MAC In The Groove & Dare To Wear

OMG, I fail at life... x.x

Back in August—August!—I won the fifth Painted Ladies 1st Anniversary giveaway, which consisted of MAC In the Groove mineralized shadows in Blue My Mind and Togetherness, as well as two Dare to Wear lipglasses in Dare to Dare and Ban This!

I seriously left them in their boxes until last week because that's what I tend to do with my MAC stuff, hahahaha. I hoard it away like high-end gals do limited edition compacts. I mean, why break out the MAC when I have, you know, my Maybelline quads that I'm not afraid of destroying? [total drugstore mindset]

But I did eventually make myself open it all up. XD Because what good is make up if you don't actually use it! So last week, I finally sat down and swatched everything:

Blue My Mind; Togetherness

The mineralized eyeshadows are surprisingly pigmented. The majority of mineralized products I own aren't, so that was definitely a pleasant discovery. My only semi-gripe is that, as with many baked products, the sections aren't all that even. As you can see, the medium blue from Blue My Mind isn't even wide enough for me to swipe a finger across, LOLOL. I ended up bringing some of the black with me! None of these colors are particularly special, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; these shades are great staple material for any make up junkie. The texture is lovely, as it is with most MAC products.

Dare to Dare; Ban This!

The Dare to Wear lipglasses are pretty thick. Temptalia says otherwise, and I might have to defer to her judgment since I don't own any other MAC lip glosses, but mine feel thick. On the other hand, I also prefer my glosses to be sheer and slick, so these are a step away from what I'm used to. The DtW lipglasses are very pigmented. For Ban This!, I only need to apply product to half of my lips. Rubbing them together will cover my entire mouth. Although, to be fair, I think my natural lip color probably augments the plumminess of Ban This!, since a lot of lip products tend to pull purple on me.

The shimmer is super fine and smooth. You can't feel it at all. They add a subtle holographic effect that's very appropriate for the holidays.

Even though the gloss itself isn't thin, the texture isn't heavy at all. It's slightly sticky, but nowhere near as bad as BBW's Liplicious line. If you don't talk too much or eat, the lasting power is pretty awesome. I once wore Dare to Dare to bed (bad, I know >.<) and woke up with it not just present but still going strong. I had to wipe it off with cleanser in the morning.

This collection is no longer in stores, but it should start popping up at CCOs in a couple of months! I'm a total MAC newbie, so I can't say if these are or aren't worth the investment, but I can say that both products are solid in terms of quality. If you were really lemming any of these, and you're willing to pay the lower CCO price, then I'd say go ahead and get them! For me, the trios will last forever, and the lipglasses are more special occasion than everyday, so I don't see myself replacing them any time soon. And since it's MAC, it'd be hard to get them for any cheaper, unless you go to eBay or a blogsale or something.

Santa, Baby

I was wandering through CVS, and what did I see? The Wet n Wild Santa Baby palettes from the Holiday '09 collection.

At first I thought they were more new palettes, but G at Nouveau Cheap let me know that they were actually from last year. Unfortunately, these aren't new versions. I guess my CVS just brought them out of storage or something, because this one is definitely a year old. How do I know?

Before you get too excited about that coupon, take a look at the expiration date...

March, 2010. XD;;; Yes, I know, I was so excited for awhile, too.

On the upside, if you were really looking forward to these palettes last year, definitely check out your local drugstores now! The display at my CVS was full, so I'm thinking the shipments might have gotten in late, and the store just didn't put them out at all. Some places might actually still have them in stock, so keep an eye out! :D

In any case, since I'd already taken pictures by the time I realized, I figured I'd share them, anyway.

The case itself. I think it's quite pretty, although I wish they'd done something fancier to integrate the logo, LOL. I do like how the design is reminiscent of both snowflakes and reindeer, though. Cute, right?

The palette itself contains four pans of trios, a blush, a bronzer, a lip gloss, and mascara. Applicator-wise, there are two spongetips and one brush. As is customary with WnW palettes, they also included a huge mirror.

Whatever else you say about old style WnW packaging, you can't really beat them for convenience. I think the mirrors are definitely what I miss the most with the new ColorIcon sets.

I picked up the Nice palette, which is presumably the warm one. In general, I prefer cooler colors, but I took a glance at Naughty, and the trios either consisted of colors I already owned or ones that I would never use, so I decided not to get it.

Since these are pre-revamp, the shadow formula is pretty consistent with the old WnW eyeshadows. I haven't actually tried any of the new ColorIcon ones yet, so I can't really compare them, but these are very nice and smooth. The only thing I dislike is that, as you can see, there's quite a bit of crumbliness. The cream highlight on the bottom right is particularly soft, and not in the way I usually like. In addition, the green on the top left and the brown at the bottom left are incredibly sheer. What you're looking at is a solid five or six layers of the colors. I didn't expect that, since I've never had issues with WnW in either color before, so it was pretty disappointing.

Unlike the shadows, both the blush and bronzer are richly pigmented. The blush is a peach-pink with gold shimmer that looks like it could fit right between NARS Orgasm and Deep Throat. Titillation, maybe? XD

The lipgloss is a peachy pink shimmer. It looks pretty at first glance, but on the lips, there's so much shimmer that it takes on that silvery cast. It also smells a little funky, but I'm sure sitting around for a year didn't do the scent any favors.

Overall, I'd say that this is pretty par for the course for WnW pre-2010. There are some really nice neutrals in it, but nothing super spectacular. They retail for $6.99 (any stores that still have them haven't clearanced them out yet, so I'm guessing they're not likely to do it before Christmas is actually over), which is pretty good for 12 eyeshadows, a blush, and a bronzer. I'm not even going to include the gloss and mascara, because I honestly don't know if they're still safe for use. I wouldn't call it a must-have, but it's a nice-to-have, if you can find it.