Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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Check out these crimson cuties. Try one of them. Or, heck, try them all! 😛
All of them are MAC liquid lipsticks. If, say, you like to wear warm shades with vintage vibes, may I direct your attention to warm orangey red Quite the Standout? Or, if you prefer deeper reds with subtle blue undertones, take a gander at Feels So Grand. Or, if brighter reds with soft-focus matte finishes rock your boat, there’s MAC Smash.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S.
OK, so, I wore this look yesterday, and doggone it — I felt good about my makeup. The pink blush and lipstick spoke to my soul… You can’t go wrong with springy, romantic rosy pinks. Methinks they’re downright therapeutic. Wearing pink in winter reminds me that we will see the sun again.
I’ve been doing the bare minimum in terms of base for months, but I put a little more polish into this look, and I really like how it turned out.
For starters, I mixed a dab of pearly lotion into a matte, medium-coverage foundation, then applied a thin layer with a skunk brush all over my face. Then, for slightly more coverage, I loaded a tiny, pointy-tipped concealer brush with the most minimal amount of concealer and strategically dabbed it where I have a little extra pigmentation (spots on my cheeks and around my mouth). And those couple extra things took my base makeup to the next level! Dare I say it? — an elegant level. 🙂
I felt like myself again for the first time in a while.
Yeah…I was wearing lipstick around the house again, LOL! MAC Chatterbox is an awfully pretty, playful reddish pink, and it can be quite bold if you apply a layer straight from the tube. I was in the mood for something more mellow, so I blotted it down, then used my finger to push in whatever lipstick remained to create a beautiful rosy pink stain… I think it’s springy and cheerful, and I love it. MAC Chatterbox, man! Don’t sleep on it.
Speaking of MAC, Powersurge eyeliner with Havana eyeshadow = magic. Layer Havana on top of Powersurge the next time you’re wearing warm browns or bronzes on your lids, and don’t forget to send me a thank you note when you’re done. 😁
Makeup in this look
- Base: It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better Foundation + Skincare in Tan 41, Kevyn Aucoin Concealer in Medium 06, MAC Strobe Cream in Pinklite
- Eyes:Urban Decay Brow Blade in Dark Drapes, MAC Saddle and Havana eyeshadows, MAC Powersurge pencil liner, Bite Beauty Upswing Mascara, MAC Clear Brow Gel
- Cheeks and lips: Laura Mercier Soleil 1 Bronzer, Laura Mercier Rose Blush, MAC Chatterbox lipstick
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I may or may not have been wearing nude lips for the better part of nine months now, sooooo one could call this a “nude lip rut,” but I intend to break it with these fun Chanel lipsticks…because Chanel makes everything better. 😊 (Please allow me this fantasy.)
These are a few shades from the Rouge Coco Ultra Hydrating Lipcolour line. They’re $38 each, shiny, moisturizing and vary from medium coverage to opaque. Also, like most of Chanel’s lip products, they have a regal, rosy flavor and scent.
Edith is a fave! It’s an opaque neutral pink that goes extraordinarily well with shimmery taupe shadows like the one I’m wearing here (Chanel Ombre Premiere Laque in Desert Wind).
I’m also a fan of Jean, a hot pink with a purple hint. Like Edith, it goes well with shimmery taupe lids.
For this last lip look, a ’90s-style unblended lip, I layered sheer beige Vera with warm reddish brown Misia, then lined my lips with MAC Burgundy Lip Pencil.
I’m always looking for new eye combos that excite me without exhausting my patience, and the shimmering taupe lid look here only relies on two things, both from Chanel. The shadow is Desert Wind, a cream shadow that comes in a tube with a wand. It’s long-wearing and sets fast, so you have to work quickly to buff out the edges.
I sure do like how wet and glossy it looks. 😍
As for the liner, it’s called Black Wood, and it’s one of Chanel’s twist-up, long-wearing pencil liners from the Stylo Yeux line. It’s a rich, deep brownish black.
