MAC Nutcracker sweet holiday 2016 gift Sets: Patentpolish Pink and nude Kits

wearing MAC Fearless Patentpolish from the Nutcracker sweet Pink Patentpolish kit ($35)
Excuse me while I touch up my lips…

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I had one of these cute MAC Patentpolish minis in my hand, and I had to do it. You just can’t not do it.

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These are so tiny! I swear, all we need now are a bunch of cute kittens. That would be heaven.

These are two much more of the gift sets from the new MAC Nutcracker sweet holiday collection, and I know we’ve been talking a lot about MAC Nutcracker sweet lately, but it’s a big collection!

Each of these two $35 kits — nude and Pink — has four small MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils, which are typically $21 each for the full-size versions in the permanent collection.

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So, I had a major MacGyver moment the first time I tried to open one of these. They open like little drawers, and for the life of me, I could not get the pencils out. They were really wedged in there.

I ended up using a bobby pin that I’d been using to pin my bangs back and sort of jimmied it into the side to pop them out one at a time.

Just FYI.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

All of these shades are re-promotes from the permanent line, so if you’ve been collecting MAC for a while and already have some of the Patentpolishes, you may already have some of them. If you don’t, though, this might be a chance to get a good deal on a bunch of them at the same time.

Quality-wise, I think these are just as good as the full-size Patentpolishes in the permanent collection. They look and feel exactly the same — same non-sticky, lightweight, moderately moisturizing formula and lip balm-like consistency.

One thing that makes the Patentpolishes so great is that you can build up the coverage in layers from medium to full, but because they feel like a lip balm, their wear time is limited. I have to reapply them every two or three hours, but it’s not a big deal because they’re so easy to have around. You just twist them up and apply. You don’t even need a mirror.

Nude Patentpolish kit ($35)
Pleasure’s All Mine, a pale warm nude (perm)
It’s really Me, a warm nude (perm)
Revved Up, a creamy peach (perm)
French Kiss, a warm Caramel (perm)

Pink Patentpolish kit ($35)
Patentpink, a washed out lilac (perm)
Fearless, a deep bluish pink (perm)
Hopelessly Devoted, a bright clean fuchsia (perm)
Ruby, a mid-tone rose (perm)

MAC Nutcracker sweet Patentpolish Kits in Pink and Nude
MAC Nutcracker sweet Patentpolish Kits in Pink and Nude
Pink kit swatches from the left: Patentpink, Fearless, Hopelessly devoted and Ruby

Nude kit Swatches from the left: Pleasure’s All Mine, It’s really Me, Revved Up and French Kiss
Ruby from the Pink Kit
Hopelessly devoted from the Pink Kit
Patentpink from the Pink Kit
French Kiss from the nude Kit
Revved Up from the nude Kit
It’s really Me from the nude Kit
Pleasure’s All Mine from the nude Kit
The Nutcracker sweet Patentpolish kit packaging with an iphone 6s plus for scale, and one of the small Patentpolishes from the set with a full-size Patentpolish for scale
Between the two kits, I like the Pink one best because I think there’s much more variety among the colors. You can tell they’re all different, but the colors in the nude kit all look pretty similar to me.

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If there’s just one color from the nude kit that you want, you might want to save your tacos and get the full-size version in the permanent line.

Your friendly neighborhood charm addict,

Karen