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MAC The Matte Lip Collection: Many of These Lipsticks Are Stars, But They Don’t Shine Like Them

May 18th, 2015 by Karen 48 Comments

Many of the matte lipsticks in the new MAC The Matte Lip collection are new, but daaaaaang! — some of the shades sure do look like they jumped out of my hot tub time machine circa 1994.

Like dark brown Antique Velvet? I’m pretty sure I wore something just like it…to every Friday night house party I ever went to.

And just in case you’re wondering…yes, I was that person at the party who was standing uncomfortably in the corner and nursing the same bottle of Zima the entire evening. #datingmyself

All of the $16 lipsticks in the new 22-piece MAC The Matte Lip collection are matte (obvs), with about half of them having MAC’s Matte finish, and the other half their Retro Matte finish, but they aren’t all new. A handful of them are currently available in the permanent line and are being re-promoted here with the launch (like Ruby Woo, All Fired Up, Flat Out Fabulous, Velvet Teddy, Kinda Sexy, Please Me, Heroine and Pink Pigeon).

But most of the 22 shades are new, which is very exciting! Also, technically, this isn’t a MAC collection in the traditional limited edition sense, as all of the colors are either in the permanent line now, or being added to it.

You may still see some familiar names among the batch of new colors as well, though, like Whirl and Stone. Both are currently in MAC’s Lip Pencil line, so if you’re a fan of either one, voila! Now there are matching matte lipstick shades.

Matchy-matchy!

The MAC Mattes vs. the Retro Mattes

Both of the matte finishes represented in the collection are flat, meaning that they shine very little, or not at all, on the lips, but the finishes aren’t the same. The Retro Mattes are more intensely matte than their regular Matte counterparts — extremely flat — and they’re almost like wearing a matte lip pencil.

I think the Retro Mattes also feels drier and thinner than the regular Mattes do, which feel a little “wet” and dense/thick to me.

Oh! — and when I wear the Retro Mattes, I feel like my vertical lip lines are front and center, more so than when I wear the regular Mattes.

As for the colors themselves, what if you refuse to embrace your inner ’90s brown lipstick-loving babe? Does that mean you absolutely won’t like this collection?

No, not necessarily… You don’t have to look like you lived and loved in the era that gave birth to floral spaghetti-strap dresses and baby tees to find something to like in MAC The Matte Lip. 🙂 In addition to the old-school shades, the release also includes some very fashion-forward colors, like deep royal blue Matte Royal, as well as some sweet pinks like Please Me, and several bold, brash brights like purple Heroine and bluish red Ruby Woo.

Here are pics and swatches of 14 of the 22 shades…

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The MAC Wash and Dry Collection Brushes, Makeup Bag, Bronzers and Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Sets

May 5th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Hmm… Just five quarters left!

That should be enough for this last load of MAC Wash and Dry collection products. We have two brushes, a makeup bag, four bronzers and some bits for brows.

Beginning with the brushes and bag…

MAC Wash and Dry Collection: Brushes and Bag

THE BRUSHES

How many are there in the release? There are two brushes in the collection — the 125 Split Fibre Dense Face Brush ($38.50) and 126 Split Fibre Large Face Brush ($46)
Uh…what’s a Split Fibre Brush? Good question. The brush heads are like two sides of a coin and have natural fibers on one side, and synthetic fibers on the other, so it’s designed to work with both cream (the synthetic fibers) and powder products (the natural fibers).
They’re surprisingly handy. Mostly, I’ve been using these for applying products and blending them out, and I’ll apply whatever I’m working with — bronzer or blush, for instance — with one side of one of the brushes, and then I’ll flip the brush over and blend out the edges with the other side. It’s akin to having two different brushes in one.

Both sides feel soft, with the synthetic bristles being slightly stiffer, which makes them ideal for picking up lots of product (like with the Studio Sculpt Bronzing Powders).
How well do they work overall? I think the 126 Split Fibre Large Face Brush ($46) is probably the better value. I like the size of the brush head. It’s big, so it covers a lot of surface area and is good for quickly erasing and diffusing edges. I’ve used it with bronzer, powder and blush, and it works well for them all. It’s a true multitasking tool — yes, on the expensive side, as it’s almost $50 (!), but it’s well-made and versatile.
As for the 125 Split Fibre Dense Face Brush ($38.50), it’s an adequate contouring brush, and it looks cool…but unless you plan to contour every day, you may not get as much use out of it as the Face Brush.
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The MAC Wash & Dry Collection Powder Blushes in Crisp Whites and Hipness

May 4th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

I’m keepin’ it quick this time with a brief breakdown of both Powder Blushes in the soon-to-arrive MAC Wash and Dry collection (May 14 online, May 21 in stores and counters).

