MAC Tropical Taboo Collection (2013)

cr8zy4MAC said:

Awwww, thanks BeautyByLele, I love purple. I picked these glasses up at SEE. They have a lot of fun glasses there!

It's one of those stores that you tell yourself you're going to behave, but that usually doesn't happen!

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liba said:

So on to the eye shadows….

Mixed bag here, people. Be aware!

Some of these are much more glittery than others. The glittery ones aren't going to magically get un-glittery if you pick the right swirls, so if you like the color, you will have to live with the glitter. Not all of them are like this, at least and ALSO, I tested the glittery ones with the duo-fiber brush that's being re-promoted with the collection and that brush does help cut down on excess glitter and fallout really well - so well that I think I'm going to grab one to deal with my more glittery MES just in general.

My favorite from the shadows is Tropica. Not only is the color really lovely - sort of a purplish light blue with a pink cast and a very duo-chrome effect as the light hits it - but it's shimmery but not glittery. I don't have another MES with quite this color. It's a cool tone but has enough pink in it that it's very wearable even on me, who doesn't do well with every cool blue shadow by a long shot. It's going to look great with some purple liner. .

The same thing goes for Cha-Cha-Cha. We've gotten this color in multiple collections but this time, the chartreuse color is extra pigmented, even applied dry and the deep blue comes nice and separate in chunks so that you aren't forced to swirl them together, so yes, new and improved, but it is the exact same color we have seen before in Jade's Fortune and Water. I'm passing, but if you love that bright chartreuse color and love MES, you will be happier with this one than the previous versions by a lot.

Dare To Bare we've also seen a bunch of times. It's cream! It goes on very smoothly and the one I tried only had a tiny touch of glitter. It's a high quality MES, but I bet everyone has something like this already.

One thing to note: All these MES work really well dry - I didn't even bother to use Fix+ with any of them and got plenty of pigmentation on all of them. Using them wet might make a few of them more opaque, but most of them are fine the way they are dry and might even run into problems if applied wet and get streaky or clumpy - I don't think that brown in Bossa Blue could handle too much moisture when applied, for example, but it's plenty pigmented on its own. Cha-Cha-Cha is quite bright applied totally dry without a base, but you could get it very dense with a little extra effort too.

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Richelle83 said:

Rio and 159 for me. Liba made the brush sound like a magical wand! Plus I have Triple Fusion and Smooth Merge that would probably work better with the brush.

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IHughes said:

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liba said:

That 159 is mandatory if you're getting any of these MSFs. Seriously, any other brush and you are going to turn into a sci-fi disco robot lady with how metallic they are.   I don't think I've seen another MAC product that was so dependent on the brush, except maybe the Pressed Pigments. Question: Do you like the sound of a bright Barbie pink highlight?  If so, Rio is for you! Wow, sorry to hear it was such a total shit show (lol, I didn't even try to politely censor that for obvious reasons). I am so glad I had already made up my mind to not even bother with anything that's online only. Sounds like a gigantic fiasco of ultimate drama. I don't even dare check out that thread - I like a quiet life! :wtf2: The sheen is very strongly colored, FYI. It's just that you only see it when the light hits it - the base color is sheer. Rio is the same way. Lust you can see the base color more, so it's a bit more blush-like. It's also the most gentle color, even if it's the most pigmented all around and also looks the most metallic overall. None of these MSFs are for the natural makeup lover. That would turn the internet into the intershreds.  That 159 is a magical wand when it comes to these extreme skin finishes! :2cents:

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matchachoco said:

Trying not to want the blushes or Narcissus...

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Richelle83 said:

Yes!!!

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liba said:

So, the blushes are also a little bit different and offbeat on first look too.

