MAC Cham-Pale Collection

Hauls for MAC's Cham-Pale Collection began to pop-up around the blogosophere over the past two days even though the collection is not "officially" being released in North America until December 26th. I wanted to avoid Boxing Day mayhem at all costs so I called up my MAC Pro to see if they had the collection on display yet. MAC Pros tend to release new colour collections a week before they are put on the website.

On my wishlist I originally had just two of the paint pots (I am going through a cream shadow phase thanks to Benefit), but a few other products in this collection caught me eye. When I saw the product swatches online I thought I was going to pass on most of this collection because it looked too pale and too glittery, but I have found ways to make it work for me.

My Choices:

1) Paint Pots: All very glittery and apply more sheer than the permanent paint pots. The texture is very creamy and once they dry they won't budge. I did full and blended out swatches of each colour.

• Dangerous Cuvee: frosted grayish silver with a periwinkle hue
• Chilled on Ice: frosted pale yellow gold
• Let Me Pop: frosted copper with gold glitter
• Vintage Selections: taupe rose (my favourite)

**click to enlarge**

2) Bubble Lounge Lipgelee: A bronzed rose colour heavy on the glitter, but perfect for the holidays. I like that lipgelees aren't as sticks as the traditional lipgloss and the squeeze tube makes it easy to get out product and use a lip brush.

3) I Get No Kick Eye Kohl: Metallic champagne nude colour. Very soft texture that will work perfectly on the water line to brighten the eye without using a stark white pencil. LOVE.

What to Skip

• The lipsticks are VERY frosted and pale. The colour pay off is quite weak and you have to really think how you are to pull it off. Not my kind of product, but I have been hearing a lot of buzz around them so maybe I am an exception to the rule.
• Feline Eye Kohl: Why don't they just make this a permanent product? I have lost count how many times this pencil has been re-released in colour collections. If you miss it this time around, you know it will be creeping back sooner rather than later.
• The "Special Reserve" Highlighting Powders: Nice, but not fantastic. I prefer the texture and application of the mineralize skinfinishes. These colours are pretty dubaple considering all the highlighting products on the market right now. The only thing about these that stands out is the embossed texture which will fade with use. More of a collector's item that a must-have product.
• The Quad: 2 of the colours are permanent, one is a repromote, and the fourth is limited edition.
• Nail Polishes: I'm not a fan of MAC polishes in general and I have heard through the makeup grapevine that these are very streaky.

There are a few other products in this collection, most of which are skincare related.