Woohoo - got my haul today!!!!
I was expecting to love this collection, but I was more in love finally checking it out than expected. Certainly not a collection for everyone, but if you are an old goth lady of a certain age or just like the idea of being in a techno-romantic couture dream, the extra expense won't seem too bad for the exceptional items.
First off, what I skipped:
The pigments - I did like the texture on both of them, which was exceptionally smooth and soft, but I didn't like the jars they came in and I felt like the colors were not very unique. You could easily get away with substituting Bloodline or Winterized for Deceit and Fresh Ice or Hold That Pose or the white or silver in the current blue crushed metal stack for Guise. They're not exact dupes, but you won't be too off base.
Strada - It was VERY pale. I could hardly see it on me and I'm at my palest for the year right now (I actually bought a bottle of Matchmaster foundation in 1.0, instead of 1.5, that's how light I am now between not getting any sun for a few months and using this amazing stuff the past month:
http://caneandaustin.com/main/content/retexturizing-treatment-pads - my skin's starting to get back to the snow white it used to be years ago - call me pleased) Anyhow, back to Strada - I honestly couldn't tell the difference between it and the natural color of my cheeks. I think it would only work if you have completely covered up your natural cheek color with a full coverage foundation, or if you have zero natural cheek color, or finally, if you have skin that's quite dark and want a pale color that will look pretty and pale without being ashen - I think this formula will be good for that because it's exceptionally soft and silky. 'Still was a pass for me for the price and the kind of weird tiny box it came in. I'd say if the color works well for you, the box might be nice for keeping tiny earrings or other little treasures once you're done with the blush, but it's not a size or shape that matches any other MAC product I can think of, so not re-usable in that sense.
For $75, that makeup bag should have been real leather, or at least leather trim. The interior layout of the bag was actually really functional and very desirable, but not for that price. It's definitely a Pugh bag - his regular bags look the same and I'm sure go for at least $800 + but still, bag looked cheap-ish. The kabuki brush was very soft and perfectly constructed so the dome was perfectly even without a hair out of place, but was rather small sized and I didn't care for the square base. I'd take my angled duo-fiber Semi-Precious kabuki over this one any day. The Metal-X shadows hadn't come in - I was really curious about those, but no luck for now.
What I got....with excess zeal:
Nail Polish - Hyper is fantastic - maybe there are dupes out there for it, but I haven't seen them. Vibrant and glowing while still somehow being rather subtle and not garish.I bought it. 'Held off on Ascension and Inert until I could compare them to the Deborah Lippmann Wicked Game and to Light Affair from Love Lace collection, Dec '09. How are the comparisons? Ascension vs. Wicked Game: very very close, Ascension is a touch more vibrant with a bit pinker highlight - it's a bit thicker than the Lippmann one, which is probably why. The Lippmann one is sheerer - you will need 1-2 more coats to get the same result as the MAC color, but it's also smoother without any noticeable streaks, even while slapping it on haphazardly - i'm sure that's the Lippmann brush and the thinner consistency. It's a great color, so it's worth it to get if from either brand, but I'd go with Wicked Game since it's cheaper, but the MAC version beats the Lippmann on purely glossiness and vibrancy alone, but just barely. Inert is very tempting - it's a few tones deeper than Light Affair and reads with a bit less purple than Light Affair. It's certainly one of the best of these grey/taupe/mauve weird neutrals that have been floating around - the application is very smooth and easy and you only need 1 coat for it to be opaque. It's not super glossy either, which is pretty cool - this would be nice on its own without a top coat. I'm not sure if I will splurge on it, but that's only because I have plenty of Light Affair still. LA is a color I get tons of compliments on, though and one of my favorite MAC polishes, so Inert would be a decent replacement. Essie does some colors like these but none of them are as subtle and sophisticated as either LA or Inert, so take that as you will, for the $.
Elude BP - I held off on Snowglobe on the chance I'd prefer Elude. Was I right to do this? YES RESOUNDINGLY. Would everyone be right to do this? Nope. Here are my criteria for it being worth $60 smackeroos for you:
#1 - Doesn't come with a refill, but the compact is reusable. There's a tiny button you can depress and the whole thing will open up, ready to accept a new standard powder pan. We tested the size, regular powder pan will work just fine. I'll have to fiddle with depotting, but I'll be able to get my Careblend powder in there for the future.
#2 - This is the most desirable piece from a packaging standpoint - it's weighty and feels more like jewelry than most other powder compacts. Even some of the fancy Guerlain compacts feel cheaper than this one. I loved the Art Deco/Cyber style and it's very recognizably Gareth Pugh. Very minimalist, but feels great. It's what I'd call private luxury - only you will know what you have when you pick it up or open it. Not for those who love frilly and feminine or ornate and baroque.
#3 - The BP itself is f-king beautiful. I'm not a huge BP fan - I usually find them a little too powdery on my skin. This one is smooooooooth like butter, though. Very soft in the pan, but no powdery residue on application, even with an overloaded brush. It does not have sheen to the degree that Snowglobe does, not by a long shot. That one's a straight up highlighter compared to Elude. Rather, it has an extremely subtle, elegant texture that I can only compare to an old Shu Uemura traditional kabuki rice powder I used to have in the 90s. It's not a glow or a sheen, it's more of a porcelain bisque effect. Even the Careblend powder looks a bit more light reflective than Elude, but Elude isn't matte either. It's got more coverage than Careblend, I'd say roughly 30% more, perhaps 25%. Compared to Careblend in Light, Elude is also more purely neutral in color. Careblend has more pink to it, while Elude is more yellow. This leads to a neutralizing effect - it will make your skin look pale white, but due to erasing all the pink tones on your face, rather than from adding a white layer, so it doesn't look ghostly. This will be an awesome look for anyone with NC or especially NW15 and lighter. Like I said, I'm now at Matchmaster 1.0 and this powder was amazing on, without any foundation and just sick, insane gorgeous over the foundation. Can anyone darker than NC15 wear Elude? Not too sure, but it's worth a test if you're in store, since the texture is very fine. Maybe you'll get an interesting effect that's more like a softening and neutralizing. Or it'll be ashy as hell - wish I could be more helpful on this, but just the fact that I think it has potential NOT to be ashy shows what an unusual effect this one has. Traditional japanese rice powder isn't terribly long lasting and is a bit of a bitch to apply thinly and evenly without a lot of buffing. Elude will give you all of that without all the effort and light up your face without a trace of sheen while still not being matte. If you don't look good in matte powder, you may need to be careful and moisturize well before using Elude, if you're not also wearing foundation.
#4 - Would you like to be Cyber Snow White Noise? Yes/No. Interested in a powder that's more bad ass than that Chanel holiday one? Yes? I did not feel one iota of remorse over spending the big bucks on this powder. Back in my youth, I wouldn't have even looked at a face powder unless it gave me this exact look and I never had one I remotely liked other than that Shu Uemura. This one's better by far. I don't have a good set up to do really great photos, but if I have time to play around, I could try to do some face shots with the same lipstick but one with bare skin and one with Elude and maybe one with Elude + foundation. This is the only way to properly capture what's up with Elude in a photo.
I'll start a new post to talk about the lipsticks and glosses AND THE LASHES <3 (I got 2 pairs of those babies!!!)