Exotic Ember: OK this is a very deceptive color. It might seem like the no-brainer color for the darker skinned folks out there but beware. My MA was telling me he tried it out on a couple of darker skins and it went ashy and while I was there checking everything out, one of the MAs who I love stopped to take a look too - she's very dark, probably NW50, and it went ashy on her too. The orange part has got a white base hiding in it and it's just a problematic shade. Meanwhile on my NC15 skin, it looked awesome - like everything I wanted Earthshine to be on me but wasn't. It was a warm brown with an orange almost-duochrome effect and really accentuated my bone structure. Earthshine, by contrast, looked muddy on me, just dirty looking and flat in comparison. The finish on these blushes are a little more satin than the ones from Apres Chic, which didn't appear glittery but in certain lights were quite sparkly unless you buffed them in a bit. These new ones will be less sparkly, but they do have a noticeable sheen and will still get a little sparkly in direct sunlight. I don't find this a problem, because it does result in a radiant effect, but for the sparkle-o-phobes out there, it's something to be aware of.

So to talk more about the sheen - you really can get a two-tone effect with all of these blushes. With Simmer, when you swirl it all together, the color showed quite berry on me. It's not like Ring of Saturn, which is much browner, even though it sort of looks like it. Anyhow, it looked like a berry color, but when the light hit it, you would see this pale apricot highlight that was magnificent. I love Simmer - it looks like the most normal of all the blushes but when worn, it's the most unusual. I'm not sure how this is going to translate on darker skins, but my guess is it's going to be fine, and not so ashy. It's less shimmery than Exotic Ember by a bit.

Sweet Samba is gorgeous too. It's better to swirl this one together, as the pink was a bit stiff on its own, but mingled with the beige, the texture became really smooth, buttery and blendable. If you have Hot Nights, you could consider skipping Sweet Samba, but SS does have that beautiful MB quality of melding with your bare skin in this lovely transparent way. It almost looks like a cheek tint or stain, rather than being a powder product. There are cool, white sheeny shimmers in the beige on this one, so for very dark skin, you might need to swirl hunt for one without too much brown. For pale and medium skin tones, the brown is a great addition to the hot pink, so I for one am going to look for one with plenty of beige. It softens the pink in just the right way and you get a bit of the beige as a highlight sheen when the light hits it, just like Simmer and Exotic Ember, to a lesser extent.

All the blushes look even nicer with the MSFs on top, since the MSFs sort of unite the very noticeable two-tone quality of the blushes under a single roof, so to speak. Just don't put those darn MSFs all over the whole cheek or they will overwhelm the less metallic blushes.

Let's put it this way - when I first tried everything on, I was ready to skip it ALL. But after a few hours of playing and experimenting, I got the drift of what was going on and am now getting all the blushes and MSFs. I still think these will be for the summer and early fall only, but unlike last year's collection, you don't need a tan to really rock everything. I didn't let myself get tanned this year and yet everything in this collection looks great.

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Jol0 said:

Credit to IG user: http://statigr.am/p/481682324753571586_10260342 Look at this beauty! Just want some swatches

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liba said:

OK so a little more wrap-up on the MSFs before going on the blushes. Adored is going to be amazing on asian skin tones, and fair NC skin. It might be good for counteracting redness in a fair NW skin too, but the paler shade in it has an almost khaki beige element so there's green and yellow to it that could also seem a bit dull for some NW. The coral provides the sheen color and is very cute and adorable. Rio is very pink and is going to be good for the most people I think. Lust is more subtle but with this metallic thing going on, I don't know if anyone who loves subtle makeup is going to think of it as subtle enough. None of these are what I'd personally want to use as a blush, due to the extreme metallic thing - all of these MSFs go on dry the way the old MSFs would apply with Fix+.

I hope I'm not making the MSFs sound too scary. I like extreme makeup looks and am really open to new ideas and even I was scratching my head a bit at first, but after wearing Adored for the rest of the day and getting to see it in full sun and sunset and indoor nighttime light, my final verdict is it's GORGEOUS and I am past the initial shock of the finish. If you're going to try these on at a store, try and check them in natural light or just figure that however extreme they may look in the florescent lights of a MAC counter, they're going to look much more flattering out in the daylight by far. Don't be afraid!!!!

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IHughes said:

Lady at Play is part of the permanent Mineralize lipstick collection but I just wanted to say it's a gorgeous colour!!

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singer82 said:

I'm excited to see the Fall collection's color story!

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