Surfing in Brussels

It's been a blue day (mood-wise not sky-wise unfortunately). I feel in desperate need of a holiday, and the image of a beautiful tropical beach with white sand and clear waters is haunting me day and night. This time last year I was getting ready for our honeymoon in the Maldives. In fact Mr P and I are one year married this weekend :)

In the spirit of honeymoon memories I decided to finally check out MAC's Surf Baby collection which came out last week here in Brussels. Now I am not, nor ever have been, a surf baby. I can't even ride a bike let alone a wave. But the great thing about make-up is that it can make you feel part of a culture in which you normally don't fit in. You can feel like a screen goddess, surfer chick, rocker chick, boho girl, geisha girl.... whatever it is you want to be there will be a cosmetics company out there with a very clever marketing strategy to sell it to you.

MAC is very good at this. They release so many collections throughout the year that I can't keep up, and actually it's better that I don't... there is only so much eyeshadow one person can use in a lifetime. Surf Baby is the only collection so far that I've bought into, probably because at the moment I have this immense desire to be a cool blonde surfer chick with lithe limbs and tanned gleaming skin running into the ocean with her surfboard at the ready.....and not Pandora toddling on the hot sand trying desperately to suck her tummy in, then wincing like a baby when she dips her foot into the freezing sea while a Japanese whaling ship launches the harpoon.

Not that the surfer chick wears make-up at all. She doesn't need it because she's PERFECT. But MAC wants us to wear make-up on the beach, or at least, in the spirit of the beach....

MAC Surf Baby - My purchases!

The first thing I was drawn to was 'Hibiscus', the gorgeous corally-red (Yes, coral. Again) lipstick. Within a nanosecond of putting it on my lips I knew I had to have it. I have very naturally pigmented lips so most lipsticks are not what they first seem when I put them on. This one was just great. I don't have a colour remotely like it and yet it's so versatile, more so in fact than my beloved Costa Chic, which, although equally summery, is harder to pull off. It's a creamsheen formula, which makes it glossy and moisturising with a good amount of pigment. It lasts beautifully on the lips and I still have it on after 4 hours.

MAC Hibiscus

I also choose two eyeshadows, Short Shorts (a golden white) and Surf USA (a frosted turquoise). The shop assistant (a really sweet guy, impeccably made up!) applied them on me together and I loved the result. It was far more subtle than I thought it would be but the turquoise paired beautifully with the Hibiscus lips. Short Shorts is such a versatile colour, it can be pretty much paired with anything to create a beautifully blended eye, or it can be used just to brighten the inner corners. I'm surprised that I don't actually have a colour like that already.

MAC Surf USA

MAC Short Shorts

So, they were my little purchases and seeing as I will not see the sea for another two months, I'm very happy that I could bring a little of the surf to Brussels.