Bridal Makeup Breakdown: Jessie's Napa Valley Wedding

 

Skin/Prep and Prime:

Embriolysse Moisturizer

MAC Fast Response Eye Cream

Nivea Chapstick

Benefit Porefessional Primer

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Face:

Cinema Secrets Foundation

Cinema Secrets Concealer

MAC Studio Fix Powder in N3 and N4

Cheeks:

MAC True Romantic and Tenderling on back of cheeks

MAC Pink Swoon as pop on apple of cheeks

Kevin Aucoin Candlelight highlighting powder

Contour with MUFE contour powder #2 and MAC contour powder in Bone Beige

Eyes:

MAC Omega shadow run through brows with an angled brush

MAC Vanilla and Shroom on lid

MAC Cork, Espresso, Down Brown and Mystery blended for contour

MAC Shroom on browbone as highlight

MAC Cork run lightly on lower lashline

Urban Decay Demolition liner, smudged into lashline, before false lashes applied

Bobbi Brown Chocolate Shimmer Gel Liner smudged into lashline, after false lashes applied

L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Waterproof Very Black

Miss Adoro 747s lashes

Lips:

MAC Soar lipliner

NARS Bangkok lipstick

Powder T-Zone lightly with Laura Mercier translucent powder

Set everything with Model in a Bottle Setting Spray, original formula

Swatch City: MAC Pinks and Reds

Reds from Left to Right: MAC Red, Russian Red, Ruby Woo
Pinks from Left to Right (top row): Cream Cup, Lovelorn, Speed Dial
Pinks from Left to Right (bottom row): Pink Nouveau, Please Me, Snob

MAC Naturally Redhead MSF Comparison and Swatches

Left to Right: MSF Redhead, MSF By Candlelight

Top to Bottom: MSF By Candlelight, MSF Redhead

MAC Naturally Blonde MSF Comparisons and Swatches

Left to Right: MSF Porcelain Pink, MSF Blonde, MSF Petticoat Pink

Left to Right: MSF Porcelain Pink, MSF Blonde, MSF Petticoat Pink

MAC Naturally MSF Swatches + Subtle Breeze

From Left: Mineral Skin Finish Blonde, Mineral Skin Finish Redhead, Mineral Blush Subtle Breeze

MSF in Redhead

MSF in Blonde

Left to Right: Subtle Breeze, MSF Redhead, MSF Blonde




Tune in tomorrow for dupe comparisons of the Blonde and Redhead MSFs...

MAC Naturally Collection

Happiness is...

coming home to see this iconic black box on your doorstep.

Pictures and swatches to come...

Bronzer Breakdown

From Left:

MAC contour powder in Bone Beige

Physician's Formula Bronzer in Light Bronze

Rimmel Matte Bronze in Sunlit

MAC Mineral Skin Finish in Medium Dark

These are the bronzers currently cycling in my collection. My quick breakdown is as follows:

MAC Bone Beige:

My go to for cheek contour. It's not too muddy brown (hello benefit Hoola) for my pale skin, blends well and applies in layers from soft to dramatic. Biggest hit against the product is that it is a pro MAC product and can only be found at the pro MAC stores.

Physician's Formula Bronzer in Light Bronze:

Since taking these pictures, I've actually removed this from my collection. It was more of a light blush than a bronzer, and didn't give the hollows of my cheeks the depth I needed for the contoured look

Rimmel Bronze in Sunlit:

LOVE this drugstore product. It's a lot of product for just a few dollars and works great to "sun me up" when I feel like getting my bronze on. It pulls a little more to the orange side, rather than brown, but never makes me look like an oompa loompa. I've been using this a lot of bridal clients who want more of a warm glow for their winter weddings.

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Medium Dark:

This one will quickly be discarded from my collection. Upon first application it's the perfect color. Toasty and warm, I just love it. Flash forward three hours to when it's oxidized on my skin and I do look like a fake tan gone wrong.

That said, the MSFs and I don't seem to get along (save the blushes which I LOVE!). I noticed that my medium light face powders turns dark and funky on me too.

From Left: MAC Bone Beige, Physician's Formula Light Bronze,

Rimmel Bronze in Sunlit, MAC MSF in Medium Dark

From Left: MAC Bone Beige, Physician's Formula Light Bronze,

Rimmel Bronze in Sunlit, MAC MSF in Medium Dark

Dupe it Up: MAC Sublime Culture

Top: Rimmel Exaggerate Liner in Addiction $4-5

Bottom: MAC Creamstick liner in Sublime Culture $17.50

Top:Rimmel; Bottom: MAC

While there is no doubt that MAC puts out a good liner in a large variety of shades and textures (creamsticks vs pencils), sometimes the high prices make close my wallet and run the other direction.

The glory of a bad economy right? We are walking away from the high brow and looking for more affordable options. In this case, my friends, we've struck gold.

Enter Rimmel Automatic Liner for 4-dollars and change at your local drugstore...

Rimmel left, MAC right

FIVE DOLLARS? Huzzah to the cheaper alternative.

