Feeling Marsala at MAC

Goodies from the MAC Store in the Eaton’s Centre, Toronto

I just got back from Toronto where I had to attend some meetings and present at a conference. It was so cold and dry there! It was about -22 C (which is about -8 F I believe). Since I’ve been back, we’ve also had the worst weather! My university had two snow days this week. On the up-side: sleeping in! On the down-side: shoveling. Here’s a shot of my driveway yesterday morning after we got over a foot of snow. Thankfully my finance and our amazing neighbours helped me out.

My poor car buried under 1.5 feet of snow that fell overnight

Anyway, the best part of being in Toronto in the middle of a freezing Canadian winter was definitely getting to go to the MAC Store. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t actually have a MAC where I live. I think I must have been in a “marsala” sort of mood, because I was totally drawn to all of the red-brown earthy shades. I had 6 empty containers, so I did a “back-to-MAC” for a free lipstick (wah00!), and also picked up a second lipstick and a lipliner.

MAC Pro Longwear Lip Pencil in Absolutely It

Absolutely It is a brownish, burgundy wine lip pencil that the SA suggested to me to bring out the marsala in any other lip shades you might already own. Don’t you love that? I also picked up two Lustre finish lipsticks, which is my all time favourite type of MAC lipstick.

MAC Sophisto and Spice It Up!

Sophisto looks quite different in the bullet than it does applied. Although it initially appears more brown, its really a sheer, berry plum with some warm brown undertones going on (or as MAC describes it “dewy rose plum with gold”). In the bullet it almost looks like it might be shimmery, but this does not show up at all swatched or on your lips, so no repeat of my Naked Paris experience. Sophisto is a unique shade that I think you could play around with to get different looks depending on which lip liner you use with it. I’m really enjoying it. It is sheer though, so if you have quite pigmented lips or prefer a more opaque lipstick, it might not be for you.

Spice It Up! is described as “mulled brown berry” which I think is very accurate. Its a beautiful brownish-red. If you are into the 90s lip trend that has made a major come back, then you totally need Spice It Up!

Swatches: Absolutely It, Sophisto, and Spice It Up

I also got another blush – I really love the MAC blushes, especially the matte finish blushes. I had Mocha on my list for a while, a muted plum-toned pink matte blush that is a apparently a favourite of the very fair-skinned Dita Von Teese.

MAC Mocha blush

swatch: MAC Mocha blush

Finally, I also picked up another MAC 239 eye shadow brush. I’ve tried others from MAC, Real Techniques, Make Up Geek, and I just don’t like any other brush for applying eye shadow as much as the 239. So I got a second one.