The 2011 MAC Glitter and Ice Holiday Collection includes a group of Dazzleglass and lipstick shades. Here are a set of MAC Glitter and Ice Collection swatches of just a couple of the shades that are available.

First up are MAC Lipstick swatches of Eloquent air, a cool silver, and Such Flare, a nice vibrant red. The first swatch on the left is a combination of the two. I put the red on first and topped it with the silver, which resulted in a pretty nice berry shade. That can be a great ways to alter a lipstick shade, and using silver is great for my cool skin tone.

Next are swatches of the holiday Dazzleglass in what are essentially matching shades to the lipsticks. As with the lipstick swatches, the first one on the left is a combination of the two shades. She-Zam is the silver and Love Alert is the red.

The MAC Glitter and Ice Holiday Collection is on shelves now!

You can see more swatches from the collection at Beauty and Fashion Tech.

Shop For MAC Cosmetics and Other Holiday Collections at Nordstrom

Disclosure: This review is made using products provided by a representative of MAC. For more, please see our disclosure page.

Disclosures: Girl Gloss at times reviews products provided by a representative of the company. When we do so, we specifically state so. We also use affiliate links. For more, please see the disclosure page

About the Author: Carleen Coulter

The 2011 MAC Holiday Collection includes a number of makeup kits that would be great as gifts. I decided to order one from Ice Parade Collection to swatch that looked like it might also serve a good neutral kit that would be good for traveling. I definitely am not disappointed!

The Fabulously Festive Face Kit in winter cool from the MAC Ice Parade Collection brings together a good basic set of neutral shades that would work well for a large number of people. The kit itself is packaged in an interesting clear case with a large silver pocket. It includes three brushes, a lipstick in the shade Hot Gossip, a lipglass in Emancipation, Blush in Mocha, and four eye shadows: Phloof!, Quarry, Dance in the Dark, and Brun.

2011 MAC Holiday Swatches, Ice Parade

Below are swatches of the Ice Parade cool face kit. The photo is taken indoors with flash. I’ll try to get some sunlight photos at some point down the road too.

I do really like this kit as an easy to carry kit of basic shades. I could wear these in just about any situation and the palette portion of the set is a convenient way to carry both shadow and blush.  MAC’s holiday kits are always a great ways to get some good MAC brushes as well. I also personally prefer the shorter handle brushes that they include in the kits. This set would be an excellent gift.

The MAC Art of Powders Collection consists of three pretty powder compacts, a highlighter, a bronzer, and an eye shadow. I always like looking at art compacts such as these, and it feels almost wrong messing them up by using them. Swatches of the highlighter and bronzer really didn’t show up well for me. I did, however, swatch the eye shadow and have a photo here.  The highlighter is a soft light pink and a press photo is shown below.

Next is a photo of the bronzer. It comes out as a light bronze despite how much pink is in the compact, but I don’t know what will happen as the top bronze shade wears down some so that more pink is picked up.

The Art of Powders eye shadow is a really pretty one. The shades are very luminous.

Here are the MAC Art of Powders swatches from sections of the eye shadow and of a mix across all of the shades. The mix is the first shade on the left and it came out pinker than I expected. It is difficult to get individual shades from the compact since each is rather small, but I managed to get some of them. In reality, I tend to think of these things more as collector items than as daily use items.

Art of Powders will be on the shelves on September 29, 2011.

Disclosure: This review is based on products provided by MAC. for more, please see the disclosure page.

Coming in September from MAC is the Posh Paradise Collection with new paint pots, mattene lipsticks and nail polishes. Here are Posh Paradise lipstick swatches of three shades from the collection. The lipsticks are semi-matte and come in slimline cases. They have a good amount of pigment and feel smooth and moisturizing. Overall, I really like the consistency of them and I got good wear in my test of one.

Swatches are of the following shades:  Eden Rouge, Delectable, and Legendary.  You can see indoor photos of the same swatches at our sister site, Beauty and Fashion Tech and I put up a separate post here with outdoor swatches of a few of the paint pots from the collection.

The MAC Posh Paradise Collection will be out on September 15, 2001.

Disclosure: This review is based on products provided by a representative of MAC. For more, please see the disclosure page.

The MAC Posh Paradise Collection includes a set of new paint pots. MAC paint pots are a thicker cream eye shadow that has a smooth texture and very long wear. Set with a bit of powder and you can get full day and evening coverage with no fading or creasing. I do love those paint pots, so I also love getting new shades of them! One word of warning, I have had paint pots dry out if I didn’t get the cap put back on nice and tight, so always tighten up the caps on these!!!

