Quick Look: Wednesday at Home

My daughter is starting to give up her morning naps. **sniffle, sniffle** True, at 18 months she's been working on this a while, but we've hit the point where 1 nap days are starting to number 2 nap days. Which also means that getting dressed in the morning is about to become a whole lot harder!

Today we got a morning nap (yeah!), so I took a few extra minutes to play around with some of my BFTE eye shadows. I wanted something pretty and neutral, but a little bit more special than just a quick wash of 1 color.

What I Used
1. L'Oreal Youth Code BB Cream: I'm just starting to use this BB cream, which I'm liking quite a bit so far. It isn't as much coverage as my Dr. Jart BB Creams, but it is more than most tinted moisturizers. The color is a great match for me as well.

2. Tweezerman Eye Lash Curler: I'm a bit of a late convert to the expensive eye lash curler thing (for years I didn't get it and just replaced my cheap ones from the drug store), but this thing is amazing. The curve is a bit different so it actually fits my eye (shocker, I know), and the harder rubber bumper on it means that rather than a bend I get a pretty curl.

3. MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Blonde: I really love the very lightly pigmented powders that you can get from MAC, Bobbi Brown and Milani. I put a very light layer on my t-zone, temples and under my cheeks (basically, where a less pale person would put bronzer) and it makes me look much more awake and healthy! I use so little that you can't even see the color, but it definitely makes a difference.

4. CoverGirl Perfection Point Plus liner in black: I like that this liner is so fine and just needs to be twisted up for use. It smudges nicely right after application but seems to stay put very nicely afterwards.

5. L'Oreal MagicLumi Concealer: I just bought this and today I took off the wrapper. It appears to be the L'Oreal version of everyone YSL Eclat Touche Concealer. It's a light to medium coverage for a concealer and has a little bit of a peachy-pink tint to help cancel out under eye circles. I believe it has some light diffusion as well. It seemed to work pretty well, though it wasn't enough coverage for my visible vessel under my right eye (not a shocker, this is always a struggle for me). I'm now at hour 12 and it is still going strong. Hopefully this is a winner!

6. MAC Cremesheen Gloss in Double Happiness: I pulled this out of a MAC shipment last night, and it was here on my counter begging to be used! This is a very pretty neutral shade that just amped up my natural lip color a tad. Very easy for anyone to wear.

7. L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara, Power Collagen in black: I confess that I'm not 100% sure about the name of this mascara, because my tube says something different than the tube on the L'Oreal site. It's part of the Voluminous line and was recently released (I bought mine about 6 weeks ago). I've found that it adds great volume and length that lasts all day, though I do sometimes need to do a little lash combing because of a few clumps.

8. Too Faced Shadow Insurance: I have a lot of different shadow primers, but at the suggestion of Phyrra, I use this one now under any loose shadows. It really, really outperforms some of my other choices (MUFE, Urban Decay and NYX), simply because it is very slightly tacky feeling, so it grabs onto the shadow to keep it on the lid.

9. BFtE Shadowin Dusty Rose:

10. MAC Pigment in Jigs & Jive: I got this in a MAC holiday set I don't even know how many years ago. I've never used it before, but I could never bear to give it away, it's so pretty! It worked well, though I confess I actually like the loose powders from BFtE and Fyrinnae more.

11. BFtE Shadow in Beautiful

12. BFtE Shadow in Sweet Nothings

13. L'Oreal Infallible Lacquer Liner in blackest black: I really like the gel/potted eye liners, but this is the first from a mass market brand that I've loved. It's every bit as good as the MAC and Bobbi Brown versions. Really.


So, the first steps of this look are a bit obvious. BB Cream to the face, concealer as needed. I used the Mineralfinish all over but also as a blush. I then prepped my lids with a very light layer of the Shadow Insurance and gave it a minute or two to set up. I then applied my shadows (look! I made you a chart to make up for not taking pics of each step), and my liners. I used the CoverGirl pencil along my lower lash line and the L'Oreal Lacquer Liner along the upper lash line, slightly thicker at the outer edge. Finally I curled my lashes, applied my mascara and swiped on some gloss!

I think my final look was pretty (and probably a bit more complicated than it needed to be), but I was happy with it. What do you think?

