Wear M.A.C at the Stroke of Midnight in this new collection of black and white cases enclosed in monochrome and gold clutch purses for night time glamour…
Wear M.A.C at the Stroke of Midnight in this new collection of black and white cases enclosed in monochrome and gold clutch purses for night time glamour.
I thought I’d photograph these beautiful new bags against an art deco beaded and sequinned dress as it not only complemented the collection cases in colour, but in mood; perfect for a late night out partying in sophistication and style.
I also thought of turning my clock (also black and white, of course) hands to twelve and shooting the compact at its namesake ‘stroke of midnight.’
At my first ever MAC Makeup Lesson this month at Britomart, I got to see firsthand all the variety of brushes used to create various looks. My makeup trainer talked me through them and I decided I NEEDED some MAC brushes! So I am delighted to be trying the Mineralize set out thanks to MAC. By the way, I personally recommend you have your own lesson; they cost $150 but are redeemable on product and you learn so much that you will end up saving money on buying the right things, avoiding buying the wrong things, and learning how to use them properly. I even took a bag of my own MAC makeup in to the lesson – which she said some women often do – to learn how to use what I already own.
The Mineralize brush kit ($150) contains 187 Duo Fibre Face brush, 159 Duo Fibre Blush brush, 286 Duo Fibre Tapered Blending brush, and a 287 Duo Fibre Eyeshadow brush. These are fibre brushes, which are much softer and looser than those in the denser Smoky Eye Brush Kit and Brush Kit Essentials. They’re designed for use with Mineralize eyeshadows and blushes that I find can be "too full-on" with too much product on a brush. Thus, these less-dense fibre brushes are great if you want a softer look; use a non-fibre brush for times when you want to have product on more densely.
The Stroke of Midnight Face Palettes are a good handbag/ travel essential for a day-to-night face. Holiday season is when many of us travel, and want a kit like this for all the basics in one ready-to-go palette. They have a bronzer, three eyeshadows, two lipsticks and one mini eye pencil. Eye Palettes come in Warm (browns and rosy pink) or Cool (blues and plum) and retail for $142 each. I wasn’t sure why the two lipsticks were under a plastic lid, unless it was to keep eyeshadow fallout off them. The Face Palette below has eye shadows Tenderly, After Dusk, and Showstopper; Lipsticks Myself, and Love Talk; a Bronzing Powder in Golden, and an Eye Pencil in Coffee. Whilst you may have many of these colours at home already, the true advantage in this is its portability and the elegant case you can pull out for touch ups – it has an excellent large mirror inside the lid.
Lip Look Bag features the same art deco style vinyl bag – which I think would double as a cute wallet / mini clutch purse when travelling – with three lip colours inside. There are two colourways: a nude and a violet one, pictured below. This one includes Art of Seduction Cremesheen Glass, Dark Deed Lipstick, and Vino Lip Pencil and is priced at $100.
Nocturnals Pigments and Glitter/Black and Gold come as a set of 5 vials of eyeshadows for $95 in a box. There are also two other colourways; one with silver/violet, and one with green/teal. In this one, there’s Naked Pigment – a fleshy beige with pearl (matte), Museum Bronze Pigment – a rich taupe with gold pearl (frost), Copper Sparkle Pigment – super frosty copper flecks (frost), Gold Glitter – sparkly chunky gold glitter (glitter) and Black Glitter – sparkly chunky black (glitter). This is an economical way to purchase a few at once, and gets you to experiment with a few new colours. My personal pick was the Gold Glitter.
Below: on my eyes I wear Gold Glitter (left) and Copper Sparkle Pigment (right).
So go on, get your glamorous on, before the stroke of midnight rolls around. I’m pretty sure you can put all of these on with one hand whilst holding a flute of French Champagne in the other.
MAC Stroke of Midnight Collection is available now at all New Zealand MAC locations.
Megan Robinson,
24 November 2013
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