MAC Makeup

MAC Unsung Heroes: This Lip Pencil Is In Synch

June 15th, 2011 by Karen 63 Comments

Can I tell you a secret? Okay, first, you have to promise not to tell. It’s not that I’m embarrassed or anything… Well, maybe a little, but here goes: sometimes, when I’m alone, I rock out to old ‘N Sync songs.

There, I said it.

Hey now, don’t judge! 🙂 Their Celebrity album was actually pretty good.

Someone at MAC even named one of the company’s Lip Pencils after the band (well…), and it happens to be today’s Unsung Hero, In Synch ($13).

Fate is such a fickle mistress, isn’t she? I almost never met this yellowish pastel pink because for a long time I’d always just assumed it would be too light for my coloring (I’m usually more of a Subculture kinda gal). Then I decided to give it a try one day on a whim.

And I’m so glad I did! In Synch hasn’t left my side in almost a month, and it hasn’t been away from my lips for long during that time. As a matter of fact, I wore it practically every day when I was Vancouver last week. I just love the look — a very pretty nude lip a la Kim Kardashian.

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Soba Eyeshadow

June 12th, 2011 by Karen 34 Comments

mac soba eyeshadow

It’s easy to see how casual beauty bystanders and makeup window shoppers could mistake MAC as primarily purveyors of bold, bright eyeshadows. The brand does love brights, after all, but that doesn’t mean they skimp on their neutrals.

Take warm golden brown Soba Eyeshadow ($14.50), for instance. With just a hint of golden sheen and very little red or orange in it, Soba is one of my very favorite browns, and I wear it often in the crease.

Like MAC Soft Brown, another one of my favorites, I think of Soba as an “anchor shade” — one of those colors I know I can build entire looks around, and my pan sees plenty of exercise (LOL!), mostly in my crease and, for contouring and to contrast shimmery shades, below my lower lash line. I think it’s a great substitute for Soft Brown, particularly if you’re looking for something either more golden or less orange/red.

At least once a week I’ll wear a look starring Soba on my lids and in my crease, incorporating MAC Feline Eye Kohl on my upper and lower waterlines and black mascara on my lashes. It an easy, clean look that only takes a couple of minutes to do, and because it’s also neutral, it looks great with almost any lip color.

mac soba eyeshadow pan

mac soba eyeshadow swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Dollymix Sheertone Shimmer Blush

June 11th, 2011 by Karen 45 Comments

mac dollymix blush

Okay, okay. So I know this bright hot pink looks totally and completely scary in its pan, but I swear, MAC Sheertone Shimmer Blush in Dollymix ($19.50) will not leave you looking like a creepy, horror movie clown. Scouts honor!

When applied with a light hand, this bright rosy pink gives cheeks a charming flush with a light sheen, like you’ve been skipping around the neighborhood hand in hand with your BFF, covertly cradling a basket filled with contraband flowers stolen from your neighbor’s front yard (er, not that I’d know).

It doesn’t take much Dollymix to deliver a natural flush, and one pan should last roughly, well, forever. I’ve had mine since 2007, and even though I use it a few times a week (I like to apply mine with a fan brush), I’ve barely made a dent in the pan.

mac dollymix blush

mac dollymix blush swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: The 224 Tapered Blending Brush

June 10th, 2011 by Karen 21 Comments

mac 224

Pffzzt! BAM!

We have just traveled through time, you and I. Notice the placement of the logo on my MAC 224 Tapered Blending Brush ($29). Yes, that brush is 10 years old.

mac 224
New brushes on top; old school 224 on the bottom

Even though I’ve had it for a decade, I’ve only recently become super duper obsessed with this soft, medium-sized, dome-shaped eyeshadow brush.

I remember originally buying it to apply eyeshadow in the crease, which is how I know it’s used by many MACaholics, but for a long time I felt that it tended to lay down too much color. It had been in my halfhearted, semi-regular rotation for about a year before it found its way to the Island of Lost Tools.

So there it lived, on the Island of Lost Tools, lonely and neglected for years while I moved on to the fantabulous MAC 217. On occasion, I’d visit and call it out to help me with some blending, but for the most part, there it stayed.

Then, one day not very long ago (just a few weeks), I tried it with MAC Prolongwear Concealer.

