MAC Cosmetics

The MAC Taraji P. Henson Collection

August 27th, 2016 by Karen 38 Comments

Good morning, glory! Happy Caturday. I hope you slept well. 🙂

So, honey. HUH-KNEE. I haven’t watched Empire in ages (I dunno what happened… I think it just got too redonk for me, and I had to peace-the-heck out), but that show will be forever ingrained in my mind as the magical, mystical place where the world discovered the hurricane of fierce that is Taraji P. Henson.

If I could only channel a tenth of Cookie’s sass and attitude into my fingertips, I could rule the world! (Or at least get a handle on my condo.)

I think Taraji’s awesome. Yeah, she’s gorgeous (those cheekbones and lips, WOW), but I also read that she didn’t get her big acting break until later in life. She just kept working and reaching for the stars.

And now she has her own MAC collection.

Yes, someone somewhere is doing the cabbage patch.

Oh, wait — that someone is me, and it’s happening right here in my office chair, RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT!

With six pieces, half of them new and half of them re-promotes from the permanent line, the collection is on the smaller side…

I know, I would’ve preferred a 20-piece Taraji collection with all new things instead, but let’s see what we’ve got…

mac highlight the truth — MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Highlight the Truth ($33)

mac taraji glow — MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Taraji Glow ($33)

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My 3 Favorite Lippies Right Now (And ConnorClaire.com Clue #3)

August 24th, 2016 by Karen 31 Comments

3 fave lipsticks right now — My 3 current lipstick faves (to go with connorclaire.com clue #3!)

Lips without lipstick are like Bell without Biv. Or Devoe. Or like Tony without the other two Tonies. Or DJ Jazzy Jeff without the Fresh Prince. Or Lisa Lisa without Cult Jam and Full Force…

You get the picture. 🙂

I love lipstick, and here are my three favorite lipsticks right now, along with clue #3 for connorclaire.com.

Yes, the secret will be out any. Day. Now!

1. Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Menace

urban decay menace — Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Menace

Truth is, I haven’t been going ham with my eye makeup lately because I’m still working my way through this “little bit o’ liner” phase.

But I’m sure it’ll pass… PLEASE, MAKEUP GODS, LET THIS PHASE PASS!

Until it does, and I work my way back up to wearing all of the cats and kittens on my lids again, I cheat the system by wearing a really bright lipstick.

It draws attention to my lips and creates a focal point for my look that still makes it seem like I actually came to play, ya know?

My first favorite lipstick of the moment is Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Menace ($17). It’s a creamy, ultra smooth, ultra pigmented matte medium fuchsia SO bright that you can see it on someone doing the running man across the room.

(The old-school one; not the new one.)

Plus, it’s comfy and isn’t drying, so it doesn’t worsen the dry lip flake situation, and I can swipe it directly from the tube and skip the liner.

2. NARS Audacious Lipstick in Apoline

I had creamy rose NARS Apoline in my pocket yesterday.

And the day before that.

And possibly even the day before that!

Yeah, I wear it a lot…

It’s a gorgeous full-coverage nude, and it’s completely opaque.

BONUS #1: For a silky, creamy lippie, it has incredible staying power. I put it on in the morning and can forget about it for at least four hours.

BONUS #2: Every time I say the name out loud — “Apoline” — I think of Apollonia, and then I think of Prince and start singing Raspberry Beret.

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MAC Viva Glam Ariana Grande 2

August 18th, 2016 by Karen 24 Comments

Hot damn, Viva Glam! Ariana Grande is back with two new Viva Glams — a $17 matte Lipstick and a $16 Lipglass — and I think they’re so freakin’ gorge…

I’m figuratively shaking in my Timberland boots.

mac viva glam ariana grande 2 lipglass lipstick — MAC Viva Glam Ariana Grande 2 Lipglass and Lipstick

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a Viva Glam. I’ve always been down to support the cause, which I think is awesomesauce, because MAC donates all of the proceeds from the Viva Glam releases to help children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, but I think the past few Viva Glam rounds have been… Well, let’s just say that they’ve been on the artsy side.

mac viva glam ariana grande 2 lipstick — Deep cool pink matte MAC Viva Glam Ariana Grande 2 Lipstick

I think these two, though, are straight-up pretty. I like them even more than Ariana’s first Viva Glam back in January. They’re brighter, but I think they’re also more wearable and fun.

mac viva glam ariana grande 2 lipglass — Neutral nude pink MAC Viva Glam Ariana Grande 2 Lipglass

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MAC It’s a Strike! Collection: Quick Look and Swatches

August 5th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

Grab your favorite balls!

