MAC Stylishly Yours Collection Purchases

This recently released collection is made up of a colour palete of vibrant pinks, reds and purples. It is focused around signature glamour, shown in the glossy bright red lips and winged liner across the upper lid but with modern twist by adding bright colour as shown in the press image.

There are a few things in this collection that have caught my eye.
* Style Curve lipstick (LE)
* Cockney lipstick (Permanent)
* Neon Orange lipstick (PRO)
* Virgin Isle cream colour base (PRO)
* Madly Magenta cream colour base (PRO)
* Dark Diversion fluidline (LE)

I decided to just go for Style Curve and Dark Diversion as I can pick up the other products at any time. I liked how the colour scheme flowed through all of the products although not everything was to my personal taste. I do like bright colours but I have a thing about wearing pinks, reds and purples around my eyes due to me having quite dark undereye circles and those colours can make them look worse. I do however adore brightly coloured lipstick! When the collection was announced, I was interested in the beauty powders but after seeing them I decided they were far too light for me.

Anyway, time for some photos and swatches.


L-R: MAC Violetta, MAC Style Curve, MAC Dark Diversion,
Dark Diversion sheered, Urban Decay Rockstar

I've done some additional swatches of products I have that could be used as an alternatives. Violetta and Style Curve are quite similar but Style Curve isn't as opaque and pinker. Plus it is a cremesheen finish compared to Violetta being an Amplified finish. Violetta comes out pretty similar on my lips, maybe pinker but Style Curve is definately more pink on my lips than shown here. It is really pretty and I think it is quite fitting for springtime. I'd probably pair it with soft shimmery eyeshadow and winged black liner with plenty of mascara. I do like purple tones on my lips because my eyes are greeny brown and purple seems to bring the green out more. It is nice to be able to wear purple on my lips whereas it doesn't nessesarily look that good on my eyelids.

Next along we have Dark Diversion fluidline. Firstly I've shown it applied roughly with a liner brush - it looks a little sheerer than it should because I've not been presice but if you were using it on your eyes it would be much nicer. It is a dark plum with a slight brown in it. This is a kind of purple I can get away with on my eyes. I've never tried fluidlines until now but I had used gel liners before and recently I've started to favor them over liquid liner. They wear well and don't run. You can build the colour up so if you want a subtle line it is easy to do that but you can go back over and get a really strong vivid line too. You might choose to set them with an eyeshadow in a similar colour to get extra wear out of them but I don't tend to bother and find the wear all day for me. I swatched it sheered out too, this is what it would look like if you chose to use it as an eyeshadow base. I suppose you could even use them as an eyeshadow alone. I've put Urban Decay's Rockstar 24/7 liner next to it. For some reason it looks more purple than it actually is in this photo but it is definately more plum toned but with a purple tinge and shimmer. I wouldn't say it was a dupe though because it is a totally different formula but it could work as an alternative if you can't get hold of Dark Diversion or it is out of your budget. It also doesn't last as long as gel liner, on me it tends to melt a bit unless set with powder eyeshadow. Bobbi Brown has a lot of nice gel eyeliners and there is probably a plum in the range so that might be worth checking out too. I'm not sure if gel eyeliner can be used on the waterline so I'm not going to recommend it so you are better off checking first with MAC but I know that UD 24/7 aren't waterline safe due to the shimmer. So far I haven't actually found a product that stays on my waterline anyway.

I'm going to check out the rest of the collection in store this weeken, just so I can have a little play with it and see it all in the flesh so I might come back with a little review about the other bits later on.

- Jennifer