04 1 / 2011
MAC EYESHADOW (A Wish Come True, A Tartan Tale Limited Edition)
A belated Happy New Year, everyone!
The festive Christmas holiday season saw the launch of many special limited edition collections. In particular, I’ll be reviewing three limited edition products I purchased in Hong Kong over the holiday: A Tartan Tale Eye Shadow from MAC’s Holiday ‘10 Collection, The Body Shop Cranberry Joy Body Scrub and Body Butter, and Maybelline Hello Kitty x Volum’ Express Hypercurl Cat Eyes Mascara!
.:: MAC A TARTAN TALE EYE SHADOW (LIMITED EDITION) ::.
Inspired by the Scottish, this collection had gorgeous, intricate eye shadows with unique tartan patterns. In particular, I loved the shade A Wish Come True - described by MAC on their website as a “dirty mauve with bubblegum pink tartan striping”. Here it is close up:
Gorgeous, right?
However, upon application, it was more sheer than I expected – the colour is definitely not very opaque, meaning you have to use a lot of strokes to build up the colour and intensity. To illustrate, I’ve done some swatches, from 1-2 layers, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5, with and without flash:
As you can see, even with 4-5 layers, it’s still very sheer. Though I find this disappointing as it wasn’t as pigmented as I’d hoped, I love the pretty, iridescent quality of the colour. For those who love the natural make-up look, this is an ideal eyeshadow for everyday wear. It’d also be perfect for a highlighting colour under the brow bone, in the inner corner of your eye (for a more natural alternative to white), or as a shimmery eyeshadow base to help bring out the colour of shadows applied on top. It’s incredibly long-lasting, as I tested it for an entire day (I wore it for about 12 hours) and didn’t notice any fading or smudging!
It’s very similar to another eyeshadow I got in Hong Kong as a free gift - having spent $500 at The Body Shop, I could pick any product worth $100 for free, and chose The Body Shop’s Baked To Last Eyeshadow in Quartz.
MAC’s eyeshadow on the left (my right eye), The Body Shop’s on the right - both have been layered several times. There’s only a very subtle difference in their colour, and though it appears to be peachy pink in the photo, it definitely looks pinker in real life. I would recommend both of these high quality eyeshadows, and as a bonus, both are beautifully designed! I would personally use these more for a natural daytime look and as browbone and inner eye highlights for nighttime, opting for a more opaque, pigmented eyeshadow if I wanted to wear pink as an all-over eye colour at nighttime. Alternatively, I’ve also tried using it as a blush and that works, too!
♥ Joy
