Unsung Heroes

If you spend much time with MAC-a-holics, the subject of convo routinely turns to 217s and 224s, and you know, I get it. I do. Both are fantastic must-have makeup brushes. They’re workhorses. But there’s another bad gal, the MAC 221, and it’s… Oh! Once you get a taste of this blending beauty, nothing else compares. It’s my favorite MAC eye brush of all time!

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.

The 221, otherwise known as “the Mini Tapered Blending Brush,” is $25 and part of the MAC permanent line.

It looks a little like a cross between the 224 Tapered Blending Brush and the 217 Tapered Blending Brush. The brush head has the same tapered, elongated shape of the 224, but it’s thinner, and the tip has the domed shape of the 217, only pointier. Essentially, you get the best of both worlds with it. It’s thinner and pointier than the average crease blending brush.

So what does this mean for you? Well, if you don’t have a lot of lid space from your lash line to your brow bone, like, if you have smaller eyes, or a crease (like mine) that isn’t very deep, as is the case with hooded eyes, you probably have to be very precise when you place your crease color, and the 221 allows you to place shadows exactly where you want them.

Because the brush head is also fairly fluffy, you won’t end up with areas on your lids where the shadow is dark and overly concentrated — which is a problem I have when I use precision brushes, like pencil brushes, to work in the crease or the outer V.

And did I mention that it blends and buffs edges with preternatural pretty power?

The 221 is also great for applying and smudging eyeshadow and liner along the lower lash line. Most brushes scratch at my lower lash line, but the 221 is softer than a Ragdoll kitty’s paw. The thin tip also means that I probably won’t take my shadow or liner too far down.

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I keep seeing these memes popping up about people who eat dinner early and go to bed at 9, and I can so relate. That would have been my nightmare scenario as a kid, but when it happens now as an adult, it’s a dream come true. I wish I could do it every night, LOL!

It’s sort of like how I think of “natural” (air quotes) makeup these days. Like, when I started wearing makeup on the ‘low back in middle school, natural-looking makeup was the last thing I was going for. There was nothing natural about that purple liner I was rocking.

I would have said, “No way! I don’t want this to look natural! I want it to look like I’m wearing as much makeup as possible.” Fourteen-year-old Karen would have laughed at 41-year-old Karen’s quest for natural-looking makeup, which brings me to the MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact.

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.

It’s basically MAC’s version of a sheer liquid formula cushion compact, and it’s available in 12 refillable shades. The main compact is $38, and the refills are $28.

They were released last year around this time, and I’m a little nervous now because I can’t seem to find them anymore on the MAC website. I do see them at Macy’s, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, though.

Bloomingdale’s, by the way, is the only one that has all 12 shades and the refills in stock.

Cushion compacts?

You see them all over the place now, but they started out in Korea. They have a liquid-ish foundation formula and vary in terms of coverage from sheer to medium. They also usually have a second lid inside the compact that keeps a small, pre-soaked sponge or cushion from drying out.

When you press the sponge, a little bit of the liquid comes out, which is basically what sets them apart from other kinds of foundation.

Like MAC’s regular Matchmaster Foundation, the formula is a self-adjusting liquid foundation that adjusts to your skin tone. I wear it in shade 4.0, which seems a little too golden-orange for me at first, but the gold mellows out somewhat to match my natural skin tone over about five minutes.

I don’t know what kind of voodoo magic they infused this with, but it works!

Coverage when it comes to cushion compacts really depends on the brand, as some brands are much sheer than others. I’d call this one sheer to medium.

I’ve tried other cushion compacts before but didn’t find one that I liked enough to stick with it until I found the MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact. I ended up returning a fancy-schmancy one by Amore Pacific because it was a little too shiny and waaay too peachy for me.

But I really love this one. The coverage is incredibly flexible. It’s easy to go from sheer to medium to full, just like that, and I think it looks great in every kind of light from natural to flash to fluorescent. It even looks good in video.

A trick for full coverage

There’s a very fine line between practical, and fairly useless, when it comes to sheer-ish liquid foundations, because some are just so sheer that you can barely see anything when you’re wearing them, which, I guess, is pretty cool if your skin is darned near perfect already, but if you have a big pore situation like I do or freckles or areas you want to even out, this one is great for that.

It covers almost everything (but doesn’t look mannequin fake) and de-emphasizes my pores a tad.

And if you want to bump up the coverage to full, it’s really easy to do. Just grab your favorite liquid concealer (I’ve been loving Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer and Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Concealer), and place a few dots directly where you want that extra coverage. For me, that’s my cheeks, around my nostrils and on my upper lip.

Then, load a foundation brush or beautybender with your MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence foundation, and blend the concealer dots into your skin for an easy, fabulously flawless finish. 🙂 I use this technique all the time when I want full coverage but don’t want to spend hella days layering and buffing. It’s been my go-to technique lately for pics and video.

I also love the satiny finish (it isn’t too shiny or flat) and the super lightweight formula. It never feels like it’s suffocate my skin. Plus, it lasts long enough to get me through a long day.

I love this stuff! I just hope it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy Caturday! I hope you’re doing something fun. Rogue One yesterday was pretty great. I thought it was better than I expected. It’s kind of a serious war movie…but I think you’ll like it if you like sci-fi. Plus, popcorn. 🙂

The MAC Unsung Heroes series (a subset of my regular Unsung Makeup Heroes series) features some of my all-time favorite products from MAC’s permanent collection

If you’re looking for permanent collection ideas or inspiration, there are literally hundreds of unsung makeup heroes posts in the MBB archives. These 20 are just the tip of the iceberg.

I think the Internet may be giving people, and by “people,” I mean me, this belief that they can do *anything* just by looking it up online, because yesterday I made the most questionable (translation: gross) mocha at home.

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 had just put on a little MAC Oh My Mocha Eye Shadow ($16) and thought, “I’m gonna drink a mocha while I’m wearing Oh My Mocha,” because the idea seemed kinda poetic, but then I looked outside and saw that a creepy, supernatural fog had descended upon my neighborhood…

It gets foggy here sometimes, especially in the mornings in fall and winter, and when it happens, it’s usually foggy at the crack of dawn but burns off quickly.

Yesterday, though, started out sunny, but then it got horror movie foggy… It was that creepy cemetery fog that appears out of nowhere right before the main character walks into it and disappears forever.

Anyway, I wasn’t brave enough to walk outside in it, but it did make me crave a mocha. 🙂

So I googled a recipe, mixing coffee, milk, cocoa powder and sugar, and then added a boat load of whipped cream on top. Aaand it pretty much tasted like a pair of old Doc Martens with chocolate sauce, BLUH!

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