MAC Eyeshadow Swatches

Some MAC eyeshadow swatches of the ones I have left. All the other ones I sold because I don't give them enough loving. I realized I've never swatched a lot of my shadows, so enjoy! These were swatched dry with no base.


Going from top to bottom, left to right: Coppering, cranberry, da bling, romantique, expensive pink, fab & flashy, goldmine, gorgeous gold, juxt, swimming, waternymph, shimmermoss, big t, belle azure, prussian


Coppering, cranberry, da bling, romantique, expensive pink, fab & flashy, goldmine, gorgeous gold


Juxt, swimming, waternymph, shimmermoss, big t, belle azure, prussian


Top to bottom, left to right: Seedy pearl, leap, beautiful iris, little minx, satellite dreams, nocturnelle, trax, blackberry


Seedy pearl, leap, beautiful iris, little minx, satellite dreams, nocturnelle, trax, blackberry

Some MAC pigment swatches

MAC pigment swatches!


Azreal blue, mutiny, blue storm


Pastorale, chartreuse, emerald green


Polished ivory, vanilla, old gold, apricot pink


Jewelmarine, cocomotion

Small MAC Haul

I decided to check out the Style Warrior collection that just came out so I stopped by my local MAC counter. Sadly, they didn't have testers of vibrant grape or bright future, so I didn't get them. They were completely sold out of bright future and only had a few left of vibrant grape. It looked similar to Simply Natural's wine pigment and it looks like it could be duped from the 88 palette... The yellow was stunning though. A few MAC associates were wearing bright future and vibrant grape and it looked amazing.


I also picked up my second 217 brush cuz I FRIGGIN love it to death! I wanted to have one for my house and one for the boyfriend's house so I wouldn't have to move it back and forth. It's a costly little brush, but so worth it! I think this and the 187 brush are my favorites from MAC. Definitely worth getting one, two... or three ;)


Left to right: Hue, Pretty Please
I B2Med for Pretty Please lipstick. I also got Hue because it's such a great nude pink lipstick. I've been looking for more nude lipsticks lately since all my other ones are not daytime friendly.


I know they don't show up well here, but they are gorgeous subtle colors.





I also pre-ordered the complete brush kit from Sigma Makeup. It comes with 12 brushes for $64 + $7 shipping which comes out to about $6/brush. Good deal, no? They got pretty good reviews and they're comparable to MAC brushes. Even the names of the brushes are the same... So I figured, what the hell, I might as well try them out being the huge brush freak that I am. Plus they aren't even that expensive if you do the math. The only real drawback is that they won't be in stock until July because all the ones in stock for May & June have already been pre-ordered. Oh well, I can wait. Whoop! :)

Not so impressed

I wasn't very impressed with the Ungaro, Cremesheen, & Suite Array collections... I finally got to check them all out yesterday. I was saving my trip to the mall for when Ungaro launched which was yesterday. I managed to get two lipsticks. Pure Rose from Ungaro which I'm liking more and more everytime I wear it and Creme d'Nude which I don't like very much. I never try tester lipsticks on cuz I think it's gross even when they offer to clean them... So I usually swatch everything on my hand. Creme d'Nude went on very sheer on the my hand, but it goes on pretty chalky on the lips. Because it's not so incredibly sheer on the lips, it's almost too light... But maybe I can see if I can work with it so I don't have to return it cuz I love nude lippies.





I didn't swatch the two things from Suite Array cuz those are gifts I bought for a friend's birthday. I'm going broke buying 3 birthday presents! Anywho, it's the Sweet Liason duo and the Spare Change pearl glider. Both are beautiful! I personally wouldn't buy pearl gliders for myself cuz my liners usually smudge like crazy unless they're waterproof, but they are very creamy and soft.

I'm debating whether or not to get the eye shadow palette from the Manish Arora collection. I wouldn't get anything else cuz I'd never use it. The palette is the thing I'd use the most... But most of the colors I'm still not so sure I'd use on a daily basis or anything even close to that... I don't have any of the colors in the palette though which is a good thing.