The Nitty Gritty:

The Rimmel liner is a little bit larger at the point, which can make it slightly more challenging to get the thin, precise, line you may be looking for and the texture is less creamy than it's more expensive cousin. However, the product is more available since you can find it at any drugstore carrying Rimmel products and it's price point more than makes up for it's different texture.

As a color comparison, the two are pretty spot on. If I HAD to nit pick I would say that Sublime Culture is a pinch more peach whereas Addiction pulls a pinch more pink, but the difference is hardly noticeable at glance.

Bottom Line:

Run, don't walk, to replace your more expensive MAC Sublime Culture for it's cheaper relative, Rimmel Exaggerate Liner in Addiction and use the extra cash to buy yourself a coffee, cause "ya done good kid".

Dupe it up: MAC Fresh Salmon

It happens at least once in every large limited edition release, you find something you. just. love.

The following story may sound familiar:

Love at first sight, you wear your new found "holy grail item" for a week straight. Days or weeks pass and you suddenly notice that your use of this beloved item is starting to show. An irrational fear begins to creep, "Omg, what will I do when it runs out?!"

You tell yourself to stop using it so much, limit it to special occasions or maybe put it in a bottom drawer and out of sight. Initially, it taunts you from the bottom drawer, begging for use but, eventually, a new collection comes out and you forget about it entirely. Your newly obsessed "holy grail" becomes old news and is quickly replaced with the next collections "must have" item...until...

One day you're cleaning out your makeup drawer, the one on the bottom that you hardly look at, and you stumble upon it. Its like meeting a new friend all over again, usage increase, and the irrational fear is just around the corner...the cycle repeats.

MACs Fresh Salmon has been like Gollum's ring to me since it was released in the Spring Color Forecast last year. Everytime I use it I am filled with equal parts joy and guilt because I know soon my days of the perfect pinky coral will be ovah.

I was determined to find a dupe, and dupe it I did.

Rimmel Moisture Renew in Coral Shimmer (120) on left, MAC Fresh Salmon (lustre) on right

Coral Shimmer left, Fresh Salmon Right (no flash)

Clearly it's not a perfect dupe, as seen in the photo above. Fresh Salmon, right, has slightly more pink undertones as compared to Coral Shimmer's more, well, coral/peach undertone. But they're sooo close!

Coral Shimmer (left w.flash) has a smidgen more of a shimmer as compared to Fresh Salmon's subtle sheen which often accompanies MAC lustre formula.

Close enough for me. And with the Rimmel Coral Shimmer at an incredible 7-ish dollars, I will gladly swap out one for the other. Fresh Salmon, you are official moved out of the bottom retirement drawer. Huzzah!

In The Groove - Love to Love

Products Used:

Love to Love Mineralize Eye Trio
Medium Dark Mineralized Skin Finish
MAC 109 Brush
Stereo Rose Mineralize Skin Finish
MAC 187 Brush
Bobbi Brown Nectar Blush
Nivea "A Kiss of Color" Cherry Lip Balm

Red White and Blue

Happy Fourth of July, or fifth as it may be. I'm a little behind ;)

Check out my video below for the red, white and blue look I did to celerate the fourth.




Face:
Dr. Brandt No More Pores primer
MAC Studio Fix powder in N4
MAC contour powder in Bone Beige

Eyes:
MUFE Aqua Cream 20
MAC Freshwater
MAC Moon's Reflection
MAC Deep Truth
MAC Gesso

Lips:
MAC Cherry lip pencil
OCC Lip Tar in NSFW

Skincare Routine

Cleansing:

MAC Makeup Wipes (100 ct)
L'Oreal Deep Cream Cleanser
Blinc Resurf.a.stic
Kate Somerville ExfoliKate

Serums:
Estee Lauder Advance Night Repair
Kate Somerville Quench

Eye Cream:
MAC Fast Response Eye Cream
ROC Eye Cream with Retinol

Moisturizing:
Embryolisse

Primer/Large Pore Treatment:
Dr Brandt No More Pores Pore Refiner

Liberty of London - Blues and Purples

The Liberty of London collection by MAC was one of those items which really caught me off guard. I think it was consumer overload, everytime I turned around someone was raving about the collection. Clearly, so as to avoid any possible let down, I was not excited. I went into my local store expecting to see, swatch and leave empty handed with a simple "Meh", I'm sure my wallet would have loved it if that's how it all went down in the OK Corral.

I ended up bring home two colors which, weeks later, have yet to leave my "OMG I love this" list...

Dames Desire

Birds and Berries

The Press Release photos for these two colors really don't do it justice, but if you look at the swatch photos (courtesy of Temptalia - link listed below) you can see that they really are unique and beautiful.

I took these two colors to create an interesting eye look, check out the video on my YouTube Channel by clicking the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NoRulesJustBeauty?feature=mhw4#p/a/f/0/q4z5vSa6rOY


You can check out more pictures and swatches here of Liberty of London care of Temptalia here: http://www.temptalia.com/mac-give-me-liberty-of-london-eyeshadow-reviews-photos-swatches