Unsung Heroes

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Maybelline Baby Lips Dr. Rescue Medicated Balm

April 22nd, 2016 by Jessica Revitte 22 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

I’ve got dry lips.

Like, Sonoran Desert dry.

Many have tried to figure out why, I assure you, and many have failed. Between the overall dryness of my skin, to its tendency to eczema and how my lips aggravatingly seem to need to really get in the mood for our six-month winter here in the arctic tundra that is Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, my lips are wrinkled and peeling for way more of the year than I’d like.

I’ve gone through favorite lip balms like Taylor Swift goes through boyfriends. (Too soon? Sorry, T, just shake it off.)

I repeatedly feel like I’ve found “the one” and love it for weeks — months, even — and go through a whole slew of backups only to see my lips eventually reject the formula seemingly out of the freaking blue. It drives me nuts. What I don’t do is write songs about it… Maybe Taylor can help me with that?

Anyway, when Maybelline released their main Baby Lips line a few years ago, I tried one of the original tinted formulation balms and wasn’t that impressed. It looked great, but because of my lips, it felt like the balm itself was just sitting on top of my dry lips, rather than sinking in and really making a difference.

So I gave them a pass until I noticed a new product in the Baby Lips fam called Baby Lips Dr. Rescue, which I spotted while ~~getting some much needed “mommy alone time”~~ running errands. I grabbed the clear balm and applied it immediately in the car.

*queue angels singing*

It felt INCREDIBLE.

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Sephora Radiant Luminizing Drops

April 20th, 2016 by Adia Goss 23 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

Like Jen, a lot of the beauty products I end up buying are things I’ve heard good things about from other bloggers and makeup lovers, and so they aren’t necessarily “unsung.” But I do find myself coming back over and over again to the Sephora brand products, because I feel like, in general, Sephora brand products are super underrated. Like, everything is really good, but it’s just like when you go to Sephora, you’re overwhelmed by everything else, so I feel like the Sephora brand stuff just gets overlooked.

There’s actually a Sephora right across the street from my job, which is both awesome and horrible, LOL. So, one day on my lunch break, I was just going to the mall to walk around, and I go into Sephora like I usually do to pass the time and see what they have, and I see this little display of the Sephora brand Radiant Luminizing Drops. There’s a pink one, a gold one and maybe a bronzey-colored one ($14 each), and I did a little sample of the light pink one, Starlight, right then on my hand.

Wow! It was super pretty! It’s this liquid highlighter that’s pink…but it’s, like, warm enough that it actually shows up as pink, and I love pink. It’s my favorite color, especially when it comes to makeup. Like, I’m drawn to anything pink and shimmery, but a lot of times on dark skin, pink, shimmery products appear white and super harsh, so even though I love the color, when it comes to liquid or even powder highlighter, when I see pink, I steer clear, because I think, “This is gonna look super chalky and just crazy on my face.”

So when I tested this on my hand and saw a really pretty soft glowing pink, I thought, “You know what? I’mma just buy this!” And I did! And I love it!

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder SPF 15

April 19th, 2016 by Carolina Braina 13 Comments

Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder 50 Review — For a subtly sunkissed look, I love wearing Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder SPF 15 in shade 50 dusted all over my face, focusing on the areas that would naturally tan first

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

Have you ever seen the Gisele Bündchen ad for the Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder? She’s literally glowing! I think it was that and the amazing-looking beige compact that made me want to buy it… And god, am I glad I did… I mean, it’s become one of my favorite makeup products of all time. It’s definitely my favorite bronzer of all time. You know, with it Chanel invented a new concept of bronzer… A sheer bronzer that’s impossible to overdo. Like, you really need to load your brush for it to show up, but that’s what I like about it, because, really, you can pack it on as much as you want, like you can keep packing it on, and it’ll never look too much.

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3 of My Favorite Affordable Unsung Makeup Heroes

April 19th, 2016 by Jen Clark 34 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

When I was looking through all of my makeup, trying to decide what I should write about for a Makeup Unsung Heroes post, I realized that most of what I have are things that everyone else loves, and that’s probably why I bought them. Rarely do I just go out and buy a product because I think it looks good. But sometimes those are the best ones!

Here are three products that I sort of took a chance on and ended up loving, and I think you might like them, too. 🙂

Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder

When I heard about Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder, it was only about $7 bucks, and I was using a super expensive Makeup Forever powder at the time. I wanted to find something cheaper, and I was really loving how loose powders worked, especially for baking under the eyes.

The first time I tried it, I used my beautyblender and pressed it into my concealer under my eyes. The soft formula made my under-eye area feel like silk, ’cause it kind of absorbed the concealer. It made everything look perfect under my eyes, and that’s mostly why I love it.

I also use it to set the rest of my face, and here’s a trick. If you put a little bit more than you normally would where you’re going to be putting your contour, that helps your contour not go all patchy, like mine tends to do sometimes. It just helps everything blend so much better on top.

If you’re really sensitive to scented makeup, this is probably the strongest smelling makeup item I have. It literally smells like the strongest synthetic floral scent in the word, and it reminds me of how my mom’s makeup used to smell in the ’90s. Good thing I can only smell it when I’m applying it, and I don’t smell it on my face the rest of the day.

But just a fair warning if you’re super sensitive to fragrances.

unsung makeup heroes coty airspun powder — Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder ($7)

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Kat Von D Metal Crush “Thunderstruck” Eyeshadow

April 14th, 2016 by Anna Oh 17 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

Hi everyone!

