MAC Monday: MAC X Rocky Horror Picture Show: Crazed Imagination and Bone Beige/Emphasize Sculpt and Shape Powder Swatches & Review

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Hey lovelies,

I'm back with two more of my picks from the new MAC Rocky Horror Picture Show collection! I quite like buying cheek products from the collections with special packaging as I almost always buy a lipstick from them and then I have a matching set of the products I use most :D I've always had good luck with MAC's blush formula but the sculpting powders are new to me so I was excited to give them a whirl. Keep reading to see what I thought!

Bone Beige/Emphasize Sculpt and Shape Powder

Bone Beige/Emphasize Sculpt and Shape powder contains two colours which are also permanently available individually as pro pan refills, so if you love the products but skipped this compact, they're still readily available.

Emphasize comes from the Shaping Powder line (described as having 'soft focus technology' and being 'more subtle than many highlighters') and is described as an 'off-white with pearl'. The pearl is indeed very subtle, so if you love a strong highlight like I do you may find this falls flat. I must admit, at first I was pretty underwhelmed by the lack of shimmer, but the more subtle nature of this powder makes it great for all-over highlighting. I like to run a bit down the bridge of my nose, across the tops of my cheeks and a little on my chin. The colour pay off is very good and it blends well without becoming chalky. I did find that it kicked up quite a bit of powder in the pan though.

Bone Beige is a Sculpting Powder and is described as as 'soft warm brown matte', which is very apt. It's not as warm as a bronzer, making it a more natural contouring product. The texture is lovely and smooth with buildable colour pay off. When I use Bone Beige, I run some down my cheekbones, along my hairline and down the sides of my nose for some subtle definition. Both of these colours last around 8 hours on me.

Swatched heavily (left) and sheered out (right) on bare skin in sunlight

Crazed Imagination

I really took a gamble on Crazed Imagination, swatches weren't available when the collection launched and then when they popped up I was pretty worried this was going to be way too dark for me. It's a medium dark plum with subtle pink shimmer and a frost finish. I needn't have worried though, as Crazed Imagination is very sheer and subtle, even against my barely-there complexion!

Crazed Imagination feels very dry in the pan and I had to keep building up the colour. I couldn't actually get it to show up in an arm swatch when I swatched it with my finger the way I usually would, even when I scraped some of the powder off - I had to use a brush to pick up the colour. Of course, most people are going to use a brush to apply this to their cheeks, but I think it still speaks to the dryness of this blush that I had that much trouble just swatching it. Fortunately, it doesn't appear dry on the cheeks and blended out nicely. I used this on my sister for her 21st, who is half Bangladeshi and wears NC40 in MAC/Tawny in Estee Lauder Double Wear and the colour looked lovely on her once built up. Surprisingly, it took about the same amount of building to show up on her as it did on me.

I suspect the brush you use will play a big part in how well this colour shows on you. When I used my standard dome top blush brush, which has fairly stiff bristles that grab onto the colour, I was able to build colour much more readily than when I used a more diffusing kabuki-style brush. Once on, Crazed Imagination wore for around 6 hours on me, but looked a bit patchy and faded after 5. It's not a complete flop for me, but the formula is definitely not what I expected based on my previous experience with MAC blushes.

Swatched heavily (left) and sheered out (right) on bare skin in sunlight

A FOTD with Crazed Imagination and Bone Beige/Emphasize

What I liked:

Crazed Imagination and Bone Beige/Emphasize blend beautifully
Bone Beige/Emphasize has great colour pay off and a silky texture
Bone Beige/Emphasize wore for 8 hours

What I didn't like:

The texture of Crazed Imagination is quite dry in the pan
Crazed Imagination is sheerer than I'd like
Emphasize kicks up a lot of powder
Crazed Imagination looked quite faded and patchy after 5 hours, disappeared after 6

Where to buy: