Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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One of the three Vice Lipsticks in the UD X Kristen Leanne collection is called Bun Bun (it’s the neutral one), named after Kristen’s bunny. ?
Isn’t that cute? Anyone who names a lipstick after their beloved fur-baby is A-OK in my book.
Kristen loves color, cruelty-free makeup and tattoos — all fab fits for UD — and there are three $17 matte lippies in her new UD collaboration (available meow). Bun Bun is the neutral, Cloud9 is the beautiful bright purple, and Spellbound is the deep burgundy.
Throughout the entire history of “Karen going to Sephora,” which is a long history, I’ve never gotten as excited about a Sephora Beauty Insider points exchange as I got for this Collectible Pin Set.
How cute is this!? It’s sooo cute, right? I had to (“had to,” air quotes) go to Sephora last week… Was it last week? Yeah, it was just before I got sick.
Anywho… I had to pick up another bottle of Kate Somerville Anti Bac Clearing Lotion because I was down to the last drop, and without it my face totally breaks out. So, I ran to Sephora, grabbed it, grabbed an $8 lipstick too (we’ll talk about that in a second), and when I was at the front counter, I saw this cute little set of four enamel pins.
When the sales associate asked me if I wanted to redeem any points, I didn’t use my standard answer, which is almost always “no” because I’m hardly ever really moved by any of the chintzy samples they give away for like 500 points, but I saw these pins and was like, “YES, GIRL. HOOK A CAT LADY UP.”
OK, there are four pins… There’s a peace sign with painted nails. That one’s very sassy.
There’s this unicorn, whom I’ve named “Treasure.”
This trio of cute little hearts…
The other day someone on Facebook asked what I thought was an incredibly philosophical question. “When will liquid lipstick go out of style?”
As of right now, from where I’m standing in my black stretchy pants, I would have to say that the answer to that query is “never.” They’ve come and gone out of style over the years, but they’ve been running the school this time FOREVER. They’ve been in longer than the longest wear times. It’s been, what, two or three years now? At least.
And now, with MAC’s new line of Metallic Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour Metallics, an opalescent twist on their O.G. 2015 Retro Mattes, there’s even less reason to expect them to go out of style anytime soon.
These 15 LE shades (yes, they’re limited edition) are matte-ish. They slightly vary in terms of subtle shimmer, but it is always subtle. Some are almost completely flat (In Retrograde), and others, like hot pink Buzzed Out, have a pearly finish so “barely there” that you can’t really see it unless you’re all the way up in someone’s grill.
9 things to know about the MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour Metallics
- They’re $21 each, LE and available now on counters and online.
- There are 15 shades with varying levels of metallic pearl.
- The formula feels more like a mousse than a viscous, runny liquid.
- They have that classic MAC vanilla scent and flavor.
- Less is best with these. The more I layer, the thicker, heavier and drier they look.
- The formula is slightly drying and seeks out lip flakes, so prep with lip balm first because you want to apply these to a smooth canvas.
- They last me about 5-6 hours, so the wear time is pretty good.
- You can probably skip liner with most of the shades (the lighter ones), because the pointed doe foot makes it easy to draw smooth lines, but I would use matching liners for the darker colors, because freehand outlining those with the doe foot is hard.
- My favorite favorites are Pearl Punk, In Retrograde and Buzzed Out.
Here are lip swatches of my overall faves (Note: one of them is not the corpse-y gray). BIG surprise! — I’m all about the wearable nudes and the brights. These are the ones I can see myself wearing, but lemme know if there’s another color you’d like me to try on.
Just because you have to do your makeup under the clock and stick to a strict schedule doesn’t mean it has to be a slapdash situation with, like, BAM! — a little eyeshadow here, some eyeshadow there. You can still do looks that are elegant, refined and pretty. You just have to find ways to move the whole process along.
If you’re always looking to save a little time like I am, using multitasking products can help.
But aha! — not all multitasking products are equal, right? Dusty rose NUDESTIX Intense Matte Lip + Cheek Pencil in Purity ($24) works as both a matte blush and a matte lipstick, but in the vast sea of multitasking makeup, its smooth formula makes it exceptional.
What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.
I’ve noticed that the smoother and creamier a multitasking pencil is, especially a matte like this one, the easier it is to push across the skin and manipulate, so when something is creamy like this is and doesn’t skip or tug when you apply it, then it also means that it won’t fight you when you feather it. In the end, you won’t have to spend more time blending than you need to.
