Our teen columnist Casey Gerard reviews the RiRi Hearts MAC collection
MAC is known for its fairly affordable make-up that is available in a colossal amount of shades, designed with the utmost care to fit every skin colour you could possibly think of. While Iʼve never been a die hard fan of the quality of the products, I always find myself lusting after the luxurious and quirky limited edition collections they roll out.
A unique aspect of MAC is that they constantly collaborate with celebrities to create a ʻdream teamʼ of products to bring out in a new collection. The products they release have a celebrityʼs stamp of approval, assuring that MACʼs revenue will shoot up - a great business tactic if nothing else. There have been collaborations with Beth Ditto, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, to name a few. However Iʼm here to write about the latest brainchild of MAC and Rihanna (!), the ʻRiRi Hearts MACʼ collection, which is set to be released in December, just in time for your Christmas shopping...
It’s the packaging that will catch your attention first. Each product looks as if it has been dipped into a steaming cauldron of molten rose gold, which is my second favourite type of gold! The collection is fairly small, consisting of two Veluxe Pearlfusion Eyeshadow Palettes, Bronzing Powder, £22, two Superslick Eyeliners, three lipsticks, a nail varnish in RiRi Woo, £12, a double ended brush and a very aesthetically pleasing make-up bag, £25. I have five of the products from this collection; the bronzer, the Veluxe Pearlfusion eyeshadow in Phresh Out, £33 , the Superslick Eyeliner in Cockiness, £18.50, and two lipsticks in Bad Girl RiRi and Pleasure Bomb, £16.50.
There are two products I absolutely love, one product I love a bit and two I am not so fond of. The two products I love are the eyeliner and bronzer. The eyeliner in Cockiness is a fantastically metallic rose gold colour that goes on smoothly and lasts all day. When I wore this to test it out, every glimpse I caught of myself in the mirror made me stop and have another look, it is just so shockingly metallic! The bronzer has a metallic copper overspray (Iʼm starting to see a trend here with this collection), which fades in about three uses. It is a medium, almost matte bronzer, perfect for everyday, nothing too unique but just so handy.
The product I liked is the eyeshadow palette in Phresh Out. The reason it didnʼt quite make it into the Ê»loveʼ category is because the eyeshadows are a bit too glittery - however they are perfect for putting on your eyes for a subtle hint of Ê»somethingʼ. You get that sort of ‘is that it?’ feeling at first, but when the light hits your eyes you can definitely see something there.
And finally the ʻnot so fondʼ products are unfortunately, the lipsticks. I am deeply upset about this as I so wanted to like them, but I just canʼt. They are unbearably dry. While the colours (a dark nude and bright pink) are amazingly, superbly, brilliantly pigmented, the texture is rather saddening, and deducts from their overall awesomeness.
Speaking honestly, I couldnʼt wear these for more than five minutes without vigorously wiping them off and replacing them with a whole load of lip balm. Then again, that’s just me - and I’m sure I’ll be drawn in by the next celeb collaboration they dream up just the same…
Exclusive preview in Selfridges from 5th December 2013. Available from 12th December 2013 at all MAC locations, 0870 034 2676 and www.maccosmetics.co.uk