I decided to give the MAC Grand Duos collection a second go after seeing more swatches online and ended up purchasing Love Rock and Grand Duo.
Grand Duo is the deeper and more intense of the two. As expected of the Mineralize Blushes, the color payoff of the solid color side (without the veining) is excellent and it's easy to over-apply these. I had to wipe some off with a tissue after I got to the office and realised that I had put too much on one cheek ;-p
Grando Duo applies as a plum-toned pink on me, and is not too dark such that it looks unnatural on my MAC NC20 skintone. You can apply it lightly for a pink flush. It has icy pink, candy pink, burgundy and golden bronze veining that look very pretty in the pot but don't add much color, just shimmer.
Love Rock is one of the top two fastest sellers in the MAC Pro store and it's easy to see why. It looks incredibly pretty in the pot, a shimmery bubblegum pink paired with a highlighter side that has light pink, purple and pinkish beige veining.
Love Rock does take more layering to show up on my cheeks, as compared to Grand Duo, and I felt there was more shimmer than actual color. It does give the skin a nice sheen and glow, but have to be careful not to over-do the highlighter part. Of the two, I ended up liking Grand Duo more on my skin but Love Rock is just so pretty to look at in the pot!
I still think these are horribly overpriced at S$44 each. The normal Mineralize Blushes are still only S$37. The MAC SA tried to justify the price difference by saying that one only needs to pay $7 more to get a highlighter, but this doesn't seem that compelling an argument to me as the Grand Duos blushes actually weigh only 3.2g compared to 3.5g for the normal Mineralize Blushes. But the Grand Duos are supposed to be limited so I just sucked it up like a good old MAC addict and handed over my $88. But I've cut down a lot on my MAC purchases, to two or three a year so at least it's not too much damage overall.
Grand Duo is the deeper and more intense of the two. As expected of the Mineralize Blushes, the color payoff of the solid color side (without the veining) is excellent and it's easy to over-apply these. I had to wipe some off with a tissue after I got to the office and realised that I had put too much on one cheek ;-p
Grando Duo applies as a plum-toned pink on me, and is not too dark such that it looks unnatural on my MAC NC20 skintone. You can apply it lightly for a pink flush. It has icy pink, candy pink, burgundy and golden bronze veining that look very pretty in the pot but don't add much color, just shimmer.
Love Rock is one of the top two fastest sellers in the MAC Pro store and it's easy to see why. It looks incredibly pretty in the pot, a shimmery bubblegum pink paired with a highlighter side that has light pink, purple and pinkish beige veining.
Love Rock does take more layering to show up on my cheeks, as compared to Grand Duo, and I felt there was more shimmer than actual color. It does give the skin a nice sheen and glow, but have to be careful not to over-do the highlighter part. Of the two, I ended up liking Grand Duo more on my skin but Love Rock is just so pretty to look at in the pot!
I still think these are horribly overpriced at S$44 each. The normal Mineralize Blushes are still only S$37. The MAC SA tried to justify the price difference by saying that one only needs to pay $7 more to get a highlighter, but this doesn't seem that compelling an argument to me as the Grand Duos blushes actually weigh only 3.2g compared to 3.5g for the normal Mineralize Blushes. But the Grand Duos are supposed to be limited so I just sucked it up like a good old MAC addict and handed over my $88. But I've cut down a lot on my MAC purchases, to two or three a year so at least it's not too much damage overall.
13 comments:
Brilliant posting!!!
Good idea! Congras!!!!
I'm in so much trouble! Thanks you for the awesome pictures! I can't wait for this release. Just when i thought I was done with all things MAC they pull me back in!
Thanks for the nice pictures! I've been waiting for this collection for long. do agree that the price is not so reasonable :p
and have you try moon river before? may i know what's ur opinion? i am interested in Love Rock, but seeing your review, i think i will give Grand Duos a try :)
I am so going to check these out! beautiful!
Wow, those are some gorgeous colors!!
I'm definitely staying strong and will not be getting these...they're just not pigmented enough for my NC42 skintone.
Love rock is so pretty! And they release it in Singapore before US?
I need to go to MAC store and check things out!
Grand Duo reminds me of Love Thing, which I have. The plum tone is really pretty. After seeing the picture of Love Rock, it's kinda blah for $44.
I think, I really will be skipping this.
Thanks for the picture ya! :D
I've rosacea so I don't use blusher. Definetly going to save me some $.
Dear pIGgy,
I thought Moon River was even prettier than Love Rock in the pan, but when applied, it has hardly any pink tone and just shows up as a frosty silverish shimmer. So I ended up choosing Love Rock instead.
looks so great ! my wallet gonna hates meh
I concurr on the pricing part. The way MAC prices its products in Asia is ridiculous, ie pricing a mid-end brand as high-end in asia.
Also, the prices keeps going up,and at the same time, you get less product.
For illustration:-
2008
Sonic chic mineralise blushes sold for around MYR80 to 85 for 3.5g of product
2009
Grand duos blushes retails at MYR95 in Malaysia for 3.2g of product, ie that's a 12% increase in price and a 9% decline in volume of product that you get!!! simply obscene!!
Is the Estee Lauder group trying to compensate for its revenue/profit decline in north america at the expense of its asian customers???!!
This almost makes me want to just convert permanently to european, japanese & korean brands.
Got burnt by your post and end up spending $44 on Grand Duos...Kekekeke..:P
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