| Thought I'd round up a few frosty randoms and review them since these three MAC shades don't get too much public loving. I don't adore them myself- they were virtually all 'mixers' for me, bought to give dimension to the mattes I usually wear when I'm feeling a bit more glittery than usual. To be brutally honest, I've moved most if not all of these shades on since writing this review some time ago. So I'm just going to go ahead and admit that I'm not a frosty/lustre kind of girl and regard the latter with a bit of a jaundiced eye. > L2 R: MAC Charismatic, Made to Order (LE), Fresh Moroccan. Photographed in warm indoor daylight. |  |
Charismatic (Lustre) is medium neutral terracotta with quite a lot of gold shimmer on the lip (much more so than in the swatches); I would describe the gold pigment as almost frosty rather than glittery although the effect is quite subtle and doesn't distress a frost-phobe such as myself. The gloss isn't insane and remains relatively flattering, especially on lips that are already plump. Not sure it would be so kind to a thinner mouth, though.
BELOW L 2 R (All MAC) Orange Lipmix, Charismatic, Made to Order, Fresh Moroccan, Chili
 | It is 'slippy' and about 40% opaque, allowing quite a lot of natural lip colour to show through and this influences how the shade appears on you personally. Not especially buildable; the colour seems to reach a point beyond which you're just smooshing on more product rather than altering the shade. On its own, Charismatic is a comfortable, SFW kind of thing. It becomes more valuable, IMO, over a red lip pencil when you're looking for a shimmery finish. |
Made To Order (LE, Lustre) is a warm, translucent dried apricot shade that has some sort of distant coral affinity going on if you know what I mean. It is pretty darn glossy, will settle into lip creases, contains a tiny amount of gold microglitter and offers a whole five minutes of wear unless you take remedial action with a pencil or base, but on the upside, it's soft and immensely comfortable for the nanosecond that it sticks around on the lips. I mixed it with the recent Ablaze pencil and make a really pretty, slightly off-kilter coral. Made To Order is probably most delightful on a yellow-based, lightly tanned or Asian complexions. I'm pasty, and it was just a bit meh on moi.
Fresh Moroccan (Frost) is a different beast altogether and I'd like to put one misconception to bed right now- it's not red, dammit. Not even close. We're talking a medium-to-deep (depending how heavily you apply) low-gloss earthy coppery raisin with a touch of wine in certain lights. This one somehow sneaks past my loathing of all things frosty with its in-your-face microglitter and unexpected opacity; how glittery, you ask? If it was an eyeshadow, you'd brace for a blizzard of fallout. This isn't obvious from the swatches. Despite its copperiness, Fresh Moroccan isn't especially warm and there is FrankNFurter potential lurking therein (not in a good way) if slathered on the wrong face.
ABOVE RIGHT: same as the swatch above but in warmer direct daylight.
Personally I find it a wee bit tame, preferring true reds, but I should probably just shut my cakehole since Fresh Moroccan has a lot going for it outside the notes I choose to hump. For a start, it's one of the more dramatic and long-wearing frosts with decent (around 85%) opacity. Anyone with a deeper tanned, African or darker Indian complexion looking for a hotter-than-average neutral-with-a-twist who isn't already on to it should definitely check it out; FM is awesomely buildable- safe for work worn sheer and glam enough for sexy times when slapped on hard. It plays really, really well with other products and I enjoyed it most mixed with Brick lip pencil. It also approaches some of the mattes as far as wear goes- I got around 4 hours without retouching. The only bad thing about Fresh Moroccan is my attitude toward it, lol. So don't listen to me. You probably do need it in your life.
BELOW L 2 R: Charismatic, Made to Order, Fresh Moroccan. Cool natural indoor light.
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