MAC Makeup

Cool and Casual, MAC’s Bright Peach Royal Sunset Powder Blush Begs To Be Worn Beachside

June 6th, 2013 by Karen 36 Comments

That’s MAC Royal Sunset Blush ($21) on my cheeks…

Judging by its name, MAC’s Royal Sunset blush could have gone the route of princess tiaras/tiny sandwiches/stuffy tweed, but instead it took a detour on High Tea Street toward Beach Boho Babe Avenue.

Introducing Her Royal Highness, MAC Royal Sunset Powder Blush ($21)…

Bright on cheeks and surprisingly playful, Royal Sunset builds to an intensely cool coral flush. Of the three blushes in the MAC All About Orange collection, I think it’s the brightest, smoothest (in terms of texture) and the coolest in terms of tone.

It’s the kind of blush I’d wear to a low-key beach wedding, one where the guests and wedding party are barefoot and dogs are running around in bow ties (yippee!). 🙂

Casual and fun, know what I mean?

MAC Royal Sunset Blush Swatch — Royal Sunset Blush on my NC 42 skin

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Run Six Miles in a Minute (Or Just Look Like You Did) With MAC’s Immortal Flower Blush

June 5th, 2013 by Karen 33 Comments

That’s me wearing MAC Immortal Flower Blush ($21)

Prior to today, if I’d heard the phrase, “immortal flowers,” I would have thought, “plastic plants,” like the kind my eccentric aunt hoards.

Now, though, I’m still thinking that…but I’m also thinking about a blush from MAC’s new All About Orange collection.

MAC Immortal Flower Powder Blush — Immortal Flower Powder Blush, $21

Bright peach MAC Immortal Flower Blush is such a dainty delight. It’s almost the exact same color as my cheeks after I finish a six-mile run…sans the icky perspiration and treadmill karaoke, which is when you silently mouth the words to whatever you’re listening to while you’re running and occasionally fist pump in the air (so help me gawd, when Beyonce is belting in my ear about claiming my diva status, it cannot be helped).

MAC Immortal Flower Blush Swatch — Immortal Flower on my NC 42 skin

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Orange You Going Nude This Summer? The MAC All About Orange Cremesheen Glasses Think You Should

June 5th, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

MAC Double Happiness Cremesheen Glass, $20

Everyday nudes…

A phrase like that could mean a few different things. It could refer to the billboard down the street from my brother’s apartment in SF that reads, “Touch Our Junk.”

(I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean junk of the discarded/reused/recycled variety.)

It could also refer to eminently wearable nude glosses — the kind you’ll happily wear over and over.

I nude gloss…

This time of year, I love it even more than usual because it’s just swipe and go. You can’t get much lower maintenance than that.

MAC Double Happiness, Imperial Light and Rising Sun Cremesheen Glasses — Double Happiness, Imperial Light and Rising Sun Cremesheen Glasses

If your boo comes home from work early one random afternoon and says, “Eff this workaday crap, babe! Let’s go be beach bums in Hawaii,” nude glosses are good for times like that… Matte red lips just don’t go with that scenario.

Christina Aguilera could probably pull off matte red lips, a retro tankini and water wings, but me? Not so much. I’d look like the main event in an underwater circus.

MAC Double Happiness Cremesheen Glass, $20 — Double Happiness Cremesheen Glass

Yet another of the many benefits of nude glosses…

A few days ago while rifling through my bag for the chocolate I keep stashed “for emergencies” (don’t front, I you know you do this too), the only nude glosses in my purse were the new Cremesheen Glasses ($20 each) from MAC All About Orange.

MAC Imperial Light Cremesheen Glass — Imperial Light Cremesheen Glass, $20

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A Bit o’ Bobbi and Gray Makes for a MAC Rainy Season: The $40 MAC Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 Quad

June 5th, 2013 by Karen 20 Comments

Like a freak summer thunderstorm, MAC’s $40 Rainy Season Eye Shadow X4 quad might seem a little out of place this time of year, but it sure is practical. I’ll give it that.

Maybe it’s the combination of conservative cool and warm-toned grays, but there’s something very Bobbi Brown about it, I think.

And what the Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 quad might actually look like in the rain…

It’s hard to go wrong with shades like these. They’re useful — especially for soft cat eyes, mrrrow! — but useful doesn’t always set my world on fire, if you know what I mean.

Will I look back in five years, sigh wistfully with a tear in my eye and say something like, “Remember the Rainy Season quad from the MAC All About Orange collection? Gosh, that one sure rocked my world.”

Um…probably not.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do.

Like it, that is.

MAC Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 Swatches — Swatches from the left: Rainy Season (a light warm gray frost with a Satin finish), Arctic Grey (a mid-toned gray with a Frost finish), Courtly Grey (a cool gray with a Matte finish) and Typographic (an asphalt black with a Matte 2 finish)

I get why it was included with the orange lip and cheek products in All About Orange, but…ya know. Fine.

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I’ll Take a Grande Honey Jasmine To Go, Please: The New MAC Honey Jasmine Blush, That Is

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 29 Comments

Got a new tea tonight from Trader Joe’s. Honey Jasmine. I’m really looking forward to having a cup tonight.

Mmm… Honey Jasmine.

Kidding! It’s not a tea, or at least I don’t think so, although it does sound delish, doesn’t it?

It’s a new blush from MAC — a fresh squeezed coral cutie from the MAC All About Orange Collection, and it’s making me think of tea.

And Honey Boo Boo.

