MAC Cosmetics

Rappers Delight in a Plum From the 212: The New MAC Yung Rapunxel Lipstick by Azealia Banks

September 7th, 2012 by Karen 37 Comments

mac yung rapunxel

I can’t rap to save my life, but you already knew this, right? 🙂

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to spit bars on the fly…

Because if I had to battle someone on a street corner, I’d be so screwed!

A rap attack

But hey, I guess if I’m ever overwhelmed with the urge to drop some beats, I could just wear the new MAC Lipstick in Yung Rapunxel ($15) instead.

This creamy deep plum is the product of MAC’s new collaboration with rising New York rapper/singer/lyricist Azealia Banks.

Azealia Banks, 1991

The name, Yung Rapunxel, is also her alter ego.

I’d never heard of her before the lipstick, but I gotta say — I’m diggin’ her style. It kinda has a ’90s house music vibe to it…if Lil’ Kim lived in the house. Or something like that.

As for the lipstick, I like. It’s definitely dramatic, and I think the semi-matte finish goes well with it.

I get the sense that Yung is one of those colors that would look really fab on gals with very light or very dark skin tones.

mac yung rapunxel

mac yung rapunxel swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Face and Body Foundation

September 7th, 2012 by Karen 34 Comments

mac face and body foundation

While there are many things I’ll miss about the world after the coming zombie apocalypse — hot showers, modern dentistry and Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts among them — few losses will be missed as much as MAC Face and Body Foundation, one of my much-loved creature comforts.

I can’t imagine life in the badlands without it…

This sheer-to-medium coverage liquid foundation is just one of those fantastic MAC performers ($33 for the 4-ounce bottle above), and it’s the only foundation I’ve been wanting to wear these days.

mac face and body foundation bottle

Yesterday morning while walking Tabs outside on his leash, we saw that the leaves have started to turn yellow and fall from the trees. There’s also a new chill in the air early in the mornings.

Yup, it’s fall. Or darn near. And now that it is, I feel like it’s time for a more dressed up face look — something less dewy and casual than my spring and summer routine with NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer.

mac face and body foundation swatch
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Party Till the Break of Dawn With Lightweight, Long Lasting MAC Prep + Prime Natural Radiance

September 4th, 2012 by Karen 30 Comments

mac prep prime natural radiance review

Tabs loves big bashes as much as the next cat celebrity. In fact, he’s known among members of the A-list cat community for throwing some of most lavish shindigs and soirees in the feline world. Of course, as his assistant, I get saddled with the prep work, while he gets to have all the fun.

Today he has me scoping out potential venues for his upcoming Halloween bash. Views are a must, which means it has to be a climbing friendly venue with some height (maybe something like this). He also wants a no-host gravy bar, fresh sushi, catnip cocktails and a DJ (I’m interviewing some dude named David Guetta for the job tonight).

Somewhere in there, I also have to order 723 custom-made kitty masks and schedule 22 menu tastings (not surprisingly, the only part of the party planning process Tabs likes).

So, yeah…it’s fixin’ to be a long night.

I guess it’s a good thing I’m wearing the new MAC Prep + Prime Natural Radiance. 🙂

mac prep prime natural radiance product shot

One word: awesomeness!

Like the Highlander of face primers, there can be only one! — and for me right now that one is Natural Radiance ($40 for a 1.7-ounce bottle). (At least for now, LOL!)

It’s a lightweight gel primer with a texture halfway between an airy mousse and a creamy lotion; the consistency reminds me of Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel.

Applied after moisturizer but before foundation, it’s designed to extend the wear time of face makeup and blur fine lines, pores and imperfections, making the skin appear (almost) flawless, and ready for you to pop your favorite face products on top.

mac prep prime natural radiance ingredients

mac prep prime natural radiance swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Prunella Eye Kohl

September 3rd, 2012 by Karen 31 Comments

mac prunella

Tabs has won a number of prestigious awards over the years, like the one he frequently cites in his email signature, “Winner of People magazine’s 2010 World’s Sexiest Tabby award,” but ya know, I’ve won a few awards of my own.

World’s Sexiest Tabby, 2010

No, not for my groundbreaking research in cat phrenology. My awards have typically been for less…influential endeavors, like my last place award in the 2007 Amateur Karaoke Championships (Western Division).

What a joke, too. That was supposed to be my year…

I’d planned to sing Easy Lover by Phil Collins, a song I knew like the back of my hand, but replaced it with Maria from West Side Story at the last minute.

It was an unorthodox move, to be sure, but a gamble that I felt confident would pay off in the end.

Wrong. I thought that with so many other entrants also singing Phil Collins songs, I’d pull ahead, but then I screwed up the lyrics to the song…

In the song, when I should have been emoting, “Mah-ree-ahh, Mah-ree-ahh, Mah-reee-ahhhhh,” my brain short-circuited, and I sang “Pru-nella, Pru-nella, Pru-nellaaah” into the microphone instead.

Prunella, like the name of today’s unsung makeup hero, the $15 MAC Eye Kohl in Prunella.