First, let’s say “Hi!” to Hipness (then we’ll look at Crisp Whites).

MAC Hipness Powder Blush

The succinct two-sentence summary? Hipness is a warm, peachy coral-ish powder blush with a barely-there satin finish that could almost pass for matte. In fact, it fooled me at first glance, but then I took a closer look at it and saw petite pearlescent particles.

The tech specs? I’m fine with one layer of this highly pigmented powder, which lasts seven or eight hours on my sometimes/places dry, sometimes/places oily combination cheeks. Great on its own, it’s hot dayum! — phenomenal blended with a bronzer (and more on that in a sec).

Have we met before? Why, yes, we have. 🙂 Double-check your MAC collection, because Hipness has performed at this venue before. You may recall it from (2008’s Fafi or 2010’s MAC to the Beach.

For whom would it work well? Bronzed beauties (and barons) are in extra luck. Hipness looks bright, but not excessively bold, on my NC42 skin. If you’re a lighter lass, however, you can still have fun with Hipness. Try mixing a little with bronzer, and then applying that powder potion to your cheeks. The bronzer will tone down the brightness a bit and, bonus! — could save you a little time, because then you wouldn’t have to apply blush and bronzer separately (assuming you would).

This is one of my all-time favorite gotta-get-out-the-door-now tricks, and I actually think that it takes this particular blush to the next level of effortless-ness, no matter what your skin tone.

How do I feel about Hipness? I feel good. I feel good about Hipness. 🙂 I think it’s very flattering and natural-looking, especially when layered or mixed with bronzer. I’m happy to see it making an encore performance in MAC Wash and Dry.

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The MAC Wash and Dry Collection Technakohl Liners: This Time Around, Practice Made a Perfect Blue

May 4th, 2015 by Karen 15 Comments

So. Much. Yes!

Rarely does a liner sweep me off my feet.

I think the last one was MAC Costa Riche. Or was it was BECCA Cabrera…? I’m pretty sure it was one of those two.

Whenever it happens, since it doesn’t happen very often, I almost immediately panic a little. One of my first thoughts is usually along the lines of, “How am I going to function when I wear this down to a nub, which I’ll most certainly do?” Or, how much am I going to freak-the-eff out when I can’t find one of my backups? Because let’s be real — if it’s that good, I’m probably getting a backup. Or two. OK, three.

Seriously, though, I think MAC’s new Technakohl Liner in Practice Makes Perfect is…well, perfect. They should have just called it Perfect and cut out any confusion. I think it’s just about perfect in every single way.

It’s a deep, rich, intensely pigmented bluish green pencil liner with a twist-up tip. Fab for lash lines, of course, but I love, love, LOVE it on my water lines (especially the lower water lines). I think it does wonders for browns eyes, in particular, and I swear mine look more milk chocolatey when I wear it.

It’s fairly no-fuss, too. Compared to some blue liners, where I feel like I have to apply four or five layers to ramp up the intensity to a decent level, I just use two layers of this and I’m good.

On top of that, it’s incredibly smooth and doesn’t migrate or make my sensitive eyes water. I usually reapply after about five hours to freshen it up, which isn’t bad, and even then I’m only adding a little.

Ooh! — the color goes really well with blue, green and khaki clothing (and accessories), and I bet it would also complement gold shadows and golden brown shadows nicely, too.

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Lustrous Lips Are a Lipglass Away With the MAC Wash and Dry Collection

May 1st, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

Boy howdy! These new MAC Wash and Dry Lipglasses will make you tumble dry into some seriously high heat!

Honestly…what does that even mean? I think I might be scraping the bottom of the barrel for new laundromat references. I mean, one can only make so many before they’re tapped.

Laundromats and makeup — leave it to MAC to come up with something crazy like that.

mac wash and dry collection lipglass — The four MAC Wash and Dry Lipglasses from the left: Girl on Board, Laundry List, Hot/Cold and Domestic Diva

There are four $16.50 Lipglasses in the new MAC Wash and Dry collection, and all I have to say about them is this: “Hello, brights!” I would happily roll in the haaay with the three vivid shades. Bronzed beauties, in particular, will probably like bright creamy orange Laundry List (like a glossy version MAC Morange Lipstick), creamy true red Hot/Cold and shimmery pink Domestic Diva. Spreadable like butter, they apply easily and evenly on my lips, but I do feel like the red and orange shades benefit from the help of a lip brush, because they’re hella pigmented.