Yeah…I really need to stop watching reality TV (she says, while programming her Tivo to record Million Dollar Listing: New York).

Swear to gawd, I just did that. 🙂

MAC Honey Jasmine Powder Blush — Hello, Honey! — Honey Jasmine Powder Blush

Oh, and if you have a tan, babe, Honey Jasmine sure looks sweet on bronzed cheeks.

I picked up a little more color on my quick SoCal jaunt last week, and I’ve been wearing Honey Jasmine every day since.

MAC Honey Jasmine Blush swatch — MAC Honey Jasmine

chanel frivole swatch — And for comparison, Chanel Frivole

I gauged the wear time last weekend during a very important business meeting… Okay, it wasn’t a meeting. It was a Law & Order: SVU marathon. 🙂

When I peeled myself off the couch after four hours, I took a look in the mirror, and my blush seemed a touch darker than it did earlier in the day. In my mind, I heard the SVU “Dun-DUUN!!” and wondered if Benson or Stabler would be able to solve this mystery…

Probably. They’re talented like that.

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The New 100% Juicy MAC All About Orange Collection (Not From Concentrate)

May 30th, 2013 by Karen 31 Comments

Sometimes…

Sometimes it’s not about words (because it’s all about orange).

The vibrant MAC All About Orange collection sizzles on counters June 6, but it’s already heating up maccosmetics.com.

Reviews and orange-flavored looks coming soon. For now, eye candy. 🙂

MAC All About Orange all — MAC All About Orange

MAC All About Orange Lipsticks from the left: Razzledazzler, Sweet & Sour, Tangerine Dream, Flamingo, Sushi Kiss, Tart & Trendy, Neon Orange — From the left: Razzledazzler, Sweet & Sour, Tangerine Dream, Flamingo, Sushi Kiss, Tart & Trendy, Neon Orange

MAC Razzledazzler Lipstick — Razzledazzler Lipstick, $15

MAC Sweet & Sour Lipstick — Sweet & Sour Lipstick, $15

MAC Tangerine Dream Lipstick — Tangerine Dream Lipstick, $15

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Pretty Hot Bag: The MAC Temperature Rising Makeup Bag

May 23rd, 2013 by Karen 12 Comments

Recently added to the rapidly growing list of ways I’m turning into my mother (a list that also includes hits like “#25: Washing bars of soap so they look nice and clean in the soap dish” and “#18: Writing lists for everything”) — “#37: Putting bags within bags.”

My mother is notorious for doing this. 🙂

At any given moment, there are at least five or six smaller bags inside her purse, each dedicated to storing something different, like medication, snacks, office supplies, first aid, gadgets…

And wouldn’t ya know it? Slowly but surely, I’m going that route.

Never mind that the roomy Poverty Flats Perforated Satchel I’ve been toting around already has three deep pockets on the sides (what is it with me and deep pockets lately??), I’m also putting other bags inside it…

…like the new $34 MAC Temperature Rising Makeup Bag, which has been holding some of my beauty booty essentials.

This slim zippered bag looks deceptively small, but it actually fits a ton of stuff.

Things I need quick access to go in the front pocket — iPhone, tubes of gloss, stuff like that.

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10 Things You May Find Yourself Doing After Trying the MAC 109 Small Contour Brush for the Very First Time

May 23rd, 2013 by Karen 17 Comments

Standing in the spotlight on a massive stage in front of thousands of adoring fans, with your cheekbones contoured like WHOA! — as confetti, balloons and glitter rain down upon your glorious form
Wondering how you ever lived without it
Marveling at how perfectly the diminutive, rounded brush head fits into pans of MAC Eye Shadow singles and the hollows of your cheeks
Contemplating how strange it is for you to want different 109s for bronzer, blush, another one for powders, highlighters, two more for foundations (one for liquids and another for creams, both of which it easily applies) and another one strictly for buffing…
Considering time travel, specifically going back in time 10 years to gift yourself with a 109 and a pan of MAC Refined Golden, and while you’re there, reassuring yourself that you’re doing just fine, so keep up the good work
Singing Debbie Gibson’s Only in My Dreams at the top of your lungs in the shower (using a bottle of shampoo as your microphone, of course) and yelling, “That was for you, 109!!” at the end of the song
Blurting out, “Whoa there, cowgirl!” to no one in particular after you get a look at how many bristles it leaves on your face, because it sheds A LOT — more than any other MAC brush you’ve ever tried
Questioning your sanity after spending $35 on a makeup brush, good or not, that sheds as much as the 109…
Sighing with relief after washing and drying it for the first time, which dramatically cuts down on the future shedding
Gushing to all your girlfriends and makeup-lovin’ guy friends about how great the 109 is, but also warning them about the shedding and suggesting that they give it a good washing beforehand

MAC 109 Small Contour Brush with 116 129 — From the left for size: 109 Small Contour Brush, 116 Blush Brush and 129 Powder/Blush Brush

MAC 109 Small Contour Brush with shadow — The brush head perfectly fits into pans of MAC Eye Shadow singles as if it were designed for ’em

PRICE: $35
AVAILABILITY: A permanent collection product available now at MAC counters, stores and also online
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+ (an A if it didn’t shed so much at first)

Pretty stoked about…

This purple cauliflower. 🙂

Stopped by the farmers’ market yesterday and picked it up on a whim.

Have you ever tasted one of these before? I haven’t, but I’m going to steam it and toss it in some lemon vinaigrette and capers tonight.

It’s supposed to be sweeter than regular cauliflower… We shall see!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen