MAC Cosmetics - Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour Simply Smoked

Matte reigns supreme

Hi everyone!

Back in January, MAC launched eight new Retro Matte Liquid Lip Colours to add to the existing 15 shades. With a combination of muted and deep tones and a liquid matte formula, MAC is really hitting the trend. 

A little round up before

Before diving in, I just wanted to give some thoughts I had after trying the shades from the first release. The formula was extremely dry, it left my lips feel like the desert. The darker shades applied really patchy and hard to build up, making it really hard to make them look nice on the lips . The applicator is really nice, it's not your classic foot applicator, it's a flat, teardrop shaped applicator, which is really easy to work with. My favorite shade was tailored to tease, which is a cool-toned, rather bright plum colour. 

If you want to read about the first release of the Retro Matte's, click on the picture below.

Why did you buy one again?

The reviews on the first release weren't that great, but everyone seemed to find their way to work with them. I will discuss mine further down.

I would've been surprised if MAC would release eight more shades, without doing something with the feedback of the make up lovers, so I decided to get one more of the new release. 

Simply smoked

I am a big fan of the matte lipstick in the shade Stone, so I decided to get a similar shade in the Retro Matte range. Judging from the tube, I picked out Simply Smoked. 

Simply Smoked is described is a neutral taupe color. And I must say I totally love it! I'm not sure if MAC has changed up the formula, or if the formula works really well with this pigment, but this shade is amazing! It really makes me want to try more shades again.

Here you see Stone and Simply Smoked swatched next to each other. As you can see, Stone has a slightly more red tone, while Simply Smoked has more grey tones in it.

How I make them work

First method: conditioner

- Make sure your lips are exfoliated, you can use premade scrubs (like Lush) or make it yourself with olive oil and sugar (which I do)

- Take care of your lips, use lip balm or lip conditioner regularly. I always do my lipstick last when I do my make up, so I have lip conditioner on the whole time while doing the rest of my make up. My favorite balm/conditioner is the MAC Lip Conditioner

- You can go in with an extra primer, but sometimes I feel like this makes your lips a bit too slippery, so be sure to wipe off any excess product before applying any lipstick

- Make sure your lips are dry

- Apply your lipstick evenly and work with it while still matte

Second method: gloss it up

Do you love the shade of your lipstick, but hate it being so dry on your lips? There's a simple hack!

I use the slightest bit of MAC clear Lip Glass Lip Gloss over the top, which will make the lipstick less dry and a little more glossy.

Facts

Retail price: €24,50

I hope you enjoyed this little update and review!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

xo

Gaëtane

MAC Cosmetics | Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour + an extra

Hi lovelies!

Today was the day all Belgian make-uplovers had been waiting for! It was a MAC Collections launching day <3! Both the new Ellie Goulding collection as the Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolours were launched in store today...

So even if it was Saturday, no sleeping in for me! Why? Because I had to be at my local MAC Store (Ghent) at opening time... When I arrived, one girl is also waiting outside to splurge... We both get in at 10am and hand over our wanted-list to the girls at MAC. An anxious peek into the drawer tells us that stock was limited again, so we were lucky to get there early. Four colours sold out immediately, because the stock for the particular colour was limited to 2 or 3 pieces. So we were lucky to get the colours we wanted...

These are the colors I picked up, all retailing at €24,5 euros a piece. If got 8 colors of the 15 available...

Back in Vogue - a peachy nude

To matte with love - a bright raspberry

Tailored to tease - a bright fushia

Oh lady  - a deep wine

Recollection - an intense bright violet

This color is pretty much the twin of Heroine by MAC, but even more matte (love love love). Along with 'How chic is this?' from the Vamplify range this could make a holy threesome!

High drama - a deep dark plum

Dance with me - a deep cranberry red

Feels so grand - A deep true red 

We've got triplets! This is matchy matchy with MAC's Cardinal (Satin finish) and Suggestive from the Vamplify collection!

As an extra I got the patent polish lip pencil in Revved from the Elle Goulding collection:

Some more pictures of the liquid lipsticks

 

Click on the last picture to go to the full Flickr album...

I hope you enjoyed this post <3!

