Miners For MAC - Toxic Tale Dupe

Ever since I purchased the limited edition (and uber popular) Toxic Tale from MACs Venomous Villains collection I've been on the hunt for a dupe. I've seen so many anxious tweets about people losing theirs and I'd love to be able to offer an alternative to those looking to repurchase or just those that would rather not pay MAC prices even if it does get relaunched. I know I'm still not quite there as this isn't perfect but it's as close as dammit (pardon my french) and the best I've seen to date. I was sent the new Miners lipsticks to review this week and while I haven't got around to the full swatch/review post yet I couldn't wait to share this with you....

The Miners shade is Kiss Me Quick from the Moisture Effect range (link)

In the above and below pictures the Miners is on the left and MAC on the right. 

Above my top lip is Miners and bottom is MAC, as you can see a little clearer here the finish when worn unfortunately does exaggerate the few differences in tone. Kiss Me Quick is the little bit more red than coral. It's a touch deeper but a great near dupe all the same. Especially for the price!

You can purchase Miners Moisture Effect here

You can expect a full review on formula, staying power etc this week but so far I'm loving the range (there are matte and regular lipsticks too) and would absolutely recommend you give them a try.

Miss BB

MAC Lipstick Drugstore Dupes

First of all please excuse my dry lips.. I have tried everything to treat them but this baby is just sapping the moisture right out of me! These are all the drugstore dupes I found in my current collection for MAC lipsticks I own. I thought I'd share them with you. I made an accompanying video which will be up this week but I thought they would be better presented in a blog post. I hope it's helpful!

In the below swatch table the MAC shades are on the bottom and the dupes are on top. I will link to where you can purchase the drugstore versions with my lip swatches (read on) again the bottom lip is MAC and the top Lip is swatched with the dupe so you can more directly compare the two.

Speak Louder Dupe - MUA Shade 05

Available for £1 here

Vegas Volt Dupe - Coral by Miners

Available for £2.99 here 

Toxic Tale Dupe - Maybelline Colour Sensational in Coral Tonic

Available for £7.19 here

Freckletone Dupe - No 17 Mirror Shine On in Nudist Peach

Available for £4.59 here

Myth Dupe - Miners Barely Buff

Available for £2.99 here

Ravishing Dupe - Revlon Colorburst in Peach

Available for £7.99 here

*unfortunately the lip swatch for this one went missing somewhere, sorry*

I hope you enjoyed this post and it was useful for those of you craving some of these MAC shades but not so enamoured of their prices. I would like to give special mention to my favourite dupe on the list - Toxic Tale. It was a limited edition launched with the Venomous Villains collection so if you don't already have it Coral Tonic is a pretty close second.

MAC Tartan Tale

Hey Guys!

I saw this collection buzz a week or so ago and I wanted to share the preview pictures with you...

I know you'll see these everywhere but if you haven't already ... here they are!

Similar to previous MAC holiday collections in some ways but different in so many others!

It seems the last few limited edition collections that MAC have brought out haven't been such a major hit with the beauty community! I must say.. you all know how excited I was for the launch of the Venomous Villains and I bought my must have items, some of which I love, but overall I was dissappointed by the collection.
They had such a solid idea I feel they could have just done it so much better.

There were so many things fans have been together in slating, different character choices that you would have thought were obvious, different products etc. The packaging felt cheap, not the usual sturdy mac plastic but something much more toy-like. Whether they did that intentionally I don't know but I was shocked at how flimsy things seemed when MAC is known for it's quality..

I know this blog wasn't about V/V but it overspilled.. I should have added this in an edit to my review maybe.

ANYWAY... Tartan Tale, Obviously we're yet to see this collection "in the flesh" and I'm kind of torn over the whole thing. For one I don't really like tartan LOL.. For another.. the shades aren't really my kinda colours.. I am sad that the first year I am discovering cosmetic companies holiday collections I am yet to find one I think is fabulous!

There are a few stand out points to mention..

MAC are giving huge charitable donations to their Aids Fund from the sales of this launch

Which is obviously fabulous..

They are also the first to have used this new innovative flocking technique which has given their shadows a patterned "tartan" effect which runs right down through to the pan...

When I first saw the pictures I mistook them for a new burberry line... Burberry has laid the check pattern on many of their cosmetic products in the past but this is a revelation!!

