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MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 Gift Sets: Patentpolish Pink and Nude Kits

October 17th, 2016 by Karen 14 Comments

mac fearless — Wearing MAC Fearless Patentpolish from the Nutcracker Sweet Pink Patentpolish Kit ($35)

Excuse me while I touch up my lips…

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I had one of these cute MAC Patentpolish minis in my hand, and I had to do it. You just can’t not do it.

These are so tiny! I swear, all we need now are a bunch of cute kittens. That would be heaven. 🙂

These are two more of the gift sets from the new MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday collection, and I know we’ve been talking a lot about MAC Nutcracker Sweet lately, but it’s a big collection!

Each of these two $35 kits — Nude and Pink — has four mini MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils, which are normally $21 each for the full-size versions in the permanent collection.

So, I had a major MacGyver moment the first time I tried to open one of these. They open like little drawers, and for the life of me, I could not get the pencils out. They were really wedged in there.

I ended up using a bobby pin that I’d been using to pin my bangs back and sort of jimmied it into the side to pop them out one at a time.

Just FYI.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

All of these shades are re-promotes from the permanent line, so if you’ve been collecting MAC for a while and already have some of the Patentpolishes, you may already have some of them. If you don’t, though, this might be a chance to get a good deal on a bunch of them at the same time.

Quality-wise, I think these are just as good as the full-size Patentpolishes in the permanent collection. They look and feel exactly the same — same non-sticky, lightweight, moderately moisturizing formula and lip balm-like consistency.

One thing that makes the Patentpolishes so great is that you can build up the coverage in layers from medium to full, but because they feel like a lip balm, their wear time is limited. I have to reapply them every two or three hours, but it’s not a big deal because they’re so easy to have around. You just twist them up and apply. You don’t even need a mirror.

Nude Patentpolish Kit ($35)
Pleasure’s All Mine, a pale warm nude (perm)
It’s Really Me, a warm nude (perm)
Revved Up, a creamy peach (perm)
French Kiss, a warm Caramel (perm)

Pink Patentpolish Kit ($35)
Patentpink, a washed out lilac (perm)
Fearless, a deep bluish pink (perm)
Hopelessly Devoted, a bright clean fuchsia (perm)
Ruby, a mid-tone rose (perm)

mac nutcracker sweet patentpolish kits — MAC Nutcracker Sweet Patentpolish Kits in Pink and Nude

mac nutcracker sweet pink patentpolish swatches — Pink Kit swatches from the left: Patentpink, Fearless, Hopelessly Devoted and Ruby

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MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 Gift Sets: The Cool Eye Compact Eye Shadow X 9

October 17th, 2016 by Karen 18 Comments

mac-nutcracker-sweet-cool-eye-compact-k-final — I’m wearing Performance Art, Marzipan, Quite Spoiled, Absurdly Pretty, Sugar Plum and Nutcracker from the MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 collection Cool Eye Compact Eye Shadow X 9 ($39.50)

In the closet in my office there’s a homage to hoarders/makeup storage area with a bunch of acrylic drawers stacked one on top of the other, inside of which I keep my very favorite workhorse products that I truly love.

Most of the items I review, I give away to friends or family or the women’s shelter, but I put the stuff that I want to keep for myself into those drawers.

One of them is dedicated to MAC Eye Shadow palettes, and whenever I’m in a hurry and just want to throw some makeup on without really having to think about it, that’s my go-to drawer. I know that I can pull anything out of it and basically be OK.

I’m going to put the MAC Cool Eye Compact Eye Shadow X 9 palette in there. 🙂

But I’m not going to stick it in there because it’s the most mind-blowing palette. I’m going to stick it in there mostly because of shock value!

I’m kind of shocked that I like it as much as I do, because I rarely love the MAC holiday eyeshadow palettes, to be honest. I don’t think most of them are as good as the singles in MAC’s permanent line.

But this one is.

I really don’t want to say, “I was surprised that I like this,” but I was really surprised that I like this! It’s actually very good, and I keep trying to find ways to talk myself out of liking it, because I’m just so used to not liking the holiday palettes. The more I use this one, though, the more I like it.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

OK…now let me back up a little. This is one of three X 9 palettes in the MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday collection. We looked at the Smoky one the other day, and I’ll have a review of the Warm one coming soon, but I think this one is my favorite of the group.

