MAC Rocky Horror Picture Show Collection

Items from the MAC Rocky Horror Picture Show collection

Now this isn't a review post, this is more of a slight variation on the 'what I bought' style post with more of a 'what I was very fortunate to get' post. This collection is pretty much impossible to buy now unless you head to eBay (reasons not to do this will become apparent in a bit) and although I should be elated (in some ways I am, this is an amazing collection).

First of all, why did I want items from this collection? I love The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I say picture show as I've never been to the stage version, there is still time but I am quite shy - daft, I know. Now bear with me here, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was one of the first videos I bought whilst under age, by this I mean I picked this up when I was 13 on video, at the time it was a 15 certificate along with Psycho from the Woolworths in Hanley, 19 years ago. I already had a Richard O'Brien obsession thanks to The Crystal Maze and at an even younger age had The Rocky Horror Picture show game for the spectrum computer. I love the film, am fascinated with the stage show and love the soundtrack. Having picked up the recent release of the film in a lovely shiny steelbook edition I just had to have the make-up, of course it wasn't that easy.

Now I don't go wild for every MAC collection but I adored last years collaboration with Rick Baker, I'm still wearing those palettes, so Halloween is usually a good time for me and MAC.

Before I go into my rant I think it's time to show you what I actually managed to get rather than rant first so that you can skip that bit if you just want to see delicious goodies.

Riff-Raff Palette £38.50 - 6 very wearable shades

The inside of the packaging is also amazing

The lipsticks, everyone loves the lipsticks. There were four variations of red in the Rocky Horror collection, I went for two, Frank-N-Furter on the left and Strange Journey on the right. Frank-N-Furter is more of a plum red and Strange Journey is a brick red, both matte, both £17.00 each, see below for swatches on skin

Frank-N-Furter on the left and Strange Journey on the right

Powder Blush in Crazed Imagination, a glittery mauve shade, not my usual for the cheeks but it's a gorgeous colour for autumn and perfect on the eyes too - £20.00

Bad Fairy Nail Polish £11.00 - already part of the MAC range but repackaged for the Rocky Horror collection

Now if, like me, you get very excited by these sort of releases so much that you set reminders of release dates so as not to miss out you'd understand how frustrating it is not to have a proper release date. Okay, there was a proper release date for the U.S. but no real mention of the U.K., as soon as the U.S. release date rolled around I immediately checked, just in case, even though I was in and out of hospital. After there was no joy there I did a bit more digging and found the UK release date wasn't due for another few weeks - even then that was from an unofficial source.

Now how did I get it on the day? a mixture of luck, checking during every break and taking an early lunch. From what I've read on the MAC Facebook page I was still very lucky - I had even waited the night before to check whether it went live at midnight - which to me would make total sense, no joy. Fast forward to lunchtime, the picture was online at around 12.10pm, but no products to buy, 10 minutes of refreshing then at around 12:20pm it was there. I had already looked and chosen what I wanted to buy so I got straight in there and was checked out by 12:24pm, I looked at everything two minutes after and everything appeared to be sold out - by everything I mean everything especially for Rocky, not the standard mascaras, eyeliner, etc. also featured on the page.

I didn't just buy for the sake of it, I stuck to items I really wanted, mainly original items (i.e. not just re-branded items) apart from Bad Fairy as I just really wanted this nail polish. I know I was lucky with the amount of stuff I managed to get, there were horror stories of people adding items to their basket only for them to disappear when trying to checkout. Until my items arrived I've not allowed myself to get excited but now they're here I'm rather chuffed.

I'm still disappointed for other people. I imagine there are lots of angry people wishing to just pick up one or two items from the collection that weren't as lucky as I was. I get the feeling that plenty of traders got in there to purchase in bulk as these items are appearing on eBay for a lot more than they cost when they were released just a few days ago, which is why I've added the price of each item to this post so that you can compare. It's really quite disgusting that traders could buy in bulk and sell on, I wish they could crack down on this as it seems unfair that just because someone couldn't get in there immediately order they miss out unless they pay someone double the original cost. Now if only MAC released more stock so that real fans could buy at the original price or if MAC only allowed shoppers to buy one of each item, sure I know you might genuinely want two of one items but wouldn't you prefer to actually be able to get one of the item? I know this is easy for me to say as I've got all that I wanted but I'd urge you not to pick up the items from traders on eBay as it only makes it worth their while to continue this shady behaviour. Now there could be individuals on there selling unwanted items, hard to imagine but it could happen, I'm just talking about those selling multiple items of the same product. Also be wary of those selling items under the Rocky Horror banner that are just old stock, some items have been previously part of the MAC collection for example, Formidable nail polish, I picked this up in summer but it's been repackaged for the Rocky Horror collection.

I know this little rant overshadows my post but I do think this release has been badly managed, I don't really know the point of limiting a make-up release this much, the only people that profit are the traders that can get in early when most people are at work. Limit it by limiting the quantity we can buy for each product. For me it just doesn't add value to the collection, I want to be able to show it off but what's the point when nobody else can have it and discuss it?

Did anyone out there manage to get an item? At the moment I feel like the only one doing the Time Warp.