MAC Posh Paradise Paint Pot Swatches

Here are MAC Paint Pot swatches in the following shades: Genuine Treasure, Idyllic, Nubile, and Pure Creation. I posted indoor photos of these on our sister site, Beauty and Fashion Tech. If you want additional views of them, you can see that post here: MAC Posh Paradise Swatches.I really love both Idyllic, which I do not think particularly matches MAC’s written description (“mid-tone copper bronze”) and Pure Creation, which is a gorgeous shimmering blue. I don’t tend to wear bright colors in eye shadow, but I sure do love looking at that shade!

The Posh Paradise collection will hit the shelves on September 15, 2011 and sometimes you can find the collections online a few days early. It is limited edition, so grab anything that want quickly!

Disclosure: This review is based on products supplied by the company being reviewed. For more, please see our disclosure policy and information.

The new MAC Styledriven Collection includes large number of new items that will be part of the MAC Pro Longwear Permanent Collection. All items are highly pigmented and are designed for long wear, hence the Pro Longwear name.

MAC Styledriven Collection Swatches

I posted my indoor photos of swatches from the collection on Beauty and Fashion Tech. I usually tend to feel that the indoor pictures are more true to color, or at least more true to color for most situations and products, but the outdoor photos of this bunch came out pretty true as well. I suppose the more pigment there is, the more similar the colors will be in different light. Only the eye shadows swatches seemed a bit washed out from the sunlight in these photos.

MAC Styledriven LipCreme Swatches

I adore MAC Pro Longwear lipcreme. The lipsticks provide a good moisturizing texture and fells and the color lasts and lasts. I like to pair them with the lip pencils. These are heavy duty shades with a lot of gloss to them. Below are lipcreme swatches of the shades Endless Drama, Soft Sell, Dress It Up, and So Very Good.

MAC Styledriven Lip Pencil Swatches

The Pro Longear Lip Pencils do indeed give long wear. You can use these alone by filling in your lips and covering with a light gloss, for a sheer look, or cover then with a lipcreme or longwear lipglass for some serious staying power.   Below are swatches of the shades Nice N’ Spicy, Staunchly Stylish, What a Blast!, Absolutely It, Morning Coffee.

MAC Styledriven Lipglass Swatches

The Pro Longwear lipglasses also are high on pigment, but I tend to also find them to be on the sticky side. Here are swatches of the following shades: Ready or Not, Driven by Love, Whoops!, Dark As Night, and Infinitely Likeable.

MAC Styledriven Eye Shadow Swatches

The eye shadow in the MAC Styledriven collection holds up quite nicely. The amount of pigment is very high, as one would expect, and the shades really pop. Below are outdoor swatches of the following shades. From left to right: Styledriven, One To Watch, Hot Paprika, Thru the Night, and Legendary Black.

MAC Styledriven will hit the counters September 22, 2011.

Disclosure: This aticle is based on products provided by a representative of MAC Cosmetics. For more, please see our disclosure page.

The MAC Me Over collection for fall 2011 is made up of three groups of products—MAC Basics, Icelandic Cool, and New Black. The collection is full of perfect fall shades and you can see swatches of some of the eye shadows over at Beauty and Fashion Tech (MAC Me Over Swatches). Girl Gloss has expanded into covering makeup and accessories, but being the lip product addict that I am, it will still have a heavy focus on lip products so, in keeping with tradition, the MAC Me Over lip swatches are here.

I received five MAC Me Over lipglass shades from Icelandic Cool and MAC Basics, shown below:

Here are they are swatched. The shades are:  Illicit, Spite, Good times, Cervaceous, and Wee Coquette:

Here too are MAC Me Over lipstick swatches in the shades Prince Noir, Smoked Purple, Rebel (all three from the New Black group), and Peach Stock (from the MAC basics group). Of all my swatches, these were the only ones where I felt outdoor sunlight was most true to color in the photo. The others were most true to color in indoor light.

The 2011 MAC fall collection will be in stores August 25. Also check the MAC website early since they often put things up ahead of their on counter dates. You can also get MAC products at Nordstrom. It really is a beautiful set of products and is one of my favorite fall collections in years.

Disclosure: This post was based on products provided by a representative of the company. For more, please see the disclosure page.

