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MAC obviously wants us to picture something very specific when we think of Pink Poodle Lipglass. Hmm… I wonder what that something could be. 🙂
If you turned up the dial on MAC Loud & Lovely Cremesheen, you’d create a Pink Poodle! Pink Poodle Lipglass, that is, a $14.50 pink with blue undertones.
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.
You know what they say. The squeaky wheel gets the…soothing essence of grapefruit and chamomile in a base of botanical oils. 🙂 That’s today’s Unsung Hero, MAC Care Blends Essential Oils in Grapefruit + Chamomile.
Pretty good on its own as a soothing super moisturizer, this $19.50 potion is even more potent when mixed, like with concealers, for the ultimate in dark-circle destruction. Combined with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer, for instance, which I already love, the mixture is like Hogwarts’ magic.
Playing Elliott Stabler to Pro Longwear’s Olivia Benson, Grapefruit + Chamomile makes the duo greater than the sum of its parts. The two products have such great chemistry together that now, when I use them individually, I feel like something’s missing.
So the Care Blends? — they’ve been around the block as limited edition products in other collections, like 2010’s Warm & Cozy, and I remember mixing the Sweet Orange + Lavender one into my hand cream and liking it back then, but now the Grapefruit + Chamomile version has a spot in the permanent line.
MAC Pro Artist Louise Z is the person who convinced me to give the Care Blends a try last summer when she raved about how it performed when she mixed it with under-eye concealer for a shoot she did with the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders. I thought, “If it’s good enough for the Raiderettes, it’s good enough for me!” 🙂 So I ran out and bought a bottle that day.
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