Woohoo, it's here! The long-awaited MAC Liberty of London collection, that is. I was very excited for this as I adored London when I visited and Liberty was my favorite department store (sorry, Harrod's and Selfridge's!) Well, let's delve into what I procured for the Museum.
Powder in Shell Pearl:
Blush in Prim and Proper:
Lipsticks in Petals 'n' Peacocks and Ever Hip (with and without flash):
Lipglosses in Frankly Fresh and Perennial High Style (with and without flash):
Eyeshadows in Bough Grey and Give Me Liberty of London:
And in Birds and Berries and Dame's Desire:
I love that the boxes have the Liberty name in gold, and the flower print is contained inside:
Finally, the small makeup bag:
I love the shades in this collection (I'm actually going to use Ever Hip and Frankly Fresh rather than keeping them as collectibles!) but obviously the packaging and concept are my favorite things about it. Temptalia has a wonderful summary of how the print was created and what the collection's vibe is meant to be. The print is based on William Morris' "Strawberry Thief" print which goes back to 1883, but was reworked to fit the MAC collection and to make it exclusively theirs. "James Gager, Senior Vice President and Creative Director for MAC Cosmetics, says, 'I’m
particularly proud of the packaging… White [packaging] speaks to a
reawakening of everyone’s sensibilities for spring. [It] has a
remarkably fresh, springy look to it. Even if you don’t know what
Liberty is, you want to own these pieces because they are so unique and
special. It’s evident that something original has taken place here in
terms of the collaboration.'" Naturally I had to search for the original Strawberry Thief print, and indeed, the MAC print is definitely a great modern take on it, although they did take the strawberry completely out of the equation:
More from Temptalia: "Gager says, 'The inspiration was all Liberty and all London.' Miles Aldridge, photographer, shot the visuals in London, with
Charlotte Tilbury, makeup artist, created the look. (Both Aldridge and
Tilbury are English!) Gager goes on to say, “The idea was to
capture the spirit of the famous Brit wit, bohemian chic girl. Katy
England, another famous Brit, styled the shoot. She also designed the
outfit worn by the model, using many Liberty prints and turning them
into an over-the-top ruffled dress. With the MAC Give Me Liberty of
London collection, we aspired to capture the spirit of this dreadfully
chic, cool English girl, sitting on a chair, decked out in all the
British regalia. She’s a Liberty freak and a MAC addict; she can’t get
enough of either brand.'" I can definitely see their vision in the promo ad:
Anyway, I wish I were able to get my hands on the scarf, but at $95 I thought a better use of Museum funds would be to get lots of items for the same amount! I also kind of wish MAC came out with a shirt or another non-makeup collectible – Helly Kitty had tons of stuff and Fafi had adorable little dolls and a tee. But overall I thought they did a great job with this. What are your thoughts and what, if anything did you buy?