Haul & Swatches: MAC Magnetic Nudes

Sorry I've had such a break between posts, it's certainly not from a lack of things to write about. I just sometimes go through phases where I have loads of half finished posts (either needing written up or photos taken or photos editing or all of the above) and for some reason I hold back on completing them. Not sure why. I think I get so caught up in the mundane parts, that I forget how much fun the shoes or makeup or whatever I'm writing about is. Then I go through a guilt process of having been a naughty blogger and not updating frequently. Silly vicious circle. Anyway, here's some pretty MAC makeup to fill the gap for now and please bear with me, while I get my blogging brain back!
Now you'll have noticed a serious lack of MAC on my blog recently. They've had so many collections that either I wasn't too fussed with, didn't have money for, talked myself out of or sold out of the things I wanted. Add to that the fact that Rihanna seemed to endorse every second release which made it sell out in minutes, I just haven't been buying. Then along came Magnetic Nudes. Nudes....hmmm, think I might like this one! There's varying nude or nude-ish toned colour pieces and as usual the lipsticks caught my eye first. I also bought an eyeshadow because I thought it was rather lovely and is a shade I wear quite a lot, plus I qualified for a bonus 500 points on my Debenhams beauty card.
So starting with the lipsticks, both of which are Amplified finishes. The winter lighting was rather horrid when I took these photos so you'll be hard pushed to find a difference between the two colours. It's a little more obvious in the photos when they are side by side. Sensual Sparks is the darker one, which MAC describes as "dirty, cool caramel". I'd agree with the dirty caramel, but it looks warm to me, with an orangey hue behind it (again suggesting warmth). I think for darker skins this is the 'nude' we hoped to see from the Autumn Riri Hearts 'Nude' lipstick. This (the Riri one) was the one lipstick I wanted to try (but missed out on), but there was stories of some finding it too chalky, too muddy, even too green. Obviously I knew on my peely wally skin, it wasn't going to be 'nude', but I was hoping for a taupe brown. Anyway I think Sensual Sparks is worth trying as a 'true nude' on dark skins. On me, it's going to be brown, but pretty I'm hoping!
Close Contact is the lighter one, a creamy peach. Hmm, I'm not totally buying the peach vibe, I've certainly seen more peachy-nudes than this. I wore this on my lipstick challenge last week. I found it a little yellow for my skin, so counteracted that with a dusky medium pink lipliner underneath. It did the trick and turned it into a lovely nude. A nice gloss over the top enhanced it beautifully.
Here we have SS on top and CC on the bottom. I don't remember SS looking as chocolaty as this in the flesh, so I think that's just down to poor lighting.
SS is on the left and CC on the right. Then we have swatches, CC alone, then SS swatched to the right of it.
The eyeshadow in this collection are 'extra dimension', so come with this pretty swirly pattern, which makes for a pleasant change.  Silver Dawn is described as a dirty grey mauve.  I think they might have confused their 'mauve' with 'taupe' there!  It's a dirty bronzey taupe to me.  There's absolutely no purple in it whatsoever to justify that mauve title, not even when held in certain lights or an undertone or anything!  That said, I wasn't looking for a mauve, so was happy with the taupe.  It's very similar to another MAC shadow I have which I've just forgotten the name of, but I'd quite like to update this with a comparison swatch.  The swatches below were applied dry, over a primer.  You can also use this shadow wet and I'd imagine it would take on an almost foil effect with the metallic quality to it.   
So a little beauty haul to ease me back in!  Unfortunately we lost our internet this weekend, so this post was again sitting neglected, but we're back up and running today.  Have you bought any MAC lately or like anything here?  I've got a ton (and I mean that) of posts that I want to get up, so hopefully I'll settle into more of a routine this week.  Stay tuned!