RiRi MAC Holiday Collection

When I first started getting into make-up seriously I only bought MAC for the most part. I owned Juicy Tubes (from Lancome) and I had skin care from Clinique, but my real make-up came from MAC. I also had some friends who worked for Estee Lauder, so I owned a few things from there, but it was more for me helping them out with their sales than actually being a fan of the company. Then a couple years later I discovered that there were brands just as good as MAC and in some cases better. So, the past few years I've been building up my make-up collection with brands like Make-Up Forever, Urban Decay, Too Faced, and most recently Tarte. This past year I've focused a lot on drug store products too (which I'm sure you've noticed on this blog), because again it was like a discovery for me to find out that you can find some really good things in the drug stores. 

When I heard about the RiRi Hearts MAC Holiday collection, I knew I had to get my hands on it! I honestly didn't pay much attention when they first released RiRi Woo, because of my avoidance of MAC. Then I saw swatches and reviews of it and I was really intrigued by the retro matte formula and the color. I missed out on the RiRi Hearts MAC Fall collection that came out for the fall. I went to the MAC store the day it was released, but I went after work and by the time I arrived it was pretty much sold out. So, my quest for the holiday collection began! 

I stalked the internet for the release date. The online release date came first and I had the lipsticks in my cart, but when I went to process my payment it said it had sold out and there was nothing in my cart. I guess I just wasn't fast enough. So, then I saw that the MAC stores and counters would have the collection Thursday, December-12. With all of the demand for this collection I decided to look up the best way to get it. I also went and talked to my local MAC store and Macy's (which also carries MAC) to get any advice I could from the associates. Well, my luck happened to be that Macy's opens an hour before the regular MAC store, so if I didn't get the collection there, I would have a chance to try and get it from the actual MAC store. I read online that most girls waited about an hour for the last collection and that most stores only received about 6-8 of each lipstick. Since the lipstick was what I really wanted I decided I would go wait at Macy's at 8am -an hour before it opened. My fiance was sweet enough to go with me, as he was going to help me get what I wanted and pay for it. (I know, I have a keeper!) He thought I was crazy going an hour early, but obliged. It was a little hard getting him out the door that early though and we actually arrived at the mall at 7:55am and he thought I was buggin' as I was telling him to hurry up to get to Macy's. Well, I wasn't completely crazy! When we arrived at Macy's I was 6th in line and although we did wait an hour I was able to buy everything I wanted. They also did sell out of the lipsticks before I paid for mine.

From left to right: Superslick Eyeliner in "Cockiness" and lipstick in shades "Pleasure Bomb", "RiRi Woo", and "Bad Girl RiRi".

The packaging features a Rose Gold theme look and it is very pleasing to the eye, although MAC's packaging never really disappoints me.

Here are the lipsticks live and in color! From left to right: "RiRi Woo", "Bad Girl RiRi", and "Pleasure Bomb". You can see the lipsticks themselves have "RiRi" etched into them.

Here are swatches of the lipsticks. From left to right: "RiRi Woo", "Bad Girl RiRi", and "Pleasure Bomb". I tried to separate RiRi Woo so you could see it is Retro Matte and it a little more matte than the other 2. Bad Girl RiRi and Pleasure Bomb are regular mattes. All beautiful shades though.

Here is a swatch of "Cockiness". A lot of people gave negative reviews of this before the collection hit stores about these liners being not very pigmented and too sparkly. Well, I love sparkly and I love glitter, so that part did not phase me at all. However, I was a little worried about the pigmentation. This may not be as dark as some people like, but it is pretty opaque and I like it. It's very nice for the holiday season as well. My picture did not capture the sparkle very well, however. My only downside to this is that I felt it took a little long to dry. It stays put pretty well after drying, but you gotta give it about a good 15-20 seconds, which can seem like forever when you're applying make-up. - The only reason I passed on "Pisces Persuasion", is because I didn't feel it was that unique and I was concerned about it being opaque from the reviews I saw.

Up unit now, I have never waited in line to buy make-up. I've had to hunt for collections before, but never woke up early and stood in line. My exerpience was good though. About 5 minutes before 9am, Macy's consultants came out and handed us pieces of paper with numbers on them; the numbers were what held our spot in line should we want to shop more once we were inside the store. On the paper they had a list of the items and we were allowed to check whatever items we wanted, but were only allowed 1 of each. This would ensure a first-come-first-serve system. Everyone at my location seemed to be pleasant and no one cut or did anything real hostile. As I was paying for mine 1 of the girls that was ahead of me was complaining that her friend didn't receive 1 of the lipsticks, but I left before I saw how that ended and honestly I really didn't want to deal with any drama. I got what I wanted and got out. I saw and heard from a lot people online that they were disappointed and upset with MAC and how things were handled, but all the locations where there were disappointments were actual MAC stores and not Macy's or counters inside of department stores. I saw people online who posted and bragged about getting every lipstick in stock from their MAC store and then you can imagine the complaints from others. I personally did not experience this, although I do feel bad for those who are fans and did not have a chance of getting what they wanted. I'm not sure how to make the system fair, other than for those certain locations to be reprimanded for their wrong actions.

I'm very interested in seeing what other people bought and to hear your story, so please leave a link to your blog if you have a RiRi Mac story!