This week was hands down one of the funnest weeks I’ve had blogging since 2007. My tiara goes off to MAC for coming up with such a cool creative concept (Wonder Woman) and for going all out with the idea. I can’t wait to see more.
They could have said, “I know! We’ll get a Wonder Woman license, throw the logo on some compacts and jack up the price.” That would have been the Happy Meal approach, but it’s not the approach they took. They decided to focus on an era from Wonder Woman’s comic book past (the more contemporary WW is stylistically completely different), carefully selected the colors for the collection, and put everything together with great products and original promo artwork to form a cohesive creative concept.
I’m not a fan of everything MAC does, and sometimes I think they rush things out the door, but when they do go all out with a clear vision like this, they’re awesome. This is makeup, after all, and it’s rarely revolutionary. It’s about ideas, concepts and stories just as much as it’s about colors, brushes and light. At least for me, it’s the concepts that fill my head with ideas, the stories that fill my heart with desire, and great products that make me want to seal the deal. Yes, that was a little corny… 🙂
The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed
THE DOLCE & GABBANA SECRET GARDEN
ULTRA SHINE LIPSTICKS AND GLOSSES
As promised, here are those swatches of the two lipsticks and two lipglosses from the new Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection.
What do you think? Ultra shiny, right? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they’re aptly named. Read more…
$59 SMASHBOX STYLE FILES
FOR EYES LIPS AND CHEEKS
The three portable palettes in the Smashbox Style Files ($59) are totally easy to crack. What I mean to say is, there’s no 128-bit encryption or complex p@ssW07ds here. Just a batch of beauty bits (in shimmery neutrals to deep jewel tones) for eyes, lips and cheeks.
For my makeup today, I felt like something fun and fresh, but I didn’t want to think too hard.
Enter the Smashbox Style Files, a new limited edition Sephora exclusive set.
These colors aren’t as pigmented as I’d hoped and suffer from some pretty mean fallout, but I do like how easy they are to blend. In all, you get eight shadows.
Each of the cream liners double as bases for the shadows, so that’s pretty cool. And the pencil liners cling to my lash and water lines like true champs. With this set, you get four Cream Liners and two Limitless Eye Liners.
The lip and cheek palette comes with two Lip Glosses and two Cheek colors (my favorite things about the entire kit!). I LOVE how effortlessly these blushes melt into my skin. The non-sticky lippies, however, I could probably live without. Both unscented, unflavored colors look almost identical on my pigmented pucker. Read more…
ARE YOU A MAC
WONDER WOMAN?
Unless you’ve been holed up in your secluded superhero lair (every hero needs one, yo!), chances are you’ve probably heard rumblings about the new MAC Wonder Woman Collection, which twirls onto shelves February 10 in North America and internationally this March.
MAC teamed up with DC Comics this time to create a limited edition makeup collection inspired by one of the toughest ladies in comic book history. She fights crime in foxy hot pants (and sometimes a skirt) and has a penchant for practical accessories, like bullet-deflecting bracelets, magic lassos and boomerang headpieces, too!
There’s no denying it — this girl is tough AND cute.
Not bad for 2,000 years old (I wonder which face cream she uses).
Just like Diana Prince right before a beam of magic light transformed her into Wonder Woman, I’ve been practically spinning in circles in my knee-high boots ever since I saw the first promo pics for this super-sized 33-piece collection for eyes, lips, face and nails. Read more…
A FEW MAC WONDER WOMAN
LIP COMBINATIONS
What up, fellow Wonder Women? I thought you gals might like to see some potential lip combinations with the Lipsticks and Lipglasses from the soon-to-be-released MAC Wonder Woman Collection.
These are just to spark some ideas, of course. Let’s get those creative juices flowing!
About that, what’s your current favorite lip combo (liner/lipstick/gloss)? Or do you like to wear just one thing at a time? Inquiring minds want to know. Read more…
MY CLARINS NEO PASTELS
MONDAY FACE OF THE DAY
Sooo, guess who’s procrastinating? 🙂 Yeah, I have about a billion things on my to-do list, but none of them are as much fun as makeup.
I put the new Clarins Neo Pastels Collection to work today for this here face of the day.
I loosely based the eye portion of the look on the Neo Pastel makeup tutorial here, and the edgy look of the black liner along the waterline is one of my favorite parts.
The Eye Quartet Mineral Palette’s shiny finish makes these dramatic and fun, but I observed some patchiness from both of the purple shadows (but not as much as the pastel quad in the Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection). Read more…
THE MAC PACKED TO GO
TRAVEL EXCLUSIVES FOR SPRING 2011
Planning any trips soon? If you are, and they happen to involve a short airport layover, you might be able to MAC 🙂 good use of your wait time with the new MAC Packed to Go travel Exclusives for spring 2011.
