MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Review, Swatches & Photos

MAC Mickey Contractor Limited Edition Review & Photos

Now here comes my personal review of the MAC Mickey Contractor LE, just as I have promised. My shopping list was rather short though, as I do prefer MUFE foundations or I actually mix the perfect foundation shade using MAC face and body foundation etc. So those are the reasons why I did not pick up any foundations. If you are fond of the MAC foundations, I would definitely go ahead and pick it up, as the included shades should be quite fitting for indian skin tones. Again, this is just a matter of personal preference. I also didn’t get any of the brushes, as I already own them. So my focus when I was shopping for the LE items was definitely on the limited products.

Mac & Mickey Contractor Collection

I am completely aware of the fact that many of you have anxiously anticipated the release of this LE and I wasn’t quite sure if I should go ahead and do a review of the products, since quite a few of the items didn’t really work for me. So again, I just wanted you to know that this is a review solely based on my personal opinions and experiences, which can of course quite differ from whatever experience an indian beauty might have with the LE. Furthermore my apology that I could not include swatches of every single item purchased – I tried to catch the missing swatches on cam several times but the light was too bad.
Now on to my review:

MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Eyeshadows:

MAC Marvel Eyeshadow ( Mickey Contractor)

MAC Oomph Eyeshadow (Mickey Contractor)

All three of them were rather disappointing. The colour payoff is by no means as good
as I have anticipated (swatches were made with a 239 brush dipped in twice). Especially Marvel is rather sheer and turns out quite blotchy.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Eyeshadow Swatches

MAC & Mickey Contractor Eyeshadow Swatches

To be honest, in my opinion MAC’s permanent range offers in all three colour spectrums eyeshadows that are not only more interesting but also way more versitle. Only Saffron was quite an exception and did live up to my expectations, but I ended up not buying it, as it is too warm for my skin type and I am not really able to use this kind of colour in my daily makeup routine, but nevertheless I do recommend this colour for its colour payoff and brilliance.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Rani Eyeshadow

MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Fluidlines:

MAC & Mickey Contractor Siahi Fluidline

MAC & Mickey Contractor Siahi Fluidline
Siahi is a gorgeous, deep and brilliant blue hue and most definitely among the products that I would recommend to get from this LE. Ivy instead is not as opaque and needs two layers to be so. This might be a criteria that is quite important for older beauties, who often have difficulties with liner textures that are on the dry side. But don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want to criticize Ivy by any means, although this has happened on quite a number of blogs. Green is always a difficult colour, especially in product categories that do have a versatile texture performance (talking about fluidliners, this means that the product should be creamy in application and then dry down and stay put for the finish). Another advantage of the easy and first-lay-sheer application is that you can create an array of different effects by blending in different colours. I do know, that everybody did expect a brighter, more intense green colour, escpecially it coming from MAC, but honestly, I do have the impression that a lot of reviews from western blogs simply forgot to consider the fact that a non opaque texture allows you to create effects blending together with your own skin tone and a sheer application of a green shade does create together with an olive skintone some marvellous effects. Of course reviews should only be the essence of a personal opinion, but often enough, they do neglect the fact that skin tones other than white do create completely different colour effects. My test runs with Ivy on darker skin tones give me right on that theory, as I experienced Ivy to be extremely versatile, beautifully interesting in one layer and turning brilliantly bright with two layers.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Ivy Fluidline

MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Blushes:

MAC & Mickey Contractor Gana Blush

Along with the eyeshadows, the blushes were an equal disappointment, the texture not as much as the colours. I am not a fan of this concept which leans more towards sculpting/highlighting (since there are special products for this purpose available), just take a look at the golden sheen/shimmer that Gana features, this is definitely just a highlighter and not a blush in common sense.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Sur Blush

