mima
Well-known member
i saw these last week in person. you could pre order them but you couldn't take them home until thursday.
i wish i could just buy the short handled 187 by itself - it is the only travel brush i want since i own all the other brushes in travel sizes (having bought brush sets starting in 2003). by the way, i thought the 2003 winter brush set was the best so far. i'm still using it 3 years later. other years have been hit or miss for me. i will probably buy the face brush set this year though, just for the mini 187 since i love it so much (and use its big sister every day). i thought all the sets were a good deal for travel sets (so don't think of using them everyday) but the packaging didn't seem practical (nor did it look that great imho). also, well, the packaging of the palettes looked cuter in the photos, i think
of course, this depends on personal opinion.
i had a moment of OMG-am-i-going-crazy-or-having vision problems when i swatched the light pink colour from one of the palettes. (i think it was the cool palette). it shows up very definitely as a pretty BLUE on my skin. i was so shocked i swatched it FIVE times with the same result each time. and the matte teal showed up much more green than teal on my ggg skintone too. anyway, at least two of the colours show up completely differently on skin than they do in the pan.
so i am planning on the intense eyes and the warm eyes palettes for two reasons - they have the lone new/exclusive/LE veluxe pearls in them, and they have 4 new colours apiece. but honestly, the colours do seem kind of same old same old and if you have an extensive collection, you might pass on them. i'm still debating it myself, especially because i didn't find the texture of what i assume to be the veluxe pearls the usual magic texture.
the lip palettes were cute but i am on a lip palette no buy so i bravely ignored them.
to conclude, the holiday palettes are an excellent value for people new to mac. they let you try out a whole lot of colours for a good price. but there didn't seem to be anything dramatic this year for me - a collector since 2003. as for the brush sets i hear the same debate every single time they come out (which is twice a year approximately).
NO the quality of the brushes in the brush set is NOT the same as the quality of the full size versions. how could it be?? you're getting approximately 5 travel brushes for the price of a SINGLE full size one, and surely the handles are not so expensive that if you chop off a bit of the handle, the brushes are suddenly a lot cheaper because MAC saved on the price of wood or whatever. no. you get what you pay for, and it is the brushHEADS that make a difference. almost invariably, i like my full size brushes more than my travel sized versions. but notice i keep using the word travel. you may not want to take your whole full size collection with you when you're away from home. i use my minis approximately once a month because i travel often, usually for two or three day long trips. over the course of a year, i'd say i use them approximately 30-40 days of the year. with proper care they have lasted perfectly well and look as good as new to me. they do the job when i don't have access to my full sizes, and they are so convenient to pack and to carry. plus, if God forbid, i lost them, well it wouldn't be as big a crisis as if i lost my full size brush roll. [eeek!]
i don't think the holiday brush sets would be good as your everyday brushes! i think they're not made for that, and they probably won't last (i'm basing this according to my friends' experiences, and according to what i've seen on MUA. i personally have never used my travel brush sets as much as i use my every day full size ones).
for everyday brushes, either get that gorgeous Pret-A-Porter set coming out online or do what i did - slowly buy one or two brushes at a time, over several years, until you have the perfect personalized set of full size brushes for yourself. also, don't limit yourself to MAC brushes. MAC has some EXCELLENT brushes (187 is definitely HG) but so do smashbox, stila, trish mcevoy, laura mercier, girorgio armani, etc etc and even drugstore brands like quo, annabelle, essence of beauty and l'oreal!
i really hope this helps. EDITED TO ADD: You could use the brush sets for everyday, but I still think they're not the same quality as the full size brushes, that's all.
i wish i could just buy the short handled 187 by itself - it is the only travel brush i want since i own all the other brushes in travel sizes (having bought brush sets starting in 2003). by the way, i thought the 2003 winter brush set was the best so far. i'm still using it 3 years later. other years have been hit or miss for me. i will probably buy the face brush set this year though, just for the mini 187 since i love it so much (and use its big sister every day). i thought all the sets were a good deal for travel sets (so don't think of using them everyday) but the packaging didn't seem practical (nor did it look that great imho). also, well, the packaging of the palettes looked cuter in the photos, i think
i had a moment of OMG-am-i-going-crazy-or-having vision problems when i swatched the light pink colour from one of the palettes. (i think it was the cool palette). it shows up very definitely as a pretty BLUE on my skin. i was so shocked i swatched it FIVE times with the same result each time. and the matte teal showed up much more green than teal on my ggg skintone too. anyway, at least two of the colours show up completely differently on skin than they do in the pan.
so i am planning on the intense eyes and the warm eyes palettes for two reasons - they have the lone new/exclusive/LE veluxe pearls in them, and they have 4 new colours apiece. but honestly, the colours do seem kind of same old same old and if you have an extensive collection, you might pass on them. i'm still debating it myself, especially because i didn't find the texture of what i assume to be the veluxe pearls the usual magic texture.
the lip palettes were cute but i am on a lip palette no buy so i bravely ignored them.
to conclude, the holiday palettes are an excellent value for people new to mac. they let you try out a whole lot of colours for a good price. but there didn't seem to be anything dramatic this year for me - a collector since 2003. as for the brush sets i hear the same debate every single time they come out (which is twice a year approximately).
NO the quality of the brushes in the brush set is NOT the same as the quality of the full size versions. how could it be?? you're getting approximately 5 travel brushes for the price of a SINGLE full size one, and surely the handles are not so expensive that if you chop off a bit of the handle, the brushes are suddenly a lot cheaper because MAC saved on the price of wood or whatever. no. you get what you pay for, and it is the brushHEADS that make a difference. almost invariably, i like my full size brushes more than my travel sized versions. but notice i keep using the word travel. you may not want to take your whole full size collection with you when you're away from home. i use my minis approximately once a month because i travel often, usually for two or three day long trips. over the course of a year, i'd say i use them approximately 30-40 days of the year. with proper care they have lasted perfectly well and look as good as new to me. they do the job when i don't have access to my full sizes, and they are so convenient to pack and to carry. plus, if God forbid, i lost them, well it wouldn't be as big a crisis as if i lost my full size brush roll. [eeek!]
i don't think the holiday brush sets would be good as your everyday brushes! i think they're not made for that, and they probably won't last (i'm basing this according to my friends' experiences, and according to what i've seen on MUA. i personally have never used my travel brush sets as much as i use my every day full size ones).
for everyday brushes, either get that gorgeous Pret-A-Porter set coming out online or do what i did - slowly buy one or two brushes at a time, over several years, until you have the perfect personalized set of full size brushes for yourself. also, don't limit yourself to MAC brushes. MAC has some EXCELLENT brushes (187 is definitely HG) but so do smashbox, stila, trish mcevoy, laura mercier, girorgio armani, etc etc and even drugstore brands like quo, annabelle, essence of beauty and l'oreal!
i really hope this helps. EDITED TO ADD: You could use the brush sets for everyday, but I still think they're not the same quality as the full size brushes, that's all.
