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.

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About the Author: Carleen Coulter

Want a nice selection of glosses at a good price? The Smashbox Softbox Set might be for you. The set includes four enhancing glosses and two long wearing glosses.

Smashbox Softbox Lipgloss Set

Smashbox suggests using lip pencil under the gloss for extra long wear, which is a great tip. I like to use stain under gloss too for longer wearing lip color.

The MAC Cham Pale Collection has lots of sparkly goodness for the new year. I am particularly a sucker for MAC’s lip gelees, and love the pale shimmer of the ones that MAC included in the Cham Pale Collection. There are also four shimmery lipstick shades.

Below are swatches of two of the shades, Bubble Lounge (sparkly pink peach frost) and Straight to the Head (sparkly bronze brown frost).

The lip gelees tend to wear pretty well and are long lasting. In fact, I tend to have a hard time washing them off after swatching them!

I also have swatches of the MAC Cham Pale eye shadow quad and one of the paint pots on Beauty and Fashion Tech. You can view those here: MAC Cham Pale Collection Swatches.

M.A.C. Cosmetics has managed to create a long wearing lip product that I actually like! I’m generally not a fan of long wear items because they tend to be very dry, get grainy easily, and really don’t last near as long as advertised. M.A.C. has managed to fix some of those issues with their Lustre Twins collection.

Lustre Twins consist of two interchangeable parts. One part is a heavy and long wearing lip stain, while the other is a gloss to top it. The pieces click together, kind of like the Meet Mark products do, so you can pair different glosses from the line with different stains. The shades are also quite pretty. I tried several of them, which are swatched below:

I found that I got a good 4 hours of wear from the Lustre Twins, even when drinking a can of soda, if applied properly—something that is very important in order to have success with this product.  For proper application, start with clean and dry lips. Apply the stain and let it dry completely. This takes about 2 minutes. Failure to allow it to dry, or applying it over another lip product will generally turn it into a peeling mess. Once dry, apply and reapply gloss as needed.

When I tested the Lustre Twins, I found them to be quite comfortable as long as I reapplied gloss, and the shades were much better than some other long wear items that I have tried.   The Ripe and Ready shade paired with the Pink Virtue gloss has become a regular item in my purse (which also has about 10 other lip items in it at any given time).

BTW, the stain stayed on my arm for over 24 hours because scrubbing and rubbing alcohol would not remove it. So yes, this stuff can really stick around! However, it sticks less time to the lips than it does to an arm, which is probably a good thing!

Comparison Shop for MAC Cosmetics

Have you seen the ads for L’Oreal Infallible Never Fail Lipgloss ? You know, the ones where Beyonce looks absolutely gorgeous, her lips are super shiny, and the ad claims that the gloss will last for 6 hours?

I’m not one who jumps on an ad and buys a product, but those made me seek out L’Oreal’s new infallible lip gloss in the store. I was also rather curious, because I read somewhere (sorry I don’t remember where now) that L’Oreal used technology taken from long wearing mascara to make the gloss last.

I haven’t always loved long wearing products. In fact I once did a pretty serious comparison of some and didn’t find anything in the lot that I felt was particularly worth wearing (Read Beauty and Fashion Tech Review). Long wearing products tend to dry out the lips, the shades usually are not great, and they often don’t really last as promised. But I found that L’Oreal’s Infallible Gloss is different. This is one good gloss!

I purchased an infallible gloss in Red and put it to the test. The gloss has a nice rich color and is very wearable. Like most long wearing products, it goes through a sticky stage and you have to wait for it set. But the gloss did not make my lips feel as horribly dry as other long wearing products do, and amazingly, it kept its nice glossy look for almost as long as promised.

I wore the infallible gloss through my morning cans of Enviga with no problems. It didn’t rub off and it stayed shiny. After about 4 hours, I thought that it dulled up a bit. When I ate lunch, it still stayed on, but at that point looked pretty darn beat up. But by then it had been on over 5 hours. Refreshingly, L’Oreal doesn’t make outrageous claims with this one like some other companies do (16 hours? come on!), and its claim of six hours is pretty reasonable if you don’t beat it up like I did.

I think L’Oreal has finally created a true winner in the long wearing lip product field. The shades are all lovely and it really does last. L’Oreal products can be found online and at most drugstores and big box retailers.

Shop for L’Oreal Cosmetics