MAC Ellie Goulding – Review and Swatches

One of MAC’s latest celebrity collaborations is with my absolute favourite woman in the world, Ellie Goulding, and the result is a gorgeous collection consisting of the most products a MAC celebrity collection has ever had. The colours of her collection are neutrals and pinks, a contrast from the usual bright reds or dark vampy colours usually seen in MAC’s collaborations with other celebrities, and these colours are the kind I use everyday so it’s perfect for people like myself who love their peachy pink neutrals!

The MAC Ellie Goulding collection feautres a number of products, some which have Ellie’s logo on them in a gorgeous rose gold and are named after songs from the Lights/Bright Lights, Halcyon and Halcyon Days albums (which is a delight for Goulddiggers like me to see the song names on the products), and some products which fall under the MAC Ellie Goulding collection title but don’t seem to be designed by her, like the Haute and Naughty mascara or Fluidline gel eyeliner, which are probably Ellie’s ‘picks’ that she wanted to accompany the products she came up with.

I got everything that had her logo / song names on it and was clearly designed by her, but only one of the brushes and one of the sets of eyelashes, as an early birthday present as Ellie and I happen to share a birthday which is cute. My little MAC Ellie Goulding stash consists of the Halcyon Days & Halcyon Nights full face kits, I’ll Hold My Breath powder blush (which, to me, is a blusher/bronzer), Without Your Love & Only You cremesheen lipsticks, Innocent & Revved Up patentpolish lip pencils, Goodness Gracious & Explosion pushglasses, the MAC 217 brush re-designed by Ellie to have a rose gold handle, and the 20 lash pack of false eyelashes. 

MAC Ellie Goulding collection

The packaging of the products is a glossy black with Ellie’s logo in rose gold, which is a gorgeous subtle twist on the original MAC packaging, and the inside of the boxes is a metallic rose gold colour.

MAC Ellie Goulding

There are two full face kits in Ellie’s collection – Halcyon Days and Halcyon Nights. I thought at first that these were just eyeshadow quads with an extra little face products underneath but the Halcyon Days full face kit actually consists of four cream colour bases and one pressed blot powder. I initially thought the cream colour bases were cream eyeshadows and wore them as eyeshadows alone but they melted on my eyelids and melted off my gel eyeliner that I wore on top. I’ve now been wearing them underneath the eyeshadows from the Halcyon Nights palette to increase the pigmentation but I want to try some of the shimmery and pink shades as cream highlights or blushes. I swatched the Halcyon Days palette but the powder and cream colour bases didn’t photograph well in terms of pigmentation but there’s a photo further down of me wearing Tint and Root as eyeshadow.

The Halcyon Days kit comes with four cream colour bases, Wish I Stayed, Tint, Every Time You Go, Root, and a pressed blot powder in Medium Dark.

MAC Ellie Goulding – Halcyon Days full face kit

The Halcyon Nights full face kit comes with four eyeshadows and one big cream colour base. The eyeshadows colours are so beautiful and compliment the shades of the cream colour bases in Halcyon Days perfectly. I’ve heard from friends that MAC eyeshadows don’t actually have the best pigmentation and I have found this to be true, as all of the eyeshadows in my Urban Decay Naked Palettes last longer, don’t crease and are much more pigmented. However, the four eyeshadows in Ellie’s collection are probably my favourite eyeshadow colours I’ve ever owned so I’ll continue to wear them even if they crease.

I’ve included swatches of the Halcyon Nights full face kit, none of my swatches here are 100% amazing but you can see how the eyeshadows don’t have really great pigmentation compared to Naked palette eyeshadows.

The Halcyon Nights full face kit comes with four eyeshadows, Starry Eyed (my favourite eyeshadow colour ever and one out of my two favourite Ellie songs ever, very fitting), You My Everything, Saddle, Hanging On, and a cream colour base in This Love.

MAC Ellie Goulding – Halcyon Nights full face kit

TOP TO BOTTOM – This Love cream colour base, Starry Eyed eyeshadow, You My Everything eyeshadow, Saddle eyeshadow, Hanging On eyeshadow

Next is the I’ll Hold My Breath powder blush, which is a compact powder with a bronzer and peachy pink blush shade with Ellie’s logo indented in the bronzer shade. I absolutely love this compact, I use the bronzer shade over my NARS Laguna after contouring to warm up my face and my contour, and the pink shade on the apples of my cheeks as a blush. The peachy pink shade is super flattering and pretty on the skin, I never wore blusher before this one but I’m in love.

MAC Ellie Goulding – I’ll Hold My Breath powder blush (blush/bronzer)

Ellie’s collection features six different lip products, all in beautiful nude pink colours. There are two cremesheen lipsticks which, on first glance, looked identical in the tube but in daylight or on the lips they look completely different. Without Your Love is the lighter colour of the two, described as a ‘warm seashell pink’, and Only You is the darker of the two, described as a ‘muted midtone coral’.

LEFT – Only You, RIGHT – Without Your Love

There are two patentpolish lip pencils, lip colours which are slightly sheer and come in a ‘chubby stick’ form. Innocent is a nude beige and Revved Up (or just Revved) is a creamy peach colour. I am in love with the way Revved Up looks on my lips over the top of my MAC Subculture liner. In the swatches, you can barely see Innocent but on the lips it does give a subtle sheer nude colour.

MAC Ellie Goulding – Innocent & Revved Up patentpolish lip pencils

LEFT – Revved Up, RIGHT – Innocent

Finally we have the pushglasses which I admittedly haven’t tried yet. Both colours look gorgeous, though. Goodness Gracious is a ‘creamy pink peach’ which would work alone or over the top of a lipstick/lipliner and Explosion is a ‘warm light golden shimmer’, the colour looks so interesting and unique and would add a beautiful shimmer to any ordinary lip colour.

MAC Ellie Goulding – Explosion & Goodness Gracious pushglass

LEFT – Goodness Gracious, RIGHT – Explosion

There’s also the lashes and the 217 brush, I’ve not yet used the lashes but the 217 is living up to all of its hype. I am so so so so in love with this brush, it makes blending colours into my crease a dream, it’s so fluffy and lovely and beats my Zoeva Luxe Crease by miles, it’s definitely worth the hefty price tag for an eyeshadow brush.

I’m also including photos of me wearing some of the MAC Ellie Goulding products so you can see what they look like on.

Wearing Tint & Root from Halcyon Days, Starry Eyed & Hanging On from Halcyon Nights, I’ll Hold My Breath blusher/bronzer and Revved Up patentpolish.

Wearing Wish I Stayed, Tint & Root from Halcyon Days, Starry Eyed, Saddle & Hanging On from Halcyon Nights, I’ll Hold My Breath blusher/bronzer and Only You lipstick.

Wearing Tint & Root from Halcyon Days, I’ll Hold My Breath blusher/bronzer & Without Your Love lipstick.

So that’s my round up of the MAC Ellie Goulding collection, full of beautiful peachy pinks and warm neutrals! You can get it in the MAC Carnaby Street store or online in the UK.

♡

Yasmin