Hello, awesome! 🙂

mac 224

mac 224
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Crosswires Lipstick

June 9th, 2011 by Karen 49 Comments

mac crosswires lipstick

If I tried to corral the coral lipsticks in my makeup collection, gurl, it would cause a stampede. Those corals are wild at heart because I let them run free. I mean, why confine them to summer when they look so good 12 months a year?

Next to pink, coral is one of my favorite lip colors, and those lil’ waxy bullets regularly melt my heart, like today’s Unsung Hero, MAC Cremesheen in Crosswires ($14.50).

It’s a punchy, pigmented pinkish orange, and it’s one of the shades I wear often when I want “look at me” lips. I’ve seen it worn by fair- and dark-skinned gals in a variety of NW and NC tones, and no matter what, I think it pretty much always looks hot. It just might be the MAC permanent line’s most wearable coral.

Maybe it’s the pink tones in Crosswires that really set it apart for me. The shade may not be as seductive as some of MAC’s reddish corals (like MAC Viva Glam Cyndi) or as electric as others (like MAC Costa Chic), but it’s sweet, and that’s something I like.

mac crosswires lipstick
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This MAC Sized To Go Eye Makeup Remover Is a Pro

June 7th, 2011 by Karen 41 Comments

When it comes to skincare products, I have commitment issues, and it’s probably one of the many reasons I like the little bottles and jars in MAC Sized to Go.

By shrinking nine products down to 1-oz. in size and setting their prices (almost) accordingly, MAC made the products easier to travel with and try.

Like the $10 Sized to Go Pro Eye Makeup Remover, one of the gentlest, most soothing (it contains cucumber extract) and hydrating eye makeup removers my eyes have ever seen. Unlike many other removers, it neither stings my peepers nor makes me see clouds. And even when I use it to remove makeup along my waterlines, I don’t shed a single tear (a rare thing).

A few drops on a cotton ball take care of everything from light powders to heavy duty stuff like Fluidline and Prolongwear Concealer, all without leaving an oily residue behind. I don’t even have to rinse if off with water, as if it wasn’t awesome enough, and after using it my skin feels clean, hydrated and fresh.

I have a feeling I’ll be reaching for it often, since it’s small enough to hide in a pocket or a small purse.

But like Achilles, every hero has a weakness.
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Patience Is a Virtue MAC Cleanse Off Oil/Tranquil Makeup Remover/Cleanser Doesn’t Have

June 5th, 2011 by Karen 23 Comments

I’ve been wanting to try MAC Cleanse Off Oil/Tranquil (a makeup remover/cleanser) for ages, but every time I came close to bringing a bottle home with me from a MAC counter, something eye-catching would always steal my attention away. More often than not, it was something sparkly, or pink, or sparkly AND pink.

But I bet I still would have pulled the trigger anyway if it hadn’t been for the price… Thirty dollars for a 5-oz. bottle? Fuggedaboutit.

The new $10 MAC Sized to Go version of Cleanse is harder to ignore. It packs 1-oz. of the same oil-based makeup remover/cleanser into a handy, TSA-approved bottle. Other than the smaller size and the fact that this bottle’s clear (the larger one is blue), the products are exactly the same. In terms of value, however, the larger bottle is a much better deal ($6/ounce instead of $10), but it’s also too large for carry-on air travel.

Designed for dry, “mature” and/or stressed-out skin, Cleanse is one of two cleansing oils in the MAC skincare line. If you’re sensitive to mineral oil, it doesn’t contain a drop. Instead, it contains a bunch of botanicals like sea grass extract, peach leaf and bisabolol (a colorless oil derived from chamomile; used for hundreds of years in cosmetics for its purported anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties).

The full-size 5-oz. bottle costs $30; the 1-oz. MAC Size to Go version costs $10
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MAC Sized to Go and I Are Hitting the Road Together

June 3rd, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

MAC Sized to Go

Even though I feel like I’m getting a little better at packing (thanks to the power of the pre-made list), I still stress out over how to bring my liquid beauty products on trips.

I swear, those little zip-top bags the TSA makes you use are cruel. They’re never big enough to hold everything I ~~want~~ need, but now MAC has a possible solution. Thanks to the new MAC Sized to Go line, I shouldn’t ever have to leave home without at least some of my MAC must-haves again.

The new collection, coming soon to MAC freestanding stores, contains nine miniature versions of MAC skin care favorites in tiny 1-oz. bottles and tubes.

Aren’t they cute? 🙂

MAC Sized to Go

MAC Sized to Go
Mini me!

MAC Sized to Go
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