So, what exactly did I choose to spend my holiday money on before I’d even left the country? Well Mac of course. I haven’t had the best experience with Mac in the past as their foundation didn’t do much for me and their setting spray, well it just seems like I’m spraying water on my face rather than actually something that will prevent my make up from sliding. However, I am in love with my Mac blush and have heard time and time again that their lipsticks are ahead of the game when it comes to lip products, so I decided to give them another shot for a smaller price. As I just can’t quite come to terms with spending £15 on a lipstick I had avoided getting one in the past but hello duty free and I can sort of justify it to myself. It was either the excitement of leaving the country or £12.50 is my absolute limit of what I will spend on a lippy. So with £2.50 off the standard price I had convinced myself. When it came to the blush no reasoning was needed, I would spend over the £18 the Mac blushes usually are so when this one came in at £15 I was certainly going to invest in a new one.
When it came to choosing the lipstick I had many names in my head that I could remember from rave reviews across the Internet. Rebel, Girl About Town, Crème Cup, Shy Girl and Russian Red were all in my mind and these were all confirmed when I took it Twitter to ask which I should get for my first Mac lipstick. I soon realised I didn’t actually know what any of these colours actually looked like so I asked the lovely MUA for some help. As I made my way down the list it was clear these were all very popular colours as I was met by an “ahh we’re all sold out of that one” for ever single shade. So I was stuck, I couldn’t pick out of all the other colours available because they were just all so pretty, and if all the colours that were popular had gone what could I do? Well, this is where I give credit to the amazing MUA again. She asked me which colour was my favourite out of the ones I’d mentioned…well that was awkward, as I just said I wasn’t sure what they looked like!!! So I chose the only one I’d actually seen in action before and that was Rebel and she found me the closest alternative, which was Diva, and I have to say it is beautiful.
This shade is a little less purple than rebel and seems to have more of a plum under tone. Ok, yes I have several shades like this but I really think this one is the most beautiful out of my collection. You only need one coat to get a huge colour pay off rather than the two to four layers from all my other brands. The colour is verging on the vampy look but not enough that you have to be a bold character to wear it. Diva is from the matte range which is a given for me I am a huge fan of the matte look. What I really like about this lipstick is it doesn’t feel like your wearing anything on your lips at all. My first wear of this was out for a meal and I wasn’t overly impressed with its longevity but when you’re eating, lipstick doesn’t tend to last that long anyway. When I reapplied after the meal and for my second wear it lasted for a very long time so I must have done something wrong the first time.
The texture is very creamy to say it’s matte finished however you do need to make sure you have a clean, flake free lip for this lipstick to go on smoothly. I highly suggest using a lip scrub before using this lipstick as it does cling to any cracks or dry patches. Saying that, this lipstick has finally made me realise what all the hype about Mac lipsticks has been about. It’s a very lovely lipstick that I can see quickly becoming my favourite.
The next item of my duty free haul was the lovely blush in Peachy. I have strolled into a few Mac shops recently and I just kept picking this colour up. It seems so obvious now as I always seemed to gravitate towards blushers that have peach undertones so when I saw the name of this blush I thought someone was playing a practical joke on me. I was torn between getting this one and Melba as that’s the shade I put in my last giveaway and I loved the look of it, but as I kept going back to Peachy, I thought Melba could wait for another time.
This colour would work perfectly with any skin tone and the silkiness of the product itself means it is super easy to apply. Like my other Mac blush (Stay Pretty) it lasts a very good length of time on your cheeks and has a very good colour pay off. You only need a few stokes with your brush to make the colour really stand out on the skin without looking ridiculous. As this colour has such a peachy undertone it can be easy to create that awful orange look and it should only be paired with soft bronzers as it could clash with highly pigmented ones.
I feel like this colour is subtle enough to be used in the summer as it creates a hint of colour to the skin and makes it look more sun kissed than naturally flushed but, if you add those extra layers, it looks lovely in these less sunnier months. Trust me, in Portugal where I used this first, we had all four seasons in a day so it was been perfect to test this blush out.
All in all thank god for duty free and being 3 hours early for our flight as without these factors I doubt I would have ever got a Mac lipstick and an extra blush. I’m well chuffed with my purchases and even more chuffed that I got them for £5.50 cheaper than I would have at your average Mac counter.
What do you think of these shades? Have you tried them before? Which shades would you recommend for Mac lipsticks and blushes?
Thanks for reading,
Hannah xxx