Wait… That sounded weird.

Grab your favorite bowling balls. That’s what I meant. 🙂

Is it bowling balls, or bowling ball? Heck, I don’t know. I’m so not into bowling.

I don’t hang out in bowling circles or bowling alleys, mostly because I was always being dragged to bowling alleys when I was a kid, and I was deathly bored the entire time. But perhaps if they’d had a MAC counter…

At any rate, the 26-piece MAC It’s a Strike collection (available Aug. 18 – Oct. 13) is all about bowling alleys, babe. It’s heavy on lip products, but there’s also a smattering of eyeshadows (mostly mattes), a few liquid liners, a highlighter (which looked very cute before I dropped it…and now it looks like it got run over by a bowling ball), nail polishes, cream blushes and some brushes, too.

mac its a strike lipsticks — The MAC It’s a Strike Lipsticks

mac its a strike cremesheen — MAC It’s a Strike Cremesheen Lipglasses

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Get Your Glitter on the Go With the MAC Dazzleshadows

August 2nd, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

mac banging brilliant dazzleshadow — Three of the 10 MAC Dazzleshadows from the Bangin’ Brilliant collection ($18 each)

Oh, glitter… All I wanna do is wear the sparkly stuff! Glitter is like the Disneyland of makeup, but it’s not always a smooth ride.

The MAC Dazzleshadows make it easy to get your glitter fix because they combine good-sized glitter flecks with a pigmented base.

There are 10 new Dazzleshadow shades in the MAC Bangin’ Brilliant collection, all of which are permanent, and here are three of them: Can’t Stop Don’t Stop isa deep plummy purple; Feel the Fever, a deep bluish purple with pink glitter; and Get Physical, which is a purple with light blue glitter.

The Dazzleshadows are more than just sparkly; they don’t just shimmer. They actually have tiny flecks of glitter in a pressed powder formula (here’s another look at them).

Sometimes I like a bad girl smoky eye, and these look amaze layered on top of a black base. Like, sometimes I’ll start with a black kohl liner, a black cream shadow or a black shadow stick from my lash lines to my crease. Then I’ll pat one of the Dazzleshadows on top and add mascara.

Just like that, and without having to contend with a jar of loose glitter, I’m ready to rumble. Just add black leather jacket and motorcycle.

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10 Cat Eye Tips to Easily Add Impact To Your Look (Featuring the MAC Star Trek Collection)

July 25th, 2016 by Karen 36 Comments

Cat eyes.

Seems like they should be easy, right?

Like, how hard can it be to draw a line along your upper lash line with a little flick at the end?

Um…yeah. I wish I was that girl — the one who can effortlessly draw flawless cat eye flicks in a single swoop, but that’s sooo not me.

mac star trek packaging — The MAC Star Trek collection is Starfleet approved

Still, I have figured out a few secret space squirrel tricks over the light years that really do help with your cat eye flicks, and here are 10 of them. I’m using a bunch of products, by the way, from the new 25-piece MAC Star Trek collection, because, as you know, I’m a sci-fi nerd. 🙂 The collection arrives this September.

“Star Trek is an iconic pop culture phenomena whose storylines pushed gender and racial boundaries. For its 50th anniversary, we celebrate each of Star Trek’s powerful women in a transcending, transformational makeup collection.”

— MAC Senior Vice President/Group Creative Director James Gager

1. For big, bright eyes, line just a portion of your upper lash line

Nowadays when doing cat eyes, rather than lining my entire lash line, which I think makes my eyes look smaller, I like to start lining from about a centimer in from the side closest to my nose. So I’m lining about three fourths of the entire length of the lash line, and then drawing the cat eye flick out at the end.

There’s just something about lining the entire lash line that makes the eye look a little smaller, so this way keeps the inner quarter of the lash line unlined.

2. Use different liner formulas together in layers

I’m a big fan of layering different liners together and sketching out the shape of my cat eye before committing to it.

I like to draw the basic shape of my cat eye with a pencil liner first, because they’re easiest to control, and if I make a mistake, pencil formulas are usually easy to correct.

First, I tightline my upper lash lines with the pencil. Then I draw a thin line along the upper lash line and build up the product a bit toward the outer end of the line out to where the flick will begin.

Next, using an angled brush (because the angle fits the curve of the lid, and I think they’re easier to use than a pencil brush for this) to create the basic shape of my flick and set the angle, I drag the product out that I built up with the pencil in the outer side of my upper lash line in the previous step.

Then I layer a liquid liner on top of the pencil liner to intensify it.

