MAC Makeup

Meet the MAC Girls, and Rock Out With Rockin’ Rebel

July 27th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

mac girls collection review top1 — Howdy, MAC Girls!

Hmm… Looks like a few palettes are missing from the new MAC Girls collection. (Coming soon! August 3rd!)

I see a Rockin’ Rebel, a Fashion Fanatic and a Mischief Minx…but where’s Feline Friend? Or Pooped Parent? Or Nutella Nut? Methinks MAC missed an opportunity. Those would have spoken to many real life MAC Girls.

Which MAC girl are you?

MAC’s limited edition MAC Girls collection contains six $39.50 palettes, each with eight eyeshadows and a big pan of highlighter. Every palette has a different personality. There’s Rockin’ Rebel, which is the one I’m wearing today, with blues, greens and golds. Mischief Minx, a.k.a. “the warm palette,” keeps cozy with toasty tones of orange, gold and brown. Fashion Fanatic flirts with bright berries, purples and pinks. Basic Bitch — the smokey palette — is a bad-@ss bevy of cool grays, purples and silvers. In Prissy Princess, pinks, grays, browns and taupes reign supreme. And Power Hungry is the only palette in the release that doesn’t have an alliterative name…and it’s bugging me because I can’t think of a catchy pun that starts with “P.” It’s the palette with neutral beiges, browns and bronze.

A couple things are jumping out at me. Like, I can’t remember the last time MAC released a collection that was exclusively comprised of palettes. Can you? Because their palettes are usually just one component of a larger launch, like they usually do for holiday. So that’s cool (and weird!).

mac rockin rebel — I’m about as rebellious as a slice of cheese…but I’d still wear Rockin’ Rebel.

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MAC Lipstick Dreams…

July 14th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

Also known as “the best dreams, ever.”

Just a lot of pretty lipsticks I wanted to photograph together. 🙂 Hope you’re having a great afternoon. Are you doing anything fun involving lipstick tonight?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Happy Independence Day!!!

July 4th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

It’s the Fourth of July, babe!!!! Fireworks! Picnics! Barbecue!!! It’s a national holiday here in the U.S., and most peeps have the day off. If you’re headed to any fun outdoor festivities, don’t forget to wear sunscreen. 🙂

To celebrate ye olde red, white and blue, I’m wearing a red lip today, the new NARS Powermatte Lip Pigment in Starwoman, a warm matte red.

The Powermattes are a new permanent line of 20 lightweight, long-wearing liquid lipsticks coming out July 6th online and at NARS boutiques.

I love the look of warm reds with copper shades, so I paired it with an oldie but goodie called Creative Copper from the MAC Warm Neutrals Palette (which is also perm).

Coppery golden tan Creative Copper has low-level shimmer, and it looks GREAAAAT on lids with MAC Saddle Eye Shadow, which is what I’m doing here. It’s a quick, cool eye look that doesn’t need intense blending, and it goes with a bevvy of beautiful warm lip colors — reds, of course, as well as pinks, corals and oranges. You can also wear it with a warm nude lip, too.

OK, we’re outta here! El Hub and I are taking the baby to Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, a local amusement park for wee little ones. Fun should be had by all.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Soft Glam Makeup for a Friday Night With NARS Kalahari and Mekong

June 30th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

nars kalahari amour mac patisserie — Baby wing!

I got a little gussied up because I’m going out to dinner tonight (as if I needed an excuse to put on makeup, ha!). It’s a belated Geminis birthday dinner with my friend, Marisol, who also celebrated her birthday this month.

I’m calling this “soft glam makeup,” although that’s not my phrase. I’m borrowing it from SoCal sweetheart and makeup artist extraordinaire Vanessa Haro. Vanessa does makeup for weddings and various other photo shoots for booty-licious babes, and I love her style. It’s classic yet très schmexy, and very similar to what I like to wear.

nars kalahari eye closeup — Get a little closer

Anyway, lately I’ve been rediscovering spectacular shades from the permanent collections of some of my favorite brands, and I’m wearing a duo called NARS Kalahari in this look that I’ve worn off and on for years. It has a satiny, plummy taupe on one side and a shimmery golden taupe (you know I love those golden taupes, girl!) on the other, and both sides are drenched in pigment.

Normally when I wear this duo, I try to keep it (relatively) simple by blending the satiny plum on the outer half of my lids and my lower lash lines with a tapered blending brush. Then, I pat the shimmery golden taupe side on my inner lids with a finger and soften the edges with a matte neutral taupe or a tan shadow in the crease, and a matte beige on my brow bone (I’m wearing two NARS single pan shadows here called NARS Blondie and NARS Biarritz).

The “soft glam” part comes from combining Kalahari on the lids with the winged liner, because winged liner is cool, man! And you can modify it in an endless number of ways.

I’ve been totally into a “baby wing,” where I start from the midpoint on my upper lash line, then flick out toward the outer corner, and I do juuust the thinnest flick when I do it.

