MAC Colour Craft: Review and Swatches

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I was able to play with all of the products from the Colour Craft collection, and if I didn't have many of the past mineralize skinfinishes (MSFs) and mineralize blushes (MB) and eyeshadows (MES) from past collections, I would have snagged almost all of the items in a heartbeat. However, getting many would be redundant at the least, so I got some of the colors I believe would complement my MSF, MB and MES collections the most. Before I get to that, here are the swatches and my thoughts on the collection.

Mineralize Eyeshadows
















I like how MAC thought of placing four coordinating shades in each eyeshadow pot, which gives more value for your money and provides more options and combinations for the MAC consumer. This is the first time MAC has placed four shades in one mineralize eyeshadow compact, because the past ones were either singles, duos or trios. This collection offers six mineralize eyeshadows with I believe some really good color combinations.

Assemblage is white with silver pearl/deep grey, black with silver glitter, and warm yellow gold. I love the deep grey the most, and if you look at the swatches above, I love the color combination. This would be a great staple because you can use this for smoky eyes, and the white would be great on the inner corners of the eyes to balance the darkness of the other colors.

Odd Bits has midtone silver grey, dusty rose with gold pearl, dark burgundy, and peachy bronze. LOVE this quad, so much so that I got one for myself. I tend to gravitate toward purples and plums right now, so this is an amazing combination of colors for me.

Fashion Patch has ice blue, off white, black with silver glitter and light white pink. Meh. I am not a fan of the colors of this quad, although the black with silver can be a great staple.

Eccentricity is rich gold, light violet, deep plum, and rich bronze. Again, I got this as I really love the breathtaking purples and plums. The bronze is an amazing color to complement the other colors of the quad. I love the pigmentation of these, except for the gold which really didn't apply well dry. I foiled it using Charged Water, however, and it worked pretty good.

Natural Flare is copper, yellow orange, dirty brown and rich gold. If you love coppers and golds with a tad of brown, this would be a great quad for you.

Girly Romp is dirty violet, yellow white with gold pearl, light pastel coral and midtone pink. To channel the utmost femininity in you, this quad is the perfect tool. The colors are indeed girly-girl and the colors are soft and wearable.

All in all, I loved the colors and the pigmentation is pretty decent. I would have to say however that I prefer the color pay-off of the mineralize eyeshadows from the Red, She Said collection of last year. I just feel that the texture of the MES from that collection was more buttery and easier to apply. However, the texture and pigmentation of the MES from the Colour Craft collection are better than that of the past collections, not counting Red She Said. They still have good pigmentation and texture, and the grittier shades can be fixed by foiling them.

Lipsticks







Honestly, I wasn't that impressed with the shades of the lipsticks and they have many dupes available floating around in MAC-landia. The only lipstick that I figured as unique (and was selling like hotcakes when I dropped by the MAC store) was Madly Creative, a pink neutral with white pearl. It's a beautiful frosty dirty pink that would look great on any occasion. It's also unique and I haven't found a MAC lipstick in my stash that is a dupe for this.

Lipglasses





(See rest of swatches and review after the jump)



These are very similar to Sugar Sweet collection's tri-coloured lipglasses, and of course, instead of 3 different colors in separate layers, MAC opted to swirl the layers together to come up with these new ones. A rehash of an old idea, but I believe these are more pigmented than the tri-colour lipglasses, which mostly just emitted shine, not color. As you can see from the swatches, these lipglasses are pretty pigmented. I was especially attracted to Eclectic Edge, a beautiful cool violet that I saw on this MAC MA, and it was such a drop-dead gorgeous color on her. She didn't use any lipstick underneath but merely applied lipliner, but it was very pigmented and the lavender lips were just amazing. Not surprisingly, I just had to get this one.

