MAC Cosmetics Kabuki Magic Collection (Review & Swatches)

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic Collection

MAC Cosmetics is just on the verge of launching an absolutely behemoth-sized collection on us: Kabuki Magic!

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic Collection
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic Collection

Available online on January 19, 2016 (it does say select MAC locations, but I’m not sure if they mean regional online for that launch date, or in stores regionally), the Kabuki Magic collection boats roughly 50 products in its lineup!

“The heart and soul of M∙A∙C Cosmetics comes alive backstage at the 34 Fashion Weeks throughout the world. We pride ourselves on discovering and nurturing new talent and working with the industry leaders who innovate iconic beauty styles. In January, M∙A∙C teams up with three adored makeup maestros – Diane Kendal, James Kaliardos, and Kabuki – to create colour collections reflecting each artist’s signature style.”
MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic Collection
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic Collection

The collection stays true to MAC‘s traditional black packaging, but adds a little bit of extra flare with some layered gold lettering on the exterior packaging as well as on the products themselves.

I’ve got two pieces from the collection, so let’s run through them.

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic - Jasper lipstick swatch
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic – Jasper lipstick swatch

The lipstick Jasper is described as a deep reddish-brown with a satin finish. I’d say that description is fairly bang on!

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic - Jasper lipstick
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic – Jasper lipstick

Satin is one of my absolute favourite lipstick finishes by MAC as it has a lot of staying power, so I was really happy to see a shade like this in that finish. Jasper was easy to apply (although obviously not as creamy as an Cremesheen or Amplified) and the colour impact was there right at the get go. Beautiful, beautiful colour!

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic - The Shining Hour quad
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic – The Shining Hour quad

I was really excited to try out The Shining Hour dazzleshadow quad from the collection. I love me a good glitter shadow and I had never tried out MAC’s dazzleshadow formula before.

MAC Cosmetics - Kabuki Magic - The Shining Hour quad
MAC Cosmetics – Kabuki Magic – The Shining Hour quad

The quad as a whole is called The Shining Hour, but the shades each have individual names.

  • Letty Lynton White pearl with white reflects
  • Heaven Loves You Gold pearl with gold reflects
  • Last Dance Light pink pearl with duochromatic violet reflects (repromote)
  • Humoresque Light burgundy pearl with teal reflects

Sadly… I wasn’t impressed. These are very light and not that pigmented. They felt almost like speckly… fluff? Dusty? I’m not sure how to describe it other than that I wasn’t really happy with the colour payoff.

Wearing The Shining Hour
Wearing The Shining Hour

In the end, I opted to do a full eye look using only the shadows available in The Shining Hour quad, but I’m starting to think I did us all a disservice by doing that. These dazzleshadows are accent colours – you can’t truly build a singular eye look off of them unless you’re using one colour as a wash of pigment across your lid.

  • In the look above, I made sure to use a sticky eyeshadow base. I applied Last Dance on the lid, Humoresque on the outer corner and through the crease, Letty Lynton on the inner corner of the eye, and Heaven Loves You rimming the entire lower lash line.
Wearing The Shining Hour
Wearing The Shining Hour

I personally see these dazzleshadows as more of a eyeshadow topper to add a punch of shine to the center of your lid, or to the inside corner. I wouldn’t suggest you use them as I did because the effect is not that great.

In the end? Huge thumbs up on the Jasper lipstick, thumbs down on The Shining Hour quad.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.

10 thoughts on “MAC Cosmetics Kabuki Magic Collection (Review & Swatches)

  1. The quality doesn’t look that good on this, your probably right that this is more of a topper then full eyeshadow.
    I like the lipstick shade, though.
    I think I’ll pass on this collection.

  2. In the past, Mac palettes have been a disappointment for me. After a while, they loose all pigmentation from ‘hard pan’ so you have to remove the top layer. I think they need to work on that.

  3. The lipstick is actually not the Kabuki collection but it is gorgeous! The eyeshadow palette is definitely disappointing, too bad when you know MAC can make great shadows!
    Zoe recently posted…January ReadsMy Profile

    1. I totally messed up the launch details. I thought the WHOLE thing was Kabuki Magic. Oops. Too late to change the post title and URL now though. Ugh.

    1. Well my eye swatches were extremely heavily packed on and that’s the best colour pigmentation I could get. I’m not really looking for something so difficult to use, you know? And yes – the lipstick is wonderful!

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