MAC's Reel Sexy collection is a flashback to last summer's Nordstrom anniversary collection, Cinematics (and the widely available Colourizations). Just about everything is limited edition.

Eyeshadow duos are back, though they're $27.50 now. As with last summer's duos, MAC doesn't identify individual shade names or finishes.

Dynamic Duo 1 features a warm candy pink with gold duochrome shimmer, paired with a slightly chalky matte magenta berry (really the only shade that disappointed me at all in terms of smooth delivery of pigment). Dynamic Duo 2 includes a softly shimmery blue-silver and a vibrant matte cerulean.

Dynamic Duo 3 offers a shimmery blue-purple-steel grey and a matte teal (yowsers). Dynamic Duo 4 has a matte Pepto/Barbie pale blue-pink and a super-dark matte eggplant purple. All in all, the texture and color payoff of the duos is excellent.

The collection also features a few face powders. Pink Cult blush (repromoted from Jeanius) is a dusty bubblegum pink (Matte). I thought — from its name — that Magenta, a matte red-violet, process magenta, was a permanent, pro color (products with simple color names are often pro shades)... but I was mistaken; it's limited edition. The blushes are $20 each.

Lightscapade Mineralize Skinfinish was originally released in 2006; recently repromoted in the Cindy Sherman collection of fall 2011. It's a pearly warm-white shimmery highlight, $29.

I swatched the powders first lightly, then heavily.

The collection also includes three nail polishes (each $16). Vivid Effect is a red-pink coral, an intense hibiscus creme. In the Dark... Purple is grape. Screening Room is a green teal.

There are also four Eye Kohl (non-mechanical pencil) eyeliners ($15 each). Heirloom is a shimmery metallic dishwater blue-purple silver grey. Hyacinth is a satin (low shimmer) justice blue. Resort is a satin grape. Smolder (a permanent shade) is black.

The lips are probably my favorite part of the collection. I'd been vaguely regretting not buying Watch Me Simmer from February's Shop MAC Cook MAC collection, but it's already being repromoted, so I got my second chance.

Reel Sexy is a light coral pink Amplified Creme. Watch Me Simmer is a deeper warm pink. Pink Popcorn (Lustre) looks really lavender in the tube, but swatches on surprisingly pink. It's a very sheer pink lilac with microscopic blue shimmers.

Wag of the finger to MAC for naming the fourth lipstick in this collection Heroine. MAC fans surely remember that there was a Heroine lipstick in MAC's recent Wonder Woman collection. It was a Frost finish, and a completely different color (frosty red-brown). This Heroine is a grape creme Matte. The lipsticks are each $14.50.

There are also four Cremesheen Glass lipglosses ($19.50). Private Screening is a light warm pink. Star Quality is a bright red-pink coral, a color that J.Crew would probably call "melon." Cinestyle is periwinkle, pale blue-purple. Colour Saturation is berry.

Reel Sexy is available on Nordstrom.com, Dillards.com, Bloomingdales.com, and MACcosmetics.com — happy shopping!

In a move that was absolutely brilliant for both brands, Sephora and Pantone teamed up to create a collection celebrating Pantone's color of 2012: Tangerine Tango.

Pantone was a commercial printing company that became famous for their color standards. To make a long story short, they created books of color swatches and a system by which any of these colors could be consistently created. Some colors are created with the standard printing mix of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Others are "spot" colors, created from some combination of Pantone's 13 inks plus white and black. What this means is a graphic designer in Phoenix can create a corporate logo in PMS 78 (Pantone Matching System), and it can be printed correctly in Iceland, India, or New Zealand, without calibrating it to another printed sample. The system is so pervasive that even national flags are described by PMS color.

And since 2000, for the prestige of the brand, Pantone has named a "color of the year." I don't always agree with their predictions; I wasn't feeling "Honeysuckle" last year. Orange was pretty hot last summer — I think it hasn't yet gone out of vogue. Regardless, I love orange, so I was very excited about the collaboration.

I originally expected to buy the collector's set, $68. It includes everything I thought I would want: eyeshadow quad, lipstick, the blush duo, and single blush. The lipgloss and eyeliner were just a bonus! But the eyeshadow quad kind of talked me out of it. The texture was nice, but not, as Camel cigarettes used to say, pure swatching pleasure. The shades are all a little sheer (I built them up).

Scallop Shell is a sheer, satin, beige ballet pink. Carnelian is a satin coral with a few pink-gold shimmers. Sparrow is a cool, matte, slightly purpled bark-brown. Pavement is a sheer black satin with a few tiny sparkles. The eyeshadow quad is $28, if you buy it individually.

Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick ($18) is the flagship piece of the collection, and Sephora, you got me good. I love it. It's a semi-sheer coral orange — and because it's sheer, it goes completely warm-strawberry red-pink on me. Also because it's sheer, it doesn't last THAT long on my lips. The texture is glossy-jelly, not drying at all. It also has a sweet scent (gummi bears?) that I notice only when I'm applying.