This is one of those products where the hardest part of using it is drawing a few stripes on your cheeks. Let’s just do it right now…
Haha! Now that’s a silly sheen, also known as a “Giddy Lustre.” ? MAC has so many gorgeous golden pink lipsticks, and Giddy Lustre is my jolly good golden pink fave. It’s an easygoing pink that most mirthful makeup lovers can wear, be they warm-toned stunners, cool-toned kittens, dark-toned dazzlers, fair mavens, tan temptresses, blonde bombshells, brunette beauties…
Well, you get the idea. It’s one of those flexible flattering shades you can wear with almost anything, and I don’t think it gets the ? it deserves.
What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.
It’s always getting overshadowed by the flashier shimmery golden pinks in the MAC fam, and it’s true, it isn’t as bright as pink Bombshell or frosty as Sandy B. It’s more of an understated pink with restrained golden shimmer, but that’s why I think it looks pricier than it is (it’s $17.50 but looks like it’s $30), and the secret golden shimmer is the sauce. YSL, Chanel and Guerlain better look out! (You too, Tom Ford!)
Giddy is a warm-toned pink lemonade (that smells and tastes like trademark MAC vanilla), and it’s close enough to a neutral that cool-toned kittens can still pull it off. It reads like a my-lips-but-better pink nude on my pigmented lips, and I love it for a quick five-minute face with concealer, black liner, mascara, brows, blush and bronzer. It brightens up the place with a kiss of natural color and a subtle sheen.
OK, these are not for your pulse points. The new Tom Ford Lip Slicks look like roller ball perfumes, but they’re for lips (MWAH!), not wrists.
These lip oils do smell good, though… A little like vanilla, and they taste like it, to, so if you get any crazy ideas, who am I to deny you the thrill of slathering the crook of your neck with a luminous, jojoba- and coconut-laced lip oil?
Knock yourself out, kid.
I’ll be saving each precious drop of these juicy $54 click-y tubes o’ tint for my pout, which is no longer demanding the moisture it so richly deserves thanks to these hydrating helpers.
I’m kinda surprised I like them as much as I do, considering how slippery they are. But the oils feel good. So good… Especially when you’re rubbing the roller ball back and forth, back and forth…
I actually just stopped typing so I could do it with Hibiscus Kiss, and y-e-s, it was satisfying. Just like a Snickers.
Tom is frickin’ crazy if he thinks many women will throw down $54 for a lip tint, but I have to say, I’ve happily handed over $42 to the Sephora monster quite a few times for the Hourglass No. 28 Lip Oil (which is just as moisturizing as this, but thicker, un-tinted and stickier), so $54, while borderline insane for what’s more or less a shiny, tinted lip oil, doesn’t seem like that much more of a jump. Or, that could just be me trying to justify the makeup math in my head. *shrugs*
I could happily spend an entire day (or night!) with a good book on my couch, just reading and reading for hours on end, and maybe that’s one of the reasons I love things that have a good story behind them, even makeup, whether it’s an entire collection like Chanel’s Travel Diary, or individual items with catchy backstories, like the pencils in the NUDESTIX Nude(art)ist Creator’s Palette ($59).
It’s a little funny to me that this is called a palette, because the cute tin actually contains a set of six new full-sized LE shades of NUDESTIX Magnetic Matte Lip Color, the brand’s line of creamy, smooth long-wearing waterproof — I wanna call them liquid lipsticks — lip crayons.
The Magnetic Mattes are three-in-one liquid lipsticks/lip pencils/lip stains, and they last me anywhere from six to nine hours.
Each of the colors in the Creator’s Palette was developed by a different social media influencer, and every one has a story behind it, like matte dark chocolate brown Joyce, which was created by Instagram artist @cydbee, whose first memories of makeup are of her mom putting on her favorite chocolate brown lipstick.
I think that’s so sweet!
I could easily take down either a bucketful of lychees or a bucketful of persimmons, which are two of my Top 5 Fave Fruits of All Time.
Who has a list like that? Apparently, I do.
BAM.
There’s a Lychee and a Persimmon in the MAC Robert Lee Morris collection, but they aren’t in the fruit family! They’re Mattene Lipsticks, and there are six in the limited edition launch, which you’ll only be able to get through December 14th, so if you see something you like, FYI, time is of the essence.
Robert Lee Morris is a renowned jewelry designer, and everything in the collection (there’s also blushes, face powders and brushes) has limited edition packing, which looks kinda medieval to me…like Game of Thrones red wedding jewelry.
The Mattene Lipsticks show up in LE collections every once in a while, and I can’t figure out why MAC just doesn’t make them permanent already, because man, I love the formula!
These pigmented, lightweight semi-matte lipsticks come in a slim bullet, and they aren’t your run-of-the-mill super drying flat mattes. They feel like a straight-up cream, so they’re comfortable and don’t dry out your lips.
The Chanel Velvet formula (which I also love) is very similar.
