Lipstick Recycling Success: Back-To-MAC

Hi, everyone! In the spirit of Earth Month, I thought I'd refresh your memory about a makeup recycling initiative that's good for the environment and your makeup bag: the MAC's Back-To-MAC program. All you need to do is collect 6 empties from the brand (which is pretty easy if you use foundation, powder, or any products you use regularly) and then trade them in store for a brand new lipstick. Easy peasy! 

I recently did an epic purge and reorganization of my lipstick collection (details in another post to come), which uncovered a few nearly finished, ultra old lipsticks. I combined these with a few other empty compacts and did a Back-to-MAC trade myself last week. 

As exciting as it is to realize you've stored enough empties for a trade, the next step can be daunting. What shade to choose? MAC's lipstick selection is famously vast, which is a blessing and a curse when you want to select a new one. It's always helpful to narrow things down to a specific colour family and this time around I wanted to find an everyday, versatile lipstick in the pinky-plummy-tawny-nude family. After peeking at multiple swatches online, I narrowed things down to four options: Creme in Your Coffee, Del Rio, Retro, and Twig. Each is a beautiful mid-tone neutral with various levels of brown, pink, and plum. Here they are, swatched:

After all the swatching, I ultimately chose... *drum roll*... Twig! I found it to be the best balance between pink, plum, and brown in that it was a true neutral but with a super flattering rosy undertone. MAC describes Twig as a "soft muted brownish pink", which I think is apt. It comes in the brand's Satin formula, which means it has a creamy and slightly luminous finish but with a medium to full colour payoff. 

Twig is one of the brand's most popular, iconic shades, so it comes in this extra colourful packaging (colourful for MAC, at least) that matches the shade inside. The lipstick itself comes in MAC's classic black bullet tube. Here's a closeup of Twig:

And a swatch of the lipstick on my inner arm (MAC NC15 skin tone):

Twig in natural sunlight

Twig under artificial light

And wearing it in the context of a full makeup look:

I really love how wearable this shade is, yet it's not at all boring! It is far from your bare-lipped nude but is also miles from vampy, so it really can be worn with any kind of makeup look. It leans warm, but not overly, so I think it would be ultra flattering on a variety of skin tones. I wanted to choose a shade from this colour family so that I'd have something easy to swipe on during my maternity leave and I think Twig will be perfect to leave me looking polished with minimal effort. Plus, the creamy Satin texture feels great on the lips.

There really are few makeup programs as satisfying as Back-to-MAC. There is truly no losing in helping the environment while scoring a free product! It's the most glamorous form of recycling I know ;)

And for a hit of nostalgia, here are a few older posts about previous Back-to-MAC trades, including one from 2011. I've been blogging for 7 years now- holy moly! (Posts here, here, and here). 

Have you ever used the Back-to-MAC program? Do you own Twig or any similar lippies? Favourite MAC lipsticks at the moment?

Thanks so much for stopping by! xo

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