8

MAC Heavenly Creature Lippies

The lippies seem particularly wearable and just... pretty in the Heavenly Creature collection.

Venus: Sheer yellow pink with pearl
Pleasure Seeker: Creamy Peach
Galaxy Rose: Midtone violet pink
Strictly Plutonic: Midtone pink-brown

I had a really hard time not just immediately throwing these into my purse to tote around and wear everywhere. I knew I'd lose them if I did it before I took pictures! I can't wait to start wearing them.

MAC Cosmetics

2

MAC Heavenly Creature Eye Shadows: Invincible Light and Water

I really love the MAC Mineralize eye shadows. Except, they do sometimes come in crazy colors, and they scare me. Seriously? Look at Water. It looks like I should be planning to wear it to a football game or something.

Read on to see that the color is actually usable!

0

MAC Heavenly Creature Blushes: Solar Ray and Ring of Saturn

I admit that when I first saw these blushes I was a bit disappointed, thinking that they wouldn't work for my cool, pale skin. I was definitely wrong!

0

MAC Heavenly Creature Mineralize Skinfinish in Light Year

Seriously.


So pretty, right? This is perfect for pale girls like me to just use all over. The light peach color is great for my lack of tan skin!

MAC Cosmetics

2

MAC Shade and Smoke Review and Swatches

Ever since my blue smokey eye, I've been on the lookout for more stick-like shadows that I can use in minimal time, create a unique look and last forever.


Through the magic of Photoshop, I am showing you both ends of each pencil next to each other. (I know this is amazeballs, I have mad skilz.) You can see that they pair up really nicely for pretty eye looks.

The consistency of the pencils is a bit... drier? Ok, quite a bit drier than many of the other sticks that I've used. A bit more like a crayon. I can't really describe it any better than this. It's super easy to swatch and build up color, but when applying to the eye the best use seems to be just applying the color right on to my eye, smudge with a finger, and that's it! Oh... if only it was that easy.

The truth is that when I draw on my lid with these pencils, they don't transfer very easily to my lid. I've tried with and without primer, and neither works any better. I had to go over my lid a few times, and then quickly blend a bit with my finger. Work fast, that dry consistency means that it has very little time to blend.

The rounded shape of the "shadow" side was nice, but I found the "liner" end to be too large to work in that area. It is better suited for the lid as well.

I did manage to get it to look ok, but not enough that I felt like taking pictures and leaving them on the internet for the world to see would be a good idea. They lasted about 10-12 hours before fading a bit and were water resistant, so I did need to use a good eye makeup remover to clean it off fully at the end of the day.

While this was a great idea, I feel that the formulation wasn't quite right for this one. Hopefully MAC heads back to the drawing board and fixes it. A collection of sticks like this (perhaps with a more traditional liner on one end?) with neutral shades could be a holy grail product for many time crunched women.

MAC

1

MAC Casual Colour Lip and Cheek Colour Review and swatches

MAC has just released a collection they're calling "Casual Color" and really, if you're often a bit more laid back about your makeup (like I am on my days at home), then you'll want to pick up a few of these really very versatile colors. They're perfect for super fast, on the go makeup looks! You can use a brush or your finger to deposit the color anywhere, though MAC doesn't recommend the eye area. I tried this and the consistency was a bit too creamy for the eyes, it seemed to wear off quickly. But.... for lips and cheeks- perfect!

Read on to see a few pics.

1

MAC Beth Ditto: Powder to the People Review and Swatch

So, here it is... the compact that is confusing everyone. It is the size of a powder, can be sheer or more pigmented and MAC even talks about using it to highlight your eye area. Is it a highlighter? Something to use all over like a bronzer? Or are you meant to use those colored dots like eye shadows? Or, like me, do you not really care because the polka dots are just so much fun?

It's really hard to say. Read more to check out a few swatch pics.

5

MAC Fleet Fast Blush Swatch

Sooooo pretty!

Kinda love it.


MAC

2

MAC Feeling Fresh Eye Shadow

I've definitely been embracing a bit more color in my shadows lately. A lot of purple, blues and dark greens.

I'm not really sure about this bright green though. I think it might be a bit too much outside of my comfort zone still. Would you be able to pull it off?

