I'll try! Which colors?
I checked out the colors today from the pre-order testers at Nordstrom. I wasn't too impressed with the line up at all. Nothing was visually stimulating or stunning and once everything is on the display with those surf bum photos, i doubt i will be more thrilled. This summer collection fails in uniqueness overall. I feel like the MAC summer collections should be standouts. Not just with how they are packaged, but overall colors. This years offerings look so meh... been there, done that. The shadows especially look like something you can walk in a store a purchase anywhere at anytime. I love Saffron, and I plan on getting another, but the rest are just okay... actually, the green in Sun Blond makes it unique in the sense that its not just another yellow. The green in it almost makes it like a duochrome, showing up on darker skins as a cool yellow green. Personally I am looking for something warm in the yellow department and Sun Blonde won't work. Sun Blond reminds me of Sweet and Punchy... but done in reverse, more yellow than green.
The lip products made me happy though, Krazy Kahuna and Hibiscus are both winners. I know KK has been compared to Temper Tantra, but its better. Its warmer and orangier. Perfect for the summer. I love that it has no shimmer in it and it doesn't feel tacky. Hibiscus is very unique and looks great full color and sheered out with a clear lip gloss. Mocha, we already know... Bust Out is a mess and I really wish MAC did a deep purple that was on the frosty side this year. That would have been pretty with the collection. None of the lip products have any frost to them and I think the purple one should have.
My Paradise is a bust because the pigmentation on it is lacking. If you are brown like me, you may need a few extra swipes to get it to show up. I think I could use it, but I am not really interested in putting in the work, espcially since I have Illamasqua's blusher in Excite which requires less swipes and costs less. Truth be told, both colors will ultimately create the same glow on my cheeks, but I am not into spending the money on something that is not all that unique or pigmented. Plus that overspray is a waste. If you have a love (and stash) for this type of color, you can probaly pass on this one. As a matter of fact, Saffron would look better on the cheeks...
I got my black box today! I posted tons of swatches on my blog http://killerlipgloss.com/mac-surf-baby-swatches/
Well... I got a bit more than I thought I would. I seriously think that I'd convinced myself everything would be so lame that when I saw it in person, I was sort of pleasantly surprised. I said I was going to get Sun Blonde and Hibiscus. I ended up with:
Sun Blonde
Surf USA
Swell Baby
Hibiscus
Bust Out
My Paradise
Yeah, I even ended up with the blush I thought I was over. It's just that after anticipating it being really orange, it turned out to be a really pretty peach on my pink-undertoned skin. Gosh darn it to heck.
Sun Blonde is exactly what I wanted... I sort of see why people have compared it to Gorgeous Gold even though the colours are very different. There is something about the effect- the sheen that gives it a different look- that does link them. I can't wait to try them together.
Swell Baby is gorgeous! It's nothing like the perm colour Print, which I have and HATE. Print has crappy colour payoff and almost always looks muddy, plus it's incredibly uneven when applied. Swell Baby is much warmer and has a lovely, slightly warm sheen. The pigmentation is rich (as it is with all of the shadows) and it's a much warmer grey than print. It's lighter than Copperplate and the sheen differentiates the two- I think they could work really well together.
Surf USA- Incredibly rich. I showed The Great Enabler and even he was shocked at the intensity and richness of the colour. Most teals I have are much more blue than this one- this one has lots of green. A no-brainer for teal lovers and really a necessity for anyone who likes bright colours.
Bust Out- I was actually pleasantly surprised by this. Mac have released a whole lot of mid-tone purples recently (Spitfire, Quite the Thing, Play Time, Style Curve), but I feel that this one is what they were aiming for all along. It's purple rather than pink (unlike Style Curve and Spitfire)... It's not a blue purple like Go For It, but it definitely has its place. I agree with the review that described this as "dirty" (I'm sorry, I can't remember who said it, I believe it was Pink Basset). Up the Amp is more mauve rather than purple and Rebel is much more pink. I'll put up some swatches as soon as I can. (Note- won't be before Saturday, because I have to take a couple of little gentlemen in to the vet tomorrow)
Hibiscus- First swatch, I thought it was indistinguishable from Toxic Tale. It's very even and opaque for a cremesheen (I usually find that a little of my lip peeks through for most CS lipsticks). On the lips, though, the redness comes through much more. TT looks more orange and a bit cooler (insofar as orange can ever be "cool"), whereas this is a warm coral-red. Me likey.