Sur is a completely neutral colour and for my taste way too brown. I wouldn’t be bickering as much if the LE would have featured more blushes, because then Sur would have been a nice addition, but as the single real blush in this LE, I am quite disappointed .Sur is also missing that little hint of blue, that would have made it a better match for the Indian wintertype skin. So, the only interesting thing about Sur is a neutral brown colour, which is okay as a staple base product, but why would I buy it if it is a limited edition product, which I cannot get from the base range of products that MAC features? The texture of both products though is excellent, and they both create a nice velvety smooth finish, so if you don’t have any blush from this colour range and you don’t mind that both products are LE, go ahead and get them, just don’t expect the colours to be very wowing colorwise. I should not forget to mention that Sur can turn out to be quite versitile, if you like to experiment or if you blend it in with other blushes, so it can be an interesting blush after all.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Lipsticks:

MAC & Mickey Contractor Lipstick Swatches

I only got Gulabi and Mehr, Mocha is a permanent colour and Yash was not only too faint but also way too warm to look good on me. Nude colours of this spectrum only look good on warm skin types (means: spring and autumn colour types), at least in natural daylight, you might get a different result if you using artificial light and a photo flash, but, isn’t natural daylight what counts when it comes to our everyday makeup routine?

MAC & Mickey Contractor Lipstick Gulabi

Gulabi is a bright, intense pink in the amplified finish. I think the amplified finish was an excellent pick for this lipstick, as it keeps this almost moist looking sheen locked on your lips. Especially for Indian beauties Gulabi would be my first pick.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Lipstick Mehr

Mehr probably looks quite nude on Indian beauties, actually the colour is quite similar to MAC lipstick Cosmo, but Mehr features a matte finish. You can’t see the matte finish right away after application, which is nice and creamy by the way. So, if you just wait for a couple of minutes after application without blotting or pressing your lips together, you will see how the colour sets down to this beautiful matte finish. Honestly, I wouldn’t have put Mehr on my shopping list if it would not have had this stunning finish while still being nice and creamy on your lips.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Lipstick Swatches

The colour itself is not the spectacular feature of this lipstick, but the finish definitely is. So if you are looking for a pretty nude color with matte finish, you will be more than satisfied with Mehr. The only exception will be very dark skin types, as the colour might look more like flesh than nude.

Overall rating of MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection:
The whole collection, in my opinion, is way too neutral with only very few colour accents, which on top were really disappointing. The Eyeshadow Quad is also to neutral and leaning extremely towards the brown side. I mean, if MAC wants to feature brown shades, why not go ahead and release a repromote of Showstopper or another really deep, contrasting brown (Showstopper as well as the discontinued Signed, sealed should be included anyways in MACs permanent range). I do understand, that colours which do look boring and unspectacular in their pots are not doing as well at the regular counter, but to discontinue such highlights without making them part of the PRO range, is just beyond me and quite a big mistake in my eyes. I do expect from big names like MAC that they do feature colours like that in their permanent range, so that their customers have the time to discover the versatility of those colours and textures. But no, instead we have Carbon featured in the Quad, a matte black contouring colour which can’t do anything besides looking good in its pot. I tried out a variety of drugstore brand black eyeshadows which performed way better than Carbon, I am still puzzled how MAC can even feature such a horrible texture. I mean, an experienced beauty will of course be able to work with Carbon, but there are just way better black matte eyeshadows available, so why bother with Carbon? Overall, the Quad is just too basic looking for a limited edition, two of the colours are permanent anyways and the other two limited edition colours can be easiliy duped with colours from the permanent range. The glosses are altogether just to nude, faint and lifeless and again, also easlily substituted.

MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection

So, if I do compare this LE with the Manish Arora Edition, Manish was way more interesting and intriguing. Though, after some of Ratis comments replying at my questions on IMBB I do know more about the general opinion of the majority of indian beauties when it comes to make up in general, which I did not know before. Considering this new knowledge, the concept of the LE seems to be very well structured by Mickey and the inclusion of all the nude colours makes more sense. Looking over the facts now that I know from Rati, the colour concept of this LE will be very attractive for the Indian market. Personally though, just being me, I did expect more and brighter colours to be included in this LE as well as less permanent shades.

