MAC Star Trek Collection Fall 2016 Review: Resistance Is Futile

The highly coveted Star Trek collection has finally beamed up into stores in anticipation of the new Star Trek series being launched by CBS and in honor of four strong ladies from former installments of the franchise: "Uhura," "Vina Orion Girl," "Seven of Nine," and "Deanna Troi." The collection includes four pressed-pigment eyeshadows, four lipsticks, three pressed powders (highlighter-blush-bronzer, depending on your skin tone), four lipglasses, three nail polishes, two brushes, and three liquid eyeliners. Most of the products have the same good-quality black packaging and bright silver Star Trek logo. If you are a sci-fi nerd-girl like I am, you will agree that "resistance is futile." I have two eye products, three lip products, and two pressed powders from the collection for review today.

The "Trip the Light Fantastic" shimmery pressed powders may appear at first glance to feature an overspray, but to my delight the pattern has stayed true with use and appears to continue throughout the product. Their appearance seems to mimic that of gas giant planets beaming with swirly, radiant goodness. The first shade I tested, "Luna Luster," is a highligher shade on my skin tone, and a very subdued one at that once applied to the skin. The swatches below show that it is barely detectable. This will be a go-to when I want a very toned-down highlighter shade (the office...). The other shade I tested, "Highly Illogical," has more plum swirled through it, and works best as a blush on my skin tone. There is a third called "Strange New Worlds" which is a shade that's a dead ringer for tomato-soup-with-milk. These powders are build-able - luckily because as you can see with the brushed swatches, application with a brush does not produce a highly pigmented result without building it up. But if you have the patience for that, they can be lovely as long as you want to keep your highlighter-blush-bronzer a little more toned down. I can appreciate this blush as someone with Rosacea that needs to go a little easier on the blush and prefers them build-able.

The pressed eye pigments may be used wet or dry. Either way, just like the pressed powders, you will need to build these babies. If you are willing to put in minimal effort doing so, the shades "Bird of Prey," a shimmery olive green, and "Midnight," a sparkly, deep, cobalt blue are absolutely stunning. There are two other shades available, one a rosy-copper pink, "To Boldly Go," and the other a taupe pearl color, "The Naked Time." At a time when matte nudes are flooding the eye shadow market, I'm finding these bold, vibrant colors very welcome in my collection.

The lipsticks are highly pigmented, long-lasting, vanilla-scented, and slightly vanilla, wax tasting just like the other lipsticks have been in their collections of late. This is good news, because I've found MAC lipsticks to be both highly reliable, pleasantly-scented, and very flattering. The two lipsticks I swatched are "LLAP" (Live Long and Prosper), a champagne rose frost, and "Where No Man Has Gone Before," a pink with gold lustre. There are two others available: "Kling It On," a deep plum glittery frost, and "The Enemy Within," a frosted true gold. "LLAP" is a good one for someone who wants to try wearing a frost but is worried frosts may not be "wearable" for them, because the underlying shade here is fairly tame, rendering it more "wearable" than a lot of other frosts tend to be. I recommend a lip primer with these, as your lines will show through without one.

The lipglass "Set To Stun" is a true silver, very shimmery and slightly shiny on the lips. The formula is quite tacky. Once applied on the lips, the "metallic" appearance so prevalent in the tube appears more subdued. This lipglass provides is a good opportunity to wear an "unwearable" color that is actually "wearable." (I like to put "wearable" in quotation marks, because the concept is relative depending on your taste, lifestyle, and courage!) The other lipglasses are gold ("Pleasure Planet"), plum ("Warp Speed Ahead"), and berry ("Kaaaaaan!").

Resisting this collection really is futile: with so many unique shades, such beautiful packaging, and nod to one of the greatest TV franchises of all-time, this set is irresistible! I hope to pick up more from this collection before it disappears into the black hole of sold-out collections.

Thumbs up, up to the stratosphere, so engage, warp speed, and go to check these out! This collection is "Number One!"

Live long and prosper!

From left to right: Set to Stun, LLAP, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Luna Luster, Highly Illogical, Bird of Prey, and Midnight. Note: eye pigments swatched dry, all powders swatched by brush