Creme Sheen Launches 9/25/08

Creme Sheen Lipsticks
Creme d'Nude - Pale muted peach beige
Stay In Touch - Light yellow brown
Speak Louder - Poppy blue pink
Ravishing - Light peachy coral
Hot Gossip - Mid-tone pinky plum
Party Line - Red tone plum
On Hold - Mid-tone yellow raspberry
Modesty - Muted neutral pink
Speed Dial - Light blue pink
Fan Fare - Mid-tone yellow pink
Crosswires - Pinky orange
Hang-up - Deep berry
Brave Red - Bright yellow red
Dare You - Deep brown red


L-R: Creme d'Nude, Ravishing, Speed Dial, Fanfare, Crosswires


L-R: Speak Louder, Modesty, Hot Gossip, On Hold, Stay in Touch


L-R: Brave Red, Party Line, Dare You, Hang-Up

Photos & Collection info courtesy of Specktra.net

MAC Manish Arora Collection

If you missed the C-Shock collection, not all is lost because another rainbow colored collection is about to launch on the 9th of October. I'm excited for this collection, but mainly because of its packaging. The palette is beautiful, but I don't see myself reaching for it very often--plus, 4 shades out of the 6 are all permanent colors. I think I'm most interested in the Kiss Manish l/s and the Shine Manish l/g, but I still might cave in for the palette since it looks irresistably colorful.


Eye Palette x 6 - $38.00
Nylon - Pale gold with icy metallic shimmer (Frost) (Permanent Shade)
Going Bananas - Soft lemon yellow (Frost) (LE - Repromote from C-Shock)
Playful - Bright clean pink (satin) (LE - Repromote from Barbie Loves MAC)
Bitter - Vivid bright golden green flecked with shimmer (Velvet) (Permanent Shade)
Electric Eel - Vivid bright blue flecked with shimmer (Satin) Permanent Shade)
Deep Truth - Very real truthful dark blue (Frost) (Permanent Shade)


Blush - $18.00
Devil - Bright iridescent coral orange (Satin) (Permanent Pro)
Pink Swoon - Clearly pink (Sheertone) (Permanent)


Lipsticks - $14.00USD
Girl About Town - Fabulous fuchsia (Amplified Creme) (Permanent)
Kiss Manish - Frosty mid-tone burnt red (Frost) LE


Lipglass - $14.00USD
Pink Manish - Frosted fuchisa (Frost) LE
Shine Manish - Frosty bright orange with multi-dimensional pearlized pigments (frost) LE

Photos and info courtesy of Specktra.net

Pigments

My pigments arrived from The Body Needs! Some of you were asking about their shipping, and I think their turn around time was pretty fast. I ordered on Aug 23 and it got shipped out on Aug 26. I probably would've received it on Monday if it wasn't a holiday. Cheryl, the owner of The Body Needs, even included a free pigment sample with my order :) I'm pretty satisfied with my order except for one thing... The pigments in the jars seem like a really tiny amount... I don't know if that's truly a 1/4 tsp amount. Maybe it is and maybe all the other pigment samples I get from swapping just come with a really generous amount. Shrugs. Anywho, the Overrich pigments are GORGEOUS. I'd say go and buy the samples for these since if you get a whole jar at the MAC store, they only come with 4.3g of product for the same price of $19.50! Rip off!

Photos are all clickable







Some comparisons of Heritage Rouge pigment & Vintage Gold pigment.
Artifact paint pot is a pretty dead on dupe of Heritage Rouge.

CCO!

I went to Davis the other day to visit a few friends for their house party and on the way back to SF, we stopped by the CCO in Vacaville! It was the first time I've ever gone to a CCO. I've been to outlets before, but I can never find the CCO store! We only had about 20 minutes to pick out what we wanted though, but it was really exciting! Hahaha. They had paint pots, pigments, eye shadows, blushes, tendertones, mineralize satinfinish foundation, sculpt & shape, fix+, palettes from novel twist, and some lip sets from the finery collection.

