liba
Well-known member
Sorry!! It's been a busy night over here, but here's more deets on the eye shadows.
MES: Wellllll, MAC just keeps improving and improving these. Every time I think, OK it's not going to get better, it gets better. That's good enough for me to buy some more MES, but when MAC can give me a new formula AND new colors that aren't like anything I already own, that's really awesome and I am going to be handing over my cash.
What's new? The texture on these is so good. First off, the closest thing I can compare it to is the texture of Shimmermint, except without all the fallout and powderiness. These are exceptionally smooth and non-powery for MES. They all have a TON of very very fine micro shimmer. They look very sparkly in the pan, but depending on how you apply them, you can get them to not look sparkly on the eyes (applied dry with a flat brush), just lightly sparkly (tried dry with a 217 then spray with Fix+) or massively metallic and shiny, but not glittery (picked up with a wet brush then applied). They have veining, but not the sort that would make an enormous difference, for the most part. I didn't get the chance to hand pick any of them today, because I was in a bit of a rush, but I'll be back to vein hunt a bit. Still, the way the colors and textures are, I think we're dealing with primarily pre-mixed colors with the veining more for show. To find really blotchy ones in this formula, so you can more easily pick and choose colors, is going to be tough and really kind of unnecessary - I will explain more below. Finally, there's a buttery quality to all of these that leads me to think the wear time is going to be quite improved - I didn't get to test all that out because I went straight from the store to work out so I took it all off, figuring I didn't want to sweat it all over my face. These are so versatile - I'm probably going to get them all, which I haven't done with any shadow collection in quite a while.
Ice: Did you like the look of that lightest Pressed Pigment, but felt it was too glittery and chunky? Well, here ya go. All of the glistening, none of the chunks and zero fallout. This one will be a contender for selling out, since it's the perfect shimmering pale neutral eye. I'm happy with my Pressed Piggie, so if I skip any of these, this would be the one, just because the actual shade is the same and the only real difference is the size of the shimmer. No fallout, though, and no sparkle residue when you remove it. In fact all of these MES cleaned up super easy with just a wipe and didn't leave random glitter anywhere. Yet another great feature.
Silver Birch: Another contender for sell out. This one really took me by surprise. It's a melange of peach and dark charcoal silver with some pale olive/gold shimmer in there. Blended together and applied wet it becomes this AMAZING color that's sort of like liquid tarnished metal - like a very pale olive almost, but the metallic sheen sits up on top of a deeper undertone - it's not duochrome...it's more like the effect you get with the glorious Golden Gaze MES, where the bronze color sits on top of the black base, except Silver Birch is so smooth and reflective compared to Golden Gaze. It really looks like liquid mercury. Another thing about it, I normally can't really wear pale olive tones very well, or cool, light silvers, but somehow, there's enough depth to this color that it looks fabulous even on me. Gals with darker skin tones are going to look like liquid metal goddesses with this one. It's one of the most unusual metallic eye shadows I've come across. Exceptional!
Frost At Midnight: This is the one I was going to get no matter what, and I still feel the same way. It's this magical greyed down, silvery purple/blue. It's what I hoped for with some of the earlier MES like Winterized and Twilight Falls but didn't really deliver. Unlike Winterized, which is the only thing that is even vaguely similar to this super complex color, the color is not dark or muddy. It's very clear and mid-tone, not blackened. You can clearly see the color in it and when applied wet (or even dry, though it's more subtle) it has a beautiful iridescent shift between purple, blue and silver. It's like a magical fairy forest sky at night. I am so thrilled with this baby. Applied dry, you could totally wear this for day time without getting stuck with a smokey eye. You can go full glam at night with this wet, or applied over a dark base. Seriously, a major color for 2013 - my bet is it will wind up being my favorite shadow color for the whole year.
Winter Pursuit: This one's my MA's favorite out of the 5. The pan was primarily copper, but with patches of blue-grey peeking through in chunks. Applied dry, it doesn't read as coppery as it looks in the pan. Instead it's just a very subtle warmish neutral that does that instant wake up effect on your eyes. Great for a subtle contoured look. Wet, you get a duochrome effect, with a silvery blue highlight sitting on top of the pale copper base. Very soft and beautiful and not your run of the mill brassy copper color at all.
Fireside: Now, this one really looks duochrome, even when applied dry. In the pan you see a warm plum color mixed with swathes of greenish blue grey, but when applied, it looks very much like Blue Brown pigment, except softer and not so harshly metallic. It's smooth like the similar color in the green Crushed Metal set, but of course, also not as shiny and metallic. Even wet, it's not too metallic. It's the soft version. I love it, but then again I just love that particular duochrome and am very happy to have it in various levels of shimmer, shine and metallic-ness. So incredibly flattering, and surprisingly unlike Winter Pursuit - they're similar, but a different enough effect that I don't see a problem buying both. Your mileage may vary; if you're looking to save money, I'd say go see these in person. It's possible on some skin tones they will look a lot more similar.
Yep, these are all awesome. MAC take my money!
