Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Okay, so maybe C-Thru isn’t going to win a flashy dance-off with MAC’s louder Lipglasses, but ya know, for some reason, it always keeps me coming back for more.
Why? Because it just works. Whenever I want a little sparkle and shine, BAM! There’s C-Thru. Whenever I want a gloss to give my lips some warmth and shimmer, KAPOW! Hi, C-Thru.
A shimmery, sheer peachy beige/nude, C-Thru goes with just about everything, and I think it’s great for a toned down lip look.
I wish I could go back in time to the exact moment I purchased my first green eyeshadow from MAC, the now discontinued MAC Sprout, and hand myself a pan (from the future!) of MAC Fresh Flare Pro Longwear Eye Shadow ($20) instead.
Ah, MAC Sprout… I think I liked the color more than the execution. Gritty and difficult to blend, it was one of the hardest eyeshadows I’ve ever used.
Fresh Flare, on the other hand, an intensely pigmented kelly green with golden undertones, might as well be called a dairy product because it blends like butter on toast. Smooth, super pigmented, easy to blend, and I barely detect any fallout from it at all.
If you’ve been feeling green (in a good way) but don’t know where to start, take a quick look at Fresh Flare.
Viva Glam V Lipglass ($14.50) is a great gateway gloss for makeup newcomers, and it’s probably the color I recommend the most to new/shy makeup wearers, especially teens and girls just getting into makeup for the first time.
I know that if I was a young girl looking for a mom-approved gloss, (my mom never liked me wearing crazy colors), neutral shimmery pink Viva Glam V definitely would have made the cut.
And I swear that it makes my lips look fuller, even though it’s technically not a plumping gloss.
Okay, so maybe you’re lovin’ MAC Right Image Cremesheen Glass, but you feel ready to level up in pink with something a little more intense. If you’re ready to step up your pink game, level up with creamy blue-based MAC Cremesheen Glass in Loud & Lovely ($19.50).
Say “Hello, spring!” What I love most about this shade is its flexibility. I can quickly swipe it on for a light hot pink flush, or layer it on a bit thicker for a more intense hit of pink.
Hello, glitter! This way to Sparkle Central. Just a heads up, but Viva Glam VI Lipglass is all about glitter, so if you’re averse to getting glitter on the mattress, glitter on the highway, glitter on the front porch, glitter on the hallway, you probably won’t love (shack) this, baby!
Oh, and another thing — have I mentioned the glitter? Because this Viva Glam has loads of it. 🙂
As a member of the MAC Viva Glam family, 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of VI go to support the MAC AIDS Fund, which helps women, children and men living with HIV/AIDS.
In true Viva Glam fashion, warm, plummy VI gets along with with most everyone, but I think it looks particularly fetching on girls with skin tones from NC and NW 40 and up; something about it just werks on skin tones from medium to dark.
Oh, MAC Breezy Sheertone Shimmer Blush ($20), you’re just so…breezy.
Breezy. That’s been a very popular word around the beauty-sphere as of late. It’s funny how certain words and phrases ebb and flown, isn’t it? One week it’s glow; then it’s sheer. Or shimmery — that’s a word that never seems to go out of style.
This here Breezy also shimmers, and I can safely say that I don’t have anything else quite like it in my makeup collection.
It looks mad scary in the pan, ma! And it’s also a little easy to over-apply, at least for me, but the MAC Skunk brush hits the sweet spot, delivering a beautiful, multi-faceted flush one step above light.
MAC characterizes it as a plum with pearl, but oh! — it’s so much more than that. It’s almost like a mash-up of all my favorite blush colors in a single, opalescent pan. One minute, Breezy’s a berry, and then a rose, a pink and plum, and the dewy, golden shimmer gives it an ethereal dimension.
Breezy also loves different lip colors and skin tones (oh, and I think redheads can really rock it well). I like to pair it with berries, roses, pinks and almost anything with a hint of golden shimmer, and I think it looks great on NC and NW gals in shades from light to dark.
Lighter lovelies may want to use a light hand to apply it because Breezy is easy to go overboard with (it’s very pigmented).
One of my favorite ways to wear Breezy is to make it the focus of my look. Just like a smokey eye or a bright red lip can be the focal point of a look, Breezy makes a big, bold statement on cheeks.
For real though! I could spend hours at the MAC counter if left unchecked. Allegedly, when I went to the mall the other day, it was “just to browse” (yeah, right!), but next thing ya know, I’m chatting with the MAC artists about concealers, and WHOOPS! Would ya look at that? It’s 30 minutes later. 🙂
We talked about our faves, and we each had different ones, but one thing all us agreed on (and gushed about) was the awesomeness of today’s unsung makeup hero, MAC Prep + Prime Vibrancy Eye Primer ($30).
An under-eye makeup primer of heroic proportions, this puff-reducing powerhouse deserves a key to the city. It brightens dark areas with a hint of glowing pink shimmer, and preps the skin for concealer by creating a smooth, perfect surface upon which it can be applied.
Vibrancy unblended (left) and blended (right)
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A sheer pink gloss to layer atop neutral pink lipsticks? — that shouldn’t be hard to find.
Right…?
Famous last words.
You’d think it would be easy peasy! — but quite a few sheer pink glosses have a milky quality to ’em and pigments that gather in the fine lines of my lips; the end result can look patchy and uneven.
Or how about sheer pink glosses that are just too sheer? Or too pigmented? Gah! In the first case, they don’t add much, if anything, to the lipsticks they’re supposed to enhance; in the second, they overwhelm the lipsticks they’re supposed to help.
With MAC Right Image Cremesheen Glass ($19.50), I can happily tick the box next to “None of the above.” 🙂
This sheer, pale mid-tone bluish pink packs just the right amount of pigment. It’s enough that when I wear it by itself, I can see the pink on my lips, but it’s not so bold or opaque that it overshadows lipsticks when it’s worn on top (oh! — I love how it looks on top of Modesty Cremesheen).