Then there's the lipgloss set, $20 (which is nothing when you consider you're getting 4 glosses). But in what will become a recurring theme for this collection, I kind of wish they'd done individual products instead of a set.

The lipglosses are a nod to Pantone's different finishes. Vivid is probably the truest representation of what "Tangerine Tango" is supposed to be. It's the most opaque and the most red. Tangerine Tango Luminous is a little lighter, a little more sheer, and has gold sparkles. Tangerine Tango Opal is a little more sheer and a little lighter, with dense pink sparkles. But as you can see from the swatches, it almost seems like you're buying three tubes of the same gloss. Tangerine Tango Glaze is a nice surprise. It's a sheer, warm, grapefruit pink with pink and gold sparkles.

There are two blush options, a blush duo ($26) and a Prisma Chrome Blush ($16). The blush duo consists of Desert Flower (a matte, warm guava pink) and Coral (a deeper, more intense, watermelon pink with gold shimmer). The Prisma Chrome Blush was REALLY sparkly; I felt like there was nearly as much sparkle as color/pigment. It's apricot with dense gold sparkles.

Not loving Apricot Brandy confirmed my decision not to buy the collector's set.

I found the Tangerine Tango nail polishes to be surprisingly nifty... but I wished I could buy just one of them for $6, rather than all four for $24. Like the lipglosses, the nail polishes are an exploration of finish. The set contains Tangerine Tango Matte, Creme, Shimmer (sheer with tiny orange and pink shimmers), and Glitter (intense, autumn-leaf orange glitter in a clear base).

There's also a trio of mechanical eyeliners ($22). Though these pencils were very soft and creamy, I was concerned about staying power. (Anyone own these and care to weigh in?) Meteorite is black, Tangerine Tango Twist is a sheeny satin bittersweet red-orange with pink and silver shimmers. Chestnut is dark brown.

The collection also contains a number of makeup accessories: "Tangerine Tango" brush sets ($68), false lashes ($28), eyelash curlers ($18), a makeup bag ($28). None of these made my have-to-have list.

Also, I do have to ding Sephora for their packaging on this collection: the outer packaging is absurdly wasteful (perhaps to discourage in-store shoplifting of what was sure to be a popular collection). I also disliked the translucent, non-attaching, magnetized lids on the eyeshadow quad and blush duo.

Are you an orange-lover? A Pantone-groupie? What did you love (and not love) about this collection?

Now this is just unsubstantiated musings on my part, but it sometimes seems like Estee Lauder Corp. shares product innovation among its brands. Estee Lauder has been making such a splash with their Illuminating Powder Gelee (which has appeared as both eyeshadow and face powder), and MAC just released a new (limited edition) "liquid-powder hybrid formula, a completely new technnology that combines the smoothness of a cream, the blendability of a liquid, and the wear and ease of a powder." No complaints from me — for anyone who missed out on Estee's powders, this seems like a second chance.

The Extra Dimension Eyeshadows are $20 each (larger size pans) — and yes, I swatched these dry, with no base or primer. Young Venus is a pale, sparkling frosty ice-pink. Blue Orbit is sparkling frosty periwinkle. Lunar is blackened sapphire — a black base with sparkly/frosty blue shimmer. Grand Galaxy is a sparkling/frosty blue-purple grape. Rich Core is more of a red-purple (also sparkling/frosty). Sweet Heat is a high shimmer, very frosty rosy copper. Havana is a satin/frost warm tobacco brown with no sparkle. Modern Pewter is a frosty shimmery green-silver-gold metallic. Warm Thunder is a sparkly/frosty cool, steely, almost bluish silver. Dark Dare is satin/matte black with a few tiny sparkles.

The three Extra Dimension Skinfinishes are $28 each, and — surprisingly — they're eye- and lip-safe. Superb is beige-pink with silver multicolored sparkles (click here to compare it to Estee Lauder's first — and unnamed — powder gelee from fall 2011). Whisper of Gilt is warm pale gold with silver shimmer, and doesn't really have a counterpart from Estee Lauder. Glorify is burnished copper (click here to compare it to Estee Lauder's spring 2012 Topaz Chameleon).

I swatched these first lightly (because they can be so intense), then heavily (to show the color):


This collection also repromotes two of the "split-personality" brushes from the Semi-Precious collection (photos here): the 128 split-fibre cheek brush ($32) and the 234 split-fibre eye blending brush ($22.50).

Products are available at every MAC counter and free-standing store, though if that's inconvenient (or your local counter is sold out of something) I'd recommend Nordstrom.com (free shipping at any price!).

If you've seen the display for Guerlain's new Shine Automatique lipstick, you may have wondered which shade model Natalia Vodianova is wearing. Fortunately, I have answers! She's wearing 263 A La Parisienne (swatched here).

She's also wearing Meteorites Pearls Primer, Lingerie de Peau Compact 03 Beige Naturel, Terracotta Light 01 Blondes, Noir G Mascara, eyeshadow quad 08 Les Perles, and eye pencil 01 Khol Me Black.

Guerlain has featured Natalia exclusively for the last few years... how do you feel about this look, compared to others she's sported for the brand?