Now, as someone who has a weakness for color, eyeshadows are very dangerous territory for me.

I’m a total neutral lover and, as of quite recently, a color lover too…unfortunately for my wallet. I usually try to buy my eyeshadows in palettes or sets (like the Make Up For Ever shadows) to save money, but every now and then, there are some singles that I can’t be alive without.

(Ummm…this would include eyeshadows like Rose Gold by Ardency Inn and Pretentious by Makeup Geek.)

And one of my FAVORITES of those is Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadow in Thunderstruck ($21).

I first found out about it on Kat Von D’s Instagram a couple months ago, because it was the #1 selling item (or maybe it was the #1 eyeshadow?) at Sephora. I honestly didn’t really need any more convincing at that point, but after some research, I saw that people were using it as a highlighter, too, and then I REALLY didn’t need to be convinced anymore.

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Satin Taupe Eye Shadow

January 19th, 2016 by Karen 21 Comments

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

I swear, you just can’t go wrong with the classics. I wore MAC Satin Taupe Eye Shadow the other day for the first time in months. It’s a shimmery grayish purple in the MAC permanent line, and it’s been around since the days of the dinosaurs!

OK, not that long, but it has been around a while. It was one of the very first MAC shadows I ever picked up, and, and it wowed me from the start…

It’s just so dang pretty!

I didn’t do anything fancy with it this week — just the same standard-issue Satin Taupe look I’ve been doing for, oh, the past zillion years.

I needed to put on some makeup to record a video, so I lined my eyes with black liner, then took that same liner and smudged it on my lids and lower lash lines. Then I buffed out the black liner with a MAC 217 before patting Satin Taupe directly on top and blending everything together. A quick sweep of cool matte brown MAC Omega in my crease, and that was it. All done.

Easy, elegant and damned fast — which led me to think, “Dude, Karen! Why do you make things more difficult than they need to be? You should be doing this all the time!”

It was one of those “Doh!” forehead-to-palm moments when I question my life choices, LOL!

Anyway, with Satin Taupe, we’re talking must-have (yes, it’s that serious). You’ve probably seen it around in limited edition palettes here and there… Here it is in a couple of recent ones (MAC Brooke Shields Gravitas and the MAC Nordstrom Naturals palettes), but you can also find it as a single in the permanent line.

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MAC Unsung Heroes: High Tea Lipstick

December 4th, 2015 by Karen 11 Comments

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

There ain’t no party like a high tea party ’cause a high tea party don’t stop!

This occurs to me not only because I’m currently craving tea and those tiny sandwiches from The Rotunda again (OH, MAH GOSH! So good…), but also because of the recently launched frosty beige MAC Mariah Carey Lipstick.

Even though I can totally picture Mimi rocking a frosty beige lipstick, it’s the kind of color that isn’t always easy to wear, which got me wondering about other MAC lipsticks with a kinda-sorta similar vibe.

After combing my mental MAC files, I remembered High Tea. It’s a $17 pearly beige pink in the MAC Lustre Lipstick line, and it has just enough frostiness to hit those high notes without being so frosty that it becomes difficult to wear.

mac high tea closeup — Wearing MAC High Tea on my lips

There was a time when I was regularly wearing tubes of High Tea down to the nub (you know I love me some nude lips). It’s one of those “it goes with everything” nude lipsticks, and I think it looks great by itself for a quickie nude lip.

Maybe because of the subtle frosty, shiny finish, it also makes my lips look a little fuller (I think). Yup, being a MAC Lustre, High Tea has a glossy, holiday-hoppin’ finish, but it isn’t sticky like a gloss, which means that I can wear it without worrying about my hair whipping around when it’s windy and getting stuck to my pout.
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Blooz Eye Kohl

December 2nd, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of my all-time favorite permanent collection products.

MAC COSTA RICHE: And there she goes! She’s grabbing Blooz, YET AGAIN.

MAC TEDDY: Seriously!? What’s up with that? She was using us every day, and now it’s like she doesn’t even know we exist. All she cares about is Blooz.

MAC COSTA RICHE: Yeah, and it’s giving me a case of the blues.

MAC TEDDY: Haha.

MAC COSTA RICHE: I’m not kidding! I miss being on her water lines…

MAC TEDDY: Me too. 🙁

MAC COSTA RICHE: You know what I want right now?

MAC TEDDY: What?

MAC COSTA RICHE: Brownies.

MAC TEDDY: Ooh!

MAC COSTA RICHE: Let’s make some brownies.

MAC TEDDY: YASSS! 🙂

If eyeliners could talk… I bet if Costa Riche and Teddy could talk, they’d be talking mad sh*t about MAC Blooz ($16.50). It’s one of MAC’s sassiest, sexiest dark navy liners, and it’s the only MAC Eye Kohl I’ve been wanting to wear lately.

But let’s back up a little… Cue the falling leaves and jingle bells! *jingle, jingle, jingle*

Every December, like clockwork, my eyes freak out, and the only liners I’m able to comfortably wear are the old-school MAC Eye Kohls. The dry, crisp air outside coupled with the dry, warm air inside from the heater, which runs nonstop this time of year, wreaks havoc on my lash and water lines. They practically cry out for moisture and won’t tolerate long-wearing eye products like gel liners that are just too drying.

I wouldn’t say that MAC’s old-school Kohls are moisturizing, but for whatever reason, they don’t bother my eyes in fall and winter when so many other things do. I was all about Teddy and Costa Riche for the past few winters, but now I’ve got the Blooz.

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