Hello guys!

Whenever MAC Cosmetics announces a celebrity collaboration, the beauty community would normally be in a complete hysteria. But when news on the collaboration with American YouTube sensation-turned-pop rapper Brooke Candy broke, it was largely met with perplexity because nobody knew who the star in question was, not even myself despite being relatively in tune with the latest trends in music and fashion.

But even so, this seemingly unknown artiste somehow managed to clinch a partnership deal with the cosmetics giant to launch not one, but two collections. The first which had released in late August was a miniature online-exclusive with two lipsticks (Mind Control and Which Witch, US$17 each) and a black liquid eyeliner (Boot Black Intense Black, US$21).

I’m always very excited about celebrity beauty campaigns because products that come out from such collaborations had mostly been phenomenal and one-of-a-kind, colour or packaging-wise. However, MAC failed to hype me up with this one. As a MAC fanatic, I was absolutely underwhelmed by the not-so-exclusive black eyeliner and the uninteresting choice of lipstick shades – a bright cherry red (..not another red..) and a deep plum. I had expected more from a collection that’s supposed to serve as a prelude to a bigger one that’s set to launch in 2016.

MAC probably realised that so they tried to mask it with a graffitied sleeve over the regular lipstick box to appease the packaging whores. Good try, but nope.

Obviously displeased with this collection but still eager to lay my hands on a limited edition MAC product, I carted out just one lipstick (as opposed to my usual ritual of buying all the shades if it’s a mini collection). Wanna make a guess which shade I picked up? No prize for getting the right answer, though.

Of course it has to be the deep plum! I’ve lost count of the number of times MAC has released another Russian Red-esque lipstick. The last time I bought a similar red MAC lipstick, I ended up selling it away. But how did Which Witch fare? Let’s find out!

There’s an old saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Here, I’ve provided you with four, and that’s more than enough for you to make your own judgement whether you should hunt it down (if you missed the launch).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when did Amplified Creme become a Lustre clone? The finish for Which Witch is horrendous and nothing like the Amplified Creme lipsticks I already own. It got streakier and patchier the more I tried to build it up and it feathered upon application! It’s unbelievably frustrating. I wanted to use a lip liner to stop the feathering but with such slippy consistency, my lips would most likely end up with just the unsightly lip liner mark at the end of the day.

But having said that, Which Witch did leave a slightly hydrating and supple feeling on the lips and it may actually work better as a tint too.

In short, this small makeup collection was nothing short of a disappointment. But this could be a blessing in disguise because that means more money to spare for the Guo Pei collection! Hooray!

What do you think of this collection? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading! 🙂

MAC X BROOKE CANDY (PART 1) is a limited edition, online-exclusive collection and is no longer available on the website.