MAC Lightness of Being: Mineralize Skinfinish in Perfect Topping and Lightscapade

Last Friday, MAC released their annual Boxing Day collection, called Lightness of Being. It is inspired by the movement of dancers and "whimsical flights of fancy": "Poetic colour ushers in a new vitality following winter's deep chill, as uninhibited shades dance across the face in a free-spirited collection... Liberate yourself from darkened tones... [with] expressive colour for the modern spirit." This collection sees the launch of 27 products, 16 of which are new and limited edition, three of which are re-promotes, and eight of which are permanent. Lightness of Being includes the release of two shades of Mineralize Skinfinish. Each Mineralize Skinfinish comes in a regular black compact with a clear lid, but with a special edition sweater knit pattern engraved into the powder. Each compact comes with 9 grams of product, and retails for $37.

Perfect Topping
Lightscapade
Perfect Topping and Lightscapade

Perfect Topping is a mélange of light peach, dark peach, ivory, lavender, and silvered grey. When swirled together, they create a light beige-peach with a soft frosted sheen. This is a re-promoted shade from 2009's Sugarsweet collection, and is limited edition. It has a lightweight, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more peach and less metallic than Soft and Gentle, and darker and much more peach than Lightscapade.

Lightscapade is a mélange of ivory, pale blue-lavender, pale pink, champagne gold, and light peach. When swirled together, they create a pale creamy ivory with a soft champagne sheen. This is a permanent shade. It has a lightweight, 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, less pink, and less metallic than Soft and Gentle; more golden and more shimmery than Light Mineralize Skinfinish Natural.

Love, love, love both of these shades. Both of them are among MAC's more subtle powder highlighters, and are less metallic than the other permanent shades of Mineralize Skinfinish so they are less prone to emphasize skin texture. They are great if you want softer highlighters, or for more mature skin. Perfect Topping was actually released earlier this year in February with A Fantasy of Flowers, so if you missed out on it then, here's your chance to grab it now. It's a great option for those who think Soft and Gentle is too metallic or too pinked, or for those who think Lightscapade is too light, and works really well on those with medium to dark complexions. Lightscapade was a limited edition shade but was made permanent last year, so there's no need to rush to get this unless you really like the knitted pattern engraved in the powder (which, admittedly, I think is really, really cute, though it's not apparent as to how it relates to the collection or the theme). It is a great highlighting shade for those who have fair to medium-dark complexions, or for those who think Soft and Gentle is too dark or too metallic. Whichever one you decide on (or maybe both!), both of them make skin look softly illuminated and more naturally highlighted (rather than, you know, super-sparkly and blingy), and I think they're fantastic highlighters for all year round.