Face

Product Spotlight: MAC Opalescent Powder in Rising Star, From the New Starring You Holiday 2019 Collection

November 14th, 2019 by Karen 7 Comments

mac rising star — Shoot for the Stars, Rising Star!

This Rising Star from MAC 🌟 is shooting straight to the top of my list of “Best of the Best Makeup to Wear With MAC Teddy.”

(Wait…doesn’t everyone keep that list around?)

Of all the things in the new MAC Starring You holiday makeup collection (which is the sub-collection of makeup within the mega collection of LE holiday items, including the kits and palettes), warm golden Rising Star ($36) face powder is the 1) most wearable eye product IMO, and 2) the kindest to fine lines, which makes it the star of the show in my book.

And, oh yeah, it looks amazing when you wear it with MAC Teddy! (Totally key.)

Rising Star is a warm golden pressed powder in the MAC Opalescent Face Powder fam. It’s a pressed powder with finely-spun grains of granulated powder that practically float atop your skin, and it’s designed to be worn as a highlighter.

Are you familiar with the Hourglass Ambients? If so, MAC’s Opalescent Face Powders are very similar in terms of texture and finish, but with slightly higher shine.

As a highlighter, it gives cheeks a soft, subtle candlelit glow…but I like to take my cues from MAC artists who use it as an eyeshadow! That’s where I think it really shines (pun intended).

I buff it on top of my lids with a MAC 217, and it automatically adds a glam “Charlotte Tilbury-ness” to my lids, especially when I wear it atop a base of MAC Teddy liner.

It’s an easy and elegant eye look, which is totally my style, and best of all, the powder lasts all day. I wore this eye makeup to the bakery the other day, and it stayed put for a solid 14 hours!

mac rising star k — Rising Star Powder layered on top of a base of MAC Teddy liner

mac rising star look — Makeup worn in this look

Makeup in this look

Eyes: MAC Teddy (base), MAC Rising Star (lids), Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (crease), MAC Extended Play Perm Me Up Lash (lashes), MAC Concrete and It Cosmetics Prow Power (brows)

Base: Estee Lauder Double Wear mixed with Becca Backlight Priming Filter

Cheeks: NARS Amour (this looks really great with MAC Smoked Almond lipstick)

Lips: Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk, MAC Smoked Almond, NARS Chelsea Girls

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Feel the Ecstasy With Charlotte Tilbury: Cheek to Chic Swish & Pop Blusher in Ecstasy

October 24th, 2019 by Karen 16 Comments

I can’t wear Charlotte Tilbury Ecstasy blush without thinking of mid-90s club banger Set U Free.

The way the lead singer breathlessly enunciates the word, “ecstasy,” about a billion times…

Welcome to the decade of my formative years.

Anywho…while I like how long this satiny, peachy pink blush stays on my cheeks, the main thing I love about $40 Ecstasy blush is that I can get it on my cheeks in three minutes, which is about how much time I typically have while Coy-Coy uses the potty, so I can walk out the front door looking like I actually slept eight hours and stretched my hamstrings in the morning. (In other words, with a spring in my step!)

Charlotte recommends doing your blush last to best gauge how little or how much you need, and I agree.

So, here’s my Ecstasy three-minute makeup routine:

Dot Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter all over your face with the wand, and blend it in with fingers.
Curl lashes and coat them with a layer of Charlotte Tilbury Full Fat Lashes Mascara.
Draw a thin line of black liquid liner with Charlotte Tilbury Feline Flick on the upper lash line.
Dust Film Star Bronze & Glow Bronzer into the crease.
Coat lips with CT Pillow Talk Lipstick.
And finally, sweep Ecstasy on those cheekbones!

Don’t you love easy makeup? 😄 And don’t you also love it when Charlotte refers to blush as “blusher”?! (Or am I the only one?)

Charlotte designed Ecstasy (and this goes for all of her blushes) to be used as part of a two-step process. First, you swish the outer ring on your cheekbones to sculpt and shape, and then blend the brighter center shade on the apples of your cheeks for some color.

Of course…I usually end up swirling both colors together with a blush brush, and that works just fine for me.