It’s noticeable, but it doesn’t take over the entire eye look, like when you use black liquid or gel liner and do a massive flick, and it takes over your entire look and you start feeling like you have to put on falsies to balance everything…

Talk about opening a can of worms.

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10 Playfully Pink MAC Summer Lipsticks

June 30th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

mac pink lipstick — Think pink with, from the left, MAC Pink Pearl Pop, Star Magnolia, Pink Pigeon, Chatterbox, Candy Yum Yum, Pink Nouveau, Pink You Think, Fusion Pink, Speed Dial and Speak Louder ($17 each and available now in the MAC permanent line)

I’m not just cuckoo for coral. I’m also passionate about pink. 🙂 And these 10 playfully pink MAC summer lipsticks are purr-fect.

1. MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Speak Louder

mac speak louder — Speak Louder — a clean bluish poppy pink

2. Matte Lipstick in Pink Pigeon

mac pink pigeon — Pink Pigeon — a bright clean pink

3. Amplified Lipstick in Fusion Pink

mac fusion pink — Fusion Pink — a bright pink

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A MAC Chromat Collection Makeup Tutorial With Royal Blue Cat Eyeliner, Deep Orange Lids and Bright Aqua Lips

June 28th, 2017 by Karen 25 Comments

mac chormat the future is meow k ears — The future is meow!

Hmm… What does one do, and where does one go, while wearing shimmery royal blue cat eyes, teal brows and aqua blue lips?

Perhaps waaaaaaay far into the future behind the wheel of a time-traveling DeLorean? To a time in a fantastical future when bad-@ss babes run the show wearing makeup by MAC and clothing by Chromat?

Gigawatts of girl power course through the MAC Chromat collection, which electrifies domestic MAC counters and the MAC website starting June 29th (and internationally this July), and it got me fired up to turn this look into a tutorial.

The MAC Chromat collection: Overview

Blue and gray supercharge the eight-piece limited edition release, while pops of orange and red crackle, and the collection comes complete with bionic-seeming blue LE packaging that looks like something straight out of Tron!

I’m feelin’ the eyeshadow palette, the lipsticks and the mini angled brush, which is a re-promote from the MAC permanent line. The blue mascara, blue gel liner and blue pencil liner, however, aren’t quite as electrifying IMO. I don’t dislike them… I think they’re fine. The only thing is, they require lots of layering to get them to really show up on me. Major patience.

becca chromat — Designer Becca McCharen of Chromat

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A 4-Step Cute Lip Combo That Goes With Almost Everything: Layer MAC Soar Lip Pencil With MAC Patisserie Lipstick

June 26th, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

mac patisserie soar prep prime lip — You can’t go wrong with MAC Lipstick in Patisserie ($17), Lip Pencil in Soar ($17.50) and Prep + Prime Lip ($17.50)

Here’s a neutral pink lip combo recipe I love because 1) it’s comprised of three products from the MAC permanent line, so the ingredients aren’t going anywhere, and 2) it goes with almost any and every eye look.

Here’s what you do…

1. Prep your pout with a layer of MAC Prep + Prime Lip.

2. Line and fill in your lips with MAC Lip Pencil in Soar.

mac soar lip pencil — Mid-toned pinkish brown MAC Soar

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MAC Coral Lipsticks: 5 MORE Essential Summer Staples

June 23rd, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

mac corals part — MOAR CORALS! From the left, MAC Lipsticks in Nippon, Koi Coral, Shy Girl, Ravishing and Hot Tahiti

Did you really think I could stop at five?? GIRL, YOU SO CRAZY!

It’s totally normal for a MAC coral enthusiast to have at least 10 lipstick options in rotation at any given moment…

Right…?

UGH, keep telling yourself that, Karen. Seriously, I’m only one or two tubes away from an intervention.

YES! These corals (like these from earlier today) are in the MAC permanent line. One of them, Ravishing, is an old fave I’ve been wearing for years, but the other four are pretty new to my personal coral kingdom, like Koi Coral, a creamy, marvelously moisturizing peachy nude coral Cremesheen that happens to share part of its name (albeit with a different spelling) with one of Connor Claire’s nicknames (“Coywolf,” which sometimes gets shortened to “Coy”).

I think of her whenever I wear it.

Mmm, I’m tasting that signature MAC vanilla flavor on my lips right now. It tastes like coming home, and it feels like everything is right again with the world…

Anyway! Diversion much, Karen?

Also in this batch — Shy Girl, and oh, my gosh! So nice. It’s a creamy, dreamy peachy beige coral I just recently found through MAC Fruity Juicy.

I mean, it’s been around a while, but I forgot it was in the permanent collection. It almost functions as a nude.

Nippon is another peachy coral, but it’s less beige than Shy Girl. Like Koi Coral, it’s also a Cremesheen, so it’s creamy and mega moisturizing. It’s like a drink of water for dry lips.

1. Ravishing

2. Koi Coral

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