MAC

3

MAC Hey Sailor Bronzers: Nude on Board and Soft Sand

Strangely enough, though MAC is releasing 4 different bronzers with the Hey Sailor collection, they come in 2 different formulations.

Pro Longwear Bronzer: "Combining comfort, flawless sheer-low transparent coverage and long wear, this is bronze with a fully dimensional yet natural finish. "

Bronzing Powder: "A lightly frosted, tinted powder that gives skin sheer, natural colour effects and highlights. Ideal to enhance and strengthen a tan."

Both formulations come in the same compact, which is a navy and white stripe on the outside with a nice sized mirror on the inside. It is definitely a bit heavier duty than other MAC compacts and could easily be carried around with you all day. I didn't really notice a difference between the 2 formulations in terms of pigmentation level or application. Soft Sand (the regular bronzer) does have a touch more fine shimmer (which MAC calls frost), but I think that's the main difference.

Nude on Board: A basic bronzy yellow, I didn't think it was too dark for my pale skin (I'm NC15 or so), and I liked that it didn't come across as orange.

Soft Sand: This golden bronze was very similar to Nude on Board but with a touch more golden shimmer.

Either would be a good choice for a summer bronzer.


MAC

0

MAC Hey Sailor Suntints: Swatches and Review

Every year MAC puts out a few Suntints colors, and I'm usually a bit mixed on them. They're often just barely tinted (which means they're great to keep in your pocket and apply while on the run), but I don't like the flavor (this year I taste nothing except a bit of sunscreen) and the sun protection isn't broad spectrum. So, I don't think this would be a good choice for the beach! But, perfectly acceptable for tooling around town running errands.









MAC

1

MAC To The Beach Body Oil: Man Rays and Seaside

I know that these are "Limited Edition", but don't these get released every summer in slightly different variations?

I fully admit that I find them to be a bit mesmerizing in their bottles. Oooh! Shimmer!

Man Rays is a very pretty tan with same color shimmer, though in bright sunlight it will glint different colors a bit, mostly greens, pinks and peaches.

SeaSide is a light peachy/pink with same color shimmer. It also glints different colors though to a lesser degree than Man Rays.

I have about 1/3 of a pump (the smallest amount I could get out) on my arm here, and you can see even this really heavy application doesn't really have much of a base color. When spread out properly you don't really notice that at all. Instead things just look a bit glowy and shimmery in the sun. Eat your heart out, Edward.

MAC

3

MAC Hey Sailor: Naval Blue Pigment

This is a really pretty blue, but I didn't think that it was very different from other blue pigments they've released recently. I think this is likely me (I'm not a blue makeup girl typically), but it was really pretty in the jar!

MAC

0

MAC Hey Sailor Nail Polishes: Vestral White and Touch of Red

I have to fully admit, that when I opened these polishes I loved them immediately just based on the packaging! I'm still all about stripes (I don't feel they're going away any time soon) and I fell in serious love with the bottles.

If only both of the polishes inside were so nice. Touch of Red is definitely the standout. It's a bright red creme that in some lights has a bit of extra pink in it, super pretty! It applied beautifully. I have on 3 light and even coats and the coverage was perfect.

I thought that perhaps Vestral White would be a good layering or nail art white polish. No dice. It is very bright white, and looks just like white out on your nails. (Remember doing that when you were a kid?) Unfortunately, I found that the coverage was pretty spotty and my polish was gloppy even after a bit of thinning out with nail polish thinner. Even with 4 thin coats I didn't have full coverage, and by then it was all so gross on my nail that I didn't even bother taking pictures. So, pass on the Vestral White!

MAC

2

MAC Hey Sailor Highlight Powder: Grab It If You Find It!

I don't usually review items that are discontinued or already sold out, but there's a chance that this might still be available at a MAC counter near you. If so, grab one! This baby sold out fast, probably helped quite a bit by Temptalia's Review and pics.

This is a bit different than many other highlighting powders that I've had from MAC.
Read on to see pics and why I think it is different.

0

Lippie Love: MAC Watch Me Simmer Lipstick

I thought that this pinky-coral shade was very flattering.

MAC

0

Lippie Love: MAC Reel Sexy Lipstick

MAC

1