Pretty Pattern is a warm dirty beige that I might be going back for, as I love neutrals on the lips, Crazy Haute is a blue pink, Nice Mix-up is a dirty ginger that I think would look great on darker skintones, and Miss Marble is a muted pink which can be your quintessential pink lipgloss. Funky Fusion is a pink coral which would look great on many skintones as well.

Mineralize Blushes





I really couldn't choose a favorite among these blushes as all of them are quite lovely. I do have several in my stash that have similar texture and color, so I decided to pass on these. I would probably go back and get one of these, most probably Hand-Finish which is a beautiful color. It is a light pink with deep gold veining which would look amazing on nights out or even during daytime as the color is not too dark. I am also attracted to Fad-dabulous which is a dirty brown coral with yellow gold veining. Daft Pink is a deep blue pink with light white yellow veining that might be similar or a combination of either Gentle and/or Love Rock which I both own. Improvise is a mid-tone neutral coral with light white yellow-gold veining, although I have many similar colors. Cheek & Cheerful is mid-tone bronzy brown with yellow gold veining, and Style Demon is a dirty brick red with copper veining that might be too similar to either Gleeful or Merrily which I also both own.

If you don't have any of these colors yet, and you want a great blush with shimmer and glow, these would be a good buy.

Mineralize Skinfinish













Maybe some of you know that I collect mineralize skinfinishes, and I have every MSF MAC has released except Pleasureflush. This time, though, I have decided to skip the other MSFs and just get the one that I don't have yet, because, really, what will I do with MSFs that are similar in finish and color? I am impressed with this new batch of MSFs, however, as some of them are trios, they have 3 different shades in one compact, which would again give MAC consumers more bang for their buck. I bought Smooth Merge, which contains 3 different shades: soft champagne pink, deep rose, and pale cool pink, which would be amazing either used separately or swirled together using your 187 stippling brush.

Sunny by Nature is a rich bronze with pink pearl which I passed up on because this reminds me of other MSFs like Shooting Star or So Ceylon. Sunny by Nature is semi-matte, however, so this would please those who are not fans of shimmery MSFs. Cheeky Bronze is a soft golden coral with bronze pearl, and if you love corals, you might want to check this out. Triple Fusion is a trio of soft champagne, soft golden pink, and rose pink with gold nuances. If you like highlighters, this one's for you.

Warm Blend is the bronzer of the batch and has antique gold,mahogany bronze, and copper, which would look amazingly good on darker skintones. As always, these MSFs have shimmery finishes and would work great as highlighters, shimmery bronzers, glows on the cheeks, eyes, even the decolletage.

MAC has also come up with the 131 brush, a new twist to the classic 187 brush. It's duo fiber powder/blush that has a flat, tapered head that contains a combination of short and long fibres, ideally suited for MSFs. I have said in my previous entries that I love flat duo fibre brush like the 131. The part that made me love it is the shape of the head - it has an almost flat, oval head that makes it easy to apply heavily pigmented mineral blushes exactly where you want it without creating clown cheeks. Use it with a mineral bronzer (or a MAC MSF), and as long as you applied the product on the hollows of your cheeks, you will end up with a beautifully chiselled look. It's a bit tricky to apply mineral bronzer or blush with the 187 or a regular fiber optic brush because the head is round, thus, the pigment gets scattered all over the cheek area, which defeats the purpose of contouring. With this brush, you get beautifully angled blushes and bronzers right where you want them because the shape of the head makes it easier for you to apply the product exactly on the targeted spot.

However, I skipped the 131 because even before it came out, I already have a flat-headed duo fibre brush in Aromaleigh silk fibre optic blush brush:





It is very similar to the 131 because of its flat head, and I posted the pictures so you can imagine for yourself what the 131 looks like.

All in all, I love the collection because I am a fan of MSFs, MES and MBs. I love shimmery makeup, but I also like my share of mattes. For summer, though, glows and shimmers are in, and this collection celebrates summer via shimmery, bronzy shades.

Check these out at your MAC counters and stores to see for yourself.