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The MAC Wash and Dry Collection Lipsticks: Helping Lips Look Lovely While Cleaning Up Their Act

May 1st, 2015 by Karen 14 Comments

Oh, yeah, it’s about to get sudsy in here!!

Wait — what do you mean you don’t have any quarters?

None?? Not even one quarter…?

Who shows up to a laundromat without any quarters?

LOL! I’m just kidding. 🙂 That’s alright. I brought enough quarters for both of us. Have a seat here next to me, and we’ll contemplate the four lipsticks from the new MAC Wash and Dry collection while we wait for our laundry to finish.

Steam Heat: This vivid yellowish red hangs tough from the moment you put it on until the end of the final rinse cycle. And shoot, it doesn’t stop there. In other words, it lasts a really long time — like six, or maybe even seven hours, but that’s only if you can manage to resist that bag of Trader Joe’s cheese puffs in the closet, which is to say that it doesn’t last through meals.

I swear…whenever I open one of those bags of cheese puffs, it is physically impossible to NOT eat at least half the bag in one sitting.

But I digress…

Tumble Dry: Almost better than that moment when you realize that your last load of laundry is done, hurray! This warm-toned light peachy coral nude with soft shimmer is very easy to wear and moisturizing. Sheer enough to allow my natural lip color to peek through, it still packs enough pigment to make an impression.

It’s a perfect summery shade.

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The MAC Wash and Dry Collection Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow Trios Promise to Make Laundry Days and Lids Lovelier

April 30th, 2015 by Karen 21 Comments

Hey, bubbles. 🙂 Just in case you were looking for makeup to wear to the laundromat…

BOOM! MAC Wash and Dry.

Yes, domestic divas, a freaking laundromat serves as the backdrop for MAC’s new summer collection, Wash and Dry.

As a woman who has probably spent approximately one third of her adult life hanging out in laundromats (I didn’t have a washer/dryer until I moved into this condo), I feel qualified to say that this is by far the schmexy-est laundromat of them all.

First, you don’t have worry about running out of quarters, or about somebody stealing your cat t-shirts and stretchy pants out of the dryer, or about that creepy dude lurking in the corner who you suspect intends to flash you. None of those are issues at this facility. In fact, the odds of that man offering to touch up your eye makeup are far greater than the odds of him exposing his manly bits.

This collection is so much more fun than washing and folding clothes. 🙂

It’s a pretty substantial one, too, with four steamy lipsticks (one word: BRIGHTS), four glosses, a couple of blushes, two nail polishes and a bad-@ss highlighting powder (stay tuned for that review) — oh, and bronzers, of course, because it’s not a legitimate MAC summer launch without a guest appearance by Refined Golden, obvs.

For eyes, there are a massive number of brow products, a few liners, a waterproof mascara and three eyeshadow trios, which leads me to this…

I’m wearing Permanent Press, one of the $27.50 Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow Trios from the collection, in this toasty brown, smokey cat eye today, and I had absolutely no trouble blending it, thanks to the silky — almost creamy — Veluxe Pearlfusion formula. It’s super lightweight, so melding the colors into each other doesn’t require a lot of effort with a blending brush.

You can wear them dry, like I’ve done here, for a dreamy metallic shine, or apply them with a wet brush for more of a goddess-emerging-from-the-surf (or the laundry soap suds, in this case) foil-like shine. Either way, they last from 7-8 hours on my combination lids when applied atop primer.
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NARS Enters the False Eyelash Fray With the New NARS Eyelashes False Eyelash Collection

April 17th, 2015 by Karen 13 Comments

We should totally make False Lash Fridays a thing.

You know, like how people do Flashback Fridays on social media? Like that, but we’ll all wear false lashes, and then go about our regular business.

We could posslby even start with these new NARS Eyelashes ($20 each, and being added to the permanent collection).

Wait — say whaaaat!?

Yup, NARS is jumping into the false eyelash fray with a new line of reusable, natural-looking, natural-fiber lashes coming out next month (available in eight styles). How very Shu Uemura of them, right?

They’re all supposed to look reasonably natural, or natural-ish, so there are no insane glitter styles with rainbow gems at the tips.

They also don’t come with lash glue, just as a heads-up, so you’ll need to already have/procure some. A lot of the department store brands (MAC and Shu come to mind) don’t include lash glue with their falsies, so it’s not uncommon…but sometimes it’s still a little inconvenient.

The new NARS Eyelashes ($20 each)

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