Review: MAC Fluidline in Dark Diversion

I used to think that MAC was super high end, back when I got $2 of allowance weekly and never spent more than $20 in one go. Imagine the nest egg I would have if I were like that now. That is, the spending habit, not the allowance.

Kudos to MAC for maintaining nice quality packaging and name brand status while their gel liners retail for 15 to the 23, 24 dollar liners of Bobbi Brown, Makeup Forever, et cetera. However, I have to say, this product leaves  me with negative impression of MAC Fluidlines. The pigmentation is just not good.

The texture on this one resembles gel much more than cream. I almost want to describe it as gel ink because there is a sense that you are laying down a stain, as opposed to a layer of product. Well, whatever it’s doing, it’s not very good because I definitely need multiple layers for full opacity.

It’s in the medium range in terms of longevity. It starts to fade at about hour 6 or 7 and can get on the upper lids and lower corners, and get messy-looking as it gets into the night, maybe at 12 or 14 hours. Unfortunately, this color is does not handle messy-looking gracefully. It is red-toned and we just want to avoid that situation.

Dark Diversion is limited edition but gets repromoted every now and then. If you haven’t picked one up, then you haven’t missed out on anything as far as high quality products go. The color is really unique, but I wear it alone without eyeshadow and it just doesn’t do itself any favors as it declines with the day into a weak red-tinted stain.

When available, it is $15 at, you guessed it, MAC (and MAC counters everywhere).

Gel/Cream Eyeliner Swatch Pt.1: YSL, Bobbi Brown

As I said in my previous post, I swatched a few gel eyeliners when shopping the other day.

If you want to test gel liners, I recommend going to department stores. Gel liners in particular can dry out especially with people opening them and recapping them improperly all day long. The testers I tried at Sephora were not very representative of the actual liners because they were so dry. For some reason, department stores seem to keep gel liners better.

Here's my hand full of swatches. I walked around the mall like that!

The top row is YSL Effet Faux Cils Cream Eyeliner (reviewed here).
The second and third row are Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliners
The bottom row is Lancome Liner Design Long Wear Gel Liner (swatches here).
But of course you can't really see anything right now, so clearer pictures are below.

I didn't swatch every color from those product lines. As you can see there are no blacks. I swatched the colors that I was open to buying. So I left off dark browns, blacks, really bright colors, etc.

Without further ado!...