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unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Ricepaper Eyeshadow

July 18th, 2011 by Karen 47 Comments

mac ricepaper eyeshadow

I know I did not just hear you say that you don’t have MAC Ricepaper Eyeshadow ($14.50) yet because that, my love, would be a makeup travesty of epic proportions.

EPIC!

Okay, maybe not epic. But large. Let’s say, bigger than a breadbox? 🙂

Shoot, I can’t even remember when I first started wearing Ricepaper (I think it was around 1999), but I do remember that it changed my life (as only good makeup can).

mac ricepaper eyeshadow

This shimmery, pigmented peachy gold is one of those colors I find I’m able to wear every single day, and I almost do. I probably reach for it at least a few times a week and wear it most often as a wash over my lids, or along my brow bone as a highlighter (I think it lifts the arches), or at the inner corners of my eyes when I feel I look tired.

It’s quite the team player, too. It maintains an excellent working relationship with many MAC neutrals, like Soba, Saddle, Soft Brown, Brown Script, Cork and Smoke & Diamonds, and I think it also works well as an accent color for brights that go well with golds, like blues and teals. Freshwater and Aquadisiac are two of its biggest fans.

How do you feel about peachy golden Arena? Similar pigmentation and same soft, buttery texture, but I think Ricepaper looks lighter and peachier to me. Both colors work together really well.

mac ricepaper eyeshadow
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Categories: Eyes, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: This Cremesheen Glass Is a Veritable Deelight

July 15th, 2011 by Karen 21 Comments

MAC Deelight Cremesheen Glass

Ever since our big company meeting with work-friendly Spite Lipglass (LOVE!) earlier this week, I’ve had other work-friendly MAC lip colors on my mind. Colors like the upwardly mobile subject of today’s Unsung Heroes post, MAC Cremesheen Glass in Deelight ($18.50).

I’ve kept this creamy, mid-tone neutral pink close for a few months. We met through the MAC Girl Next Door Kit and quickly hit it off, thanks to Deelight’s pigmented, hydrating formula, smooth, non-sticky texture and light vanilla flavor and scent (Side note: Deelight’s available by itself at MAC stores and counters; you don’t have to purchase the kit).

Deelight’s what I like to think of as an “everything” gloss — easy to work into almost every look, from sexy, sooty smokey eyes to things like the everyday neutral eye I’m wearing here. Whenever I want to wear pink, but not a warm pink like I get from my go-to’s, Nympehtte and Evolution Revolution, it totally fits the bill.

mac deelight cremesheen glass

mac deelight cremesheen glass

mac deelight cremesheen glass
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There are 21 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Lipglass in Spite

July 11th, 2011 by Karen 75 Comments

mac spite lipglass

So, I totally had a Joey Lawrence-style “WHOA!” moment at the MAC store last weekend. I was there picking up my umpteenth tube of today’s Unsung Hero, MAC Lipglass in Spite ($14.50), when I realized, holy crap! — I’ve been wearing this Lipglass longer than some of the girls shopping in this store have been alive!

Seriously, I’ve been wearing Spite for roughly 12 years. Assuming an average of two tubes per year — yes, I like it that much — that’s 24 tubes.

TWENTY-FOUR TUBES!

I started wearing Spite shortly after I took a job as a legal assistant at a law firm in 1999. I was in my early 20s, but I probably looked a little younger than that at the time. People would stop me in the halls, assuming I was one of the high school interns, and ask things like, “Oh, are you someone’s daughter?”

“Um…yes?” I’d say, a little confused. “How about you?”

Or, “Is this your summer job?”

“Well…sort of, but I would really like to keep it through winter.”

Pretty soon I was trying to look older, which for me meant putting my hair up in a bun, wearing my glasses instead of contacts and slicking my lips with MAC Spite.

While I love nude-ish pink and peach glosses with a flirty, casual, playful vibe, I prefer something like Spite’s plummy brown when I want to convey more of a sense of restraint, maturity and confident control (but don’t want to look stuffy or boring at the same time).

mac spite lipglass tube

mac spite lipglass swatch
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Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Impassioned Lipstick (and Watermelon)

July 1st, 2011 by Karen 39 Comments

mac impassioned lipstick

It’s official: I am in food lust with watermelon. That one from the other day? Completely gone. And it was ginormous, too! — like bigger than Tabs, and I ate it all by myself in, like, two days. On the one hand (and I’m thrilled about this) I’m not having any, um, fiber issues, but on the other hand, I’m a little afraid I might be overdoing it.

So sweet, so juicy!

Gotta swing by Trader Joe’s to get another one ASAP.

I’m obsessed… I’ve got watermelon on the brain. It’s even creeping into my makeup. Just the other day, I was looking at Impassioned ($14.50), one of my favorite MAC Lipsticks, when it hit me…

No, not the watermelon (silly). 🙂 It occurred to me that Impassioned is a perfect watermelon pink.

MAC describes it as a full-throttle fuchsia, but on me it’s more of an intense, warmish hot pink. I’ve been wearing it a lot lately because, ya know, the whole watermelon thing, and also because I love the way it lights up my face. I think it looks fantabulous with summery gold, teal and bronze eye looks.