Seriously, how was I to know that this shimmery, blackish plum would infiltrate my psyche at such an inopportune moment? 🙂

mac prunella swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: The 239 Eye Shader Brush

August 31st, 2012 by Karen 18 Comments

MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush

I can’t believe I haven’t unsung the heroic MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush yet!

Weird! — considering how much I love it. I’m even thinking about getting a second one to go with the first. That way, I could reserve one for powders and one for creams.

Heck, while I’m at it, might as well get a third (strictly for blending, of course).

No, no, I guess one is enough… It’s just a brush, after all.

Or is it? 🙂

A medium-sized flat eyeshadow brush with gloriously soft goat hair fibers packed into a firm, dense head with a rounded shape, the $25 MAC 239 is capable of a multitude of makeup tasks, from applying and blending eyeshadows (loose and pressed powders, and creams), to highlighting beneath my brows, lining my eyes and adding color into the outer V and inner corners.

I have a handful of brushes from other brands that by all appearances, look like the MAC 239, but that’s where the similarities end.

The size of the 239’s brush head is like my favorite part of the Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, juuuust right. Not too big, not too small. It covers a fairly wide area on my lid, and yet is small enough to fit into the inner and outer corners of my eyes, and directly below my lashes.

It’s like getting a bunch of different brushes in one!
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Greensmoke Eyeshadow

August 30th, 2012 by Karen 18 Comments

mac greensmoke

It’s time, friend…

Time to clap our hands and stomp our feet! Time to raise our hands to the sky and testify to the dawn of a new era! — the season of smokey eyes!

Oh, fall… You make me so sad when you shoo summer away, but then your cool, crisp winds give me an excuse to bust out my MAC Greensmoke Eyeshadow ($15), one of my favorites for smokey eyes.

MAC describes it as a tarnished olive, but Greensmoke is so much more than that.

On my NC42 skin, I get a smokey, grayish khaki with flashes of golden pearl and flecks of silver glitter. It’s a complex color, and one I can’t recall seeing duped by anyone else.

Packing it my lids or applying it with a wet brush brings out more of the golden pearl and greenish tones, while buffing it coaxes out more of Greensmoke’s gray.

For a different, and wonderfully complex, take on smokey eyes, I’ll apply Tarnished Eye Kohl as a base all over my lids, layer Greensmoke on top (I keep wanting to type “Gunsmoke”), and then buff out the edges.

mac greensmoke

mac greensmoke swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Ample Pink Plushglass

August 27th, 2012 by Karen 29 Comments

mac ample pink plushglass

Wait. Stop! Before we drive out to Modesto to roam the streets looking for Jeremy Renner’s family home — and hell yes, gurl! I totally agree that this is a perfectly sane idea — I need to check my purse.

Keys? Check.

Phone?

Phone…?

Okay, where’s my phone? It has to be here somewhere… I need it just in case the boss calls me.

Yes! There it is.

Now, where’s that tingly, creamy pink gloss I like to keep in my purse? MAC Plushglass in Ample Pink ($19.50)?

Hmm… I think I may have left it in my other bag. Hold up. Let me go check. I’ll be right back.

What’s that? Yes, I am aware that there are no fewer than 10 other glosses in my purse, but none of them are Ample Pink. And hello, we’re talking about Jeremy Renner here.

mac ample pink plushglass

A semi-sheer pinkish mauve, Ample Pink is like a cross between a subdued MAC Spite and a tube of MAC Viva Glam V without the glitter, and I can’t believe we haven’t talked about it before.

I feel like I’m always pimping it out to friends who love my-lips-but-better looks, especially the ones who prefer cooler-toned pinks without a ton of shimmer.

I love the way it looks with smokey eyes… Not overpowering at all.

mac ample pink plushglass swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Indianwood Paint Pot

August 20th, 2012 by Karen 23 Comments

mac indianwood paint pot

The Walking Dead. It’s not just a TV show anymore.

It’s also an apt description of moi, specifically my eye area when I’ve stayed up too late pondering important issues like mint tea ice cream (how would it taste? — amazing or nasty?), or when I’ve stayed up too late reading post-apocalyptic young adult “literature.”

So yeah, I’m becoming increasingly familiar with my zombie girl side, although I have yet to develop a taste for brains…

But who knows? If I don’t start getting to bed earlier, I might start craving fleshy snacks!

Thank goodness for MAC Paint Pot in Indianwood ($18.50)… Right now it’s the only thing slowing the transition to full-on undead.

mac indianwood paint pot

Whenever I get up looking a little worse for wear, I like to smear this shimmery bronze cream shadow on my lids with a finger and blend out the edges with a fluffy domed eyeshadow brush (I’m partial to the MAC 217).

The stuff is nothing short of a minor miracle! It brightens my lids, making me look better rested, radiant and almost glowing (almost).

You can wear it with easy, elegant looks, like with some mascara and MAC Teddy eyeliner along your lash lines for a quick work look, or in sultry, seductive looks with false lashes and MAC Feline eyeliner along your lash and water lines.

mac indianwood paint pot swatch with rubenesque for comparison
Indianwood on the left, with MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque for comparison

mac indianwood paint pot
MAC Powder Blush in Supercontinental on my cheeks and MAC Lipglass in Ready to Roam on my lips; both from the new Styleseeker collection
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