I don’t recognize any of the colors, either. I went to the MAC website and typed in their names, and none of them came up, which is cool because MAC’s Eye Shadow palettes are usually heavy with re-promotes.

So many mattes, too! So many of them. MAC holiday eye kits also tend to go all out on shimmer, with maybe a light sprinkling of mattes, but this one has quite a few.

I love using mattes in the crease, on my lower lash line and also as liner. Of course, you can also use shimmers the same way, but I think that if you’re a lady of a certain age, mattes are more forgiving.

The Cool Eye Compact Eye Shadow X 9 ($39.50) — Enchanted Beauty (Lustre), Absurdly Pretty (Matte), Raspberry (Matte), Plum Darling (Lustre), Performance Art (Lustre), Nutcracker (Satin), The Wrong Man (Satin), Sugar Plum (Matte), Marzipan (Matte) and Quite Spoiled (Satin).

It’s one of three X 9 palettes in the MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday collection (the other two are Warm and Smoky).

The set also comes with…

The 214/213 Dual-Ended Brush

mac nutcracker sweet cool eye compact — MAC Nutcracker Sweet Cool Eye Compact Eye Shadow X 9

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MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 Gift Sets: The Gold Pigments and Glitter Kit, and the Bronze Pigments and Glitter Kit

October 13th, 2016 by Karen 18 Comments

mac nutcracker sweet gold — Wearing Heritage Rouge Pigment and Reflects Gold Glitter from the MAC Nutcracker Sweet Gold Pigments and Glitter Set on my eyes; Magic Dust Powder in Sweet Vision on my cheeks and MAC Matte Lipstick in Leap of Delight on my lips, all from the MAC Nutcracker Sweet Collection

Baby love, the times, they are a-changin’, because for once I think I might actually be able to finish an entire jar of MAC Pigment. In my entire history of wearing MAC, I’ve never finished a jar.

You know that they’re big, right? They’re HUGE, but these minis are actually bite-sized and handleable.

There are two pigment and glitter sets in the new MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday collection, along with a bunch of other sets. One of them has a bronze theme, and the other one gold, but both sets are super cute.

If you don’t know anything about the MAC Pigments, basically, in a nutshell, they’re loose, concentrated eyeshadows and glitters, which, on the one hand, are great if you want big, flashy “Oh, hey there, look at me!” eyes that practically beam from across the room, but on the other hand, they’re messy.

That’s the main reason I don’t use them often… The permanent collection jars have a wide mouth, and FOOF! — I’m always tipping them over and getting glitter in my brows, my ear, my bra. It’s a mess.

But these mini jars have a smaller mouth, which makes them easier to handle. I just tap a little on a paper towel and pick it up from the towel with my brush, and if there’s any left over, I kind of scoot it back into the jar.

So, in the process of doing the look I’m wearing in these pics (I’m wearing the Sweet Gold kit, BTW), I discovered that my new favorite thing in the whole wide world is inner corner glitter. It is basically the sh*t.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

As a glitter person, I usually like to just splash it all over my eyes, but if you take a little of the glitter (here I’m wearing Gold Reflects, the gold glitter from the gold kit), pick it up with a wet brush (something like MAC Fix +), and concentrate most of it in the inner corner and fade that out as you move toward the center of your lid, I think it looks really cool.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it completely distracts from my dark circles while still being flashy and fun.

Between these two kits, I recognize several of the colors in the Gold kit, like Gold Reflects Glitter and Heritage Rouge, from the permanent line, but I don’t recognize anything in the Bronze kit, so if you’re looking for something more exclusive and unique, the Bronze kit might be the one to pick up.

