Tuesday 10 January 2012

Daphne Guinness for MAC Haul



My small haul from the Daphne Guinness collection; the Interior Life quad & two pigments. Although only Nebula & Aurora are shown above, I already had Circa Plum & have swatches to include in this post.


Interior Life eyeshadow quad

Interior Life is comprised of four shades in a pink, purple & grey scheme. Three different finishes are included, Matte, Satin & Veluxe.
Stratus

The first shadow from the quad is Stratus, a pale pink in a Matte finish. Whilst it looks very pink-toned in the pan, it loses some of its pinkness once applied. Upon swatching, I found it to be reasonably soft & fairly well pigmented, but it took several swipes of the pan to build up enough colour to get a decent swatch

Bruised Sky
This is where things get a little confusing; comparing the details of the quad on MAC's site to the quad itself reveals that the names on a couple of shadows have got switched around. I've decided to go by the label on the back of the quad, so as to avoid confusing myself.

Bruised Sky is a dusty, lavendar-grey shade in a Satin finish. MAC's Satin shadows seem to differ; some look  like a matte with a touch of a sheen to them & others are more of a frosty finish. Bruised Sky is one of the less frosty Satins. This applied easily and matched well to the pan colour.

Interior Life

The second shadow in the mix-around, so this may well be called Bruised Sky. As it's labelled Interior Life on my quad, I'm going with that name.
Anyway, this shadow is described as being a mid-tone grey blue on MAC's site. In the pan, it has a tinge of purple to it which shows up a little on the skin. It's a Veluxe finish that I found very easy to swatch & the pigmentation is great.

Heather Belles

The second of the quad's Satin finishes, Heather Belles is more shimmery than Bruised Sky. Colour-wise, Heather Belles is a dark charcoal grey. Easy to swatch & good pigmentation with this one.

Stratus, Bruised Sky, Interior Life, Heather Belles

I usually do swatches straight on to bare skin, but because Stratus is such a pale colour, it got lost on my skin tone. For this swatch, I applied the shadows on top of a primer.


Aurora, Nebula


The two new pigments; Aurora & Nebula. Upon swatching, I found these to look quite different to their appearance in the jars.


Aurora

The jar gives you the impression that Aurora is a champagne shade. Once applied, it becomes a taupe with a slight pink tint to it. Although it's a frosty pigment, it doesn't have that very metallic sheen that some other MAC pigments do. One of the softer, finer-milled pigments.

Nebula

When I first removed Nebula from its box, I was quite disappointed as it appeared to be a basic brown pigment. Swatching it revealed that Nebula, whilst having brown tones, leans far more to the grey side. In certain lights, I picked up a hint of a green sheen.
As with Aurora, it's a fine, soft pigment that applies easily.


Circa Plum

My jar of Circa Plum is in the old-style packaging, so it looks different in the picture. Circa Plum is frostier than the other two pigments. It's a dusty, warm lavendar colour that applies easily.



Aurora, Nebula

Circa Plum

All of the pigment swatches were done straight on to bare skin, using the pigments dry.



My overall thoughts on these? Interior Life is a nice quad, particularly as it isn't overloaded with frosty textures. However, if you collect make-up & MAC products in particular, you're likely to already own colours that are very similar, if not outright dupes.

As for the pigments, Circa Plum is nice enough but I prefer cooler, more vivid shades of purple on myself. Aurora is pretty, although maybe a little on the warm side for my preferences, but it is a versatile shade that could easily be worked into a variety of looks. Nebula is definitely my stand-out shade; it's far more complex than a glance at the jar leads you to believe. It's worth swatching for yourself to see how it looks on your skin-tone.

No comments:

Post a Comment