MAC x Aaliyah Makeup Collection Disappoints Fans

The MAC x Aaliyah makeup collection finally launched last week, and beauty gurus, fans, bloggers, and vloggers have been sharing their thoughts on the highly coveted collection.

The collection was supposed to pay homage to the incredibly beautiful and talented Princess of R&B Aaliyah “BabyGirl” Haughton, but MAC seems to have forgotten that she was a Black woman and most of her fans are blessed with melanin.

As you’ll soon see, the worst culprit in the entire line is the “bronzer” called “Baby Girl.”

We’ll let YouTuber LeSassafras explain:

“I just don’t know if this shade is gonna work for everybody because it’s already pretty sheer and it’s kind of light,” she says in her review video. LeSassafras has very light skin, as you can see above and below, and the bronzer is barely visible on her finger.

In another video, HeFlawless and MalibuDollFace also tried the bronzer. MalibuDollFace took one look at the product in the compact and is completely speechless. Upon trying it she says, “You would have to be Nicole Kidman‘s color for this to be a bronzer.”

After applying it and trying really hard to give it a chance, HeFlawless finally says, “I don’t like it. I’m not gonna use this.”

Here’s their full assessment:

Finally, Aaliyah super-fan and YouTuber by the name of Daina was simply NOT having it AT ALL. Her bludgeoning honesty is both helpful and hilarious. She wasn’t sent a PR package and bought the products with her own money, so she was very real in her review. And she was angry.

“I am really upset,” she says in her review video. “I almost feel like crying ’cause I spent all my money on this and it wasn’t cheap. I don’t like it. Nothing of this reminds me of Aaliyah.”

She rants about many of the reviewers’ feelings about MAC x Aaliyah while wearing and grimacing at the nude lipstick called “Try Again”:

“When I’m looking at this collection, I’m expecting all of it to scream Aaliyah to me ’cause what’s the point of a collection? You might as well just put out a MAC lipstick. If you’re gonna slap her name on it, let it relate to her, please. ‘Cause I cannot recall a day I’ve ever seen her in some pasty skin-tone-like lips. And I feel like if she was alive and was doing a collaboration with MAC, I feel like she would want Black women to be able to wear her collection. And as a Black woman, I don’t feel like I can wear this collection. So far the only thing I like is that lip gloss I just tried on. ‘Cause like, why wouldn’t she? Why wouldn’t she want Black people to be able to wear her stuff when she’s a Black woman herself? Y’know what I’m saying?”

Her comedic quips alongside very real concerns for makeup geared toward Black women make this video review iconic. One of her most hilarious moments was when she tried on the “Brooklyn Born” Lipglass. “I feel like I look like a fancier version of crackhead Dave Chapelle,” said Daina.

MAC and Aaliyah fans, alike, have been looking forward to MAC x Aaliyah for three years and part of its appeal was that the collection would be geared towards Black women. Unlike the MAC x Selena collection, this collection was expected to be bolder and edgier given Aaliyah’s style in her music videos and films. It had so much potential. Instead, the colors were neutral and not very flattering to many women of color, so the collection turned out to be a flop. It’s 2018 and so far Rihanna has been the only one to seriously cater to Black women in the world of beauty with Fenty.

Here’s hoping for a proper collection, maybe MAC x Aaliyah 2.0. In the words of Daina quoting Aaliyah, “Dear MAC, we need a resolution, we have so much confusion.”