MAC: My Collection + Must Haves!

Back in the day when I started to get more and more into makeup MAC was a brand I could only dream of having. I was quite young and didn’t have job yet so I wasn’t able to get any of their products yet. A couple years later when I did have a job and therefore a little more money to spend I started buying MAC products every now and then. Nowadays MAC isn’t my favourite brand anymore and I rarely buy any of their products. However, I do have a couple of real gems and also a couple of duds, which inspired me to write a post about my MAC collection and letting you know which items are musthaves and which ones aren’t. If you’re interested in reading about that, make sure you continue reading!

My first ever MAC purchase was an eyeshadow in the shade All That Glitters. I believe I was about 14 years old when I bought it and I was incredibly excited about it. I was very into eyeshadow so I knew my first purchase was going to be an eyeshadow so I asked the mua which shadow I should get and she said All That Glitters was the perfect shade for me. I have used it a ton back then and still it’s one of my favourite single eyeshadows. It’s perfect for everyday wear and it looks good with anything. If you’re an eyeshadow junkie like I was back then, it’s definitely a musthave!

Throughout the years I have bought a couple more shadows by MAC. I bought Twinks which is a gorgeous shimmery dark brown shade and I bought Gleam which is a pinky champagne shade with a ton of shimmer to it. Later that year I also treated myself with two more unique colours: Cranberry, a warm purple shade and Sumptuous Olive, a shimmery olive colour. All of them are really nice and pigmented and amazing to work with. I wouldn’t say they’re the best shadows around, but they are definitely a great way to start.

My second MAC purchase was a blush. It actually was one of their Mineralized blushes in the shade Dainty. This, again, got recommended to me by the makeup artist at the counter and I obviously believed her on her word since I didn’t know better myself. In the end it wasn’t really the perfect product for me. I just don’t use it that often. But it’s definitely a pretty shade and the quality is perfectly fine. For me it’s not really a musthave, but it’s not a disappointment either.

After that I purchased my first MAC Mineralized Skin Finish. I bought one from a limited edition and the colour I picked up is called Blonde. I do remember thinking it was incredibly expensive back then and since my mom wasn’t used to me spending big bucks on makeup yet back then she thought I was crazy for buying such an expensive product. Anyway, I still really love this product. It’s one of my favourite MAC products and therefore I highly recommend keeping an eye out for those limited edition skin finishes!

A long, long time later I bought another Mineralized Skin Finish. This time I bought it in the super famous shade Soft & Gentle. It is a gorgeous product, but in my opinion it doesn’t beat Blonde, which is why it’s not my favourite product in the whole entire world.

Moving on to Paint Pots. I am a huge fan of cream shadow as a base for your actual shadow and therefore buying a Paint Pot seemed like a logical thing to do. I first bought one in the shade Vintage Selection which is absolutely stunning. It has a gorgeous texture, it’s super blendable and it gives your eyeshadow look that extra ‘wow’-factor.

However, later on I bought another one in the shade Bare Study. This one I didn’t really like. First of all the colour just isn’t for me. It’s a bit too yellow in my opinion. And second of all because the texture seemed a little off. It wasn’t as smooth and silky as my other Paint Pot and it didn’t blend as easily. Because I really didn’t like it and I hardly ever used it I ended up selling it.

Moving on to eyeshadow palettes. Back in December when the MAC x Mariah Carey collection launched I ended up purchasing two of the eyeshadow palettes of this collection. I’ve always wanted to buy one of the quads by MAC because I think it’s way more convenient than single eyeshadows and since these looked absolutely stunning it seemed like the right time to just go for it.

These two palettes are probably my most used MAC products of all time. They are in my everyday drawer and that’s definitely for a reason. The shadows are extremely pigmented, they blend really nicely and they just look gorgeous. If I had to recommend buying anything, it would definitely be an eyeshadow quad.

The last eyeshadow related products in my MAC collection are these tiny little pigments. I bought them from a fellow blogger and I love them. They are from an old Christmas collection which is why they come in this beautiful box.

I never really used to use pigments before because they seemed like a lot of work to me. However, now that I have them and I have played around with them for a while I have grown to love them. The thing with these pigments is, is that they are just absolutely incredibly amazingly gorgeous. Especially the shimmery ones. A regular, pressed, eyeshadow can’t come close to that. They are a bit more messy to work with, but in my opinion they are totally worth it!

Moving on to my first and only MAC foundation. I bought this from a friend because she bought it and realised it wasn’t the right shade for her. It’s the MAC Mineralize Moisture foundation. At the time this was the most expensive foundation I had in my collection and I was all about it. It was like a whole new world of luxury foundation was opening up for me and that definitely was great.

Even though I was quite a fan of it back then, I hardly use it nowadays. That’s because it really opened up a new world for me and I have bought almost 1o other luxury foundations since that are just a little better than this MAC foundation is. I do still like it, but it’s just not the best. So if you’re on the hunt for a more expensive foundation, these by MAC are great, but there are better ones out there with a somewhat similar price tag.

Coral Bliss – Lovelorn – Peach Blossom – Creme Cup – Angel – Without Your Love – Ruby Woo – Mcizzle – Spontaneous

Lastly I have a ton of lipsticks by MAC. I don’t even wear lipstick that often so I’m not sure why I have so many, but let’s ignore that. I believe my first MAC lipstick was Coral Bliss. I bought it when I was on vacation in London with my mom and I wore it a ton that summer. After that a lot of other shades followed like: Lovelorn, Angel, Creme Cup, Ruby Woo, Peach Blossom, Without Your Love and Mcizzle. I also have one of their lip crayons, or Patent Polish Lip Pencil as they call it, in the shade Spontaneous.

I always feel like MAC lipsticks are loved by literally everyone and to be honest, I get that. When I bought my first MAC lipstick I was over the moon. It was way better than those Essence lipsticks I used to wear before. However, now that I have my beloved YSL Beige Blouse lipstick I don’t use these MAC ones that much anymore. The only one I do use regularly is Peach Blossom. That one is just stunning!

Now we have gone through my entire collection, let’s quickly summarise the musthaves! My MAC musthaves are:

• Eyeshadow: All That Glitters
• Eyeshadow quads
• (Limited edition) Mineralize Skin Finishes
• Paint Pot: Vintage Selection
• Lipstick: Peach Blossom

With that being said it’s time for me to bring this post to an end. Thank you so much for reading today’s post and be sure to let me know which MAC products you have in your collection and which you’d consider musthaves!

XOXO, Nicole.