MAC's A Rose Romance Swatches and Product Shots

It's a bit late for May and Flower Festival but despite the rains and gloomy weather (the only consolation being temperature has slightly lowered so we could wear a tad more makeup), but go to the MAC counter and flowers are ablooming with their latest collection, A Rose Romance, which features pretty girly and pastelly colors of light blue, pink, peach, lilac, and plum. They also introduced to this collection a unique gel blush, A Fix+ Rose variant, and fragrance, Dejarose.

I had the pleasure of being a guest artist during their launch so I got to experience the look firsthand up to the flowerettes on my hair. But in this post, I'd like to give a lowdown on the products in this collection:

For the lipsticks (my favorite things in the world), we have lustre finish instead of satin and matte.

okay, really yellow lights here but to the left is A Rose Romance (collection namesake), which is a pink shade with a tad of shimmer. Odyssey, at the middle, is a sheer deep plum. To the left is Way To Love, my personal favorite, which is a nude peach shade. All three are lustre finishes so this can help for additional lip-plumping. :)

The See-Thru Liquid Lip Colors are more of gel-based lip stains to give the lip a hint of color without shine. Just like candy or popsicles that leave a stain in the mouth during the times when we're not allowed to wear makeup in school, the concept of liquid lip colors are much similar, minus the sugar, calories, and colored gums and tongues.

From L-R: Loving Touch, Tender Tryst, and Secret Crush (I am so crushing on the names!)

The colors sort of already "absorb" into my skin, and that's the same way with the lips. They stain the skin rather than cover it with color, so the lip texture is still evident, to think that Tender Tryst and Secret Crush are rather deep-colored in the tube, almost like syrup. Loving Touch and Tender Tryst have translucent frost finishes, which means there's the sparkle factor, where Secret Crush, a red berry shade is sheer and staining the lips similarly as a cherry pop would.

Another addition to the collection is the Just a Pinch Gel Blush, which was quite new to me. It comes in a glass pot, similar to MAC Paint Pots and is in a deep red color that you'd think would work better as a lip tint or lip gloss. It's actually blush that delivers a hint of flush of color, so it's nothing too clownish or intimidating. I'm more comfortable blending it with my fingers (the warmth adds to the blending capability) rather than a brush. And just like the rule, apply this first before setting the face with powder.

See? Sheer flush of color!

We have two pigments available for the collection, Circa Plum and Mutiny. I wasn't able to catch the Circa Plum tester, but here's what Mutiny looks like:

Pigments deliver buildable color but can be tricky to manipulate so layer, layer, layer and blend, blend, blend.

The beauty powders live up the the word "beauty" by the rose shape:

Color is not like screaming blush but hints of color and glow. The one on the left is Blush of youth a "clean pink with gold pearl" to warm up the skin with a warm golden pink. The one on the right is Summer Rose a "soft violet pink with pearl.

A Rose Romance Collection is already available here in all MAC counters in Manila.