been depleting).. But has anyone else ever wondered about these color names? And what names are you just super curious about?

That's one reason I loved the A Muse collection because since it was inspired by Edie Sedgwick, a ton of the names were a tribute to her films and things she was involved in. That was really cool to me.

 

[Jujubegirl]

I'm never curious about them. They have so many products, as do other companies, that I'm sure it's hard to crank out names. They probably have a big list of names they constantly add to, and then pull from, when they have a new product.

That said, I think it would be fun to be one of the marketing people who comes up with names.

 

[hello_kitty]

The only name that bothers me is "Orange" e/s. Compared to all the other names, that is so boring, lol!

Sushi Flower is a bit strange now that I think about it...

 

[Meryl]

Someone has a great job, thinking up cute names for eyeshadows and lipsticks. I wish I had that job!

The only name I think is wrong, is Underage... I can't use a gloss with a name like that. I'm too old. lol

 

[aziajs]

I wonder about the names too. Sometimes they are so fitting to the colors IE. Newly Minted, Gold Deposit, 6th Sin, Underage. But sometimes I have no idea what the correlation is.

 

[amoona]

I so want the job of naming the products haha. How cool is that?! I always wonder where they come up with names for things. Who named Girl About Town lipstick? Or Lady Danger lipstick? Or Swimming eyeshadow? What do they mean?! haha

 

[redambition]

i remember reading a snippet of how the names are (were) decided... so i had to go and find it.

credit: Blogdorf Goodman, who in turn got it from a book called "Lipstick" by Jessica Pallington:

Quote:

A snippet concerning the naming of MAC lipsticks: MAC's Frank Toskan explains that their colors are created by a group of makeup artists, and that once again, the naming process is a matter of colors being associated with words that come to mind. A purple will be looked at , and someone might mention that it looks like cellophane. It looks like plastic. Then the word comes...."Plastique". Or a color is looked at and someone will say, "Look at that color, that looks like ecstacy"-and theres your name. Naming colors is an evocative process. Look at the color....what do you see?

 

[Esperanza]

Last time I went to MAC, I asked the mua about the name of the lipglass Prrr, the story is kinda cute.

A few years ago, they released a Valentine collection and all the packages were made of fake fur, different hairs etc... Prrr lipglass was released at this time (probably in another kind of package with pink fur as well) and during the naming process, one of the mua found that the fake fur felt (lots of "f" sorry lol!!Try to say that as faster as you can hehe) just like his/her cat's. And then he/she just imitated the purr of the cat... which naturally became Prrr

How about that?!

 

[MAC_Whore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meryl Someone has a great job, thinking up cute names for eyeshadows and lipsticks. I wish I had that job!......

The lucky person who has that job is Mr. James Gager, VP of Creative Development at MAC

 

[pumpkincat210]

I like the paint names... all different styles of painting and having to do with paint... stilife, architecture, chiarascuro, base light, etc...

 

[contrabassoon]

Canton Candy is my favourite! I think it really fits the paint, which actually looks like candy.

 

[Meryl]

Years ago, when Wuss first came out, I was buying it and asked the MA why they would name a l/s with a word that had a negative connotation. Wuss only meant weakling or wimp.

The MA told me that one of the people who was in charge of coming up with names had a sister who he called "Wuss" and thought that would be a nice colour for her. So he gave it his pet nickname for her.

 

[coachkitten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAC_Whore The lucky person who has that job is Mr. James Gager, VP of Creative Development at MAC

I would love to by a fly on the wall in Mr Gager's office!

 

[MAC_Whore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachkitten I would love to by a fly on the wall in Mr Gager's office!

You and me both!

I had a chance to have a couple of conversations with him during Fashion Week. Quite a gentleman.

 

[Patricia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esperanza Last time I went to MAC, I asked the mua about the name of the lipglass Prrr, the story is kinda cute. A few years ago, they released a Valentine collection and all the packages were made of fake fur, different hairs etc... Prrr lipglass was released at this time (probably in another kind of package with pink fur as well) and during the naming process, one of the mua found that the fake fur felt (lots of "f" sorry lol!!Try to say that as faster as you can hehe) just like his/her cat's. And then he/she just imitated the purr of the cat... which naturally became Prrr How about that?!

cuuuute!!! prrr is one of my fave colours!

 

[bnbs2x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jardinaires Some of my favorite products at MAC have such strange color names. Phone number eye kohl, Romp eye shadow, Contrast eye shadow, Beauty sleep eye shadow, Subculture lip pencil.. but WHY were those names chosen??? It seems like such a random thing for a color of eye kohl to be "phone number". Don't get me wrong, I love the creativity of the names (even though recently that's been depleting).. But has anyone else ever wondered about these color names? And what names are you just super curious about? That's one reason I loved the A Muse collection because since it was inspired by Edie Sedgwick, a ton of the names were a tribute to her films and things she was involved in. That was really cool to me.

yeah i completely missed out on the collection and im kicking myself for it! i am obsessed with edie, she made andy what he was!

 

[BeautyPsycho]

Yeah, that is such awesome job!

I know OPI nail polish first comes up with names, and then with colors... I wonder if MAC does it like that too?

 

[magia]

Well, I do think about names of the colours. Usually they are funny and fit to the colour well, but sometimes they are a bit too boring. Neo-scifi's Pleasureseeker lipstick is still a mystery to me! It doesn't fit so well to me.

 

[aziajs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpkincat210 I like the paint names... all different styles of painting and having to do with paint... stilife, architecture, chiarascuro, base light, etc...

I never even noticed that.

 

[GreekChick]

CB 96 lipstick is named after a designer ( I completetly forget the name, those are his initials, if it comes back to me I'll update). He did a fashion show in 1996 in which he requested that his models wear a particular coral color on their lips. The color was a blend of orange, pink and gold. MAC then created the color for the show and it's been part of the permanent line since.