Beauty Obsessed

Now, now…don’t get excited, my MAC shadow collection is quite small – by no means am I a collector, and in truth over half of them were picked up through swaps, and not with my own cash, so…  Anyway, I have enough though (15 shades) to have a dedicated post to them, and I know how popular MAC is, so I thought ‘Why not?’  Let’s get crackin’!First, we have our warm-toned shadows – the first four are from the 2008 Cult of Cherry Collection, the Tempting Quad (which I got in a swap); the last four are singles.Tempting Quad (LE), from left to right: Next to Nothing, Tempting, Dark Edge, and Sharp.  Even though Next to Nothing is supposed to be a ‘yellow beige,’ which should be flattering on it, it just isn’t.  The pink pearl changes to hue to make it too pink for my skintone. Tempting is a lovely, lovely shimmering bronze color which reminds me of Urban Decay’s Smog, but is more sparkly – I wear this a fair bit.  Dark Edge doesn’t have great texture – it’s a bit chalky and hard to blend – but I desperately need a medium brown shade so I do get use out of it.  As for Sharp, I don’t tend to wear bright shades like this, but I’ve played around with it a bit, and paired with the tones in this palette it actually can look quite nice (try it in the inner eyelid for an interesting pop of color).  I used to own MAC’s Bitter (swapped it!), which is quite similar to Sharp, but more green.  The only shade still available from the four is Tempting. Next, a few singles (left to right): Bright Future (from the 2009 Style Warrior collection), Amber Lights, Arena, and Vanilla.  I snagged Bright Future in a swap fairly recently, but haven’t worn it as it seems like a Summer/Fall kind of shade.  I don’t own a yellow shadow like this, so it’ll be fun to play with when the time comes.  Amber Lights is one of my going out shades – it’s super metallic so not terribly appropriate for the office.  The copper shade is really pretty and looks great on, but it irritates my eyes a bit due to the intense pigmentation and the frosty formulation, which is a bummer.  Really good quality though.  I bought Arena (a skintone satin finish) this past year, and in the Summer I wear it almost exclusively as my brow bone/inner eye highlight – it’s got the nicest sheen without being over the top.  In the Winter, I’m too pale for it to work the same way, so if I’m feeling lazy I’ll just wear this as a lid color and be good to go.  Really nice, soft texture on this one.  Lastly, we have Vanilla, which I got in the same swap with Bright Future.  This pale cream shadow has crappy pigmentation which you have to build up, and I am not a fan of the dry, hard formula at all.  I’ve been using this as a brow bone highlight when I’m wearing shimmery shadow, but I’ve got it back up for swap and am hoping to buy a similar shade in a WAY better formulation soon.

Next, let’s look at the cooler-toned shadows in my collection, all singles:Left to right, we have Jealousy Wakes (from the Blogger Collection put out last Spring), Shimmermoss, Electra, Vex, and Shale.  I wrote my review on Jealousy Wakes here.  Sadly, I don’t use this shade much, not because it’s not a pretty color (emerald green), or even a workable color – but more so because, like Vanilla, its got a stiff, gritty texture that’s not the easiest nor a pleasure to work with.  I got Shimmermoss (which is being discontinued) in another MUA swap this past year, and its a nice color with good texture, but the combination of light, pastel and shimmery isn’t really my thing.  If I were more adventurous, I’m sure I could find a way to make this work, but alas – I’m kinda lazy   My aunt gave me Electra years ago, and it is pretty much the silver version of Amber Lights – awesome, smooth texture and pigmentation, but whoa, it’s way too cool and frosty for my skintone (it’s a straight silver), and I cannot seem to make it look good no matter how hard I try.  One total win that I received in a swap is Vex, which was on my wishlist!  This is a really neat pearlescent color, with a slight duochrome effect – flashing between pink, purple and green.  The effect doesn’t show up much on my skin, but it adds a glow to any makeup look I’m wearing, and I think is the type of shade that would work on any skintone, as it’s more on the sheer side and blends nicely.

I cannot capture the duochrome for the life of me!

Last, we have one of my favorite overall shadow shades, Shale.  I bought this in Grand Cayman in 2008, and it’s one of the best subtle smoky shadows ever.  I firmly believe that certain purple shades look fantastic on all skintones and eye colors, and I think this could be one of them.  It borders on taupe/grey (which is more apparent in the photo above; in the pic below, you see the purple tones more), and blends into the skin seamlessly to create a sultry eye with hardly any effort.  Love!Finally, I have three paints, one in pot form, the other two in tubes….that are from so long ago that I probably should feel bad about still having them.  Dude, I bought these in like, the year 2000!  They don’t even make Paints (in the tube) that have color nowadays.  But they still work and are truly gorgeous colors so I just I can’t part with them.For some stupid reason the names of these shades aren’t written on the tube, so I had to do a little searching online to find them.  I’m fairly certain the blue one is called Blue Boy, a shimmering electric blue; the purple one I think is Infamous, a vivid purple with shimmer, from the Fall 2000 Lady Danger collection (if anyone knows otherwise for either, please tell me!).  Obviously these have been long since discontinued.  Both paints sheer out quite a bit if you blend, as like other Paints/Paint Pots, they’re intended to be worn underneath your shadow.  However, I bought them for their beautiful color, so I usually pat them on rather than blend, which helps to preserve their intensity.The one Paint Pot I own is in the shade Soft Ochre, which is a yellow-beige cream.  I almost forgot to add this to the collection (hence why its not in the main photo at top).  It’s close enough to my skintone during the Winter months that I can get away with it (though I don’t wear it alone as it’s still quite pale), but in the warmer months I’m far too dark to pull this off.  I’ve been wearing this as my base most days of the week, to keep my shadow in place – for special events I use a lid primer for better hold.

Et voila!  There’s my paltry MAC shadow collection, for your viewing pleasure (sorry that half the shades are no longer available!).  I don’t forsee my collection drastically expanding any time soon; the oversaturation of MAC collections being put forth the past few years has turned me off the brand to some extent.  I’ve actually swapped several of my shadows away, reducing my collection that much more.  Unless something is released that really catches my eye and is an exceptional product, I don’t even bother to stop by our local MAC counter anymore (which happens to be directly across from Sephora).  So sorry MAC, but more isn’t always better!

How many MAC shadows do you have in your collection?  Are you an avid MAC fan or have you become overwhelmed at the number of releases each month?  What products do you love/hate?