Hello everyone!

While many of us (still) struggle to find our ultimate goal in life, Detroit-born James Kaliardos realised his calling to be a makeup artist when doing his mother’s makeup at just age seven. His interest for makeup sparked after constantly watching his mother doll up her lids with eye shadow and despite his tender age, he was able to translate his love for colours and drawing into the beauty looks he saw on Vogue. This passion followed him through his formative years – where he helped his female friends look aesthetically rad for school proms – before it progressed to theatrical makeup.

Now a master makeup artist among other trades, he creates trends backstage across all international fashion weeks and had worked on the most famous faces in the world including Hillary Clinton, Madonna (especially Madonna – you know her Ray of Light-era boho-tech look? Yeah, that’s the work of James Kaliardos!), Julianne Moore, Barbra Streisand, Nicole Kidman, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Victoria Beckham (source). On top of that, he is a publishing mogul, having co-founded one of today’s most exclusive and expensive magazines Visionaire which ranges in the hundreds of dollars with very limited circulation, and an actor with his own troupe, the Innocent Theatre Company. Holy moly, how the heck does he do it?! I can’t even keep up with one job 😨

That’s not all! Adding to his already-impressive portfolio of achievements, Kaliardos recently collaborated with M.A.C on a new makeup range as part of the 50-piece Make-Up Art Cosmetics collection with two other notable makeup maestros Diane Kendal and Kabuki (which I passed on). But he commands a larger chunk of this launch with 22 pieces. However, as my money was saved for other upcoming releases, I only spent on a single lipstick (out of 4) from this sub-collection.

Every item in this collaboration is decked out in limited-edition packaging with the name and autograph of the makeup artist printed below the M.A.C logo in gold foil on both the black box and container, so the lipstick is no exception. The lipstick tube has a matte surface that feels smooth to the touch. All of the four lipsticks in the James Kaliardos collection are shades that he frequently uses to create red carpet looks and for photo shoots.

Described as a deep reddish brown with Satin finish, Jasper is in fact based on the brown from Paramount with deep wine pigment mixed into it. In appearance, it is a drop-dead gorgeous burgundy with cool undertones.

It runs smoothly on the lips with no tug and leaves a comfortable and hydrating texture topped with a healthy sheen. It is mostly opaque with a buildable intensity – swipe once for a just bitten look and two more coats for full coverage. It has a slightly patchy consistency so some parts of the lips would seem darker than the rest, but it’s not really visible from far and you can fix it momentarily by pursing your lips.

This lasts relatively long on me (I don’t really take note of the duration because I pig out a lot and lipsticks generally don’t remain in their original state after coming contact with anything) and fades to a natural-looking stain. Jasper is a shade that goes well with every skin tone!

What do you think of this lipstick? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or take a quick poll! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

M·A·C James Kaliardos was launched in january and is still available on MACCosmetics.com (collection page taken down, so lipsticks only here or view the full list of items here on the australian site). do check with your local M.A.C outlets on its availability.

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