Dazzlesphere! Dazzlesphere!

I happened to go to M·A·C a week before Christmas, and look what just happened to follow me home: two of the three Dazzlesphere! Ornaments from the holiday collection, namely Smoky Blue and Smoky Plum. And here I was, swearing that I wasn't going to pick up any of them as I didn't like the swatches I'd seen on other blogs. Everywhere I see people calling them cute, speaking fondly of the "fantastic" packaging, but frankly.. I'm afraid I fail at recognizing the awesomeness in a semi-large plastic sphere? Am I missing something? Can it actually be used for something? My guess is it'll sit on a vanity or desk, collecting dust.

These sets are the same Crushed Metallic Pigments as the ones released with M·A·C Spring Colour Forecast and Surf Baby!, which is a set of four corresponding pigments in one stack. As I was standing there, speaking with one of the makeup artists, I swatched a few of the colors in the purple stack on my hand. Just for the fun of it. And I liked them quite a lot. I have to be honest about Light Violet in the purple stack being quite useless, and I kinda have the urge to throw it out because of its lousy quality. It's impossible to swatch, impossible to work with, impossible to stick to the skin, just.. impossible. I do on the other hand like the rest of the colors, and I'm wondering if I should have picked up the third sphere Smoky Berry as well, just because of the dark strawberry color called "Spicy Smoke". It's such a beautiful color! As I recently saw someone else saying: one should have been able to mix and match these stacks oneself. Unfortunately they are quite pricey in Norway, so I won't be getting the third ornament unless I'm able to get it from the US at retail price before it's gone. If you poke around the internet you'll find a lot of different opinions on which of these kits are the best of the bunch, but I'll have to say that my personal favorite must be Smoky Blue. For some odd reason it actually reminds me of a wintery fairytale, giving me a fuzzy feeling.

Dazzlesphere! Smoky Blue Ornament	Dazzlesphere! Smoky Plum Ornament

Sadly I'm not half as intrigued by the collections M·A·C keep pushing out as I used to be, so most things just pass me by unnoticed. I've stopped keeping track of release dates. I already own a lot of stuff from M·A·C (from older collections), but I don't have the urge to own every single piece released anymore. I guess the magic has gone, and I honestly feel a little sad about it. I don't understand what the people behind M·A·C are thinking, but the constant price increase, the insanely expensive "special" collections, the downsizing of actual product, the diminishing quality - what is going on when not even repromotes have the same color payoff and quality as the original product anymore? - is not making me wanna buy more, it's making me stray away from the brand that used to be my very favorite, feeling nothing but cheated and ripped off. It's been a nice few years, M·A·C. I hope we can rekindle our passionate relationship some other time.

Photos: M·A·C Cosmetics