MAC MACnificent Me!: Mattene Lipstick in Personal Pick, Strutting Fabulous, Own the Look, and Power My Spirit

Yesterday, MAC released a new collection called MACnificent Me!, which is inspired by MAC customers and their individuality. MAC held a contest last year, and from the thousands of applicants, "found six people who are truly 100% MACnificent, transforming them into the faces of [MAC's] epic Fall colour collection. Now, be inspired and motivated to celebrate your own style, heart, and soul with MACnificent Me." MACnificent Me! sees the launch of four new and limited edition shades of Mattene Lipstick, which is described as "a slim new lip colour [that] features the properties of a matte lipstick with intense colour and a semi-matte velvety finish, while delivering a creamier, softer, more glide-on application. Non-caking, non-drying. Moisturizing and incredibly wearable, yet beautifully matte." Each Mattene Lipstick comes in a slim black soft-touch rubberized tube, contains 2.3 grams of product, and retails for $22.50. 
Personal Pick, Strutting Fabulous, Own the Look, and Power My Spirit
Personal Pick, Strutting Fabulous, Own the Look, and Power My Spirit

Personal Pick is a light-medium muted cool rose pink in a Mattene finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is soft and creamy, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is slightly darker and brighter than Pink Plaid, and brighter and cooler than Brave.

Strutting Fabulous is a light-medium cool brightened lavender in a Mattene finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is soft and creamy, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter and cooler than Men Love Mystery, and cooler and more matte than Asian Flower Sheen Supreme.

Own the Look is a medium-dark berry purple in a Mattene finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is soft and creamy, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more purple and more matte than Rebel, and darker and more pink than Heroine.

Power My Spirit is a blackened cool plum in a Mattene finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is soft and creamy but has a lot of slip, so it goes on patchy and unevenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It is sheerer than Cyber, and darker and less matte than Smoked Purple.

Finally, finally, finally! I have been waiting three long years for the return of Mattenes (the last time we saw these was with the Taste Temptation collection in December 2012). I have mentioned many times on this blog that the Mattene is my all-time favourite lipstick formula by MAC, and it continually baffles me as to why MAC hasn't made this a permanent formula yet. If you have yet to try these delights, they are creamy and non-drying with smooth and even application, rich and opaque colour, and are comfortable to wear. Mattenes technically have a demi-matte finish, so they go on creamy with a slight sheen, but they dry down to a matte finish. They are not touted to be long-wearing, but they lasted about six hours before they started to fade even a little. The only shade here that was a disappointment was Power My Spirit, because it wasn't like a Mattene at all; it looks and feels like a really patchy, sheerer version of an Amplified finish lipstick. It's such a shame, because this type of blackened plum would've been so, so gorgeous in a true Mattene finish. You can still achieve that look, of course, but you'd have to fill in the entire lip with a dark lip pencil (like MAC's Nightmoth) or a dark matte lipstick (like MAC's Instigator), and then it's like you might as well have bought one of the other dark matte lip products that MAC offers. Still, the other three shades are gorgeous and surprisingly wearable, so if you have your eye on any of them, snatch 'em up ASAP — you never know when they'll come back again!