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The Day in Beauty Vol. 23: MAC Bangin’ Brilliant Blush…and One of the Best Movies of 2016!

July 19th, 2016 by Karen 15 Comments

mac bangin brilliant blushes — The five new MAC Bangin’ Brilliant Blushes ($16 each)

Why are the $16 MAC Bangin’ Brilliant Powder Blushes in eyeshadow pots?

For the life of me, I can’t figure it out. I’ve picked one of them up assuming it was a shadow at least half a dozen times. Like the matte red, Never Say Never? — call me crazy, but I kinda wanna put it in my crease.

I dunno… Sometimes I think red smokey eyes can look super cool, but maybe I’ve been spending too much time on Instagram lately.

LOL!

These are so bright and so juicy that they remind me of summer fruit.

Mmm… Watermelon…

These five new blushes have joined the MAC permanent line, along with the rest of the Bangin’ Brilliant band, and after spending the past few weeks with them, I think they compare well to my regular MAC daily blush musts, which are Gingerly and Blushbaby, at the moment, in terms of wear time (they last all day long) and blendability (although you do need to use them with the right tools, but I’ll get to that in a few).

Where they definitely differ is size, obvi, and intensity.

I don’t know how MAC did it, but they made these even MORE vibrant than the boldest and brightest MAC blushes around, which is really super cool. I just wish they came in the regular 0.21-oz. $22 MAC blush pans.

These may cost a little less at $16, but they’re also much smaller (0.05 ounces). Technically, though, since you’ll probably need to use so very little, a small pan like this could still last a year or two, depending on how often you wear it.

But that part of me that likes to buy toilet paper in bulk at Costco still wishes they were bigger, man.

mac bangin brilliant blush swatches — From the left: MAC Never Say Never, News Flash, Bright Response, Bright Pink and Saucy Miss

Lately I’ve been liking very minimal cheek color, so because these are so intense, and because the pans are on the smaller side (which makes it kind of hard to load up a regular-sized blush brush with them…but really, I probably wouldn’t use a blush brush with them anyway because I only need to use a tiny amount, and a big brush head would be excessive), I use a small duo fibre face brush with them instead.

I like the MAC 199 Small Duo Fibre Face Brush ($35). It’s small and fits these pans better than a big blush brush does. I just lightly swirl the brush head in one of the pans, tap most of it off, then buff, ever-so-gently, like whisker kisses on my cheeks.

Then I grab the biggest powder brush I can find and gently run that over my cheeks to slightly take the edge off. The end result looks very natural.

Since these are so bright, I assumed I would look like a resident of crazy clown town, but that totally wasn’t the case! I’ve been wearing the orange shade, Bright Response, on the regular, and it’s completely doable.

But hey, if you are all about the “too much,” that’s cool too. You can easily get there with these blushes.

mac bright response blush — Wearing MAC Bright Response

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A Bangin’ Good Time With the Bright Lipsticks in MAC Bangin’ Brilliant

July 15th, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

mac bangin brilliant dreampot — The new MAC Bangin’ Brilliant Lipstick in Dreampot ($17)

I can’t remember — is wearing blue lipstick and blue eyeliner at the same time a do or a don’t?

Ah, the age-old question… LOL!

I don’t think there are any hard and fast, absolutely unbreakable makeup rules, so I’m gonna say “yes.” Blue eyeliner with blue lipstick is a total do.

I contemplated this conundrum the other day when I was wearing some teal winged liner (just for the heck of it) and decided to also try on a few of the lipsticks in the new MAC Bangin’ Brilliant collection.

You know that cray-cray lip colors are having a moment when you can visit a small mall and bump into a girl wearing a baby pink polo shirt and green lipstick (true story!), and the MAC Bangin’ Brilliants fit right in with that out-of-the box color movement happening right now.

The 29 new lipstick shades ($17 each) were recently added to the MAC permanent line, along with the Bangin’ Brilliant shadows and blushes.

With these colors, “basic” is about a million light years away. Of course there are bright pinks, oranges and reds, but there also blues, purples, a neon green, a midnight black, a stark white… Seriously, there’s some crazy sh*t up in the mix.

I don’t feel completely comfortable in some of them, to be honest, but if you have that runway stomp-walk kind of swag, they could look super cool.

I dunno… One of these days, I might get the urge to wear a light purple to Costco to buy kitty litter and a jumbo pack of hot dogs.

You never know. Life is short. Might as well.

Matte fuchsia pink Breathing Fire and matte bright red Mangrove are my favorites of the shades I’ve tried so far.

mac bangin brilliant breathing fire — Breathing Fire

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