In Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, the reader is taken on an imaginary journey to a land of fanciful creatures. After a series of adventures, culminating in a "wild rumpus," the book's message is two-pronged: The creatures aren't scary after all, and there's no place like home. In the cosmetics canon, M.A.C.'s latest lines, Untamed and Rockocco, deliver a parallel message--that bold, unusual shades needn't be scary and that, ultimately, nothing's as alluring as the rich, opulent colors women have been revisiting for centuries.

Taking feathers as its inspiration, Untamed offers an array of dazzling, unexpected, and fierce shades. The Eye Shadow Quads, Well-Plumed and Take Wing ($35 each; maccosmetics.com), combine some of the brand's best-selling hues with a few new standouts. The former features the popular golden beige Shroom and matte brown Espresso, as well as Well-Plumed (a shimmery purple blue) and Courage (a glistening copper that resembles the brand's longer-standing Bronze). Meanwhile, Take Wing offers a more traditional but equally stunning set of shades: Restless, a versatile silvery gray; Tickles, a pearlescent pinky lavender; Bravado, a rich, pearlescent rose; and Take Wing, a deep brown with blue pearl.

Untamed also comprises two Powerpoint Eye Pencils ($13.50 each), in Bountiful Brown and Permaplum, along with the Cremestick Lip Liners ($14) in Cream O' Spice and Plum Soft. Although all the pencils are reissues, I instantly feel in love again with Bountiful Brown (it looks amazing on green-gray eyes). And although I usually steer clear of colored mascara, the Wildly Flirtatious Zoom Lash ($11), a rich aubergine, looked exquisite paired with the Permaplum liner and the Take Wing quad (take note: the look is for peacocks, not wallflowers). The Powder Blushes ($17.50 each) include Taupe and Stray Rose, colors that are soft and subtle enough to complement Untamed's otherwise intrepid look, while the Lipsticks and Lipglasses ($14 each) span a broad color spectrum. My favorite Lipsticks are Roam Free, a lustrous bronze, and Instinctive, a deep honey pink, but I'm equally enamored with the Truth & Light Lipglass, a delicious peaches and cream glaze.

More focused in palette but every bit as gorgeous is Rockocco--a line that infuses gloriously gilded baroque shades with a modern, rock 'n' roll edge. Its four Fluidlines include Brassy, a metallic brass; Rich Ground, a deep frosty terra-cotta; and Macroviolet, a smoldering pearlescent purple. The most stunning liner is Ostentatious, a dark chocolate that, depending on the light, gives off a green or blue iridescence. The Cream Color Base in Premeditated ($16) looks intimidating in the package but lovely paired with a minimalist eye (as long as it's applied with some restraint), and the Iridescent Pressed Powder in Star ($20) is a versatile skin-perfecting powder (if you're worried it'll make you like Marie Antoinette, we can assure you that it won't).

Ultimately, though, Rockocco's most brilliant hues are reserved for its lip colors and loose pigments. The Overdone and Rockocco Lipsticks are dazzlingly rich (the first is a deep brownish plum, the second a sultry bombshell red), while the Pure Vanity Lipglass is bluish scarlet that flatters cool skin tones. And then there are the Pigments ($19.50), three wonderfully nuanced pots that are sure to inspire oohs and ahhs: Fairylite (a pale ivory with pink pearlesence); Blue Brown (the powder equivalent of the Ostentatious Fluidline); and Accent Red (a complex, multihued fuchsia that enables any woman to unleash her inner rock star). --Tara Mattarazzo

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