MAC Archie’s Girls Collection – are you a Betty or a Veronica?!

Team Betty or Team Veronica?

Yes, aeons before the whole Team Aniston/Team Jolie showdown, two cartoon characters were fighting it out for the love of everyone’s fave freckle-faced ginge, Archie Andrews, the star of the eponymous Archie Comics. OK, I can’t quite see the appeal of Archie myself… but I can DEFINITELY see the appeal of MAC’s new utterly amazing Archie’s Girls Collection!

If you’re anything like me, love of make-up is almost equally synonymous with a love of the pretty make-up packaging – and on that front, the Archie’s Girls Collection hits jackpot! All the items come in super cute, specially designed retro packaging featuring either Betty or Veronica; my absolute favourite is the Pearlmatte Face Powder ($275), which features both girls (and Archie) on the casing, with a powder embossed with a gorgeous heart design inside. You can either go for Flatter Me, a peachy-coral (shown above), or Veronica’s Blush, a light pink… or if you’re on the more obsessive side like myself, you might end up buying both! These are essentially  fancy ultra-pretty blushes and look great swept on lighter complexions (they may be a little too pale to work well on darker tones).

The rest of the collection neatly divides into two halves – so you can decide if you’re more a Betty or a Veronica! Blonde Betty is your wholesome girl-next-door type, so MAC has gone for light girlie colours for her half; meanwhile, brunette Veronica is the spoiled rich girl, with darker vampy shades making up her side.

As with many MAC collections, I felt that the stars of the collection were the lipsticks ($160). Oh, Oh, Oh (shown above left) from the Betty side is a much-better-than-it-looks plummy-pink with gold shimmer – it looks stunning layered over other lippies for an extra dimension to your colour. Ronnie’s Red (shown above right) is an intense matte colour pop of… well supposedly red, but actually cerise on me (I have no idea what my skin does to reds but this happens a lot!). I have seen it look actually red on other complexions, so give it a go at the counter as it’s crazily pigmented and long lasting.

If it’s a little too scarily bright for your day-to-day, I actually blotted it down to a more wearable shade (see above!) and received loads of compliments on the colour!

Meanwhile, put Betty’s Kiss Don’t Tell Lipglass ($160, worn above) in your back pocket for summer; it’s an uber juicy bright coral that would look awesome paired with those summer neons!

I also tried the Spoiled Rich Eye Shadow Quad ($370) – normally, I am ALL over purple eye shadows but sadly, found most of the shades lacking in pigmentation and quite dry to apply. If you can don’t mind the messy aspect of loose Pigments ($205), you may be better off with them if you want to add some Archie’s swag to your eye make-up arsenal. I also previously reviewed MAC’s Pearlglide Intense Eye Liners ($155) here and they are some of my fave MAC products of all time, so you could use this chance to get them in the special Archie’s packaging. The collection also includes Archie-fied nail polish, mascara, powder blushes, make-up bags and loads more shades of lipsticks and lipglasses, so I’m sure you could make space for a collectible or two somewhere in your stash! C’mon… they’re too cute not to, right?!

Overall, based on MAC’s colour selections, my complexion is probably more suited to Betty… but at heart, I think I’m more of a Veronica! Whose side are you on?!

MAC’s limited edition Archies Girls Collection is available at all MAC counters in Hong Kong now; see all MAC locations in Hong Kong here