Argh! Specktra is so S L O W right now...ugh! It takes forever for these pages to load...is it just my computer or is this the case for everyone?
Anyway....
Just thought I would post my 2 cents on this collection. At first reading the descriptions I was kinda meh, but then the first swatches showed up and I was excited, but after getting my goodies and playing with them for a few days, I am kind of underwhelmed again.
First of all, whoever a few pages back said that Warm Me Up lipstick was a dupe for High Def was *exactly* spot on. I did a comparison this morning, when I look at the colors in the tube, High Def looked a tad more brown in the tube, but swatched on my NW20 skin, they were absolutely identical. Because I am a lipstick girl, I will often buy colors that are similar - maybe same color, but in different textures or different finishes or ever-so-slight variations in color. But these two are exactly the same. Also, almost all the swatches I have seen of Warm Me Up, appear more pink than the actual lippie. On me, it wears almost orange-ish, brownish with a touch of pink (maybe because my skin naturally has more pink in it, this looks more orange on me?) I dunno, but I am really disappointed in this color. I will definitely be passing this along to my mom or a friend.
I also picked up the 3 new eye shadows.
Mulled Cider - a medium warm brown. I don't think it is very unique - it has decent color pay-off, but it's not anywhere close to that of a Matte2. I would simply say that it is nice. Not super special, or anything to get excited about, but I can see myself getting some wear out of it. I have a conservative job, so it is a nice every day neutral for me.
Chamomile - is definitely a great inner corner and brow bone color. Really nice color pay-off and I think this will become my go-to highlight color since it is warmer than Mylar, which is just a bit too white sometimes for warmer looks.
Modelette - at first I was really disappointed with this color - - it seemed to hardly show up and I couldn't get it to swatch worth a darn on my hand, but instead of using it as a lid color or crease color, I used it today as a blending color between my crease color and high light color and it was fabulous!! It was the perfect, slightly-darker-and-warmer-than-my-skin-tone-color to blend everything together. I was getting ready to chuck it, but now I think I am in love. I'll have to try it again tomorrow with another color combo to see if I like it as well as I did today.
I got Feelin' Good TLC and I am hoping to get a back up before it is sold out - This is the perfect, perfect, perfect nude pink and feels so good on my Wisconsin winter chapped lips. I love the tint of color and it actually feels really fab on the lip. I will likely pick up Close For Comfort as well if it is anything like this one. This is honestly my favorite product from everything I picked up.
I picked up Cuddle and Warm & Cozy s/s. I am not really a shadestick girl (I prefer MAC Paints as a base), but Cuddle is really a pretty white-gold. I don't have Butternutty to compare it to, but I just love the duo-chrome effect of this color. I will have to play a bit more with it, but I think it'll bring out the gold in just about any color - especially something like Motif or Nanogold.
Warm & Cozy s/s makes my blue-ish eyes look ten times bluer than they are - I love it. I will be taking Elegant's suggestion and try smoking it out underneath another liner color. I am not surprised this was the first thing to sell out online. It is a really pretty rose gold. I can see this looking gorgeous on so many different colors of skin.
The last thing I got was By Candlelight. Please don't stone me, but I think I am slowly, but surely I am falling off the MSF wagon. I think Porcelain Pink is by far the better of the two - PP's texture is so much softer and without the dreaded grease-ball effect that I found By Candlelight gave me after a few hours.
I'm sure I can make it work with a lighter touch, but I really wish MAC would make some less shiny, lighter colored MSFs. Oh well. guess that is what NARS Albatross is for.
