If you follow me on Instagram you already know that I went to this fun MAC event last week, but I wanted to tell you all about it here on the blog. Originally I intended to do one single post about the experience and the makeup collection, with photos and first impressions of products I purchased, but I realized it would be an extremely long post (even for my standards!) so I decided to break it off into two different ones. Today is the story of my visit to the MAC Star Trek space station, and I have a detailed post about the makeup products I bought.

Set course for downtown San Diego, California. Engage!

As you may know San Diego, the Southern California city where I live, hosts the biggest pop culture convention in America, the famous Comic Con. This year's edition happened this past week from Thursday to Sunday. Costumed characters invaded the streets, giant posters for TV shows appeared on the skyscrapers, and the whole Gaslamp area turned into a festive party town.

For a few years now MAC has offered exclusive previews of fall makeup collections at their downtown store (which is just a block from the convention center) during Comic Con, but this year they went even further with a whole immersive experience. You probably heard that MAC has partnered with Star Trek to create a whole makeup collection marking the 50th anniversary of the show. The collection will debut in late August, but it pre-launched at a galactic station that beamed right in the middle of a downtown park!





Access to the station didn't require a Comic Con badge (those things are hard and expensive to get), so I decided to pay a visit, explore the exhibit, see the collection and buy a few products. The circular station was complete with glowing blue lights, smoke and spatial music. The lines weren't too long when I got there, so I decided to have my makeup done before browsing the collection. The heat was extreme that day, but the organizers were taking good care of both the staff and visitors, with umbrellas to wait in line, spritzes of MAC Fix + mist to refresh the face, and cold drinks coming regularly.





I had a quick Star Trek inspired makeup done with products from the collection: the makeup artist used the Trip The Light Fantastic Powder (the collection's highlighters) in Highly Illogical on my lids, then used a shadow from MAC's permanent collection to create a strong cat eye in the outer corner, and added Nocturnal Super Slick silver eyeliner; Trip The Light Fantastic Powder in Luna Luster on my cheeks; Where No Man Has Gone Before Lustre Lipstick. I don't have a very good picture of the finished look (all the photos here were shot with my phone) but it looked just edgy enough to be perfect for a Comic Con day!




After the makeup application, I browsed the whole collection, so let me tell you what I though about the products (all swatches below):


- the Pressed Pigment eyeshadows are super sparkly, for a shimmery metallic finish. It's hard to see on my swatches, but they're loaded with highly reflective particules. It's really pretty!

- the lipsticks: all pretty nice, with some unusual colors which is always good to see. According to the staff member who helped me, Where No Man Has Gone Before is the best-seller in the collection - it's a medium plummy pink with golden pearl in the Lustre finish. I ended up accidentally getting it (I wanted Kling-It-On, the black one with pink shimmer but they gave me the wrong shade at checkout, and I didn't notice until I got home).

- the Lipglasses: mind-blowing! If you like sparkly lipgloss, you'll love these. Again there are some unusual shades, with a yellow gold and a silver grey. I heard the pink Khaaannnn! was the most popular (I bought it, as well as the silver Set To Stun).

- the Trip The Light Fantastic Powders: so, so beautiful in person! These marbled highlighters are also very pigmented and feel smooth to the touch. I didn't like Luna Luster, the one that was applied to my cheeks (too cool and too pink for my taste) but I wasn't sure which one to get among the other two. I followed the makeup artist's advice and got Highly Illogical: she said Strange New World would be too orange for me, and she was probably right. It was hard to give up on that one though!

Trip the Light Fantastic Powders. Left to right: Strange New Worlds, Highly Illogical, Luna Luster

- the nail lacquers: I didn't try any, but there's an interesting green with silver and black sparkles.

- the eyeliners: they were missing from the display I had access to. I realized only later they were Super Slick Eyeliners, which is my favorite liquid liner formula. I'll probably grab the black one when the collection officially launches.

- Vertical on the left, from top to bottom: Pressed Pigment in Bird of Prey, the Naked Time, Midnight, To Boldly Go - Top center, from top to bottom: Lipglasses in Khaaannnn!, Warp Speed Ahead, Set To Stun, Pleasure Planet - Bottom center, from top to bottom: Trip the Light Fantastic Powders in Luna Luster, Highly Illogical, Strange New Worlds - Vertical on right, from top to bottom: lipsticks in Kling-It-On, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Enemy Within, LLAP

The display also included space for two brushes (I didn't get to see them), false lashes and mascara.

After picking my products I went to the third section of the station, the checkout area. It looked like a spaceship deck with control consoles and computer screens made to look like old fashioned monitors. At the center of the station was a transporter pad where I met some of the crew members and we all beamed to Vulcan for a short guided tour of ShiKahr. Fun but even hotter than San Diego!

Beam us down, Scotty

Friends with a Borg

Overall it was a really fun and unique experience that I very much enjoyed! I hope MAC or other cosmetics brands will do more of these special Comic Con events.


I received no compensation to write this post, which only reflects my personal opinion.