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You’ll Wonder Where Your Experience Lines Go When You Wear Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow

October 22nd, 2019 by Karen 12 Comments

charlotte tilbury filmstar bronze and glow fair medium — When Charlotte Tilbury makes you feel like a fancy lady…

OK, my fair friends, many of my makeup-loving pale pals say that it’s very challenging to find a bronzer that suits lighter skin tones. If this is the case for you, I believe I may have found a solution to your woes, and her name is Charlotte Tilbury. She’s got a bronzer/highlighter duo called Filmstar Bronze & Glow ($68, so start saving your lunch money), and there are two versions — Fair-Medium, pictured here, and Medium-Dark. Fair-Medium could be purrfect for lighter lasses.

If your makeup style is more “Sir John” than “Insta-glam”, I think you’ll love it.

The bronzer in Fair-Medium is a gorgeous peachy tan (no glitter in sight) without any weird or obnoxious orange undertones, so, what you get is a natural-looking, toasty almond tone when you sweep the finely-milled powder across your cheeks.

charlotte tilbury filmstar bronze and glow fair medium swatches — Livin’ that NC42 life

The highlighter is equally beautiful. It’s a peachy gold with dainty shimmer, and, like the bronzer, it’s more on the natural-looking side. If you prefer highlights with a delicate touch, you’ll love it.

Because the powder grains in both products in the duos are so incredibly fine, they soften the look of fine lines and pores impressively well. No tell-tale caked-on makeup here.

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Will Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream Cast a Spell on You?

October 21st, 2019 by Karen 17 Comments

charlotte tilbury magic cream final — Nothing can stand in our way…

Brace yourself: if you happen to see this jar sitting atop your dressing table, it means that any second now, your lady’s maid will magically materialize to dress you, gently brush every lock of hair into place, and pin a diamond tiara on your head.

(Side note: I have watched an obscene amount of Downton Abbey over the past few days.)

Only Charlotte Tilbury could turn a standard-issue makeup artist’s trick — applying a layer of rich moisturizer on your face before putting on your face paint — and turn it into a bonafide F.L.L. (that’s “Fancy Lady Lifestyle,” dahhhling), with one of her line’s most renowned products: Magic Cream.

Lots of people swear by this rich, thick cream, which is made for all skin types and designed to be applied right before going in with your makeup.

Devotees of the Cult o’ Magic Cream claim that it potently plumps the skin, and it does contain heavy-hitting hydrators like hyaluronic acid, shea butter and aloe vera (to name a few), but I’d characterize the plumping effect as subtle.

The idea is that it’s supposed to smooth your canvas, so to speak, before you layer your foundation, concealer, powder, etc. on top. So, basically, it’s a rose-scented moisturizer/primer combo in a very pretty jar.

One thing about it? It smells fancy and expensive, and my skin absorbs the rich cream right away. Immediately after applying my base makeup on top of it — my foundation, powder, concealer, etc. — my base products look a little richer, more vibrant and slightly smoother. Everything looks a little more…natural and less like “makeup.”

If you’re a seasoned makeup person, you’ll see a subtle difference, but I dare say that most people won’t.

Here’s the thing: you can get a similar effect with any moisturizer, and doing a quick hit of moisturizer before base makeup is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Be that as it may, this cream’s ability to actually adhere to whatever you layer on top is its super power. In that way, it’s far better than a run-of-the-mill moisturizer. A lot of similarly rich creams will make your makeup slip right off, but this doesn’t. So, as a primer, it’s very effective.

I like it. A lot. But I don’t like the price. AT ALL.

INGREDIENTS

This product is gluten free.

