(Also posted in the Antiquitease first impressions thread in the MAC Chat section)
I bought all four eyeshadow palettes, and a basic brush set for my mother (along with a Warm shadow palette).
Royal Assets Palette Compacts
I am really loving these palette compacts. First of all, I think that they are very beautiful. The crest on each one is very cute and well done. Though they do seem a tad corny, I really think the novelty and atmosphere they create overpower the corniness. It really does feel like luxury, and since they are made of metal, plastic, and something like ceramic, they won't catch or keep any product (unlike the fabric compacts like from Novel Twist and last year's holiday Formal Black collection). Warm and Metallic are in Gold casing with a gold handled 213SE mini brush, and the Cool and Smokey are in Silver casing with a silver handled 213SE minibrush.
6 Warm Eyes Palette - Gold packaging. Includes Sunday Best (Frost), Nobility (Satin), Retrospeck (Lustre), Star Violet (Veluxe Pearl), Club (Satin), and Showstopper (Matte), along with a Gold-handled 213SE Mini.
Just looking at the palette shades is breathtaking, each color complimenting each other.
Sunday Best was enough to buy the entire palette. A repromote, orriginally released with Lingerie in 2005, it is a warm intensely frosted champagne pink, and perfect for highlighting. I remember I got this in early 2006 and had finished it by the summer! I loved it, and now I can finally enjoy it again! Another repromote is
Showstopper, which first appeared in the Diana Ross Icon Collection in 2005, and most recently, was included in the Smoking Eyes Quad from Smoke Signals. It is a beautiful deep deep dark matte brown. It is PERFECT for a deep dark eyeshadow, but if you want something that looks black but without the hardness of it. I'm glad to have another in this palette because I know I'll run out of the Smoking Quad one soon! The only new shadow is
Nobility, a neutral pink-brown, and since it is a satin, it has a gentle glow to it which is very pretty. Permanent shadows that make an appearance are Retrospeck, Star Violet, and Club.
Retrospeck is a white-gold lustre. I don't care for lustres very much, but I must admit that this is one of the lustres that does stay alot better than others, and the intense metallic of it is very pretty. Great for a golden eyeshadow theme.
Star Violet is a darker rosey-pink Veluxe Pearl and goes on very opaque and intensely shimmery.
Club is Club. I've never been a big fan of this shadow, and it is a big disappointment to me because I already have Club from last year's Smoked Eyes Formal Black palette. It is a reddish brown with green duochrome. It is a very smooth formula, but I've always found that it goes on sort of unevenly. Overall I really love this palette! I already bought my mother one as well.
6 Cool Eyes Palette - Silver packaging. Includes Medallion (Veluxe Pearl), Silverwear (Frost), Trophy Pink (Frost), Modern Heir (Frost), Shadowy Lady (Matte), and Queen's Jewel (Veluxe Pearl), along with a Silver-handled 213SE Mini.
Again, just looking at the colors in the palette is really inspiring. Everytime I look I think of all the different ways each color can be used to compliment the ones around it. Gorgeous! This palette really is the treasure among all of the palettes in my opinion. I must admit, when presales first started at my counter, I preordered the other three and planned on NOT buying this one. But in person, the colors are gorgeous and very unique. I call this one a treasure because five of the six are brand new and currently only available in this collection. In person, each color is obviously unique and seemingly have no dupes in the permanent collection (from what I've seen/used). First we have
Medallion, a super icy metallic light pink. It goes on very smooth and is very pigmented, a little goes a long way with this.
Silverwear is another icy metallic, this one being a silver-white with a subtle pink to it. Compared to Medallion (which is a VP, this being a F) it is not as pigmented, but it is very nice anyway.