Also read :

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75 thoughts on “MAC & Mickey Contractor Collection Review, Swatches & Photos

  1. Thank you so much Tatjana :thanks: !! I had been eyeing oomph e/s, siahi and mehr from this collection..guess I’ll only for Siahi now! So sad the e/s are not well pigmented 🙁

  2. this post gives good insight into this collection, though i can see why you didn’t pick up many products because they were not appropriate for your skintone. i’ll be checking out yash lipstick, saffron eyeshadow, the quad as well as siahi fluidline.

    1. TY Rima 🙂
      Well, I am a winter colourtype as well – there are winter colour types from very white to black skin and the important fact is that we have a blueish skin undertone. So Yash is definitely too warm and too pale for us, means: Wrong temperature and wrong intensity; it does not match the skin undertone and looks faint and lifeless on a winter colourtype. If you want to go for a very nude look I would suggest Syrup lipstick – it has the important hint of blue and it is lustre finish; the lustre finish works amazing with the individual lip colour and creates a very natural look. Syrup will deliver the nude effect while Yash may appear strange.

      At least the best thing you can do it: Test it at the counter 🙂
      I mean the colourtype thing is a helpful thing and not a law, the rest is matter of personal preference. :-*

      1. thank you tatjana :-*
        i’ll check out syrup next time. as it is, i am quite smitten by the lustre finish. should check out all of its shades in fact.
        i believe yash is going to be quite dull on me

        ki :-*

  3. I have tried Mocha lipstick and it looked awful on me but I would be checking out Yash..I am totally skipping Mehr because I do have Cosmo with me. I agree to what you said about MAC Carbon. I am totally disappointed with it. I really cannot put so much effort in making a certain eyeshadow good. However I just like it for soft lining for everyday looks.

    But you know all of us are so much in awe with mickey Contractor that we have to see the stuff with our own eyes to believe it. Thanks for the review. it really gave an insight. 🙂

    1. TY Rati :-*
      Check my comment above regarding Yash.
      I do not think the edition is bad at all – it just features another concept.
      No matter what edition: I always have to see it with my own eyes as well :))

      1. Carbon really has a bad performance – but it attracts people because it looks good in it´s pott and so they buy it. Did I mention the MUFE matte black eyeshadow before? The best matte black e/s I ever had. You will be more than satisfyed with it, best performance at matte black.

        Regarding the single eyeshadows of the LE:
        Less pigmentation does not mean that a product is not good; an experienced beauty is used to blending down opaque finishes to sheer, but somebods just getting in touch with make up is not. Especially for the Indian market this is an important criteria and I really do think Mickey did a good job on that – makes it easier to discover than full-force-pigmentation.

        1. Yeah you have mentioned about the MUFE eyeshadow but we don’t have MUFE here in Delhi and I wonder when I would be going to Mumbai next. But I do have blacks in my estee lauder palettes , which are beautiful so I do have a few blacks to play with. :))

          Women in India don’t wear too many colours so the collection is apt for Indian market. It’s the no makeup look most women aim for. 🙂 All the colours be it in the eyeshadow palette or in lipsticks are something that would lure customers here. :)) And there could be a possibility that the pigmentation is not kept as strong ..but I am not sure..:)

  4. thanks a lot for ur review !
    rati plz tell me some nice mac stuff i have saved my pocketmoney for mac !!!! my skin is combi my whishlist are:
    foundation
    powder blush in pink and peach color
    lipstick in soft pink and peach

  5. thnks for the review Tatjana- My gym ka front desk gal also got some eyeshadows and even she was saying ke shes dissapointed….
    but considering MIckey Contractor’s reputation- m a bit surprised
    btw- u all got up early today????
    lets dance then – :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:
    love this smiley :d

    1. It is not important that the eyeshadows did not live up to the expectations.
      Due to the more natural concept of the edition a more sheer finish makes sense and the texture of the eyeshadows will create interesting effects in combination with the indian skin tones, since sheer finish always combines skin tone with product within the apllied area. You get the same effect by blending an opaque texture down to sheer finish. That´s what I do but from a commercial point of view, especially for the Indian market, the concept really makes sense 🙂

