MAC California Dreamin' & Angel Lipstick. Fraternal Twins?

You may remember the frenzy in late June/early July for MAC's exclusive California Dreamin' lipstick. It was a free lipstick that, if one printed out a super exclusive post card (which could be found on ebay for $10 until a lovely seller, sarahphine, made it available for free), and brought it to a freestanding MAC store (in California), one was able to procure the much sought after pale pink lipstick for Free, Gratis, No Cost, etc. At one point California Dreamin' lipstick was selling for $80 on ebay. Insanity.

Well I must say two things drew me into this frenzy.
1) Pale Pink lipstick (I'm a sucker for pale pink)
and
2) Exclusive and limited edition status (I'm a sheep)

Two things also kept me out of this frenzy
1) I don't live in CA
and
2) I'm not paying for a FREE lipstick.

Thankfully I work for a company that has an office in LA. I contacted one of my co-workers and sheepishly asked her to pick me up one of the lipsticks. Luckily my co-worker was up for going to a MAC store and I sent her the link that sarahphine (ebay seller mentioned above) has posted for free. My Co-worker printed out the "coupon/post card" and went to her nearest MAC store and got me a California Dreamin' lipstick! This sweet woman mailed it to me and I had it in a few days.

OK. Here is where the crazy kicks in.

I carry this stupid lipstick around in my purse, in the original box, in the plastic MAC bag for over a week. I don't swatch it, I don't even open it.

Why?

Because I'm crazy that's why.

I don't know if I thought I could get a 2nd one to sell on ebay or if I was going to keep the one I have and sell it in a few years or what. But It stayed in my purse, taunting me every time I reached in for my cell phone or wallet. I would peer into my purse and I would see it there; mocking me in it's shiny black plastic bag. The whispers filled my ears, "...this will be the best lipstick you will ever wear..." "...This is your holy grail lipstick..." "...come on. Try me. You know you want it..." "it'll make you feel good...feel good...feel good..."

In my best Susan Powter "Stop The Insanity" shriek I pulled that damn lipstick outta my purse, threw off the plastic MAC bag, ripped open the box and pulled the cap off that lipstick. I forcefully swiveled up the lipstick and applied it to my lips.

You Know What?

Meh.

It was yet another pale pink lipstick. It was sheer and basically didn't even show up on my lips.
Cursing the lipstick for lying to me, I dropped it in my makeup bag and forgot about it. That is until I was in a MAC store and could have SWORN I saw the exact same color on the rack of permanent collection lipsticks.

No It wasn't California Dreamin' It was Angel.

Angel is a Frost formula as opposed to the Lustre formula that California Dreamin' is, but it sure looked like the same color.

The comparison:
In the tube you can see that Angel is slightly darker than California Dreamin'

Swatched on the hand Angel is definitely frosty and a tad more opaque than California Dreamin' as to be expected with a frost formula. Also, the Angel is slightly warmer than California Dreamin' and I believe that is a result of the frost reflection in the light.

What I tried...but didn't get a picture of... was applying a clear lip balm (chapstick) and then applying the Angel lipstick. Lo and behold I had the exact same effect as California Dreamin' The lip balm sheered out the frost formula and lightened it up a bit.

The Verdict:
If you weren't able to get California Dreamin' lipstick go buy MAC Angel (or do what I did and use your 6 Back 2 Mac empties) and pick up a tube of your favorite non greasy lip balm and have at it. Your lips will look just as good as the $80 lipstick that someone bought from ebay.

Any other good color dupes for Limited Edition and Exclusive products from MAC or any other brand, you want to share?