Trophy Pink is definitely the most eyecatching of the bunch, being a very bright pigmented pink. It has this almost duochrome of red pearl to it, giving it this gorgeous dimension. I'm not sure how to describe it, but if you swatch it and look at it closely you'll understand. It's BEAUTIFUL... too bad I don't wear pink often. I'll have to make an exception for this pink though!! Next is
Modern Heir, a pastel purple with a light pinky pearl to it. This is beautiful when applied blended with Trophy Pink. I love it! It's very girly and pretty. My favorite of the shadows is definitely
Queen's Jewel. A frosty blue with bluish purplish pearl. From that description it reminds me of Contrast, but in person it is nothing like it. It is fabulous, and would go perfectly with Deep Truth, or Stormwatch eyeshadows. One permanent shadow makes an appearance, that being
Shadowy Lady, a deep plum-brown matte. I already have this shadow, but I'm not a fan of it. It shows up extremely muddy on me, and neither the plum nor the brown of it really show, it just looking like a bruisey brown-black on my NW15 skin. I much prefer Showstopper in comparison, but I'm sure that along with the shadows in this palette, it makes a fantastic crease color.
6 Metallic Eyes Palette - Gold packaging. Included are Crème Royale (Veluxe Pearl), Silver Fog (Frost), Honey Lust (Lustre), Stately Black (Lustre), Manor (Frost), and Velvet Lady (Velvet), along with a Gold-handled 213SE Mini.
Again, this palette is GORGEOUS to look at, however, I much prefer the Cool and the Warm at first glance. This is appealing because they are all metallic frosty shades, but this palette lacks a theme. I understand that lack of theme allows anyone to create any look from the provided shades, but it just looks like random shadows thrown together. But that does not mean that the shadows aren't good. It is also important to point out that all the shadows in this palette are new except for Honey Lust, at least to my knowledge.
Crème Royale is gorgeous! A yellow gold with white shimmer, it is great as a highlight on pale skin (like mine) because, similar to Nylon, the pearl shows up vividly, but does not look extremely yellow or gold. However, I'm sure on darker tones it'd show up very gold or yellow, and would make a beautiful lid color.
Silver Fog is beautiful but like MAC_Whore said before, it seems alot more like a Lustre than a Frost. It does indeed have the frosty texture, but also it has alot of glitter particles that easily fall. It is like Grey Fume's much younger and brighter cousin or something, haha. Like MAC_Whore said, a good base is very important when using Silver Fog. It is also important to point out that Silver Fog eyeshadow is NOT Silver Fog Pigment from Smoke Signals.
Stately Black is a beautiful rich blue with silver pearl and looks like a darker Wait Till Dark from Nocturnelle 2006. Since it is a lustre, a good base is needed, but this lustre seems to be one of the better ones with better staying power. Another new shade is
Manor, a rich red-brown with green pearl. Not only did MAC have to repromote Club in the Warm palette but they had to include an almost Club dupe in the Metallic Palette! I do admit, it is very pretty, but it is like a redder, less pigmented club! I already have enough of these colors. I have 2 Clubs, Green Brown pigment, and even Label Whore by Too Faced. I never realized how many green-browns I have, but I really have enough. Hopefully after this year there'll be no more repromotes of Club or Club-like items. On the upside, Manor is a very smooth and is a warm compliment to the other colors included in this palette, especially Crème Royale in my opinion. My favorite shadow of this is Velvet Lady for sure. Super pigmented and smooth, this shadow is AWESOME. An intense black with apparent gold, green, silver, and red pearl (I've checked the website and it says it's only golden pearl, but it really looks like there's colors in there, but maybe I'm blind!). It is BEAUTIFUL. And it is so black, I love it. A fantastic shadow for a smokey crease, or to deepen a warm eye makeup. I'm a huge sucker for black shadows, and this one is very unique. Goes on super dark and beautiful with the 242. Last we have Honey Lust, a peachy golden with intense metallic bronzey sparkle. This is the first time I've had this shadow. I've used it once, for a Gold Event at MAC, and already it has a dent in it. I really do get disappointed and frustrated by lustres easily. To make it show up and create an opaque lid color, I had to use alot of it. Being a lustre, alot fell off of my eye and fell off of the shadow while in the palette. Already the mirror has ALOT of Honey Lust on it, and I've only had it for about four days. =/
6 Smokey Eyes Palette - Silver packaging. Included are Maid of Honor (Satin), Rondelle (Frost), Palatial (Satin), Courtly Grey(Matte), Majestic (Lustre), and Knight (Veluxe Pearl), along with a Silver-handled 213SE Mini.