Impassioned and the other MAC Amplified lipsticks are famous for long-lasting, rich color (all day wear). That’s a lot longer than it takes to devour a plate of watermelon slices.

Watermelon…


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There are 39 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base

June 20th, 2011 by Karen 37 Comments

When I finished my first tube of lightweight, colorless NARS Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base ($24), the thought of not being able to reach for what I’d come to consider the best eye makeup primer currently on the market almost triggered a minor panic attack.

We’d been inseparable since we met last November, thanks to the Troublemaker Gift Set, and I was impressed from the start. Pro-Prime intensifies the color of products applied on top of it and extends wear time, too. It grips cream and powder shadows, eyeliners and brow pencils tighter than teeth on a night guard.

When I start with Pro-Prime in the morning, my eye makeup still looks fresh and crease-free at dinner, even on hot, muggy days.


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There are 37 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Eyes, Makeup, NARS, Unsung Heroes Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

NARS Unsung Heroes: Amour Blush

June 18th, 2011 by Karen 41 Comments

NARS Amour blush

You know what they say: you never forget your first NARS blush (well, I’m sure someone says that).

I remember mine like it was yesterday… I’d just gotten my first paid freelance writing gig, an interview for a small magazine that paid a whopping $25. Man, I was all kinds of nervous, but I got through it without making a terrible fool out of myself, and at the end I felt such relief that I decided to treat myself with makeup.

I made a beeline for Sephora, setting my mind on finding something pretty to wear with NARS Dolce Vita Lipstick, which I was wearing at the time.

I asked a friendly sales associate at the store for ideas, and his eyes lit up immediately. He knew just the thing and pulled out a pan of matte peachy pink NARS Amour Blush ($27).

He beckoned me to come closer. I did, and he swept a layer of Amour on my cheeks, and then gestured toward a mirror. “Pretty!” I exclaimed when I saw the combo with Dolce Vita. It was amour at first sight. 🙂

Ever since then I’ve thought of Amour blush as my interview blush/power tie. It’s one of the products I reach for when I want a polished, confident cheek flush that doesn’t overpower my eye or lip makeup.

If the $27 price tag ties your stomach in knots (a perfectly understandable reaction), keep this in mind: it packs off-the-chart pigment, which means you probably won’t have to use a lot. I’ve had mine for years, and despite using it about once a week, I still haven’t made much of a dent in the pan.

Amour is sometimes referred to as a matte NARS Orgasm, but I find it noticeably redder that that, with less peach. The color seems to vary widely on different skin tones, sometimes appearing more coral, other times more pink or red. One thing it almost always does, however, is look natural, and I think it looks particularly great on gals with golden undertones on skin that pulls to the warmer side of the spectrum.

NARS Amour blush

NARS Amour blush
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Categories: Makeup, NARS Keywords: nars, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: This Lip Pencil Is In Synch

June 15th, 2011 by Karen 63 Comments

Can I tell you a secret? Okay, first, you have to promise not to tell. It’s not that I’m embarrassed or anything… Well, maybe a little, but here goes: sometimes, when I’m alone, I rock out to old ‘N Sync songs.

There, I said it.

Hey now, don’t judge! 🙂 Their Celebrity album was actually pretty good.

Someone at MAC even named one of the company’s Lip Pencils after the band (well…), and it happens to be today’s Unsung Hero, In Synch ($13).

Fate is such a fickle mistress, isn’t she? I almost never met this yellowish pastel pink because for a long time I’d always just assumed it would be too light for my coloring (I’m usually more of a Subculture kinda gal). Then I decided to give it a try one day on a whim.

And I’m so glad I did! In Synch hasn’t left my side in almost a month, and it hasn’t been away from my lips for long during that time. As a matter of fact, I wore it practically every day when I was Vancouver last week. I just love the look — a very pretty nude lip a la Kim Kardashian.


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Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

MAC Unsung Heroes: Soba Eyeshadow

June 12th, 2011 by Karen 34 Comments

mac soba eyeshadow

It’s easy to see how casual beauty bystanders and makeup window shoppers could mistake MAC as primarily purveyors of bold, bright eyeshadows. The brand does love brights, after all, but that doesn’t mean they skimp on their neutrals.

Take warm golden brown Soba Eyeshadow ($14.50), for instance. With just a hint of golden sheen and very little red or orange in it, Soba is one of my very favorite browns, and I wear it often in the crease.

Like MAC Soft Brown, another one of my favorites, I think of Soba as an “anchor shade” — one of those colors I know I can build entire looks around, and my pan sees plenty of exercise (LOL!), mostly in my crease and, for contouring and to contrast shimmery shades, below my lower lash line. I think it’s a great substitute for Soft Brown, particularly if you’re looking for something either more golden or less orange/red.

At least once a week I’ll wear a look starring Soba on my lids and in my crease, incorporating MAC Feline Eye Kohl on my upper and lower waterlines and black mascara on my lashes. It an easy, clean look that only takes a couple of minutes to do, and because it’s also neutral, it looks great with almost any lip color.

mac soba eyeshadow pan

mac soba eyeshadow swatch
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Categories: Eyes, MAC Makeup, Unsung Heroes Keywords: mac, unsungheroes

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