Travel exclusives are limited edition sets, and sometimes individual products, special to travel hubs like airports and duty free stores (you won’t find them at regular stores or counters).
A lot of the bigger beauty brands like MAC, Dior, Estee Lauder, Chanel and Guerlain (to name just a few), have them, and they’re a boon to beauty obsessed travelers like us.
MAC Packed to Go is being released in two “phases” for spring.
The first, available now, features three MAC Look In A Box kits, each one designed with a different themed look in mind using products for eyes, cheeks and lips.
The second phase, which launches in March, will encompass 11 MAC Packed to Go sets organized by category, like lipstick, Lipglass, mascara and brush.
I always try to keep an eye out for travel exclusives because some of them contain hard-to-find limited edition pieces from long lost (but not forgotten!) collections, making them great opportunities to snag something you might not have had the chance to get the first time around. Read more…
MEET CLINIQUE’S CONSERVATIVELY
SHARP MILLY PALETTE
Greetings and salutations, mon amie. I wanted to quickly show you the new Clinique Milly Pretty in Prints Palette ($36) in action.
What do ya think? I followed the tutorial that comes with the eye and cheek palette this afternoon, and the whole thing took only about 10 minutes to do.
The palette comes with four shadows and a blush; the shadows contain just the right amount of pigment, and all of them are super easy to blend. Heck, I’d call the palette downright perfect if it wasn’t for the matte brown shade, which left mad fallout on my cheeks when I used it as a liner today (which is what the tutorial suggests). Read more…
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5
MAC MUST HAVES?
I was digging through my MAC favorites this morning when I remembered a question asked by reader Sheila Z in the comments yesterday.
“Karen, I’ll be getting my makeup done this saturday at MAC for my brother-in-law’s engagement party. Part of the process requires that I buy at least 5 items. What are the top 5 you recommend?”
Hey, Sheila. Pardon me for this, but right now I feel Ready For The World! “Oh, oh, oh, oh, Sheila!”
(Please tell me you’re familiar with that song.)
With that out of the way, let’s get back to beauty. 🙂 You’re going to have such a blast at the MAC counter on Saturday. For what it’s worth, here are my five (current) MAC must-haves. Read more…
HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW
ZOYA INTIMATE COLLECTION?
If you’ve yet to get your fill of purple, this spring’s prince of the color-sphere, feast your eyes on the sweet new shades in Zoya’s Intimate Collection ($7 each; available in six colors).
These make me want to play dress-up…like I should be wearing a floral print dress with sky-high pumps as I sport them on my nails.
And for some reason I can seem them going well with the Laura Mercier’s Silk Road Collection…
I only just put these on, so I can’t speak to wear time yet, but the other Zoya polishes I’ve tried resist chips and fading exceptionally well, especially when worn with the Color-Lock System (THE BEST!). Read more…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
AnieJ says
I utterly adored the posts this week! Thanks for making a gloomy snow week really bright, Karen! Can’t wait to see the new project; I actually just felt my heart flutter a bit in participation.
Karen says
Hi Anie,
Hope you had a great weekend. Stay warm! 🙂
AnieJ says
OH, and I wanted to share that earlier this week we got a new kitty; his name is Sparky and he’s a Tabby with big black streaks across his back. He’s really laid back most of the time, so I might do an homage to Tabs and make him photograph with some makeup.
Cats make everything more fun!
Tiffany says
It was a REALLY great week in the beauty world!
Karen says
Yeah, it was! 😀
So, did you decide if you’re going to get the Laura Mercier Silk Road palette?
Tiffany says
I haven’t decided! Ahhh. I saw it’s available on sephora.com now, which makes it even more tempting… I did end up grabbing the ruby lip plumper – can’t wait to try it this week!
Karen says
Oh hotness. I have that in my purse right now. We’re going out to dinner in a few (finally) so I’m thinking Silk Road’s gonna have to make an appearance.
How was your weekend?
Tiffany says
It was mostly blah. Grocery shopping, errands, working, etc. The weather was really nice though – it got really warm. How was yours? Do anything fun?
Meghan says
I had so much fun reading your blogs this week, even when my day wasn’t so great your posts always made me laugh!!
Nina says
is everyone ready for wonder woman, i wonder? 😀
Laura - Salon Marketing says
I love these MAC promotions – Barbie, Hello Kitty, Disney Villains, etc. But, sometime they’re just repackaging an existing product in a new container. I hope they have some fun new stuff for us!
Kim says
Oh, my! Your typing hand looks like it’s having a Mr. Fantastic moment. Very bendy. 🙂