MAC Divine Night: Mineralize Skinfinishes

Last week, MAC released a new collection called Divine Night, which is the main colour collection and first part of MAC's Holiday 2013 offerings. Divine Night was inspired by "what happens at night... the moment when flashing lights illuminate a flair for finery and limitless luxury that can only be described as divine." The design of the powders and the colour combinations were inspired by the elegance and geometric designs of 1920s Art Deco, as well as Studio 54 and the lavish lifestyles of the era. Divine Night consists of 32 products, and sees the release of three new and limited edition shades of Mineralize Skinfinish. It is housed in special edition matte black packaging with yellow gold detailing and matching secondary cardstock packaging. Each Mineralize Skinfinish contains 7.5 grams of product, and retails for $38.50.
Centre of Attention
Centre of Attention: inner shade, outer shade, both shades mixed

Centre of Attention consists of two shades in a geometric design. This is a new and limited edition product. The inner shade is a light-medium warm yellow gold with gold sparkle in a frosted finish. It has a rough, gritty texture due to the amount of sparkle, and goes on patchy and flaky as a result. It has medium pigmentation and semi-sheer to semi-opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is similar though much grittier than Goldmine Eyeshadow. The outer shade is a pale warm pinked beige with a subtle pearlized finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more pink than Lightscapade. The blended shade is a light warm champagne with yellow gold shimmer-sheen and sparkle in a frosted finish. It goes on smoother than the inner shade alone, but there is still some grittiness from the sparkle. It has medium pigmentation and semi-sheer to semi-opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more gold and more sparkly than Lightscapade, and slightly lighter and much more gold than Soft and Gentle.

Perfectly Poised
Perfectly Poised: inner shade, outer shade, both shades mixed

Perfectly Poised consists of two shades in a geometric design. This is a new and limited edition product. The inner shade is a pale peachy beige with a slightly pinked pearlescent shimmer in a frosted finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is similar though more frosted than Lightscapade. The outer shade is a medium-dark orange-bronze in a metallic finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more orange than Gold Deposit. The blended shade is a medium muted peach-orange with a pink pearlized sheen in a frosted finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more orange than Sunbasque Powder Blush, and much more metallic than Style Powder Blush.

Scene to be Seen
Scene to be Seen: inner shade, outer shade, both shades mixed

Scene to be Seen consists of two shades in a geometric design. This is a new and limited edition product. The inner shade is a medium-dark warm brick rose in a metallic finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is cooler than Gleeful Mineralize Blush. The outer shade is a medium-dark slightly cool-toned raspberry-plum in a metallic finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker than Gentle Mineralize Blush. The blended shade is a medium-dark warm reddened plum in a metallic finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is slightly more pinked than Plum Foolery Powder Blush, more plum than Gleeful Mineralize Blush, and warmer and more reddened than Gentle Mineralize Blush.

I've always been a fan of Mineralize Skinfinishes, but I prefer the ones that are already swirled together as opposed to ones like these, where you have to blend together separate shades. I don't know why, but the ones you have to blend together are never quite as smooth and pigmented. Centre of Attention was easily the biggest disappointment here, because when I initially looked at it, I thought it would work well as a lovely gold-toned highlighter, like a gold version of Soft and Gentle (which I love). But the gold shade is just way too gritty; the sparkles fly everywhere and just don't want to stay put on the face. Perfectly Poised is a great option to add a warm glow to the face; it's dark enough for fair to medium-dark skintones to use as a blush, but light enough to use as a finisher (e.g. to buff on top of blush for a more dimensional metallic finish). Those with dark to deep dark skintones will see it more as a highlighter or finisher than a blush, though.

However, the must-have here is definitely Scene to be Seen, which aside from having the smoothest, silkiest texture and most pigmented combination of the three, is also a fantastic plum shade that's on-trend for the season. And it is perfectly suitable for all skintones from fair to deep dark to use as a blush. As usual, Mineralize Skinfinishes have very metallic finishes, so for those who like a more matte look to their skin, you can definitely skip these. I find that Mineralize Skinfinishes also have a tendency to emphasize skin texture and pores due to the high-frost finish, so I recommend using a face primer first. If you aren't a fan of Mineralize Skinfinishes to begin with, these won't change your mind, but for those who love them, definitely check out Perfectly Poised and Scene to be Seen.