The limited edition Tarte TrueBlood Collection at Sephora is pretty impressive. It includes a rocking palette with 17 eye shadow shades that I just love, along with a cheek stain and a great Tarte True Blood Lip Tint. I purchased the lip tint and had not previously tried a Tarte Lipsurgence Natural Lip Tint before. I really do love it! The tint is a nice thick crayon type tint, but it has a bit firmer tip than most of the true lip crayons. The effect is that it goes on much like a stain, but feels a bit closer to a sheer lipstick. It wears very well. It doesn’t last quite as long as a stain would, but it definitely lasted longer for me than many lipsticks do.

Here is a swatch of the Tarte True Blood Lip Tint:

The shade is a very versatile berry/rose that is sheer, yet shows up quite well. You can also build it some for a more opaque look. I love this shade and suspect that I will totally wear it out this summer! I’m looking forward to trying it over a regular stain too for some super long wear. I also think that further Tarte Natural Lip Tint purchases are likely in my future.

The Tarte for True Blood Collection is limited edition and I think it is going to be quite popular. You can see more True Blood swatches, including all of the eye shadow shades in the True Blood Glamour Me kit here on Beauty and Fashion Tech: Tarte True Blood Glamour Me Swatches.

Buy Tarte True Blood Lip Tint

The MAC Semi-Precious Collection focuses on really well pigmented mineralize eye shadows, blush, and skinfinish. But it also includes Five Cremesheen lipgalsses and four lipsticks. I tried a few of them and have Cremesheen and lipstick swatches below. If you are interested in seeing swatches of the eye shadows, Mineralize Blush, and Mineralize SkinFinish, you can view those over on Beauty and Fashion Tech here: MAC Semi-Precious Swatches. I do really like some of the eye shadows in the collection.

MAC Semi-Precious Cremesheen Swatches and Lipstick Swatches

I really love MAC Cremesheen Glass. Unlike MAC’s regular lipglass, which I find can at times get sticky, Cremesheen always wears really well, plus it has better pigment to it. I finid it interesting since more pigment often is what leads to making a lipglosss sticky, so how MAC does it so well with Cremesheen and sometimes not as well with regular lipgalss baffles me. In any event, I am always happy to get my hands on new Cremesheen shades! Of the three lipstick shades I tried I also ended up with keepers.

Below are swatches of three of the Semi-precious lipsticks and three Cremeshade shades. From left to right: One of a Kind (I love this shade! It is a great neutral that I think would work very well for many different skin tones), Musky Amethyst (a gorgeous plum), Lush Amber (a nice light nude), Geo Pink (a pretty berry pink shade), Looks Like Sun (a nice plum that I don’t think is represented quite as well as it could be by the photo-it is a bit more plum than it appears in the picture), and Natural Flare.

I suspect that I will be wearing One of a Kind until it is gone. I really do love that shade!

The MAC semi-precious collection is available July 7, though August 21, 2011. Sometimes collections pop up for sale a few days early though.

Disclosure: This review is based on products provided by a representative of the company. For more, please see our Disclosures Page.

The MAC surf baby collection has a whole host of products, but what I love the most from it are a couple of the lipsticks and the suntints spf 20 lip balms. For swatches of other items from the collection, such as the eye shadows,  bronzers, cheek powder, and some really nice pigments, head on over to my post here on Beauty and Fashion Tech: MAC Surf Baby Swatches.

I was sent two of the the lipsticks from the collection, and they both happen to be shades that I really like. Below are swatches of the surf baby lipsticks in Bust Out and Hibiscus. I’m not sure that I can pull off the purple of Bust Out, although I do love it. However, I suspect Hibiscus will get a lot of wear from me this summer.

The surf baby collection also has four lipglass shades. Below are swatches of two of them in the shades Good Lovin and Krazy Kahuna. If you are a fan of brown shades, Krazy Kahuna really is quite nice. Good Lovin is a pretty champagne pink.

The lipsticks and lipglasses are nice, but what really stands out for me in the collection are the Suntints SPF 20 Liquid Lip Balms. These really are nice tube lip glosses with a light tint and good amount of spf. They feel great and look great too. I completely love mine!

Here are MAC Suntint swatches in the shades Lilt of Lily and Full of Grace (my favorite of the two).

The MAC Surf Baby Collection is set to hit the shelves on May 26. However, the MAC collections always seem to show up a bit earlier that listed.

Disclosure: This post is based on products provided by a representative of the company. For more information, please see the disclosure page.