  6. That was a very nice review and your take on the collection Tatjana!! :waytogo: :waytogo: :waytogo: :waytogo: 🙂 🙂 …I am really interested in their concealer, Mehr and now siyahi too!! 😀 😀 😀

    And Good morning everyone!!! ..one more day to go for weekend… :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

          1. yeah but I wonder how much I would be able to use it..It’s a great bridal colour. 🙂 I am only decided on siahi and yash as of now. 😛 Yash I want to try first and then buy… 😀

            1. Haan, even saffron I’m wondering kitna use hoga 😛 😛

              ooh yash will be good on you! :haanji: :haanji: mocha toh is horridly brown – remember when you, rima and I met first time in citywalk? I tried it and looked like a corpse :dazed:

              1. are haan..i remember mocha..I tried it the other day and the MUA had no words on how it looked on me, she couldnt bring herself to say that it looked good on me :lol2: :lol2:

  7. morning :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :ghost2: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

  8. IN fact, tatjana….you have nicely sorted out the things……..it would be easy for us to pick…. :thanks: :thanks: :thanks:

    1. Thanks a lot ramya :thanks:
      The finish of Mehr is awesome.
      Cannot remember when I bought this colour spectrum the last time before, since it is very easy dupeable. But the texture sets down amazing, I even bought a backup of Mehr due to this lovely down-setting matte :heart:

  9. Such a simplified view on the collection…thanks Tatjana…..i will def be looking for the fluidlines and foundation !!!!! :toothygrin: :toothygrin: :toothygrin: good morning !!!

    1. :thanks: a lot Priya 🙂
      If you like the MAC foundations this collection should be kinda Xanadu – I am quite sure the shades include almost every indian skin tone :))

  10. Hey Tatjana…….this is a great review!!! You’ve made things so easy for us with your detailed review. If I can make it to the Mac store, it’s siah & mehr for me I think 🙂

  11. Thanks Tatjana, this really helps. I was in two mind about the blushes and eyeshadows.
    Sur looks very much like one of the blushes from the parmanent line. I cant place the name right now, but am sure there is one that is very close.
    I think lipsticks and the fluid line are going to be my pick.

    1. :thanks: Rajol.
      When blended out on cheek Sur is very close to the permanent Mocha.
      Mocha btw. is the top-seller among the MAC blushes. It´s a little bit less brownish, means: more neutral than Sur.

      1. Oh! Correct…. :thanks:
        I have Mocha…and now since you mentioned, yes Mocha is really close to Sur.
        So Sur (crossed out) from my list. I think I am getting more and more certain that I am going to pick up only the lipsticks and fluidline from this collection. Oh! BTW, did you check out the lipglasses, I know they are part of the permanent line, but still wanted your opinion…

  12. :thanks: :thanks: Tatjana for the swatches.
    I might check the Siahi fluidline and Mehr lipstick. I wanted a pink matte nude color for me. :woot: :woot:

  13. All products have Indian names!!! WOW!!! that is awesome… BEST is SIAHI (meaning ink)… How innovative….
    btw, awesome post Tajana 🙂 and looooovvveeeedddd GULABI (meaning pink)…. the names are so cute!!!

    1. :thanks: Aarthi :))
      I agree about having a look at the products yourself – that´s what I do every time as well. Try Gulabi – this pink will look amazing on you, fresh and clear :-*
      Saffon is a little bit to warm but you can combine it with a cool colour and that works quite good :waytogo:

  14. :thanks: Scarlett :-* :-*
    I shopped the Stylishly Yours Collection as well… let´s see when I will finish the review on that. Happy to hear you love the pigments… so do I :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

  15. hey tatzana…….i somehow like only siahi and mehr…..and i guess these are the only products most people are eyeing from this collection…..i hope i get them…..i dont have cosmo….so i’ll pick mehr…..but somehw i feel…..it looks similar to twig also///is it?

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