VENOMOUS VILLAINS REVIEW!!!

I don't know if y'all picked it up from the title, but I'm so, so excited about what I got from Venomous Villains.  The whole thing was such an ordeal.  It was supposed to hit stores last Thursday, and since I have a midterm that day I was going to go into Boston on Friday with my roomie and hit up MAC.  We had it all planned out.  But then I heard that MAC was releasing the collection early online, so I decide just to stalk Twitter until it dropped and buy what I wanted ASAP before it sold out.  Well.  MAC couldn't decide when to release it or couldn't release it for some reason, so it went up two hours late, and I wasn't with my laptop.  Cue panic attack.  But, luckily, an hour later both things I wanted were still in stock, so it all worked out.  The only thing that freaked me out was that I got an email confirming my order saying that I'd get a tracking number when it shipped, and a week later, no tracking number.  It just mysteriously showed up at mail services today.  No bueno, MAC, no bueno.


ANYWAYS, I got My Dark Magic Mineralize Shadow from the Maleficent collection and Vainglorious Shadow from the Evil Queen collection.  I was so happy that the boxes looked like the blogger press hits with the awesome concept drawings of the characters!  That's Maleficent on the left and the Evil Queen on the right. 

So My Dark Magic sold out pretty much within 12 hours (in fact, almost all of the Maleficent stuff is gone), which makes me so happy that I got it, but sad that most people didn't.  I think it has the best packaging of the line, with Maleficent and her crow/vulture BFF on the lid.  The Evil Queen packaging is much less awesome.  The queen's face just looks so small compared to the shadow itself.  I think if it was blown up two or three times it would have been a lot better, but I'm glad that the images were printed on, and not stickers (ahem, Dame Edna).

My camera struggled so much taking pictures of My Dark Magic because it is SO SPARKLY.  The picture on the left gives a better idea of the texture, but the picture on the right gives a better idea of the actual color.  The surface feels very organic--it's a little bumpy and swirly.  The left side is a crescent shaped black with fuschia shimmer and fucshia swirls, and the right is a smaller oval with a black base, some white swirls, and violet and blue shimmer.  The shimmer on the right is a bit bigger/chunkier than the shimmer on the left.  The white swirls really just blend in with the black and add a little white shimmer.

JUST LOOK AT THOSE SWATCHES.  LOOK AT THEM.  The left is the pink side, the right is the purple side.  You can see the difference between the shimmer sizes pretty clearly, and because the shimmer on the right is a little more noticeable, it's much easier to do a sheer wash of the purple side than the pink side.  If you do a sheer wash of the purple side, you can almost blend it out to a sheer base with violet shimmer, which you can't do with the pink side.  I found this duo incredibly pigmented.  I literally brushed my fingers over it and came up with these swatches.  I think you could apply it wet for more lasting power and less fallout, but they seem to do pretty darn well dry.  I know I'm not going to be wearing this all the time (it's not exactly class friendly) but it's the perfect thing for weekends or for a fun, going-out smokey eye. 

Vainglorious is still up on the MAC website for $15.50 ($1 more than usual because of the licensing fees for the Disney characters).  The picture on the left refused to come out right, the swatch on the right is much more accurate.  I think the macro setting on my camera hates me.  I'd describe it as a brownish-burgundy with red shimmer.  It's a lot more wearable than I thought that it would be, for sure.  It's a little scary looking in the pan, but if you put it in the crease and blend it out, it's a really flattering warm hue, especially on green or hazel eyes.  I was definitely scared by the Frost finish, but I wouldn't call it frosty at all.  It has a bit of a sheen to it, but it is in no way reminiscent of '90s frosted lipstick or other scary frosted things.

Overall thoughts: I really love the two things I got.  I would have also gotten Revenge is Sweet Lipglass, but I needed more Studio Sculpt Concealer (I'm NW15 now!  Ahhhhh so pale), and I'm broke.  So.  I'm so glad that I got My Dark Magic because I think the packaging is fab and I adore blacks with colored shimmer, and I love Vainglorious because it's surprisingly wearable and a color that I needed.