How could they not have got there first?

I think if anything I may be interested in the shadows for that reason... I'll wait til those lucky bloggers that get to go to preview events give us the early scoop with swatches and reviews to make my final judgement but I'm not so excited about this one folks..

The special shadows interest me but the colours don't so I'd be buying them purely for the gimic..

What do you all think of the new line?

Well its out next month so you don't have to wait long..

If you want these for christmas you'll need to start hinting like... now!

xoxo

miss bb

Venomous Villains - SWATCH MANIA

Well dudes...

I looked WELL MENTAL today when I went down to my local MAC to check out the whole V/V collection and went on to swatch everything I could get my hands on, all the while taking photos with my iPhone!!!

Surprisingly nobody asked me what I was doing lol.

I might do this more often... makes for good blogging!

I really wanted to get some more swatches our for you guys that haven't yet purchased or haven't decided if you need some extra items from the collection.

So... this is what I got for you lovely lovely peeps :)

My local store is in Debenhams @ Meadowhall Sheffield FYI

Swatches of the 3 Cruella eyeshadows...

Swatches of the 3 Evil Queen eyeshadows...

On the the lip colours, you've already seen the nude but here you have it against the red and the glosses which seem to match the lipsticks for the Cruella collection.. 

Then the Evil queen...

I'll admit "strange potion" did tempt me but I'm trying to be good... not spending SO much so I didn't purchase, it's a beautiful colour though..

Sinister is crazy sheer.. even built up it's nowhere near the colour in the tube so don't be put off by how dramatic it looks... it's really not! Would look fab on darker skintones.

Next, Malificents collection... no single shadows here but a lot of sparkle...

The 3 swatches on the right are dark magic and the 2 on the left are she who dares. I obviously could only swatch dry and having seen other peoples reviews/hauls etc these shadows seem to give a lot better pay off when used wet so these may not be the ideal indicators for you but it was the best I could do... they were really shimmery but not for me..

The lipstick/gloss swatches from Malificent..

Violetta nearly had me but knowing I can purchase year round at pro.. it can wait!

These are the two polishes I purchased from the Malificent range... Bad Fairy is IMMENSE it absolutely is a must have, formidable and mean and green (not pictured) are so similar... but they were nowhere near as cool..

so many people have raved about mean and green but I think Bad Fairy is the best HANDS DOWN!

Below are swatched of the blushes/beauty powders..

The top 4...

Darkly My Dear, full on and blended out,

Bite of an apple.. the same

Below those are the beauty powders as dark as I could swatch... they aren't quite pigmented enough to use as a blush (unless you were crazy pale) but they are too pigmented to use as an all over finishing powder for my liking... so I don't really know how I feel about beauty powders..

I think next time I go in I'll have  MAC peep explain them a little better to me...

Lastly is The Dr Falilier Stand..

This one interested me the least of all.. it had the fewest original items and I'm just not sure about the powder to liquid to powder "magically cool liquid powder"

I tried it on my hand... meh!

It's another one I'm gonna need a demo before I'll be convinced what purpose it has... I'm a matte girl.. don't like too much shine... especially not on purpose!

This collection had a compact mirror which in my opinion should totally have been in with the evil queen!!!

"mirror, mirror" and all that... I mean PLEASE!!

what were they thinking??

The only thing that interested me from this collection was the lipgelee

The colour is "resort life" which has been previously released (again - this one didn't have many original products!) I swatched it and it's incredibly glittery. It's literally like liquid glitter. Very difficult to show you on a swatch... if I can explain it.. when I tried to get this stuff off the back of my hand I got glitter EVERYWHERE!!! there was glitter all over my hands until after I'd showered and even then I had to scrub.

This is a really awesome product but you smudge it - you're screwed my friend... that's you glitter faced for the rest of the day/night! 

So... I think that might be it for my V/V blogs...

I doubt I'll get much more in the way of swatched out to you...

I thought I did pretty well to get THIS many.

I May not be welcomed back to my local MAC concession so I hope you all appreciate the effort I went to for you guys, looking like a crazy swatcher person.

Luckily my boyfriend was with me and assisting with my picture taking and helping me look a little more normal... god bless him!

love V/V? Hate V/V?

leave me a comment

Love You Guys

xoxo

Miss BB

Venomous Villains Swatches/Haul :)

Hey Guys!

