MAC's Gentle vs. Chanel's Rose Temptation

Make-up Art Cosmetics

     I attended a MAC Cosmetic seminar last week (or was it 2 weeks ago?) that was pretty fun. There were two guest speakers/artists there named Stephan and Genvive. Originally, Genvive chose me to be her model for the seminar but then the esthetics teacher had to complain that "it was unfair if the artists chose their own models". Really now?! She suggested that it was fairer to put every attendee's name into a bag and randomly select volunteer models. I thought that was fair until I noticed that she put all of her students' names from her class into a separate bag, and the rest of ours (hair, makeup, and everyone else) in another bag. Which means that no matter what, somebody from her esthetics class will get to be a volunteer model for the day. Am I bitter? Hell yes!! If anything, its the makeup people that should get the "special treatment" to get the personal opportunity to learn from the MAC spokepeople, not the esthetics people. They do facials and massages, not makeup. GAAAHH Just rethinking about this makes me so angry. I had fun though and learned a lot of pretty interesting stuff in 2 hours.

     Did you know that MAC was originally founded in Toronto?! Yayy for something cool that's Canadian LOL! But of course, as most cool Canadian companies go, they were bought out by Estée Lauder. So much for cool Canadian T^T.... I know there are a lot of people who feel that MAC is not "cool" because it’s not high-end enough. Are you kidding me? Just because they went from providing products to only industry professionals to providing products to the everyday consumer does not mean they lost any credibility. MAC is one of the most biggest - if not THE biggest - cosmetics providers in all of the fashion industry. That's HUGE. The quality of their products are good and are fairly priced. Well... usually ;) $7 eyeshadow from the drugstore sounds much better than spending $17 on an eyeshadow from MAC but the quality of the product (finely milled powders, pigmentation etc) does not compare. If you're looking to invest in a good product then MAC is the way to go.

     Here's my take on companies: if they specialize in something then most likely its the good sh*t and all their secondary comings are either pretty decent or trash. For example, Chanel is first and foremost a French fashion house. That's what the specialize in - haute couture and ready-to-wear items. Their next services are handbags, perfumery, cosmetics etc. So how does Chanel fair in comparison with MAC who specializes in makeup? Well lets do a mini comparison shall we? I'm going to compare the Chanel Joues Contraste powder blush in Rose Temptation to the MAC Mineralized blush in Gentle, as well as give you a mini review on both blushes (I'm on a roll today eh? HAHA)

     Chanel's Rose Temptation is a Fall 2010 LE blush. For $47CAD you get 4grams(0.14oz) of product which is on the steeper side in terms of pricing goes. It has a light pigmentation but is more powdery than it is pressed. I think this is the result of this particular Fall 2010 blush collection being "baked" and as a result is not as finely milled (apparently Chanel JC blushes in EU are baked; this is a first for the NA line). This means that a light hand is important here because even though it has a light pigmentation, the product gives off so much excess powder that you end up over-applying the colour. "Mistakes" could finish 4grams of product pretty darn quickly and that would be such a waste of $47.

     Rose Temptation is a darker and duskier pink with hints of brown. On NC20-25 skin, it will give a naturally flushed appearance. NC30+ could still wear this colour, depending on the application pressure and brush used but the brown in this blush will definitely appear more pronounced. It looks shimmery in the pan but once applied, its almost matte. I dislike the brush that comes with this blush so I love to use my MAC109 instead. This wasn't a must-by for me but I got it because I love vintage rose colours :)

     MAC's Gentle cost me $26.50CAD for about 3.5grams(0.11oz) of product. Although this mineralized blush is also supposedly baked, it is not as powdery. This means that it will probably last longer than Rose Temptation even though it has less product. Another bonus? It's cheaper by $20! That's my kind of deal haha!

     It is generously pigmented as compared to Rose Temptation, but with the right brush and application technique this blush can be extremely buildable and pretty! The colour reminds me of raspberry ice cream/mauvey-pink but with a hint of gold. It is pinker than Rose Temptation. It's not overly shimmery so my oily gals can still use this product! I like to apply this colour with my MAC130 brush (love this for blushes lately!).