MAC Tropical Taboo SIMMER Mineralize Blush and MAC NC20 Pro Longwear foundation fluid swatch/ reviews

MAC 2013 Tropical taboo collection came out with a bunch of usual mineralize blushes. Here's a review of the "Simmer" mineralize blush.

I thought I got an unusal one where there's way more of one shade than the other. Then I looked around online reviews and turned out it did seem like MAC intended this to have less heavy shade and more light shade in the same pan.

It's a apricot-beige-gold shimmer on one side and a plum on the other. It's a warm plum (though could be because the pan size is so small it's hard to pick up the shade without getting a bit of the apricot beige color in it too), not very dirty plum .

I'm not sure how the veining works underneath, but it does seem like there's gold shimmer on top for a few layers then there might be more plum underneath.

Here's the swatch: 

You can see it's a typical MAC mineralize blush consistency, there are bits of 'flecks' of shimmers while the rest of the color seems more evenly pigmented. It's not chunky by any means but does show up as visible shimmer under the sun.

Here it is on my cheeks- I used an even mix of both. I had to use a stippling / skunk brush (just a cheap sonia kashuk one, which is like MAC 187 brush but less bristles).  The lighting is indoor so overall a bit warm.

I also listed the other items I was wearing. I'm wearing Fancl skincare base creamy in shade "Natural pink", which is an illuminating foundation base, and trying my new MAC NC20 pro longwear foundation too. Then followed by a sheer application of Cezanna UV powder foundation (one in the blue case, shade #1 Cream Beige) then the MAC Simmer blush.

My cheeks are naturally a bit red so any blush shade does get influenced by that. It comes out as a plummy red. I thought the shade was a bit of de javu, like easily replicated by a lot of other plum blushes on the market, especially given my red cheeks which probably changes the color a bit. Unfortunately I didn't love the effect under the sunlight as it accentuated pores.

Here's MAC NC20 Pro Longwear foundation.

On my arms a quick swatch- I was in a bit of a shock when I applied some and realised how yellow the shade seems. I purposely applied some near a tiny bruise on my arm to see the coverage.

Below is before blending:

Blended out a bit on top of the bruise- again you can see the yellow tone.

Blended more

Fully blended. Yes it does have a decent coverage, probably covers half the bruise.

It's creamy but pats in to the face easy- though if you don't blend quickly or have dry skin it probably sticks to creases a bit like below.

Again, finished look. It gave a refined finish actually, it's not a full coverage (but I'm sure it's buildable). But after powder foundation on top it's medium coverage even though I applied a rather sheer layer.  A little also goes a long way.

I'm quite surprised it didn't turn out as yellow as it looked on my arms (my arms are probably a shade paler than my face though), but as I applied it over face I can still see a yellow cast, not sure whether it's because I had an illuminating primer underneath plus a paler powder foundation on top so the yellow tint didn't come through as much.

In terms of longwear of the foundation, I thought it was average, after 5-6 hours I still see a bit more oxidation like how my skin reacts with most liquid foundations- it always look a bit more dull in the afternoon. In the cold winter at the moment I think this is not very forgiving if you have any flakies or uneven skin, it does tend to sit in the lines a bit. The finish is a satin matte finish, it's not glowy or dewy or super 'natural'. It looks like "you have good skin, but I can see you are wearing makeup" sort of finish.

Blush rating 3/5. Foundation rating 3/5.

MAC Together-ness, Making it Easy and Calm, Cool and collected mineralize eyeshadow Trios review/ swatch

MAC in the groove collection was probably quite popular back when it first came out in 2010- the mineralised eyeshadow trios and mineralised blushes all offered an array of colors in a single compact at a decent price.

Here are quick swatches of three of the trios:

Together-ness:




Features: - pale pink lilac, extremely pale, on velvet side with very light iridescence, not really shimmery.
- Greyed-blue based lavender, it's almost like a navy purple , again, it's shiny but not shimmery or metallic
- Medium charcoaled grey, applies like a true grey, not very dark


Making It Easy
- peach beige, looks more matte than the other shades.
- middle is champagne peach, still a neutral peach and not too warm. it's more shimmery than the other 2 shades.
- right is a coppered brick (not so red as to turn into brick red). can be a bit harder to wear.

