MAC Zac Posen: Lipstick in Sheer Madness, Darling Clementine, and Dangerously Red

Last week, MAC launched their collaboration with American fashion designer, Zac Posen: "After dazzling women with his modern but timeless designs on the runway and red carpet for 13 years, New York designer Zac Posen presents his debut colour collection for MAC. His signature love of bold, daring colour delivers brilliantly in lipsticks... Achieve the high-contrast sculpted look seen in Posen's runway shows with the powder blush duo... then opt for drama with an exclusive six-shade eyeshadow palette that flits from effervescent champagne to deep frost-grey and pearly soft lilac. From the iconic packaging to the square-handled contour and buffer brushes that boasts the designer's mark, every loving detail that Posen adorns on the female form takes on new shape for the face."

Zac Posen sees the release of a total of ten products, of which five are new and limited edition, and five are permanent and in special edition packaging. Zac Posen sees the launch of three new and limited edition lipsticks. They are housed in special edition teal-grey square tubes with gold detailing, and matching cardstock packaging. Each lipstick contains a total of 3 grams of product, and retails for $21.50. Due to the special edition packaging and higher price point, these are not applicable for the Back to MAC recycling program.
Sheer Madness, Darling Clementine, and Dangerously Red

Sheer Madness is a light-medium warm peachy beige with champagne and iridescent pink pearl in a Lustre finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft and creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has low pigmentation and sheer colour pay-off. It is peachier and more sparkly than Lip Conditioner, sheerer and more sparkly than Hue, and sheerer than Plink!.

Darling Clementine is a medium vibrant warm reddened orange 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 reddened than So Chaud, more matte than Morange, and lighter than Temper Tantrum Velvetease Lip Pencil.

Dangerously Red is a medium-dark vibrant cool reddened fuchsia 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 slightly lighter than All Fired Up, more pink and more matte than Impassioned, and more red than To Matte with Love Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour.

Both Darling Clementine and Dangerously Red are stunning, saturated, bold shades that go on smoothly, evenly, and fully opaque, so if you're on the market for some new bright matte lipsticks and don't already have shades similar to them, they are totally worth looking at. That having been said, there are a ton of dupes for both shades within MAC's permanent range, so check your stash to see if they're worth adding to your collection. Sheer Madness, as its name implies, is extremely sheer, so I find that this ends up looking like clear lip balm with a hint of shimmer on the lips. More than anything, it's best used as a layering lipstick, to add some shine and sparkle to an existing base, whether that be lipstick or lip pencil. I found these to be interesting shade choices given the cooler, more diffused plums and taupes in the eyeshadow palette; to create the most cohesive looks from this collection, I would pair the darker, smokier shades in the palette with the nude lipstick (over a creamy nude lip pencil), and the lighter neutral eyeshadow shades with either of the bright lipsticks (and maybe fierce winged liner to create a more '50s retro look).