This has got to be my most exciting beauty purchase to date!!!

(maybe even including the UD Naked Palette)

The Black Box arrived from MAC this afternoon and I almost jumped for joy!

It was a special moment when I opened it up to see the beautiful packaging...

First up the two lipsticks I picked up...

The nude I picked up from the Cruella DeVille collection

Innocence, Beware! 

It looks a lot pinker on my lips... very sheer and needs to be built up to get a really good colour but overall a very wearable nude for my NW20 colouring and I'm sure this one will get a lot of use! 

The next lippie is Toxic Tale from the Evil Queen Selection.. 

It's a real corally/orangey red kinda colour.

Very vibrant and really pigmented, It's a satin finish but is really kinda matte.

I'm pleased to report it's stubborn, when I tried to wash off the swatches and my lips it really stuck,

It may become one of the more wearable brights in my collection if it has this kind of staying power :) 

Next up,

Nail Laquers...

This collection offered 3 new shades and I picked up my two faves..

They are fab glittery "duo-chromes" that almost change colour when seen in different light/at different angles..

The reddy/pinky colour is "Bad Fairy" and the darker Purply/Teal colour is "Formidable" 

Bad Fairy is my absolute ultimate favourite polish of ALL TIME!!!

It is an absolute must have peeps so you all need to rush out and buy this

WHILE STOCKS LAST!!!

The MAC website describes it as a red base with red multi-changing pearl

It's so cute and not too dramatic

You could wear this every day and your nails wouldn't look too dressy..

just FABULOUS!

I really tried to get a good shot of how metallic/glittery it is but it was tough :(

The Formidable shade is cool but so not as good as Bad Fairy..

It's a much less wearable shade for me,

quite dark and the teal/darker shades to it would put me off a bit

The effect is much the same and so cute with the whole light refelction/colour change deal but the colour is a bit "so what" for me... a little dissappointing but hey... you live you learn!

This one is again very glittery but not quite as WOW as Bad Fairy

Lastly (this should have been first)

The one and only thing I absolutely HAD TO HAVE from this collection!!

It's from the Evil Queen collection and it's a blush called "bite of an apple"

I wanted this SO bad when I saw the preview pictures like MONTHS AGO

This picture is deceptive because it's SO much brighter than it seems..

It's a lot closer to what it looks like in the above picture through the plastic.

It's a cure kind of hot matte coral colour.

On the left is a swatch of the blush at its brightest

On the right is the blush blended out

It's so versatile, I think this one would be great on most skin tones because it's so blendable and so pigmented so it can pretty much be whatever you want it to be..

This is my favourite from The V/V Collection for sure!

So...

My overall Thoughts...

I was SOOO excited as you all know, for this collection to launch.

In some ways I was a touch dissappointed.

The lippies were my first ever by MAC and I think maybe I expected too much... they weren't a creamy formula as I'd hoped for but I think perhaps because of that they will have a much longer lasting effect so I'm hoping my opinion of the lipsticks will change!

The Formidable Nail Polish was raved about by those in the US that got it before us so I was looking forward to it but it's just not really for me... I'll stick with it and it might grow on me... I'll keep you posted!

Lastly the packaging on the blush felt really cheap.

I compared it to my other MAC blushes and it was like half the weight and it just felt so plasticky and kind of "toy-like" if you understand?

I don't know, maybe it's just me but these blushes are slightly more expensive than the usual blushes... surely they should be of a slightly higher quality?

I love the blush colour, I love the lipstick colour, I LOVE the Bad Fairy Nail Laquer so overall I do still kind of ADORE the V/V but I have to be honest with you guys... I don't spend big money on designer products and when I do I want to be WOWed and a couple of aspects about this collection were lacking. On eother thing was the Nail Laquers which were created specifically for the collection didn't have V/V packaging... whaaa??? I get when They put in mascara, liner, brushes etc in with a launch they wont re-brand but if an item is new for the collection it should have the cute packaging so that kinda sucked...

I really buy into that stuff :p

ANYWHO!!!

I am blogging while my video uploads - it's taking like 3 days as it's supposedly in HD - We'll see!

so I am readying the blog in advance... for those of you checking this out before the video is live... be on the lookout... it's coming to a youtube near you very soon!!

Thanks for reading, share your VV excitement/reviews below

love you guys

xoxo

miss bb