 Calm cool collected- sorry I must have misplaced the product pictures!
- off-white with a tinge of green, the green is really subtle (not sure if it was intended to have green inside, might just be because the other two sides pigment migrated on this side).
- shimmery grassy green, it's not really yellow based so looks like a neutral green. it's more shimmery than the other two shades, again, the shimmer is pretty subtle.
- Mossy green, it's medium-dark but not blackened, it's very winter sort of green, a bit forest green.

swatch only:



Overall I don't really any of them are must haves- the pigmentation vary and the finish is not really as silky as I like. Some of the metallic sparkles are uneven and sparse.

Rating 2.5/5

MAC for Iris Apfel Lipsticks Pink Pigeon Morange Flamingo pictures/ quick review

Here are some of MAC's newish lipsticks from Iris apfel collection.

I have a bunch of lipsticks I haven't got around to swatch, so I thought I should do a few close up pictures for people who are looking for just the lipsticks first.

From left to right is Morange, Flamingo and Pink Pigeon.

From top to bottom is Pink pigeon, Flamingo and Morange.

Corresponding color names/ codes (Never understood how to read these codes).

Morange is quite difficult to pull off since it's almost a neon bright orange. Rather creamy and opaque (given it's an amplified creme finish). Flamingo is a lustre finish and the prettiest of them all, it's a bit of a coral pink on me with decent color payoff.

Pink pigeon is bright magenta- I found it quite hard to pull off again, unless applied really sheerly and topped with a gloss.

Overall would love to see flamingo being brought back as part of a permanent collection- the other two are really a bit too bold colors for me.

MAC The Faerie Glen Lustre Lipstick (Tartan Tale collection) review/ swatch

MAC The Faerie Glen lipstick was a limited edition shade from the Tartan Tale collection.

In the tube it looks like a pink nude, but without being too beige nude, and overall creamy finish looking. 

Swatch below, on the right it's about two swipes and on left about 4 swipes. You can see it transforms to same color as the tube- a pinkish nude. It's creamy and even though it's a lustre finish, it's rather pigmented and quite 'creamy' for a lustre lipstick. There's no shimmers.

Lips with just lipbalm below:

After about two swipes of the Faerie Glen lipstick, no lip brush was used. You can see it gives great even color coverage. I do find that your lips will need to be well primed because it's a rather creamy shade, it can look uneven or streaky especially on any flakies. I found this lipstick stays moderately glossy, it's not super moisturising but nothing a good lipbalm can't fix.

In real life it could be the undertone of my natural lips but I found the color turned more pink-nude-peach, like there's an apricot peach tone in real life.

Another swatch:

Overall it's a my lips but slightly more nude color. It's not my favorite lipstick out there because I believe a lot of Japanese lipsticks deliver a more glossy finish and even more "my lips but better" shades. This lipstick is just a tad too 'creamy' for me as I prefer my lipsticks to have a sheer yet pigmented finish - i.e. it won't look a bit too opaque and unnatural on the lips. This one is about as creamy as I'd like my lipsticks to be.

Overall 3.5/5. It's limited edition but not really worth tracking down for or paying in excess of retail in my books.

MAC Very Important Platinum/ Formidable Nail Lacquer vernis polish reviews/ swatches

Here's a quick swatch of two MAC polishes I picked up in the last year.

MAC Formidable ( from Venomous Villains collection). Which looks like a complex mix of a vampy purple, blackened, reddened and blued and greened tinge mix. 

Then "Very Important Platinum" (not sure which collection, but about 2011). In the bottle it looks like a deep silver, not a shiny silver but more like a metal mercury silver look. 

Here are swatches: Ok they really don't pair well together since they are such contrasting colors lol.  I didn't really wear my nails like this out.

