MAC Flighty Collection — A Little Too Fickle?

If you examine the imagery used to promote MAC’s Flighty collection (in stores through the end of June), you can extract two main themes: weightlessness (the “light as a feather” saying comes to mind) and chromism, achieved via vibrant colors with a metallic sheen that morph slightly in the light.

Sadly, the Flighty moniker chosen for this collection proved to be rather ominous. Rather than flying high, the cosmetics in this collection prove unreliable, fickle, and frustratingly capricious.

With summer around the corner, which inevitably means turning up the dial on the electricity of our makeup color choices, it’s the ideal time for MAC to unveil four new limited-edition Zoom Lash mascara colors ($14 at MACcosmetics.com): High Esteem, a charcoal gray; Green is Green, a jewel-tone emerald green; Blue Charge, a navy blue; and Plum Reserve, a blue-toned purple reminiscent of what you’d find on a can of grape soda. As with all Zoom Lash mascaras, the three-sided fibres along the tip of the wand work to grip every single hair along the lash line, making them appear longer and fuller. Though, conceptually, these seem like must-haves for funky makeup lovers, the mascaras aren’t as saturated with pigment as one might assume.The Plum Reserve mascara, for example, can’t hold a candle to the Urban Decay Big Fatty Mascara in Purple Haze. And, bottom line: if they don’t infuse lashes with a thrilling bolt of color, they don’t serve much of a purpose beyond draining your bank account.

My biggest disappointment, however, were the new Big Bounce Shadows ($16.50 at MACcosmetics.com), which seemed like little jars of promise — up until I took them for a test drive. In the summer, I’m a sucker for a good cream eye shadow — they feel weightless on the lids, they tend to stay put a bit longer than powder-based shadows that melt when you sweat, their colors tend to be more intense and dynamic, and their metallic finishes work beautifully under the sun’s dancing rays. So, of course, I couldn’t wait to try some of the 16 cream eye shadows in the Flight Collection, all of which boast a lightweight, slightly runny, mousse-y texture.

The Big Bounce Shadows come in shades including: Free As Air, a silver-toned, light sky blue saturated with white pearl particles; Impeccably Rich, a suede-like cream with gold pearl particles for a butterscotch-like feel; Luxury Touch, a burgundy wine shade with a hint of gold glimmer; Rich Thrills, a Tin Man-worthy silver that looks like molten metal; Black Diamond, a deep ebony shade with gold pearls; Spread The Wealth, a military-flavored, dirty olive shade with multi-colored pearl bits; Trophy, a metallic peach-meets-rose-gold shade; Up The Ante!, a rich copper with silver and gold glimmer; The Cool Elite, a snowy white with frosty silver pearl bits; Good Fortune, a soft, pink-tinged yellow shade with pink and silver glimmer; My Next Indulgence, a mysterious forest green with blue an gold pearl; Rich, Sweet, a chocolate-y gold shade with gold glimmer; Sizzlin’ Diva, a deep, brown-tinged copper hue with gold pearl bits; Count Your Assets, a deep violet with multi-colored glimmer; Reward Yourself, a coral-tinged, light copper color with gold pearl bits; and Extra Charged, a bright, chartreuse-like green with multi-color pearl particles.

When I swatched the five colors I tried (Rich Thrills, Free As Air, Luxury Touch, Trophy, and Reward Yourself), I fell in love with the colors. I did, however, notice that it took quite some time for the colors to dry on my skin and that they wiped off extremely easily with a barely damp cloth. My reservations about these shadows grew into downright disappointment once I applied them onto my lids. Within a half hours, the shadows had creased so dramatically that the center of my lids was practically devoid of color, and I was forced to conceal my lids with sunglasses until I could remove all the shadows from my lids. Abomination!

Below, you’ll find swatches of the Big Bounce Shadow colors, a sample look created and a photo that shows just how badly the shadows creased (ugh!). See for yourself, folks!

Here are the swatches of the five Big Bounce Shadow colors I tried out. As you can see, they look alluringly luminous on the skin, rich and sophisticated with their metallic sheens. The Free As Air color is particularly lovely, as is the robust, sommelier-worthy Luxury Touch hue.

Who wouldn’t be smitten with these shades, right? Without a second thought, then, I decided to try a look with two of the shades: Trophy and Reward Yourself. I wanted to keep the look incredibly simple since it was particularly hot on the day I tried them (we broke 100 degrees in NYC), not to mention stiflingly humid. I applied the lighter Trophy shade to my lids and then opened up the eyes by smoothing on the Reward Yourself color along the crease and blending it into the outer corners of eyes ever so lightly.

Below, you’ll find an image that shows how my eyes looked immediately after I had completed the application process:

Nice enough, right? Sadly, my eyes only looked how they do in the pictures above for about 15-20 minutes. The next thing I knew, the color was running, smearing, and fleeign from my lids with the hurried pace of a jailbird on the lam.

Think I’m exaggerating? Just look at the horror documented in the photo below, taken about 30 minutes after I applied the Big Bounce Shadow hues:

And, if you thought that was bad, witness the mess on my lids after a full hour had elapsed. The horror!

Thank goodness for shades and handy makeup removing towelettes! Otherwise, I would’ve had to suffer through this beauty faux pas all day long.

Bottom line: MAC usually nails it, but the Flighty collection fails to take flight.