MAC Nutcracker Sweet Gold Pigments and Glitter Kit ($35) — English Gilt Pigment (not perm), Reflects Gold Glitter (perm), Rust Glitter (perm) and Heritage Rouge Pigment (perm)

MAC Nutcracker Sweet Bronze Pigments and Glitter Kit ($35) — Sugar Rush Pigment (not perm; don’t think I’ve seen it before), Stardream Pigment (not perm), Handsome Prince Pigment (not perm) and Reigning Riches Glitter (not perm)

mac nutcracker sweet pigment glitter sets — The MAC Nutcracker Sweet Pigments and Glitter Kits next to an iPhone 6S Plus for scale

mac nutcracker sweet gold pigments and glitter — MAC Nutcracker Sweet Gold Pigments and Glitter Kit: English Gilt Pigment, Reflects Gold Glitter, Rust Glitter and Heritage Rouge Pigment

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The MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 Collection

October 12th, 2016 by Karen 24 Comments

mac saucy little darling — From the MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday 2016 collection, the Eye Kohls in Powersurge (as a base all over my lids), Feline (upper lash and water lines) and Prunella (lower lash and water lines), Magic Dust Eye Shadows in Dark Lullaby (lids), Mustache (upper lash line), Rabblerouser and Pretty Dainty (crease), Forward March (just underneath my inner brow bones) and Dance Flowers Dance (tear duct)! The lipstick is Saucy Little Darling.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

This is gonna sound pretty band-geeky of me (well, I was a band geek), but some of the best flute parts EVER are in the MAC…

Wait — the MAC?

I almost said “in the MAC Nutcracker Sweet,” what!

I meant to say, “in the [actual] Nutcracker Suite,” as in the piece of music from the ballet, and I know this because I played it in high school.

Nutcracker Sweet! In MAC’s case, it’s spelled S-W-E-E-T, and if that doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what planet you’re from. 🙂 Because I love sweet things, and this collection is definitely sweet.

MAC always goes big for the holidays. This post is just about the color collection. There are also a bunch of kits and sets which I’ll be wearing and testing over the next week.

So what do you think of the limited edition packaging?

mac nutcracker sweet — MAC Nutcracker Sweet for Holiday 2016

I think it’s SO pretty — the bright pink, plum and those touches of gold. Right away, my eyes went BIG, and not just because I spotted three of my favorite liners of all time — Prunella, Powersurge (don’t even get me started about Powersurge) and Feline. Yes, they’re re-promotes, I know, but there are also some new things in this collection, like the Magic Dust Eye Shadows, which are indeed magically dusty, but not in a bad way. More like magic makeup fairy dust.

Seriously, why aren’t all MAC eyeshadows like these? They’re smooth, sensationally soft, and when I was swatching them, I kid you not, I just kept going ooh, ah, give it to me…

OK, that sounded kind of nasty…

Let’s just start with the lip products, shall we?

Lips…

Cremesheen Lipstick in Kingdom of Sweet ($18)

mac kingdom of sweets — Cremesheen Lipstick in Kingdom of Sweets

WHAT IS IT? I usually shy away from creamy, pale pastel pinks like Kingdom of Sweets because they’re infinitely difficult to wear, especially if you have dry lips. They settle into my fine lip lines, but Kingdom of Sweets doesn’t.

SHOULD YOU GET IT? Yes. Hell, yes. I hardly ever wear colors like this, but I want to wear this one right now. It’s smooth, comfortable and easy to use, which are all the things I want from a pale pastel pink lipstick.

Matte Lipstick in Flamboyish ($18)

mac flamboyish — Matte Lipstick in Flamboyish

WHAT IS IT? I wanna be Flamboyish! This hot pink is BRIGHT, and it reminds me a lot of Candy Yum Yum, which, I believe, is slightly lighter.

SHOULD YOU GET IT? I’m on the hot pink train, toot-toot! Destination Hot Pink Matte Lipstick-ville. So yes, I would hop on the Flamboyish train. It’s smooth for a matte, which, as you know, can be difficult to wear. It’s also opaque.

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The MAC Selena Matte Eyeshadows and Lipsticks Take Center Stage

September 15th, 2016 by Karen 20 Comments

¡Finalmente! The MAC Selena collection!

Fans of beloved Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, whose life was tragically cut short in 1995 at 23 years old, made this collection happen, and MAC heeded the call.

While I was testing and reviewing, I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about Selena, like how her favorite colors were purple and black and her favorite flower was a white rose.

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t know much about her before this release, but I did know that she rocked bold red lips and sang a couple of songs that were very popular when I was in college.

Her artistic legacy and spirit inspired the 13-piece MAC Selena collection, which Selena’s sister Suzette helped create. It includes three new shades of lipstick ($18 each), including a dupe for a red taken from the makeup case Selena took with her when she went on the road; five new eyeshadows ($17 each); a new blush duo ($29); a new gloss ($17); and three re-promoted items from the MAC permanent line ($18 Opulash Mascara, $21 Boot Black Liquid Eye Liner and the $35 129SH Powder/Blush Brush).