AQUA/WATER/EAU, C12-15 ALKYL BENZOATE, GLYCERYL STEARATE SE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, GLYCERIN, OLUS OIL/VEGETABLE OIL/HUILE VÉGÉTALE, ISONONYL ISONONANOATE, CETYL ALCOHOL, ETHYLHEXYL PALMITATE, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, DIMETHICONE, POLYESTER-7, PHENOXYETHANOL, NEOPENTYL GLYCOL DIHEPTANOATE, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII (SHEA) BUTTER, STEARETH-21, AVENA SATIVA (OAT) KERNEL EXTRACT, CARBOMER, DIMETHICONOL, POTASSIUM CETYL PHOSPHATE, CHLORPHENESIN, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, XANTHAN GUM, HYDROLYZED VIOLA TRICOLOR EXTRACT, ALLANTOIN, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF JUICE, DISODIUM EDTA, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, CAMELLIA OLEIFERA SEED OIL, ROSA CANINA FRUIT OIL, ROSA DAMASCENA EXTRACT, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, HELIANTHUS ANNUUS (SUNFLOWER) SEED OIL, MICHELIA ALBA LEAF OIL, SODIUM LACTATE, COCO-GLUCOSIDE, PEG-8, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN, SODIUM HYALURONATE, TOCOPHEROL, PALMITOYL TETRAPEPTIDE-7, PALMITOYL TRIPEPTIDE-1, ASCORBYL PALMITATE, PLUMERIA RUBRA FLOWER EXTRACT, ASCORBIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, NICOTIANA SYLVESTRIS LEAF CELL CULTURE, LINALOOL, CITRONELLOL, GERANIOL.

The 30-ml. jar at top is $64, a 50-ml. jar is $100, and a 150-ml. jar is $225. (Wow!) Sephora also sells a tiny 0.5-ml. mini jar for $29. Every size it comes in is crazy pricey!

If you aren’t too keen on dropping your beauty budget on a product that’s basically invisible, not to worry; you have other options. Head over to MAC, and give Prep + Primer Natural Radiance a try (it’s an underrated rock star, IMHO).

While it isn’t anywhere near as luxurious as Charlotte’s Magic Cream, it does basically the same thing, and it’s about 50% less pricey at $42 for a 50-ml. size.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Doing the Dew With MAC Cream Colour Base in Luna

October 10th, 2019 by Karen 3 Comments

mac luna — MAC Cream Colour Base in Luna

Dear 1990s-era mattes,

Enjoy your moment in the makeup world, my friends, because in 30 or so, tastes will shift, and people will be all about shimmering skin. They’ll even go so far as to talk about varying levels of dewiness… Can you imagine? I KNOW. It’s craziness.

Your friend,

MBB

As you know, I’ve been into dewy skin for… What has it been now? Years? And what has propelled this obsession to stratospheric levels has been the sheer breadth of different types of dew and shininess (yes, there are varying levels of dewiness).

One of my favorite ways to “do the dew” is to have skin that glows with just the sheerest, subtlest opalescence, and that’s what you get with MAC Cream Colour Base in Luna ($24).

Now, I realize that Luna looks a little like a stark and scary full moon in the pan… I think of it as a cream version of MAC Strobe Cream, but without the pink or gold tones. The color is a warm pearly white sheen sans any glitter or frost, and as long as you don’t pile too much of it on (because it’ll start to look harsh and obvious), it’s totally wearable. When you blend a thin layer on your skin, Luna reflects light in soft, subtle ways… It’s the polar opposite of hard, harsh metallic creams and powders, and it looks very natural.

Luna is most often used as a highlighter, but I think it also shines (ha ha ha, very punny, Karen!) when you layer it underneath other products. I love it as an eyeshadow base for neutral tan, taupe and beige powder eyeshadows because it brightens up your toasty tones a tad while adding the softest hint of pearl.

The overall effect? Fresh-faced, sightly dewy lids.

Side note: if you have MAC Satin Taupe, Naked Lunch or Era on hand, Luna looks magical underneath any of ’em.

Oh, you can also layer Luna with blushes, too. Yup, both powder and cream blushes. Dab a little on the apples of your cheeks, then tap your blush on top with either fingers or a skunk brush. Or, mix it with your cream blush on the back of your hand before applying from there with your fingers.

mac luna swatch — Blended and unblended on my NC42 skin

Luna feels like an ever-so-slightly thinner and creamier MAC Paint Pot. Don’t worry if it seems stark white in the swatch because you won’t see it sitting on top of your skin if you blend it.

Yes, because it’s a cream, Luna will scoot a little bit…or a lot, depending on your skin type. I’m combo oily/dry, and my dry spots like the Cream Colour Bases. They latch onto them for about five hours (maybe six in winter), and I don’t normally reapply them throughout the day because if/when my makeup shifts and changes, I’m usually cool with that.
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