Flashback Beauty Friday 54: Lunar New Year Special 2

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Throughout January I'm sharing some of my limited edition makeup items from past Lunar New Year collections for Flashback Beauty Friday. As I said last week, most beauty brands these days do something to celebrate and over the past few years, I've really loved these collections. Last week, I chose the marbled Givenchy lipstick and today I have the MAC release from last year.

Moon Masterpiece was the title for the 2021 Lunar New Year collection by MAC. The year prior to that remains my favourite aesthetically and would likely be in my top 10, actually probably top 5 of ALL MAC collections ever. MM was a bit of an anti-climax after that, though still had some beauties. The packaging is that rubberized material that I've come to really detest (as it changes over the years and becomes sticky, even when kept boxed). It was mainly yellow, pink and blue with a negative effect, neon fish image, quite Andy Warhol Pop Art. Clearly MAC weren't going literal for the Year Of The Ox, but fish are lucky in Chinese culture, pointing to wealth and prosperity. It's eye-catching and while I do like that they didn't choose obvious colours, it didn't feel particularly festive to me.

The focal point (some would say "highlight", boom boom!) of the launch was the Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double Gleam. This is a permanent shade and one that's often rereleased in limited edition packaging collections. Indeed MAC released the same shade in the Chinese NY collection the previous year (they were kind of on a roll with it) and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Moon Masterpiece one, though stunning, probably still isn't as beautiful as the 2020 one. Wait until you see the detail in that one!  DG is described as a liquid-powder highlight, giving skin a metallic-glow finish and is a beige that breaks silver.  

Housed in a round black rubber compact with frosted insert lid and the colourful fish design, even the boxes have that suede type feel.  

Open it to reveal this incredible 3-D swimming fish pattern. The fish scales, the movement in the delicate tails, the ripples in the water, it's just outstanding. I bought this to stare at forever if I'm honest! The previous year was too beautiful to delve into and I just can't bear to touch this either.  You feel like you're holding a tiny fish pond in your hand.  

I also decided to get the Sea Of Plenty 9 pan eyeshadow palette. I liked the look of the blue especially!

It's in a square compact with the pop art inspired lid.

All finger swatches are dry and on bare skin, with the official shade names and descriptions from MAC.

Top row; Omega: soft muted beige taupe (Matte), You’re In Luxe: coral pink (Satin) and Fortune Found: Bronze with red sparkle (Frost). The sparkles in that last shade are kind of suspended like little flakes against a sheer base. The other two shades, especially the matte were more pigmented with fewer swipes to reach opacity.

Middle row; Superior Sound: light creamy pink white (Frost), Sea Of Plenty: blue with blue pearl (Frost) and Stroke Of Fortune: bright taupe pearl (Lustre). While I do note a difference in colour between SS and SOF, both lack pigment and opacity (SS the slightly better of the two), I'm not sure you need both in this small palette. The lustre shade would only really work as an inner corner highlight as it would be unlikely to show up elsewhere on the eye. The blue is a beautiful shade, not as rich as I hoped it would be though.

Bottom row; Create Your Own Luck: soft golden peachy brown (Matte), Free Spirit: deep blackened brown (Matte), What’s Your Number?: sparking golden bronze (Frost). This row is the most pigmented and rich, the blackened brown is a great description for FS as I kept debating with myself if it was black or brown. I think WYN? is really stunning, super rich and opaque with one swipe. It could be too rich for my eyes, I haven't had the chance to use this palette yet, but certainly the arm swatch is pretty.

Overall, I quite like the colour story here, the varying neutrals with the flash of coral and blue. The final item I got was the Powder Kiss Lipstick in Brickthrough. MAC have also been on a matte lip mission this past year or so, so everything nowadays tends to be either their liquid or stick mattes. The PK lippies have quite a bit of moisture to them, they're not a dry matte and they feel so light, which I really like. Brickthrough is a permanent shade described as a warm dusty rose. Sometimes it can lean a bit purple, a bit brick-red brown or a bit more pink, it depends. As the swatch shows, it's not a flat matte, there's a very slight sheen to it and this formula is perfect for that Asian soft focus, blurred, ombre lip look as it's easily blotted to feather out softly.

The collection was mostly made up of permanent or repromote shades, but in this new, limited edition packaging.  The same as the year before to be honest.  It can feel a bit lazy, especially when they're reusing the same shades collection after collection, but for the likes of Double Gleam, it's not something I could use in this form, so a more plain (usable) option already in my collection isn't a bad thing.  For the past few years, I've found myself enjoying collecting the collectable MAC pieces again, pieces I want, but to cherish not use!  What do you think, did you see this collection last year?