MAC MSF - Soft and Gentle

I can't even begin to imagine how many Mineralise Skin Finishes MAC must sell worldwide on a daily basis, Google couldn't help me on this one either, so I'm going to take a very analytical and complicated guess and say a lot.


 After Soft and Gentle constantly being out of stock,  I went ahead and purchased its (inferior) sibling; the Iridescent powder in 'Belighftul' hoping it would fill the champagne highlight shaped hole in my life. Unfortunately I was to be disappointed with the noticeable chunks of glitter and its slight pink sheen, but alas, in a stroke of luck a friend who after having fallen in love with my Belighftul but had not been able to buy due to stock issues also, ended up purchasing Soft and Gentle as a replacement... A few unsatisfied weeks passed until we did the inevitable swap and we both lived happily highlighted ever after. 


 Well, this was until until Mahiki and its Zombies claimed that and the majority of my make up bag during my 21st celebrations back in August... but that's a whole different story and it was only up until a few weeks ago that myself and MSF Soft and Gentle were reunited at House of Fraser in Manchester.

 Soft and Gentle is described on the MAC website as a "gilded, peach bronze" which I'd say fits the bill pretty well. You get a huge 10g of product for your £20.50 which does seem quite steep, but it really will last you what feels like a lifetime. Only the tiniest sweep of product is needed to give cheekbones and brow bones a natural glow thats suitable for daytime and also looks incredible with flash photography. I would personally say Soft and Gentle is almost a powder version of Benefits cult classic Moon Beam.

 For comparisons sake I have swatched S&G next to Benefits High Beam in the top picture to get a real idea of the contrast against a highlighter intended for a cooler skin tone, as you can see in artificial lighting S&G shows up as a much warmer, golden highlight compared to the bottom picture which has been taken in natural lighting whereby the warmer tones aren't so visible. In my eyes this is the perfect highlighter and until the day its challenged then I'm pretty sure its my HG.


 In the unlikely event that this runs out before I inevitably lose it on my "travels" then I would 1000% repurchase and would highly recommend it to anyone who doesnt have the complexion of a Cullen... in which case, Lightscapade is the one for you. (Currently selling for outrageous prices on evilbay).

Erase and Rewind.

For months and then years I had hankered after the little pot of loveliness that is MAC Lip Erase.

 With no access to a nearby MAC Pro store and the organization skills of a four year old I had never gotten my act together quick enough to nab one from any of the limited edition collections MAC had thrown our way, but my luck was to change as I wandered through House of Fraser on what happened to be the last Thursday of the month... IE. Pay day!

 With the aid of a helpful MAC girl I picked up a few vital bits and pieces and had noticed out of the corner of my eye the lip erase sitting quietly, patiently, as part of the Fall Colour 2011 collection just waiting for my inner shopping demon to cry out  "Yes! There is something else I'd like actually, I'll have a lip erase please"

 I'm still yet to decide if I love or loathe when the SA smiles sweetly and asks "Is there anything else you would like today...?" Cue panicked thoughts of what else you could possibly add to your waiting pile of goods under such mounting pressure. Then you remember the lip erase. It seems rational, you've been after one for a while now. You'll practically be saving money on the foundation or concealer you wont be using to drain your lips of their natural colour anymore, it's the right thing to do.

 And so that is how I finally ended up in the possession of my un-swatched Lip Erase!

 First impressions were not so great. I had always assumed Lip Erase would have the balmy, glossy texture of the MAC tinted lip conditioners and so I smeared it on right away on my train home. Straight onto my poor dry lips. It looked awful. Things marginally improved when a slick of Juicy Tubes was added to the mix but again it definitely wasn't what I had imagined in all the months I had spent yearning for the product I thought would provide the perfect nude lip.

 I had all but given up on lip Erase and had relegated it to the murky depths of my makeup box. At one point I even attempted to fashion it into somesort of concealer. Epic, epic fail on my part and I should have known better, but alas, after my usual trick of googling "[enter product here] swatch" it seems I had gotten it all wrong, what I had hoped would be a nude conditioning balm turns out to be a mere step in the recipe for the perfect bold lip. In hindsight this makes a lot more sense... erasing the natural lip colour to provider a truer pigment representation for a bold lipstick, stain or gloss. So I put it to the test under a favourite coral of mine - now MAC's cream colour base in Virgin Isle, which is now sadly discontinued, usually translates to a half-hearted coral effort on my bare pigmented lips but a swipe of lip erase onto (well prepped) lips before a quick smudge of Virgin Isle does the trick perfectly.

 So from now on, any swatched/applied lip products will be done so with a base layer of Lip erase for continuity, and at the end of the day I'm still pretty happy with lip erase, I just wish it was what I thought it was... until then I melted one of my many lone pots of Vaseline and mixed in a smidgeon of lip erase to quench my nude-gloss hybrid thirst.

All I Want For Christmas...

Well, maybe not ALL I want for Christmas...