I got some thangs cuz you know I couldn't resist! :)







By the way, the Comedy Jam was awesome!!! BUT Russell Peters wasn't there!!!!!!! I don't know what happened... maybe he canceled? But I know for a fact that when I bought the tickets, his name was up there as one of the performing comedians. The radio even said it a million times! I really wanted to see him :( The other comedians were funny too so I guess it wasn't a total waste of money since the only reason I bought the tickets was to see him. Anywho, Edwin San Juan is really funny. Look him up if you get a chance!

Shadestick Swatches

Sorry I haven't updated in so long! School started on Monday and I've been busy ever since... I even took the week off from work. It took me two hours to do my chemistry homework yesterday... There weren't that many problems, but each problem had an a, b, c, d, etc so it was like 4 problems in 1. Chem is my fav subject though so it wasn't too bad. But I still have more homework to do! Anywho, here are the Shadestick swatches that I've been meaning to put up. My favs are the first three: Lucky Jade, Penny, & Bei-Jing.





I also ordered some pigments from the Overrich collection cuz they are BEAUTIFUL! I ordered them from The Body Needs though cuz I know I'd never use up a full pigment jar. I'll do some swatches when they get here. Nothing from the Cult of Cherry collection caught my eye in person so BLAH :\ The Tempting quad did look good, but I have Eyepopping from the C-Shock collection and they're close enough in colors and I don't even EVER use Eyepopping. It just looks good in the pan... I was hoping to get the Spiced Chocolate quad, but that one and the Shadowy Lady quad just didn't seem pigmented enough for me to get. Maybe it's just me? I don't know. The colors barely transferred when I swatched them.

Anywho, if any of you are wondering, the Heritage Rouge pigment is nothing like Cranberry e/s (cuz I thought it was haha). Heritage Rouge is more purple and actually, Artifact p/p makes a good dupe for it since it has more purple tones in it whereas Cranberry has more red tones.

I'm getting less excited about new collections that come out now. It just seems like MAC keeps coming out with colors that aren't unique anymore. Like I already have something similar if not the same and I don't want to buy another one. I think I'm just waiting for them to "wow" me again like when I first got into make up. (or maybe since when I first got into make up, everything wowed me since I didn't have any of the colors yet lol).

I'm going to the Comedy Jam tonight! I'm really excited! Some comedians that'll be there are Russell Peters, Katt Williams, and Bobby Lee. I really only bought the tickets to see Russell Peters cuz I LOVE that man!! He's HILARIOUS! :)

Another little haul :)

I got a case of boredom yesterday so I went to the mall and stopped by the MAC counter! Lol. I realize I never posted a swatch of the Artifact paint pot so here it is. Artifact reminds me a lot of MAC's Cranberry e/s and NYX's Copper e/s. Next to it is Girl Friendly p/p. I was surprised that the counter still had these! I thought they were LE so I had to pick one up :D I also got Satellite Dreams e/s, Romp e/s, and a Penny shadestick.




I don't know why at the MAC counter, the Penny shadestick reminded me a lot of the Rubenesque p/p only it's more bronzy. It must've been the lighting lol. Rubenesque seems to have more of a duochrome goldish pink color and Penny is more bronzy. It's really pretty though and the picture does it no justice! Lol.


Swatches of Romp (L) & Satellite Dreams (R)


Swatches of Romp compared to other brown/golds
L to R: Amber Lights, Romp, Woodwinked, Mulch


Swatches of Satellite Dreams compared to other purples
L to R: Satellite Dreams, Beautiful Iris, Nocturnelle

Why?

Why don't I like any of the new MAC collections? Don't you want my money MAC? lol. Nothing from New View up until now has really caught my eye... Which really sucks since my friends got me some awesome gift cards for my birthday to feed my MAC addiction. My birthday was on Monday and we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was suppppperrrrrr fun and I learned that I'm really good at laser tag!! Haha.

I did manage to squeeze in a mini haul. I got the 217 brush that I've been wanting for a while. I'm going to give my 224 a little break. And I got another paint pot! I love paint pots! I think I use them more as an eye shadow than as a base though because the colors are too pretty to cover up as a base.


