MAC Cosmetics Heatherette Collection

Trust a former Club Kid to know makeup. While Heatherette's alley-punk aesthetics never once appealed to me, I must say that their makeup collection for MAC is wonderfully balanced: the coral, pink and nude lips colours are wearable but unsubtle while the eyeshadow trios succeed in being bold and unassuming at the same time. It strikes me as a rather suggestive collection, a collision between the makeup bags of a sixties sex kitten and an eighties disco diva.

I love the paint-by-numbers graphic. Whee! Photo from mac.com

The collection comes in limited edition (but of course) hot pink cases with a holographic foil decal of the Heatherette logo. Items of note include the Dual Edge Eye Pencil which has a glitter pencil and a regular kohl on either end in unboring combinations (I like Black Funk/Pop Blue, a black and turquoise glitter), and the nail polish in $$$$$, a shiny, bling-y metallic silver foil. The collection also contains the usual suspects of limited edition lipsticks, lipglasses and eyeshadows, and the loveliest shade I've seen so far is the lipstick in Lollipop Loving, described as a "clean mid-tone coral with subtle green gold iridescence". Specktra members have a Heatherette swatch thread going, so you can go ahead and check it out for yourself.

Over all, I think this is a stronger collection than Alexander McQueen for MAC, the narrow scope of which left me cold. Then again, McQueen as a designer blows Traver Rains and Richie Rich out of the water, though the comparison is quite unfair. The better the clothes, the suckier the makeup collection? Maybe Behaz Sarafpour, Peter Som and Thakoon Panichgul were wise to limit themselves to a single lipstick.