Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
I’ve had sun on my mind lately and felt inspired this morning to reach for a few brighter-than-bright items from MAC’s Neo Sci Fi collection. I didn’t really feel like going buck wild with a lot of blending or a wide variety of products with my look today, and I limited myself to just two (!) eyeshadows. Oh, and because I woke up a little late this morning (surprise!), I only had 15 minutes to get ready for work. 🙂
The MAC Cool Heat collection debuts today, and not even 2,500 miles of open ocean can stand in its way. Here’s a quick Hawaii-inspired face of the day with a few of the products. 🙂
Of the Cool Heat products I’ve used so far, Climate Blue Eyeshadow moves me the most. I love its soft texture and dark blue color.
Brows
Dark circles (yep, they came with me on vacation!)
Face
Cheeks
Lips
These pictures were taken at Haiku Gardens, just steps away from my in-law’s house. It’s a beautiful garden with a pond (and resident turtles) and a small chapel for weddings. Haleiwa Joe’s Seafood Grill, perched on a hillside overlooking the garden, is packed every night with diners from the area. It’s also one of comedian Adam Sandler’s favorite hangouts when he visits the island.
Eye Shadows, $14 each
Solar White (frost) – frosty muted white gold
Warming Trend (veluxe pearl) – frosty light taupe
Warm Chill (frost) – frosty seafoam green with gold pearl
Gulf Stream (frost) – frosty mid-tone blue green with green pearl
Cool Heat (frost) – frosty teal with multi-dimensional pearl
Climate Blue (velvet) – mid-tone violet blue with pink pearl
Blue Flame (veluxe pearl) – dirty metallic navy blue
Slimshine Lipsticks, $14.50 each
Tropic Glow (frost) – blue pink with silver pearl
By Degrees (frost) – neutral brown pink
Gentle Summer (frost) – light clean yellow pink with white pearl
High 90’s (frost) – clean pink orange
Swelter (frost) – sheer clean red
Scents, $22.50 each
Turquatic – notes include cedar, lotus leaves
Turquatic Heat – notes include lotus flower, jasmine, Tahitian tiare flower
If these colors appeal to you, get out there and snag your Cool Heat loot! If you’re a US resident and live near a MAC store, print and bring this coupon with you to the counter to get 15% off your purchase.
I enjoyed snorkeling at Shark’s Cove yesterday and saw lots of amazing fish. I believe I even swam with a few different schools (unless we were all just headed the same way). How academic, LOL! 🙂
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This week I received some nice e-mails asking about the smokey eye makeup I wore to my lil’ brother’s graduation last weekend. This morning, I thought I’d try the full face look again.
As far as complete looks are concerned, this one is quick and easy to do. I used shades from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad, a versatile set with four basic, but pretty shades of pink, peachy gold, green and light brown. The look works well for the office or for things like family functions or semi-formals.
The corresponding shades from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad (Note: For this look, I didn’t use the pink shade):
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Happy Monday! Talk about unexpected. I woke up this morning feeling extra spunky — and that was even before my first cup of coffee. It’s standard operating procedure for me to wake up on Mondays feeling grouchy, so to celebrate this minor miracle I decided to go big and bold with a full face inspired by the hot pink lip I wore a few days ago in this cosmopolitan-inspired lip look.
These lips stand out from a mile away, so I went with a soft pink and silver eye to add some semblance of balance to the look.
So, I’m trying to figure out what makeup look to wear to the midnight Sex and the City show tonight. Purple + smokey eye = a lil’ bit out of my comfort zone, but I thought I’d give it a whirl.
Today felt like a bold lip kinda day for me, so I decided to take Chanel Leopard Hydrabase Lipstick out for a spin. I didn’t want Leopard to be lonely, so I paired her with her new best friend, the Chanel Oasis Quad (from this year’s summer collection)!
This coral and brown eye riffs on the blue and green eye I did a few weeks ago. I used the same basic eyeshadow layout this time but switched out the blue and green shadows for neutral tones to balance with the coral-red lipstick.
Two layers of eye makeup bring this look together. Don’t worry, girl! It’s still easy. 🙂
Shhh… I have a secret beauty tip. If you ever wake up looking like an extra in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, reach for MAC Woodwinked eyeshadow ($14). Its warm, golden shimmer restores life to dead tired eyes.
And good thing it does because I needed it this morning. I was CRANKY! I haven’t slept well this week and for the third day in a row woke up looking like a zombie. When it got time for me to get ready for work, I really wanted to just leave my ratty hair uncombed, throw on some sweats and skip my makeup altogether (gasp!).
But I knew that walking around like that all day long would have made me feel even worse, so I threw on a dress and picked up my pan of Woodwinked.
Fifteen minutes later, zombie girl had left the building. Woodwinked made my eyes look bright, alert and awake. Easy, and fewer calories than a latte.
We’ve had a stretch of unseasonably warm weather here in the Bay Area, but this morning started off overcast and gloomy. To brighten up my Monday, I did this blue and green eye with MAC Parrot and Sprout.
I didn’t feel like going all crazy with the blending, so to keep it simple I limited myself to just three eyeshadow colors. If you’re new to makeup, this would be a super easy look to try! Please ask if you have any questions about reproducing it yourself. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll track down someone who does.
If the blue and green together are a lil’ too much color for you, you can try the look using neutral pairs. I have a feeling gold and brown or pink and brown on the lid and a neutral shade like MAC Shroom on the browbone would look awfully pretty.