Artifact Paint Pot & 217 Brush

I'm waiting for the Cult of Cherry collection to come out. I saw the MAC MAs getting ready to label their testers when I was there. The collection isn't out until the 21st though. Their palettes look promising... But then again, I'm usually a sucker for palettes :P

Fluidline Swatches

These are the first gel liners I've ever bought. EVER! I actually got these kinda recently like 4 months ago and putting them on the first time was really awkward. I was at the MAC store & the MA was showing these to me so I asked if I could try putting them on myself to see if I could get the hang of it... and I did alright for my first attempt... only I also poked some of this stuff onto my contact lenses and boy, do these babies STICK! I ended up having to throw one of my contacts away and was walking around in the mall half blinded.

Anywho, I'm not so sure that I'd buy fluidlines again even though they are really functionable gel liners since there are other brands out there like L'oreal Hip that make equally good gel liners. Frostlite definitely is the sheerest out of the rest. Because of that, it also makes a good highlighter and that's what I mainly use it for. They're all super water resistant so they won't budge (not even with soap & water. believe me, I've tried)

Colour Forms

EDIT: I added some more pics of the brushes for comparison. Hope this helps!

I had a really hard time deciding whether or not I should cancel my Colour Forms order. I did actually call them to cancel, but they had already charged my card so my options were to either go pick them up and keep them or go to the store on pick up day and get a refund... I decided to pick them up and play with them to see if I really want to keep them... I got the advanced brush set & Naked to the Core l/s. I have to say that I'm definitely keeping the lipstick! When I pre-ordered them, I didn't swatch them on my lips since I would never let one of the tester lipsticks ever touch my lips so I swatched them on my hand and decided I liked it enough... But I tried my new one on today after I picked it up and I LOVE IT! It's now my HG nude lippie! It doesn't make me look washed out and it has a hint of pink in it. I think it'd make a really nice color for the winter time.

I think I might keep the brush set too... The 187 SE is nowhere near as stiff as the regular 187 that I already have, but it would make a good brush for powders and blushes. When I was washing it, a whole bunch of black dye came out which I thought was disgusting (a good example of why you should always wash your new brushes!) Also, it didn't shed too much. Only 2-3 hairs came out which surprised me a lot since I was expecting it to shed more. The 187 SE's brush hairs also aren't as good quality as the regular brush. You'll notice that on the regular brush, there are long white hairs and shorter black hairs that are separate. The shorter black hairs densely pack the longer white hairs together and that's what makes the brush so stiff. On the 187 SE, there are no longer white hairs and shorter black hairs (except on the outside). The bristles are all the same with the tips being white and the base being black.







The 168 SE is just as good quality as the regular one except it's so much smaller! meaning the handle AND the brush head itself. I prefer the regular sized one for everyday use, but I guess the small one would be good for traveling. I haven't used any of the brushes yet so this is all from feeling their texture, bristles, and stiffness. The 168 SE might be good for small blushes like ELF blushes or sample jars.





The 219 SE is tapered like the regular one, but the SE is not as pointy (meaning not as precise), but it'll still do the job for putting color on the lower lash line and in the crease. It seems like the SE has more brush hairs than the regular which is weird in my opinion... Why waste money on producing a brush with more bristles than the regular one? lol.



I don't own the regular sized brushes of the 275 SE and the 212 SE, but they seem alright. The 275 SE is pretty soft and very very flimsy. The bristles practically bend over when you put pressure on them. It does seem like it'd be very easy to just sweep color across the lid though since it's angled.

I can already tell that the 212 SE is going to be a good brush. It's a flat liner brush and the only liner brushes I've used are angled ones. This one is very stiff (EXTREMELY stiff!) which makes it ideal for putting on eyeliner. It's small and I think that's a good thing since I'll have more control over applying my eyeliner.



I had no intention of keeping this brush set until I washed them lol. Now I'm kinda growing fond of them. I think I just need to kick myself in the behind for hoarding things that I do not need and just want. I also checked out the Electro Flash, Sonic Chic, & New View collections, but surprisingly enough, I didn't like ANY of them! All of them were just way too shimmery for me and I usually like a little bit of shimmer, but those babies were super shimmery! Sucks for the MA that kept trying so hard to push for a sale. I hate when they do that! Why can't they do it when I need them at the right time when I actually want a makeover and actually need help? lol.