I’ve been looking for a borderline-black dark brown liner because my MAC Coffee pencil is almost finished (TEARS!). I was hoping I could replace it with this liner because I love the long-wearing formula (it also doesn’t irritate my eyes), but I think it leans a little too black to be a dupe.
Mind you, I still like it, and I’m definitely going to keep it in rotation!
Is the makeup Connor did on this blank face chart…
I stumbled onto this fun way to make your own customized shadow yesterday while I was putting on some makeup to run errands — mix bronzer and highlighter together with a brush, and swish all over your lids. The result? Effortlessly glowing eyes!
I used equal amounts of a multi-use cream bronzer and a highlighter (both by Lancôme), and all I did was dip a tapered blending brush into the pan, swirled everything together on the back of my hand, and then swept the mix on my lids.
I think this is a cool way to customize your eyeshadow, because you can add more or less of either product, depending on your mood.
You can easily complete the eye look by curling your lashes and loading up on mascara, which would be super pretty, especially if you used a lengthening and separating mascara to really stretch out your lashes.
I did that here and still felt like something was missing, so I also lined my upper lash lines by loading an angled brush with a shimmery gray cream shadow stick that also doubles as liner.
I love how the gray adds some definition to my eyes but doesn’t look too harsh, and I also love how the gray cream stick isn’t as finicky as a liquid liner or gel. It’s so much easier to control, and you don’t end up with liquid liner running amuck across your lids! 😬
To streamline the look even further, I also used the bronzer and highlighter on my cheeks. Then I used another multi-use cream as a blush and lipstick.
One more item of note — I’ve been really into sheer bases, and the one I’m using here is a new one to me called Skin Feels Good By Lancôme. It’s a tinted moisturizer with SPF 23 and a demi-matte finish, and it comes in 11 shades.
I like it a lot! The tube and pump also make it easy to control, and I never feel like I’m wasting product. The formula feels lightweight too. It’s also pigmented enough to even out the pigmentation on my cheeks but doesn’t look too “made up.”
Good stuff! If you’re into that “no-makeup makeup” look, this is perfect.
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Is this look wearable? I guess it depends on who you’re talking to. If you’re chatting with El Hub, he’d probably say, “Um, not really,” and he would encourage you to *not* wear this sooty smokey purplish blue smokey eye to pick up a small child at her preschool.
(Side note: I seriously considered it, but then I chickened out at the last minute, and now I deeply regret not cementing my legacy as the crazy-@ss mom who showed up at pickup in black lipstick.)
If you ask Samantha, though — she’s the Halloween ghost who haunts my doorway — she would first say, “B*tch stole me look!” LOL. Then she’d she’d say, “One hundred percent, YES, channel your inner goth Billy Idol White Wedding bride.”
This is my “take two” at Samantha-inspired makeup! I wanted to push it a little further this time and tried to go more “edgy,” as opposed to wearable, but ultimately I think it ended up looking kinda casual cool, and yes, totally wearable. If we were back in the ’90s when I went through my (very brief) baby goth phase, I would’ve legit worn these lips and eyes everywhere.
I really, really enjoyed putting this face on, and part of the reason was because it happened so quickly. I didn’t really think about it. I just started layering and mixing and blending and 20 minutes later there it was. With this type of smokey editorial/edgy eye makeup, I think the following things really help:
Oh, and about that black lip…I applied a matte liquid lipstick first (MAC Caviar), then defined the edges with a super sharp matte black pencil liner. Yes, girl. Black eyeliner as lip liner! My friends and I used to use it both as liner and lipstick back in the ’90s when we wanted to wear matte black lips.
I was craving an egg over easy yesterday for lunch and look what happened when I cracked my egg open…
I dunno, maybe I’m fully in superstitious Halloween mode, but I was kinda freaked out! I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s part of a scary Filipino old wives tale, and even though it (irrationally) scared me a little, I still ate most of it…although toward the last few bites I ended up psyching myself out.
On a (somewhat) related weird note, look what I found this morning in the middle of my bed!
I’m guessing Rosie Posie got hold of it during the wee hours of the morning, LOL!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
