My order came today! I had no internet for most of the day so I spent the afternoon playing with the products. I ordered an insane amount of things so here goes.
-
SH brushes 227, 188, 168
When I opened the box, I thought "Wow these are tiny!" I actually laughed out loud. The handles are shorter and not as wide as the the small brushes I have purchased from Mac in sets.
Openexpression did warn us that they look like toys. They do!
But I still like them. The hairs are so soft. The hairs #227SH are not as dense as the regular size version that I have. The hairs seem darker too. They look like a really dark black. But the hairs are so soft! Much softer and smoother than the regular size. They also look more oval in shape.
The #188SH is smaller than the regular size brush too.
The #168 is new to me. It is super soft as well. I'm not too upset that they look super small. I actually used to collect mini brushes but I found it hard to find a variety of brushes especially large eye shadow brushes. I was concerned that the short handle brushes would be too big. I like to keep brushes in my bag and sometimes the Nordstrom ones would not fit in a small makeup bag or wristlet. That being said. I know many people may be upset with the size of these. The brush heads are bigger than a Trish McEvoy mini brush set I bought some time ago.
Now I know many people have said that this collection is super dupeable and they were right! But I had to see for myself.
-Aristo-Cat Lipstick - I know it was said that it didn't look like Plum Dandy and it looked like another color. I don't remember the other color and I don't have it but I do have Plum Dandy. I think Aristo-Cat is a shade lighter and more cool in tone. Plum Dandy leans towards plum where as Aristo-Cat is leans more lilac. I am pretty warm toned and I like Plum Dandy a touch more. I think the Sephora Star lipstick #10 Mauve Scandal is in the same family but it's more sheer and more sparkly.
-
The Prowl Lipstick - This reminded me of Polished Up lipstick but Polished up is warmer I think. It is sheer and I think that makes it more wearable for me.
-
Powerful Lipstick - Oh this is a dazzle? How did I miss that? Now I remember that someone said one of the lipsticks look like Infused with Glam. It was Powerful! It is identical! It even has the same color of shimmers in it. If I didn't know better I would think it was mislabeled. I love Infused with Glam and I love this one too! I swatched it on my hand. I swiped each side by side and after staring for some time, I think Powerful may be slightly warmer due to the fact that it appears to have less pink sparkles that Infused with Glam but not much.
-
Drive Me Wild Lipstick - love this one. This reminded me a lot of Thrills but not so frosty. Really pretty color!
-
Schemer Lipsgloss- this jumped into my cart at the last moment. I read that it was just like Gold Dust but a bit more pigmented. - I wanted a more pigmented version of this but it just wasn't for me. I put Gold Dust on the top lip and Schemer on the bottom and they looked the same.
I think that many of these items may look different in the tube but apply the same.
-Spree - looked different in the tube but didn't look like much on me. I think it does look like one of the Viva Glam Glosses - either V or VI.
-Fancy Cat - this looked really sheer on. I thought the color looked like Shock o late but I think Shock o late is warmer. I figured as much but I thought the shimmery tone would show up. It doesn't. Looks like a creme on lips.
-Wildly Refined - I really liked this one but I found a dupe for it - Enchantress! Same color. The colors look different in the tube but swatched side by side, they are the same.
-
Lithe Pigment - this is a warm Naked. Really pretty. I swatched it next to Naked Dark and Naked dark is a little lighter and more pink next to the Lithe.
-
Bloodline Pigment - Looks purple in the jar but on skin looks gray and brown and plum at the same time. Many will love this color. I don't do the smoky eye much so I will have to learn to work it! I probably should have gone the sample route with this one as I usually do a simple wash of color on the eye and I am just starting to get adventurous so I'm not sure how I much I would use it but I know many of you will go crazy for this color. When I first tried it. I had the navy blue liquid liner on and I put it on top. It looked pretty much gray. Later I was trying Old Gold and trying to decide whether a green or brown would look good with it. On a whim I put Bloodline on the outer corner and it looked like a gray-dark green color. It looked kind of like the gray green color in the photorealism quad. So I think this color may be look different according to the color it's layered with.
-
Old Gold pigment - this color has been repromoted so many times. It always looked beautiful but I resisted. When I heard it was out again, I knew it was meant to be. So unique! It is gold but green too. It you mixed the gold and green colors from the Spring Color Forecast Crushed Metals - you may get a color in the same family. But not a dupe I think. I looked in the hall mirror where the lighting is poor sideways and I could see a pink bronze tone too. But I had to look sideways!
-All the other pigments I already have. Picked up Gold Stroke at a CCO about a month ago! Mauvement is fabulous! I think that is another unique one.
-I was determined to skip the blushes as my blush drawer is out of control! How could I justify more? Well after skipping the quads, I found some justification.
Pet Me blush - I have trouble finding pinks that work on me. The are either too cool, too light or too garish! I needed a light pink blush that didn't look chalky on me and Pet me is it! I usually like a light application of blush so I use power brushes for blush most of the time. I used my #136 brush! Oh it looked so nice. The swatches made me think it would look chalky but it does not. These MB go on really smooth and don't appear to have any shimmer on the skin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marquise
Does anyone know whether Utterly Game is similar to Peaches powder blush?
|
Utterly Game blush- now I have lots of peach and coral blushes and don't need more but the words "amped up peaches" got me. I think Elegant One said this. In my cart it went. Oh it really is nice. In the pan peaches looks orange next to Utterly Game in the Pan. But I know they are different formulas.
I really want to try Soft Meow now but I resisted for now. I have Springshine Blush Ombre, Gingerly, the bronze blush from To the Beach, Enough Said, Eversun. Soft Meow couldn't possible be different, right?
-Signature Blue Superslick Eyeliner - I wanted this after seeing Jada Pinkett on the cover of Essence Magazine with a navy Blue eyeliner. This one maybe a touch lighter but it is still pretty.
-Definately Feline - nice bronze - looks like a bronze liquid liner from YSL I used to have.
Okay I think that is it.
I pretty sure I'm returning at least 3 lipglosses. I may return another 2 or 3 lipsticks. They are close to other colors I have but they are colors I love and I may just keep them as backups.
I wanted Leopard Luxe and Burmese Beauty quads because they only had 1 or 2 colors I wanted. I also wanted Jealous and Lap of Luxury but decided to skip.
I think I agree with others that this collection is very dupeable. Usually I'm not discouraged from this talk because I tend to like colors in the same color family but in this case many of the colors are almost indistinguishable from ones in my collection. I think the colors are very pretty though so new collector will be happy but I've been around for a long time.
I did not even consider kittenish or cunning because every once in awhile I go for those type of colors and they sit collecting dust - hence Oceanberry, Spice-icle, and other I have here whose name has come off. Anyone remember these? I plan to back 2 mac but I never get around to it.
Big Props (do people still say that?) to people who take swatch pics! It is really hard! I took some and will post tonight or tomorrow.
Sorry for the long post!
