unsungheroes

It’s time, friend…

Time to clap our hands and stomp our feet! Time to raise our hands to the sky and testify to the dawn of a new era! — the season of smokey eyes!

Oh, fall… You make me so sad when you shoo summer away, but then your cool, crisp winds give me an excuse to bust out my MAC Greensmoke Eyeshadow ($15), one of my favorites for smokey eyes.

MAC describes it as a tarnished olive, but Greensmoke is so much more than that.

On my NC42 skin, I get a smokey, grayish khaki with flashes of golden pearl and flecks of silver glitter. It’s a complex color, and one I can’t recall seeing duped by anyone else.

Packing it my lids or applying it with a wet brush brings out more of the golden pearl and greenish tones, while buffing it coaxes out more of Greensmoke’s gray.

For a different, and wonderfully complex, take on smokey eyes, I’ll apply Tarnished Eye Kohl as a base all over my lids, layer Greensmoke on top (I keep wanting to type “Gunsmoke”), and then buff out the edges.

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The Walking Dead. It’s not just a TV show anymore.

It’s also an apt description of moi, specifically my eye area when I’ve stayed up too late pondering important issues like mint tea ice cream (how would it taste? — amazing or nasty?), or when I’ve stayed up too late reading post-apocalyptic young adult “literature.”

So yeah, I’m becoming increasingly familiar with my zombie girl side, although I have yet to develop a taste for brains…

But who knows? If I don’t start getting to bed earlier, I might start craving fleshy snacks!

Thank goodness for MAC Paint Pot in Indianwood ($18.50)… Right now it’s the only thing slowing the transition to full-on undead.

Whenever I get up looking a little worse for wear, I like to smear this shimmery bronze cream shadow on my lids with a finger and blend out the edges with a fluffy domed eyeshadow brush (I’m partial to the MAC 217).

The stuff is nothing short of a minor miracle! It brightens my lids, making me look better rested, radiant and almost glowing (almost).

You can wear it with easy, elegant looks, like with some mascara and MAC Teddy eyeliner along your lash lines for a quick work look, or in sultry, seductive looks with false lashes and MAC Feline eyeliner along your lash and water lines.

Indianwood on the left, with MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque for comparison

MAC Powder Blush in Supercontinental on my cheeks and MAC Lipglass in Ready to Roam on my lips; both from the new Styleseeker collection
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There’s an old urban legend about today’s MAC Unsung Hero, MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque…

Rumor has it that Tabs the Cat was the inspiration for this shimmery, peachy gold — more specifically, his shapely figure and the sunset-like shades that dance across his Rubenesque tum.

I’ve asked him about it a few times, but he just turns and walks away, neither confirming nor denying the rumors.

I don’t know if there’s any truth to it, but I do know one thing for sure — every year by the end of summer, this creamy shadow is my jam!

Come August, when buttery brown tans are at their peak, peachy golden Rubenesque comes out to play. I love the way it looks on bronzed skin — like late afternoon sunlight on my lids (and my face, but more on that in a few).

If you’re new to the MAC Paint Pots, picture a powder shadow with a creamier formula. I like to use them as standalone eyeshadows or as color-intensifying bases for other powder shades.

I think they’re great for when you don’t have a lot of time to get ready in the morning, or for any time when you just want to add quick color to your lids without having to bust out a bunch of brushes or spend 20 minutes blending.

When I’m sporting a tan and want to draw some extra attention to my eyes, that’s when I’ll reach for Rubenesque.

For a doe-eyed beach babe look, I’ll pat it on my lids with a finger and feather out the edges with a domed blending brush like the MAC 217. Then, to create the illusion of thicker lashes, I’ll line my upper water line with a black gel liner like MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack and apply a lash lengthening, lifting mascara like the new MAC Haute & Naughty Too Black Lash Mascara.

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One could probably pen a trilogy of Tolkien-ian proportions on the fantabulousness of MAC’s soft and smudgy $15 Eye Kohl in Tarnish, a blackened forest green pencil eyeliner, but because you have pretty nails to paint, diva pets to assist and [INSERT SNACK FOOD OF CHOICE] to nom, I’m gonna try to break it down for you, bullet point-style. 🙂

1. Whatever your eye color happens to be, MAC Tarnish makes magic happen!

I’d even go so far as to call this blackened green, with its hint of sheen, universally flattering.

It’s like a pigment power-up! Whether your eyes are brown, blue, green, hazel, grey or violet (mine are dark brown with a navy blue ring around the edge of the iris), MAC Tarnish turns up the natural color of your eyes, making blue eyes appear bluer, brown eyes browner, green eyes greener — you get the idea.

To showcase your eyes by enhancing their natural color, apply Tarnish along your lash or water lines (or both, which I like to do).

2. MAC Tarnish is a great alternative to black and brown

If black eyeliners and other super dark shades are just too stark for you, here comes Tarnish to the rescue!

I think the forest green tones really help to soften the color, making for a noticeably less dramatic liner look than basic black.

Tarnish on NC42 skin
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Wearing MAC Kohl Power in Feline with MAC Eyeshadow in Soba on my eyes

Felines — they’re feisty, they’re fun, and they make a mean smudgy eyeliner.

Er…come again?

You heard me. Say meow to MAC Kohl Power in Feline ($15), a blacker-than-black eyeliner, and no, I don’t purr over it just because it’s catty, although that aspect of it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Yes, it’s true that I get a cat lady thrill every time I put my paws on this creamy, pitch-black pencil, which works out to about every other day, but part of that’s because I think it’s fantastic for drawing soft, smudgy lines.

Its claim to fame? Color — or rather, the absence of it. Like the blackest of nights, Feline is very dark. Shoot, it almost makes MAC Smolder Eye Kohl look bright!

Feline is part of MAC’s permanent collection now, but when it was a limited edition product, it was like a rare breed of cat, and the fact that it wasn’t available everywhere, all the time, elevated it, at least in my home, to cult status.

Each time it made an appearance in a limited edition collection (remember it from D Squared?), I’d be like, “I gotta go to the mall! Add to my Feline stockpile!” — words that trigger panic in poor El Hub every time he hears them.

Perhaps rightly so, he fears that my feline affliction will someday spiral out of control. I’ll start wearing my bathrobe 24/7 and won’t be able to leave the house for fear of my 10 cats getting into trouble. Truth be told, he is a wise man to plan for such a scenario. 🙂

There are many great black liners to choose from in MAC’s permanent collection, and each is special in its own way.

Like Graphblack, which excels at drawing precise, skinny lines; Blacktrack, which makes quick work of crisp cat lines and sails through tight lining water lines; and Smolder, which loves being layered and smudged beneath eyeshadows.

Feline’s fame rests on its absence of color. It lacks the blue, purple or green undertones that we often see, making it darker, richer and moodier than its MAC counterparts…kinda like the Dark Knight of MAC black liners.

It’s easy to lose oneself in these deep, rich Feline eyes. Wearing Feline, brown eyes appear browner, green eyes greener; it really seems to emphasize the natural color of your eyes.

Feline is also categorically creamy, creamier than Smolder, even, and that soft texture allows it to create softly blurred smudgy lines.

I use it all the time for undone liner looks, like smokey looks and soft cat eyes.

Often I’ll smudge and layer it beneath a neutral eyeshadow. It’s one of my favorite things to wear with Soba or Woodwinked for quick daytime smokey eyes.

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