MAC Bao Bao Wan : Photos, Swatches & First Impressions

Recently I had the privilege of previewing some of MAC’s upcoming collections and one of them was the Bao Bao Wan collection releasing in March. The warm metallic jewel toned eyeshadows and bright lipsticks instantly caught my attention! This collection was soooo me!

For those of you wondering who Bao Bao Wan is, she is a jewellery designer, socialite & muse from China. Her unique sense of style is fierce and unapologetic and is what this collection is all about.

So over the weekend I took the time to finally photograph my samples in their pristine state so I could start using these without further delay.

I then packed ‘my precious’ for a shoot that was to happen yesterday. However with uncooperative weather delaying all plans and with my curiosity to use these getting the better of me. I swatched! And the rest was history they say.

The products I have for review are 2 of the 4 lipsticks and the 2 powder products. I shall leave the lipsticks for another day and just focus on the Bao Bao Jewels Velux Pearlfusion eyeshadow palette  & the Summer Opal Beauty Powder today.

Here’s a closer look at the beautiful metallic eyeshadows ranging from pretty pearly pink to copper and blue grey.

All 5 shadows in this palette are of the Velux Pearlfusion finish. The high metallic sheen is consistent throughout and the best part was, the colour payoff is out of this world! Usually I find that most of the VP eyeshadows (In my collection) are more or less on the sheerer side, but these really blew my mind. Except for the very first pink shade, everything else performed exceptionally well.

Swatches don’t lie, and as you can see, these are FULL ON!

The palette contains one warm light pink, a warm yellow toned gold, a high shine copper, a deep khaki with grey brown undertones and lastly a blackened blue grey.

The best performers were the gold and copper shades. They were soft, ultra creamy to the touch and swatched on bare skin with maximum opacity.

The only thing I don’t love about this palette is the design, the slim strips really kill me when swatching and also when I use them. I always need to pick up a smaller brush to access the first and the last shades. Annoying.

Out of curiosity I did a quick test on my eyes too to get a feel of how they perform during application. Without any primer, I found that although the colour pay off was very good, there was noticeable fallout (which is quite common with Velux Pearlfusions). I can’t say how they perform with a primer, but I’d advise you to do your base makeup last so that the messy cleanup of fall out is avoided.

Next on to the Summer Opal Beauty powder. This is a satin muted pink powder with dull gold shimmers (refer first swatch). I found that the texture of this much more finer with noticeable gold sparkle. The shimmer isn’t ott, and sits very elegantly on the cheekbones reflecting light in the most flattering way.

Here’s a closer look at my highlighter brush ‘loaded’ with product, ready to go. (I haven’t used this as a face powder because the shimmer content is a tad too in your face to be applied globally, although it would work great on certain editorial, bronzed makeup looks!)

See those little gold flecks trapped between the brush hairs? Sooo heavenly!

This collection launches in March, so you have plenty of time to decide which products you want to pick up. I will also follow up with a look featuring these products as well as the lipstick review, stay tuned.

UPDATE – Final review here, complete with lipstick review & comparison swatches.