MES: Wellllll, MAC just keeps improving and improving these. Every time I think, OK it's not going to get better, it gets better. That's good enough for me to buy some more MES, but when MAC can give me a new formula AND new colors that aren't like anything I already own, that's really awesome and I am going to be handing over my cash.
What's new? The texture on these is so good. First off, the closest thing I can compare it to is the texture of Shimmermint, except without all the fallout and powderiness. These are exceptionally smooth and non-powery for MES. They all have a TON of very very fine micro shimmer. They look very sparkly in the pan, but depending on how you apply them, you can get them to not look sparkly on the eyes (applied dry with a flat brush), just lightly sparkly (tried dry with a 217 then spray with Fix+) or massively metallic and shiny, but not glittery (picked up with a wet brush then applied). They have veining, but not the sort that would make an enormous difference, for the most part. I didn't get the chance to hand pick any of them today, because I was in a bit of a rush, but I'll be back to vein hunt a bit. Still, the way the colors and textures are, I think we're dealing with primarily pre-mixed colors with the veining more for show. To find really blotchy ones in this formula, so you can more easily pick and choose colors, is going to be tough and really kind of unnecessary - I will explain more below. Finally, there's a buttery quality to all of these that leads me to think the wear time is going to be quite improved - I didn't get to test all that out because I went straight from the store to work out so I took it all off, figuring I didn't want to sweat it all over my face. These are so versatile - I'm probably going to get them all, which I haven't done with any shadow collection in quite a while.
Ice: Did you like the look of that lightest Pressed Pigment, but felt it was too glittery and chunky? Well, here ya go. All of the glistening, none of the chunks and zero fallout. This one will be a contender for selling out, since it's the perfect shimmering pale neutral eye. I'm happy with my Pressed Piggie, so if I skip any of these, this would be the one, just because the actual shade is the same and the only real difference is the size of the shimmer. No fallout, though, and no sparkle residue when you remove it. In fact all of these MES cleaned up super easy with just a wipe and didn't leave random glitter anywhere. Yet another great feature.
Silver Birch: Another contender for sell out. This one really took me by surprise. It's a melange of peach and dark charcoal silver with some pale olive/gold shimmer in there. Blended together and applied wet it becomes this AMAZING color that's sort of like liquid tarnished metal - like a very pale olive almost, but the metallic sheen sits up on top of a deeper undertone - it's not duochrome...it's more like the effect you get with the glorious Golden Gaze MES, where the bronze color sits on top of the black base, except Silver Birch is so smooth and reflective compared to Golden Gaze. It really looks like liquid mercury. Another thing about it, I normally can't really wear pale olive tones very well, or cool, light silvers, but somehow, there's enough depth to this color that it looks fabulous even on me. Gals with darker skin tones are going to look like liquid metal goddesses with this one. It's one of the most unusual metallic eye shadows I've come across. Exceptional!
Frost At Midnight: This is the one I was going to get no matter what, and I still feel the same way. It's this magical greyed down, silvery purple/blue. It's what I hoped for with some of the earlier MES like Winterized and Twilight Falls but didn't really deliver. Unlike Winterized, which is the only thing that is even vaguely similar to this super complex color, the color is not dark or muddy. It's very clear and mid-tone, not blackened. You can clearly see the color in it and when applied wet (or even dry, though it's more subtle) it has a beautiful iridescent shift between purple, blue and silver. It's like a magical fairy forest sky at night. I am so thrilled with this baby. Applied dry, you could totally wear this for day time without getting stuck with a smokey eye. You can go full glam at night with this wet, or applied over a dark base. Seriously, a major color for 2013 - my bet is it will wind up being my favorite shadow color for the whole year.
Winter Pursuit: This one's my MA's favorite out of the 5. The pan was primarily copper, but with patches of blue-grey peeking through in chunks. Applied dry, it doesn't read as coppery as it looks in the pan. Instead it's just a very subtle warmish neutral that does that instant wake up effect on your eyes. Great for a subtle contoured look. Wet, you get a duochrome effect, with a silvery blue highlight sitting on top of the pale copper base. Very soft and beautiful and not your run of the mill brassy copper color at all.
Fireside: Now, this one really looks duochrome, even when applied dry. In the pan you see a warm plum color mixed with swathes of greenish blue grey, but when applied, it looks very much like Blue Brown pigment, except softer and not so harshly metallic. It's smooth like the similar color in the green Crushed Metal set, but of course, also not as shiny and metallic. Even wet, it's not too metallic. It's the soft version. I love it, but then again I just love that particular duochrome and am very happy to have it in various levels of shimmer, shine and metallic-ness. So incredibly flattering, and surprisingly unlike Winter Pursuit - they're similar, but a different enough effect that I don't see a problem buying both. Your mileage may vary; if you're looking to save money, I'd say go see these in person. It's possible on some skin tones they will look a lot more similar.
Yep, these are all awesome. MAC take my money!
dammit mac! why hit us all at once like this ;( so glad I skipped a few summer collections this year lol
