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5 Dec 2012

MAC Pro Highlighting & Sculpting Masterclass & Upcoming New Products

The latest MAC Pro masterclass was a demonstration of highlighting and contouring, and it was given by Lesley Keane, MAC's senior artist in Ireland.  It was one I was particularly interested in, being only very slightly obsessed by both highlighting and contouring - anything to give me the appearance of high cheekbones and de-chubbify my cheeks ;-)

Lesley worked her magic on two models; first up was Lor, with beautiful gleaming NW45 skin...

Face Chart for Lor

Lesley prep'd the face with MAC Mineralize Charged Water Moisturiser, a cream-gel textured moisturiser which gave a gorgeous glow to the skin, and continued with very few products to complete the look, which was just simple, natural but polished looking - with a twist: the blue lips, which looked absolutely amazing against Lor's glowing black skin and doffed a hat to the 70's trend of a very pointed cupid's bow.

Highlighting was via a new strobe liquid for darker skin - along the tops of the cheekbones, down the centre of the arms, on the collarbones.  Contouring was done very simply with a dark Studio Finish concealer; wrapped around the cheekbone from the curve above the ear, down along underneath the cheebone and slightly pulled up, to give a rounded appearance to the cheeks.

The sides of the nose were also contoured similarly and the centre panel of the face was highlighted using a lighter shade of the Mineralize Loose Powder Foundation - to take advantage both of the lighter colour and the flashback properties of the SPF ingredients.

LOOK  Very simple skin, highlighting and subtle contouring of the cheeks, glossy eyes and lips.  Concentrating more on highlighting than contouring in this instance.

FOUNDATION  Matchmaster Foundation NW45
CONCEALER  Studio Finish (new palettes* - see this post for more information)
POWDER  Mineralize Loose Powder Foundation* Deep Dark
HIGHLIGHT  Cream Colour Base Improper Copper & new Strobe Liquid for darker skin*
CONTOUR  Studio Finish concealer (new palettes*)
EYES  Sketch, Lipglass on the lids
BROWS  Velvetone (discontinued I think?)
LIPSTICK  Smoulder, Blue Lipmix, Lipglass

Products marked with a * are due to be released in 2013.

Next in line was Karen, with porcelain-pale NW15 skin...

Face Chart for Karen

Again, Lesley prep'd the face with MAC Mineralize Charged Water Moisturiser.  This time the contouring was more pronounced and featured contouring of the cheeks and eyes.

The shape of the eye makeup was designed to straighten the eye across the face, rather than lifting at the outer edges or round it out (like a classic smokey eye).  The outer edge was blended-out into a triangular, almost Egyptian shape, rather than an upwards wing.

LOOK  Glowing skin, highlighting and contouring of the cheeks and eyes, matte red lips; inspiration for this look was definitely Jerry Hall and the latest MAC Romantique trend and looked a little like across between Jerry Hall and Keira Knightly at the end.

FOUNDATION  Mineralize Moisture Liquid Foundation SPF15* in NW15 (I think)
CONCEALER  Studio Finish (new palettes* - see this post for more information)
POWDER  Mineralize Loose Powder Foundation* in Extra Light
HIGHLIGHT  Cream Colour Base in Luna
CONTOUR  Paint Pot in Groundwork
EYES  Chestnut lip pencil, blended out; Amber lights patted on top
BROWS  Lingering
LIPSTICK  Cherry lip pencil & Ruby Woo lipstick

Products marked with a * are due to be released in 2013.

The completed looks; Lor on the left, Karen on the right

New Products!

As per usual, we were shown a bunch of new products, due for release in 2013.  In no particular order, the following will be due out at some point in the new year:
  • A new Strobe Liquid for darker skins.  Think of this one as like a mix of both Silver Dusk and Golden Bronze Iridescent Loose Powders together in a moisturiser base - it has both silvery and golden tones to it from what I can see.  Not sure when this one is due out.
  • Mineralize Loose Powder Foundation - I believe that this is actually not a new product, but a re-packaging of a previous product.  This is a loose powder mineralised foundation, as the name suggests, and gives a beautiful glow to the skin.
  • Mineralize Moisture Foundation SPF15 - this is a new liquid foundation, due out around April.  This is a very moisturising foundation with a beautiful gleam to the finish.  I am looking forward to trying this out.
  • One for the pale ladies!  In direct answer to the requests of paler northern skins (Irish, English, and Russian in particular) the Studio Fix Fluid foundation shades are being extended to a much paler NW10 and will also feature mid-shades, for example C3.5 etc.  I am not sure when these are due out, but sometime in 2013 (I think February might have been mentioned, but not 100% certain).
  • New Fluidline shades are due to be released in what have been traditionally considered "brow" shades. These will be very opaque, very flat matte colours and great for creating very graphic brows (or also for using as an eye liner as per usual).  Due in January I believe.
  • The new empty Pro palettes are due in February, and will be stocked in BT.
  • A new range of mineralised lipsticks is due out in April I believe.  These were passed around for examination and are, at first glance quite interesting;  very creamy, opaque and moisturising.  The nude colours were of particular interest.

... and that was all she wrote!  A sneaky nod to some of the new products due out in 2013 and a quick recap of what Lesley created on the two faces.  The models were styled in gorgeous gorgeous clobber, one wearing the beautiful Reiss tuxedo jumpsuit that I've been admiring and Will Be Mine (or, at least, might, if it's still there in the sales :-))