I felt like Naturally Eccentric is something that they could have sold me- a cool analogue to Creme d'Nude- if they'd tried. As it stands, it was incredibly uneven and felt, I kid you not , GRITTY when I tried it on. Ick.
Mocha is Mocha. It never works on me, but on warmer skin tones, I'll bet it's lovely.
Of the glosses, only Krazy Kahuna seemed worth noting, honestly (Strange Potion really doesn't work on me). KK is gorgeous and smooth and pigmented and if I didn't already have a tube of Temper Tantra that I still haven't used, it would have been mine for sure.
My MA insisted I take home a sample of one of the crushed metal pigments... So he gave me a bit of the gold one. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. It's much smoother and easier to work with than I expected... Oh no...
The bronzers and lip balms don't interest me in the least, so I seriously didn't even look at that half of the display.
More info when I have more time. I'll just be happy if I can post this, because the power has gone off twice on me already...
I checked out the colors today from the pre-order testers at Nordstrom. I wasn't too impressed with the line up at all. Nothing was visually stimulating or stunning and once everything is on the display with those surf bum photos, i doubt i will be more thrilled. This summer collection fails in uniqueness overall. I feel like the MAC summer collections should be standouts. Not just with how they are packaged, but overall colors. This years offerings look so meh... been there, done that. The shadows especially look like something you can walk in a store a purchase anywhere at anytime. I love Saffron, and I plan on getting another, but the rest are just okay... actually, the green in Sun Blond makes it unique in the sense that its not just another yellow. The green in it almost makes it like a duochrome, showing up on darker skins as a cool yellow green. Personally I am looking for something warm in the yellow department and Sun Blonde won't work. Sun Blond reminds me of Sweet and Punchy... but done in reverse, more yellow than green.
The lip products made me happy though, Krazy Kahuna and Hibiscus are both winners. I know KK has been compared to Temper Tantra, but its better. Its warmer and orangier. Perfect for the summer. I love that it has no shimmer in it and it doesn't feel tacky. Hibiscus is very unique and looks great full color and sheered out with a clear lip gloss. Mocha, we already know... Bust Out is a mess and I really wish MAC did a deep purple that was on the frosty side this year. That would have been pretty with the collection. None of the lip products have any frost to them and I think the purple one should have.
My Paradise is a bust because the pigmentation on it is lacking. If you are brown like me, you may need a few extra swipes to get it to show up. I think I could use it, but I am not really interested in putting in the work, espcially since I have Illamasqua's blusher in Excite which requires less swipes and costs less. Truth be told, both colors will ultimately create the same glow on my cheeks, but I am not into spending the money on something that is not all that unique or pigmented. Plus that overspray is a waste. If you have a love (and stash) for this type of color, you can probaly pass on this one. As a matter of fact, Saffron would look better on the cheeks...
I LOVE LOVE the surf the ocean pigments. What I love is the wet-like mettalic buttah texture. I have impassioned solar bits and the texture is the same. I don't know if all the solar bits are the same so I can't compare to the other colors. If the stack had a black-gold similar to the color of black ore, I would have been in complete awe.
Even though the green color appears chunky, I have no problem at all applying it and it's a very pretty light aqua color on my lids. I am thinking of picking up the other pigment stack too for the light colors and selling the mauvy/brown one.
I am prolly going to pick up Hibiscus when it releases as I love watermelon colors and the creamsheen formula. I am not too crazy about Naturally Eccentric yet, it looked streaky in pictures and I don't know if I did something weird with my lips or if it's just actually streaky. It is like a light coffee shade and feels creamy though. I will wear it some more and if I don't like it, it's going back.
Swatches are up on the swatches thread.![]()
MAC Surf Baby Collection Overview (Colour)
MAC Surf Baby Collection Overview (Face)
Feelin' Beachy Set Giveaway
Fashion Flower Giveaway
Flighty Giveaway
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