Are you planning on picking some of these colours up?

xx

Gaëtane

MAC Cosmetics | Magic of the night collection | Holiday collection 2015

We are the heroes of the night

But we're dancing with the demons in our minds

November 7th must've been marked in all diaries of beautylovers in Belgium and The Netherlands, because MAC was launched its Christmas collection in stores. The online launch was on October 29th, which I missed to some other magic happening at Disneyland Paris (which you'll read about in a later blogpost). I love going shopping in my not-so-local, but still closest to my house MACstore in Ghent, where I'm always welcomed with open arms and amazing tips & tricks.

I left my house early, because I didn't want to live the same disappointed as with the Cinderella collection (long story short: arrived late-ish in the city centre, all parking lots were full, arrived at the store 3 minutes after opening time and BAM some stuff had already sold out). I ended up being half an hour early at the shop, seeing the lovely girls who work there putting together the most AMAZING make up look using all the products of the new range. Having a little peek through the window, I also saw that the Enchanted Eve collection also had already entered the building, but I was here for the Magic of the Night one. Don't get me wrong, the other collection also looks amazing, especially the make up bags, but the addict that I am, I do have at least one product in each of the sets, so that left me more money for the Magic of the Night collection.

My haul

My aim with special collections is only to get the stuff that is exclusive for that collection, by which I mean not to buy for example a lipstick that is always in the range, but just in the special packaging. I managed quite well this time, I only gave in to Nightmoth lip pencil, as I heard so many people rave about it and I actually never tried it.

Nightmoth lip pencil, blackened plum (€16,50)

The other lip pencil released was Redd, but as I don't really have problems wearing red lipstick without pencil underneath, so this one could stay in the shop. Two other things that I did not pick up were the Pearl Glide Intense Eye Liners in Petrol Blue and Black Swan (just because I did not need more eyeliners in my life).

The packaging for this collection is shiny purple and green and looks just fabulous! Also the color range on all products ranges from shiny pinky nude to green and purples, all with the help of glitter.

Every time that we rendez-vous

The lipstick part of this collection consisted of 4 lipstick, two of which are new. Please Me (matte) and All fired up (Retro Matte) being the repackaged already existing colors. The new colors were Evening Rendezvous which is a beautiful matte purple lipstick with red undertones, slightly similar to Instigator, but more bright purple.

The second new color is Dark Side a deep browny, burgundy red in the amplified creme formula.

Evening Rendezvous (€21)

Dark Side (€21)

Dark Side & Evening Rendezvous

Starry eyed

Next up are my favorites of this collection: the Colourdrenched Pigment Eyeshadows. All of these five pressed eyeshadow have a frost finish, which is oftenly said to be more sheer and less pigmented, but OMG these colors are out there. All of these retail at 23 euros a piece.

Night thrill is a gold shimmer color, and probably the most sheer one of this fabulous five. On me, it turned more yellow that gold, but all depends of course on your skin tone and type.

Ascent of Glamour is a cobalt violet-blue and my favorite of the five, just because it matches nicely with my green eyes.

Tonight's the Night is a deep blackened teal.

Moon is blue is as the name says a royal blue and would go perfectly with Atlantic Blue eyeshadow (also from MAC).

And last but not least is No Taboos which is a blackened blue.This one turns grey with blue undertones on me.

All these colors are perfect to create a festive shimmery smokey eye look and are buildable in intensity of color, but the color payoff is extremely good. They can be used wet or dry, just note that if you use them wet, the consistancy might change a bit after a while.

Beams are gonna blind me

Last up are the Extra Dimension Skinfinish pressed powders.

Shaft of Gold & Oh Darling

Oh, darling(€34,5) is a metallic gold powder, that can be used as a highlighter. There are no huge chunks of glitters or sparkle in there, it's a very pigments yet flawless powder with tons of shimmer. For some reason the name of this powder reminded me of Cruella (well Disneygeek for life).

Shaft of Gold (€34,5) is a deep bronze powder, that can be used for contouring or blush. If you like contouring with shiny powder, this will be your friend, as well as if you like skiny brown-toned blush. Notice that if you have really fair skin, Shaft of Gold might be too dark to contour with.

I had nothing but love for this whole collection, that's why I picked up so many pieces of it (Disclaimer: yes, I bought all of this from my own money). Availability is limited though, so hurry if you got excited seeing these beautiful products

xx

Gaëtane