This, is honestly, the most boring of the bunch, which is suprising because it does not seem to include ANY permanent shades. This may be harsh, but I want to smack whoever named this the 'Smokey' palette. It is much more of a 'Neutral' palette. We have
Maid of Honor which is a pale cream with a slight glow to it. Not an ideal highlight color in my opinion since I prefer frosts, but I know of many women that come to my counter who use Brulè as highlights under the brow bone.
Rondelle makes an appearance again, having been repromoted (appearing first in Danse 2006) in Smoke Signals Grey Fume Quad already this year. An intense white-silver with white pearl, it is gorgeous as a lid color or highlight on inner V. It looks odd however in this quad, with most shades being neutral grey-browns, then with this almost random intense white-silver thrown in. Palatial is a brown taupe with a subtle hint of metallic, as most satins do. When applied on my NW15 skin it is noticably more grey-looking than brown compared to the color when viewed in the palette. Still I find it to be a gorgeous neutral brown-grey, very wearable for anyone. Courtly Grey is a nice subtle compliment to Palatial, but still they are both a little too 'normal' if you know what I mean. Holiday shadows are supposed to be super unique and pretty. These two shadows are pretty blah. Majestic is very attractive in the palette, a warm grey-orangey-brown with intense silver sparkle. Reminds me of Rare Specimen from the Showflower Quad (Strange Hybrid 2007). Since this is a Lustre, it has the usual problem: Alot of fall out. The brown is beautiful, but the glitter falls very easily. =/ I dislike alot of lustres, honestly. Finally we have Knight which is suspiciously similar to Knight Divine. Both are Veluxe Pearls and are deep shades with deep silver pearl. I swatched both and Knight Divine is a little darker more like a black with silver rather than a deep grey with silver, but they are close enough. I WILL use this palette don't get me wrong. I'll get alot of use out of it and I will enjoy it. However, when compared to the three other palettes it is a huge disappointment for me personally. It is great for someone who wants a very neutral low-key smokey eye, but for everyone else that likes a more intense smoked look, you'll have to find something elsewhere.
The
Lip Palettes are very pretty, half the size of the Eyeshadow Palettes, each containing two Lipsticks and a Lipglass. There are four, Tan and Coral in Gold packaging with a Gold-handled 316SE Mini, and Red and Pink in Silver packaging with a Silver-handled 316SE Mini. The only Lip Palette I have tried on is the
Tan one. The lighter shade is gorgeous and the darker is really nice too. Both are smooth and comfortable, and the tan-gold lipglass is the perfect gloss to complete the lip. The only one that really sticks out in my mind that I dislike is the
Red. The first lipstick is a bright flat red lipstick, along with the second which is Media, a reddish berry purple. I swatched the lipsticks next to each other and didn't much care for the combination. The Lipglass is a very very yellow gold. It definitely warms up the red lipstick, but I would have much prefered a red toned Lipglass. Such a strange combination to me. =/ I don't love it.
The
Heirlooms Brushsets seem to be of pretty high quality. I have touched the testers at work and they are all very soft, but I am not sure how they perform. Each comes with a unique clutch made of woven white fabric with metallic thread. The Face set has Gold metallic thread in the clutch, with Gold-handled brushes, while the Basic and Eye sets have Silver metallic thread in the clutches, with Silver-handled brushes. I'm sort of torn about the clutches. They are really cool and really tacky at the same time. I love fabric they're made of, but the plastic frame/clasp thing at the top looks extremely cheap, and the inside of the bag has a cheap feel as well since it's lined in weird thin plastic. I bought my mother the Basic brushes for Christmas because she really really loved the clutches and is in dire need of brushes, haha!
So in conclusion, I think that MAC has released some wonderful holiday sets this year. I love the Old-Rococco (the art movement, not the MAC Collection) theme, and the gorgeous new shades and limited edition packaging. Each individual product has it's ups and it's downs, but really overall, this is an amazing collection, and any MAC fan will LOVE it.