MAC Select Obsessed & Devoted Members (MAC’s version of Sephora VIB) get early access to the collection in an exclusive pre-sale September 28. For everyone else, it arrives October 1 on the MAC website and in stores October 6 through November 17, 2016.

mac selena eyeshadows — The MAC Selena collection Eye Shadows ($17 each)

mac selena collection techno cumbia — MAC Selena Techno Cumbia ($29)

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The Falling Tokyo Leaves, Cat Lady #lifegoals and the Essie Fall 2016 Collection

September 14th, 2016 by Karen 19 Comments

essie kimono over — Creamy plum Essie Kimono Over ($9, one of six shades in the limited edition Essie fall 2016 collection)

This is going to sound terribly cat lady of me (really, what did you expect?), but how’s this for a plan? — you, me, the Essie fall 2016 collection and Toyko in the fall. We could traipse down Icho Namiki Avenue with our manis and pedis and see how many cute maneki-nekos we can find.

Of course, we’d also have to stuff our pockets with cat treats just in case any real city kitties cross our path…

OK, that may have been the most CCL thing I’ve ever written.

Well…probably not. 🙂

Anyway, Tokyo! In the fall! It was the inspiration for the Essie fall 2016 collection.

I’ve never been to Japan before, but I just googled “tokyo in the fall,” and it looks AMAZING.

Now one of my #lifegoals is to visit Tokyo in the fall to see the autumn leaves changing.

I don’t know much about Tokyo, but I always picture a bustling city (I blame this on watching Lost in Translation a few hundred times… It’s one of my favorite movies.), so I was surprised to find out that Essie was inspired by the colors of Tokyo’s fall foliage.

Essie fall 2016 is a six-piece limited edition collection, available right meow, and the polishes are $9 each.

Easy-peasy

This has to one of my favorite Essie collections of all time because there are usually one or two colors in their collections that I end up having to baby a little, like by having to use several layers because of how super sheer they are (I prefer full opacity) or by having to remove my polish and practice a few times with one of them that ends up being streakier than the others, but all six of these shades are a breeze to use…

essie maki me happy — Essie Maki Me Happy

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SO HAWT! Too Faced Lip Injection Glossy Juicy Color Plumping Lip Gloss

September 9th, 2016 by Karen 8 Comments

Holy habaneros, girl! Somebody grab a fire extinguisher because my lips are on FIYAHHH! — and I’m not talking jalapeños. I’m talking next-level ghost pepper to the Nth degree flames rising up from the depths of the earth’s primordial molten core HOT! ?? That’s how my lips feel when I wear these new Too Faced Lip Injection Glossy Juicy Color Plumping Lip Glosses.

These bees sting like battling rivals on the dance floor!

Thankfully, it does subside after a few minutes…

So, yeah…on one hand, I feel like I’m making out with a ghost pepper when I wear these, but on the other hand, I like how they shine (like the twinkle in Nick Jonas’ eye when he sings about lost love).

I also like how long they last and how thick they feel, so they stick to my lips for 3-4 hours.

too faced lets flamingle — Let’s Flamingle, a watermelon pink

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MAC Liptensity Collection Lip Swatches and First Impressions

September 8th, 2016 by Karen 21 Comments

I wonder what it’s like to see things like Maureen Seaberg does, who used her genetic tetrachromatic ability to see 100 million color variations in her collaboration with MAC on the new MAC Liptensity Lipstick collection (coming Sept. 20 to the MAC website).

I bet it would be a lot cooler than what I usually see…which is barely anything half the time, LOL! Could somebody pass my glasses, please?

mac postmodern — MAC Liptensity Lipstick in Postmodern

I just powered through these swatches, so a few of them are a little dicey. My apologies, but homegirl was flyin’! Some of the darker shades definitely could have used more babying, particularly Stallion, the black shade, and dark Blue Beat.

Hey, ma, I did my best in the two minutes I alloted myself to do each of them, but they’re the kind of colors that could easily take 15 minutes to apply flawlessly.

mac habanero — MAC Liptensity in Habanero

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