I’ve had painting on the brain lately for two reasons — one, because I’ve been spending practically every free moment at Home Depot because we’re planning some much-needed repairs and updates to the house this summer, including painting the place from top to bottom, because when El Hub and I purchased our place and moved in about a decade ago, we had no idea what we were doing. We were first-time homeowners, and the whole process was (and still is kinda) a mystery. We painted the interior with a flat finish, but flat finish is not your friend when you live with a toddler and/or a perpetually ravenous tabby who eats with reckless abandon and gets gravy splashes on the walls. Go with eggshell, homie. Eggshell is the way! It’s so much easier to clean.
The second reason I’ve had painting on the brain lately is because of the new MAC eL Seed collection, which is coming out in a few days. It’s one of those LE releases that just feels so artsy to me, which I guess makes sense since it’s a collaboration with an artist. eL Seed is a Tunisian graffiti artist who was raised in Paris, and he’s famous for combining Arabic script with graffiti.
It gave me the urge to paint! — and not just because of the gorgeous eye and face palette…
It’s the brushes.
Ooh, the brushes… They’re unusually long for makeup brushes.
They look like legit painter’s brushes to me.
I was doing makeup with them the other day and got to thinking about how I forget all the time that makeup really *is* painting. When you think about it, it’s so much like what painters do when they put brush to canvas. You’ve got your pigments and paint, and when you sit down to buff and blend everything on the blank canvas that is your face, you paint a temporary work of art. It’s so cool!
Funny thing is, I never really thought of myself as an “art person.” When I was in high school, I was in band and played every instrument under the sun, so I was a total music nerd, and I was also on the newspaper, but the last true art class I took was in eighth grade (which I got a B+ in, by the way!). That’s the extend of my art training.
So I don’t think of myself as an artist, but makeup is art! For a few minutes (almost) every day, as I’m painting my lids and my lips and everything else, I get to be in touch with my inner eighth-grade artist, or rather, ahr-teest.
And you know what else is super cool? There’s so much freedom in makeup as art. We can use as much color or as little as we want, depending on how we feel that day. We can go subtle, or we can go bold, and the next morning, the canvas is blank again and ready to go for another piece of everyday art that we get to share with the world.
To think, we have that much freedom to express ourselves, and the possibilities are endless!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
The MAC eL Seed collection, available on the MAC website in North America April 8th and April 11th at select MAC locations
LIPSTICK
- Declaring Love — bright cool pink (matte)
- Maya La Belle — bright orange red (matte)
- Un Baiser — pinky nude (matte)
- Une Caresse — cool dirty brown/plum (matte)
- Suggested Retail Price: $19.50 US
FULL FACE KIT: CICERO
- Shroom Eye Shadow — soft beige with shimmer (satin)
- Petit Lion Eye Shadow — peachy beige (matte)
- Honey Lust Eye Shadow — bronze-dipped peach (lustre)
- Ksar Eye Shadow — peach beige with pink sparkles (lustre)
- Chott Eye Shadow — platinum metal (VLXP)
- Finjan Eye Shadow — intense warm rosy brown (matte)
- Teboulbou Eye Shadow — pink/brown plum (VLXP)
- Texture Eye Shadow — peachy-brown with shimmer (velvet)
- Gabrielle Powder Blush — intense bright cool pink (matte)
- Les Portes Bleus Eye Shadow — bright vivid blue (matte)
- Carbon Eye Shadow — black (matte)
- Handwritten — dirty warm brown (matte)
- Carnal Charm — intense orange coral (matte)
- Vidigal Powder Blush — cool intense pink (matte)
- Matmata — indigo blue (matte)
- Suggested Retail Price: $66.00 US
EXTRA DIMENSION SKINFINISH
- Dima’s Glow — warm golden shimmer
- Suggested Retail Price: $36.00 US
BRUSH BAG KIT
- 600SES — Slanted LipBrush
- 577SES — Eye Blending Brush
- 578SES — Shader Brush
- 466SES Angled Cheek Brush
- Suggested Retail Price: $49.50 US
Good luck choosing between all of those whites, lol! That is the hardest color to pick! I don’t really consider myself and artist either but I am really into makeup so maybe I’m more artsy than I thought! I really like those pink brushes and could use some new ones so maybe I will invest, seems like a well rounded set.
There’s SO many. I’ll probably end up with something cooler-toned, since cooler tones are supposed to be more soothing.
Re: the brushes, the handles are REALLY long. I found them a little difficult to use, but then again I prefer a standard issue length on my makeup brushes. I do have to say that the angled brush in the set is EPIC. Like crazy good, even with the long handle. I was able to draw a perfect wing from the get go.
So I am a terrible painter like so so bad. Streaky, drips, bad. I find Sherwin Williams much much better than Behr or other Home Depot paints because of the quality and how the end product looks. There’s also usually coupons in the mail!
Also I loveeee your makeup in this! Gorgeous!
Thanks for the info, Jade! It never occurred to me that house paints actually vary in quality, DOH! Silly me. The last time this place was painted was ages ago. I’m not sure if we’re going to keep the current color (a cooler-toned very light grayish beige) or go for something different. What colors do you have on your walls right now?
Basically fifty shades of gray. A really light cool toned gray with white trim. I live in a condo built in the 80s so really wanted to keep it bright and fresh and airy. Then an accent in a built in bookshelf wall of bright teal. Bedroom is darker purple gray. And for my office/getting ready room I have noooo idea what I want to do yet. Still bright and airy but no freakin clue. Ideas?
I did a lot of painting (especially portraits and pics of people) and drawing in high school. I really enjoy it but I don’t do it often enough! Actually, my art teacher teaching us to mix colors for skin tones is where I learned about undertones, and it really helped me when I started doing makeup.
I’d be terrible at painting walls! I helped paint Zack’s mom’s house once though.
I don’t consider myself an artist either, my creativity is pretty limited. That shows in my usual brownish eye looks as well as in every other aspect of my life, I guess.
Oh, goodness on the whites. It took me a long time to pick one for one of our rooms but I went with something a tad warmer (I find it more comforting than the cools). I will tell you that our experience has been that satin is much easier to clean than eggshell for “high traffic” areas like the kitchen – or, heck, any walls when the boys were little. HAHA! There is a bit more sheen but it’s still quite subtle (I find). I like your makeup/paint analogy and it’s quite apt because I’m terrible at both. The Hubs once asked me if I was painting badly on purpose when we did the kitchen walls (so he’d have to do it). I was not. 🙁 But, now I’m going to think of you as my makeup Bob Ross. You just need a bit of a ‘fro and to tell me to add a happy, little tree somewhere on my face. 😉
Makeup is absolutely an art. As for the collection: I’m here for that black and fuchsia packaging! The palette looks really pretty.
Benjamin Moore is the Chanel of paints. I love their Colonial Williamsburg palette. One of their palettes has a really relaxing sea green/blue color, kind of a “spa” color – many palettes do, and I love them! Neutral but with depth.
I Iove this packaging. The look you created is so pretty, too!