Formidable turns out to be a vampy eggplant purple base with a strangely shimmery/metallic finish, it's like a dirty 'foiled' finish as it has such a complex array of mix of colors, there's some green tinge showing through and some blackened shimmer too.

I'm not sure how much I like the finish- it's sort of uneven, while it's wickedly dark and alluring in a way, at the same time I don't think it's a shade I can sport any day.

Very important Platinum on the other hand, is so not very important in my collection. It's a really streaky frosty dark mercury silver. It has that 'liquid' metal look like real mercury does. However it just has that streaky look to it and it's like a sci-fi movie nailpolish color or something.

Well I think this explains why most of my polish collection are safe colors like pinks and reds and corals, which I shall go back to promptly reviewing soon lol.

Overall 2/5 for both shades. MAC polishes really don't have a very good or flattering finish in my books, my experience always shown that the shimmery shades can go streaky and frosty while metallic shades can have an uneven finished look. (despite being smooth to touch).

MAC Glitter & Ice from late 2011 collection features new shiny silver boxes and white compacts and an array of mineralized eyeshadows. 

I didn't buy that many from this collection as I'm gradually a bit over the mineralize eyeshadow range- they are so pretty to look at, but unfortunately a few shades are often really glittery or chunky.

I picked Shimmermint (on left in pic below) and Winterized (on the right in picture below).

Shimmermint is a silvery minty green with a sheen to it, it looks cool / neutral toned and not really a 'dirty' looking green.

Winterized appear to be a mix of taupes and browns and fine black veining.

Swatches below: Shimmermint on left and winterized on right.

You can see both shades are rather 'shimmery' and the shimmer particles are a bit chunky again. When applied with wet brush you get less of the 'chunky ' look and more a shimmery and intense finish, not quite metallic but shimmermint is definitely more shimmery than Winterized.

Shimmermint is a slightly greyed minty green, it's not as pastel green as I imagined (and hoped for), but which means this shade can be matched against other colors easily like gradations of greens and browns and greys. If you apply a bit more, there's an underlying blue which shows through, when applied densely it gives you a certain 'mermaid' green quality, like flashes of aqua and green together. However there is still that grey base. Can look frosty when built up.

Winterized is a taupe brown to me, or mix of plum and brown (but not quite in the taupe family due to the grey-black base)- not on my top pick of taupes as the blackened base shows through and it can look a bit dirty when not blended properly. Not as shimmery but certainly not intense enough to be densely applied as a liner unless applied wet.

Overall 3/5. Great to look at in the pan but a bit disappointing once applied.

MAC Mineralized Blush A little bit of Sunshine review/ swatch

MAC Mineralize Blush duo from in the groove collection- A little bit of Sunshine is reviewed below.

Here it is in the pan- one side is a shimmery warm golden bronze, not quite coral, the other side is a more matte looking mid tone tan. The shimmer factor is a lot less when just looking in the pan.

This picture below looks paler due to flash photography:

Swatches below

Bottom swatch is blended look. It's quite true to color compared to what is in the pan- the lighter side is a shimmery (not quite glittery but definitely visible shimmers) warm bronze with a hint of gold, while the other side is a slightly dirty looking mid tone brown tan shade. When blended it's a soft shimmery golden bronze.

The shade definitely has the tendancy to look slightly too orange and dirty on those with pale skin. You can see the tan shade is rather muddy and too brown on my skintone. I've tried using this as a contour shade but it's still too brown/ tan on my pale skin (I'm about the lightest shade or second lightest shade in most Japanese foundations, and 2nd lightest in most western brand foundations).

When used with a very light hand it works just barely for me, as a warmed coral bronze blush. However it just turns muddy quite easily without careful application or coordination with the rest of the makeup look.

Overall 3/5 for quality and 2/5 for color- it's not the most finely milled or soft blending blush (which is the common issue with anyone who doesn't love the MAC mineralized blushes). However they are fun to play with and having 2 shades in the pan is very handy.