MAC Magic of the Night: Lipstick in Please Me, All Fired Up, Evening Rendezvous, and Dark Side

Last Thursday, MAC officially released their holiday collection called Magic of the Night, which is inspired by "an enchanted evening that won't stop until dawn." This collection launched along side Enchanted Eve, which is part one of this year's holiday kits. Magic of the Night sees the release of a total of 15 products, of which eight are new and limited edition, and seven are permanent. This collection includes four shades of lipstick, of which one is new and limited edition, and three are permanent. Each lipstick comes in special edition metallic royal purple packaging, contains 3 grams of product, and retails for $21.50. Due to the special edition packaging, these are not applicable for the Back to MAC recycling program.
Please Me, All Fired Up, Evening Rendezvous, and Dark Side
Please Me, All Fired Up, Evening Rendezvous, and Dark Side
Please Me, All Fired Up, Evening Rendezvous, and Dark Side

Please Me is a light-medium warm muted pink in a Matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is slightly lighter and warmer than Pink Plaid, and lighter and more muted than Chatterbox.

All Fired Up is a medium-dark vibrant slightly warm reddened fuchsia in a Retro Matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a dry texture, but it goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is cooler and more pink than Relentlessly Red, and more pink than Ruby Woo.

Evening Rendezvous is a medium-dark muted cool reddened purple in a Matte finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is more muted and more reddened than Heroine, and brighter and more purple than Amorous.

Dark Side is a dark cool-toned berry wine in an Amplified finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter than Media, and slightly darker than Hang-Up.

It's quite disappointing that MAC decided to re-promote three of its permanent shades for this launch, when the holiday collection is such a great opportunity to come out with some fun, new shades for the season. The special edition packaging is cute and enticing for many, but unless you're really in love with it, I just can't see a lot of people paying $1.50 more for the packaging unless they are unaware that the shades are available permanently all year round in the regular black packaging (and that you can get them for free with MAC's recycling program). That having been said, the three permanent shades are bestsellers for MAC, and actually widely flattering for many skintones. There's a good range of shades here, too, from light to dark, so it has a lot of tastes covered (rather than, say, three shades of red that you can barely discern from each other), and I do think the fun purple packaging makes the lipsticks a little more gift-worthy. However, I think the only must-have from the lipsticks is Evening Rendezvous, which is the only new and limited edition shade from this collection, and also happens to be a universally flattering shade for all complexions (from fair to dark, warm to cool), and really quite unique within MAC's lipstick range as well. It's a gorgeous shade for this time of year; it's brighter and more purple than your stereotypical plum shade, but also lighter and more muted than all those vampy shades that are so popular this time of year. It's as if Heroine, Flat Out Fabulous, and Amorous were all mixed together, and it's freakin' beautiful. I would go so far as to say that if I had to choose one lipstick to wear for the rest of the year, it would be this one.