Jolie Laide Girl: MAC Liberty of London Review and Haul

MAC’s Liberty of London collection is the collection I have been most excited about since Style Black in September. I’m a Brit expat living in New York, and anything British makes me feel all nostalgic and homesick, and the iconic Liberty print is just one of the most British things possible, so as soon as it was announced, my little heart started racing.

The first, and most obvious thing to talk about is the amazing packaging. It is based on a decades old Liberty print that has been reworked for MAC exclusively for this collection. [insert more notes about the packaging here]

I’m a notorious eye shadow fiend, but strangely, the eye shadows in this collection did not really do it for me. The first reason is that it felt to me that they lacked cohesiveness. Instead, the colors came across as a little bit random and chaotic. Some were strong on their own, and others were a little bit meh for me. I’ve only included my own photos from what I purchased.

Give Me Liberty Of London is a pale, matte pink. This one was fairly sheer when I swatched it, and I’m in two minds about it. Part of me thinks that in itself, it is actually fairly unusual as an eyeshadow shade (really, think now, have you ever seen a matte pale pink?). However, I have to admit that I decided I could think of little uses for it and was worried about it giving me a weird case of pink eye, so decided to skip.

Free To Be is a pretty coral matte shade. This is now in the permanent line, so I think you could definitely take your time about making up your mind with this. Maybe a sheer matte sunset eye with Give Me Liberty…? I thought it was a pretty good color with reasonable payoff considering it is a matte.

Birds & Berries is a very pretty darkened shimmery teal. It has delicious color pay-off and a gorgeous shade. The only reason I skipped is because it is practically the same as Strike a Pose from the Starflash collection, but if I didn’t already have this color, I would so be grabbing this.

Bough Grey is a lovely gray with a tinge of green. This reminds me in some ways of Silverthorn from A Rose Romance, but it is darker and greener. I am going to use this is a smoky eye and can see this being great as a neutral.

Dame's Desire was repromoted from the Dame Edna and I skipped right over it at looks close to a couple of pinky / purples I already have. Purples and me have historically not got along very well, so that one wasn't going to catch my eye.

There are 2 blushes - Prim & Proper and Dirty Plum. Prim & Proper is a great neutral with a touch of pink. Shocking - I do not have any neutral blushes at all - how terrible am I?!?! I keep buying pinks instead! Anyway, this is a gorgeous, useful every day color that can also be used for contouring. I can see myself using this regularly to work.

I also picked up the Shell Pearl Beauty Powder. It's a pretty sheer pink shimmery highlighter. This is going to be a great summery shimmery powder. It's just a great, pretty color. Very simple. There is also a Summer Rose Beauty Powder that I nearly picked up. I saw it first the A Rose Romance last summer, and wanted it then. I'm still debating that one as well. Trying to be strong here!

Shell Pearl, Prim & Proper, Bough Grey

This collection really came into its own on the lip products. Wowser. There are two cool lip colors - Blooming Lovely and Petals & Peacocks. Cool lip colors don't work so well with my warmer tones, so I looked over the and scored Ever Hip and Peachstock. Ever Hip is a super gorgeous creamy summer color (coral is the color of the summer girls!!). Peachstock is a creamy peachy-nude. It's from the PRO line, so you do not have to run to pick this one up.

There are 4 lip glosses - English Accents which is a cooler pink toned gloss, A Different Groove which is a dark blackberry gloss (I didn't buy this one but it is really tempting!), Perenially High Style which is a yummy summer coral, and Frankly Fresh which is a nude pink shimmer gloss.