MAC To The Beach Collection

I waited for this collection to hit the shops before I purchased anything, purely because I don't trust the website for accuracy of shades or finishes to the products. It turned out the products I wanted from looking at the website were the ones I liked in real-life and ended up buying anyway.

I could have quite happily gone a little crazy with this collection to be honest, a lot of it really appealed. I was subdued though and just got what I went in for, I do find it hard to part with a lot of money in one go which isn't too terrible I suppose. The only part of this collection that I would have avoided is the eyeshadows. The only colours that grabbed my attention were Shimmermoss and Humid, both of which are permanent items, and one I already own. Sweet and Punchy is a limey yellow colour, it's pretty but not something I'd see myself wearing, I own one yellow eyeshadow which rarely sees the light of day, so didn't want another to add to it. Yellow is a very hit or miss colour, I think I only need to ever own one yellow.

Both of the eye kohls were gorgeous colours, but I have dupes of both of them, (check out the GOSH Velvet Touch eyeliners if you're after a dupe) so again not something I needed.

The blushers in this collection are Hipness and Getaway Bronze. Hipness is a repromote from a previous collection and is a vibrant coral pink and Getaway Bronze looked more golden than anything else to me. I think I'd go lightly with either of these blushers.

The bronzers are both available from the permanent line, I'm still using my Refined Golden from the Style Warriors collection! It is beautiful and still a firm favourite of mine. There are also two cream bronzers with this collection, which I didn't expect to like, I've never been a fan of cream blushers, possibly due to the incompatibility with my skin type. But these seemed to be different, the formulation is one where the product goes on creamy but turns to a powder like form once you've applied it. I think this would have great staying power, so if you're actually going "To The Beach" you might like this!

The highlight powder "Marine Life" is possibly the item from this collection on everybodys wish list. It was on mine too. Then I saw it and realised I really am too sad to actually be able to use it, it's too pretty and sparkly. The gold sheen on top is only an overspray and wipes away after the first couple of uses. As much as wanted to buy it, £20 is too much to part with something I know I daren't use. I think this would be more suitable as a blush than a highlight product, the lighter part used on it's own might pass as a highlight, but the darker, coral part is more of a blush I think would look great on the apples of your cheeks.

So that's an overview of the majority of the products, now on to what I actually did purchase. I loved the colour of Beachbound lipstick. I thought it was both unique yet wearable at the same time. It's an orangey golden shade in a glaze finish which means it's not so pigmented. I bought Flurry of Fun to go over the top of it, which you can see from the pictures the outcome. While I like the two together and thought the colours complimented each other, I don't really believe that a glaze lipstick needs a lipgloss on the top and that these products are best worn separately. The other lipsticks were a little too dark for my liking, whilst Lazy Day was just a little underwhelming. I chose Flurry of Fun from the Lip Glasses for being the most interesting to look at and completely different from anything I already own. It's again a tone of orange which might sound scary, but I think Lip Glasses are the best place to experiment with new colours as they're never as intense as a lipstick. It contains glitter particles which are multi-coloured, with mostly a greeney blue glitter. Sounds weird, but it's actually quite a nice effect. It reminds me of the way sand reflects the sun, not sure if that was what MAC were aiming for, but that's what I think of! I think it works well with a neutral eye make-up look as it can look a little busy on your lips, but is a nice playful look if you don't over do it with busy eye make-up.

Hope this helps anyone thinking of buying from this collection.

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