MAC's makeup palette from Manish Arora

I am not one for bright bold hues. My clothes are nothing if not understated, and I love the barely-there make-up look.

I admire Manish Arora’s kaleidoscopic colours — but from a distance. I wouldn’t know how to wear one of his look-at-me skirts. I know, I know that Manish is the first Indian designer to have his own makeup collection with MAC. But still, I was skeptical. Till I encountered the goodies, and was pleasantly surprised.

Like Arora’s kitschy blend of colour and patterns, there’s nothing minimalistic about the new shades: the colours look as if they can clash, but you can blend them to get a fabulous, high impact look. The collection, packaged in bright orange and gold casings, has a signature Manish Arora eyeshadow set of six hues, two lipsticks, two lipglass tubes, and two powder blushes.

Even before trying out the colours, I was quite taken with the mix of textures — they go from sheer to velvet to satin to frosty. Just proves what we knew all along — Indian girls do not have to stick to staid beige and brown. It’s all frosted white, frosty banana chrome yellow, bright satin pink, velvety bitter acid green, electric turquoise blue, and frosted dark blue. Drama in a single sweep.

My other fave was the sheer Pink Swoon blush. Since I have always been a fan of the MAC lipglass, I picked Pink Manish, a true fuchsia like you would see on Arora’s skirts or jackets.

The lipglass really brightens up my new beige linen kurti.

Available at MAC stores in Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore. Prices: Rs 870 to Rs 2,500.