Upcoming MAC Collections

Hey guys!

You may or may not remember but in my first Collections post, I had tips on how you can avoid a frazzled trip to a store frantically trying to remember what shades you wanted.  I've been working on my list for Peacocky and (although I had no plans of liking anything in this collection) MAC + Mickey Contractor.  I've already done my Cham-Pale and Stylishly Yours but I noticed I didn't feel the need to use Excel this time around.  Maybe because I didn't get that many things from either collection.

Here is a screenshot from the rough draft I've created in Notepad.

I doubt any of you will have trouble following my list but here's the Key:

#1—the title of the collection and the release date. This is helpful so I can keep in mind my timeframe to get my funds together.

#2—product name with price

#3—the total cost of the shades within that particular product

#4—total cost of my collection picks

First I'll address what you guys probably all jumped on: I will NOT be buying $292.50 worth of eyeshadows.  As you may have guessed, I super LOVE Temptalia.  Christine is so awesome with her swatches and I love how detailed her descriptions are for shades, texture, wear etc.  That's where I go first for all MAC collection information.  So right now, she doesn't have swatches of the eye shadow available.  The only shadow swatches I've seen are for Odalisque and Mating Call.  Hence the *** next to them because I know from the swatches I want them.  Once swatches and reviews are available, I'll be going through the list and knocking off the ones I know I don't want.  Again, this is a first draft which will go through much editing before I purchase anything. 

As I mentioned above, I love Christine's descriptions of shades so I've gone to Temptalia for her descriptions of each color and shortened them a little bit for my own personal reference.  At the final draft of my "process" the descriptions will be removed as I've already decided which shades I want and I'll be much more familar with them.  Please note the descriptions I have now for Peacocky are the MAC descriptions, not Christine's while Mickey Contractor descriptions are in Christine's words.


  My next step would be to comb the internet for swatches, narrow my picks to the colors I really, really want/what I can really, really afford and ta-da!  I can call my nearest MAC counter, order and in a few days rolling in products!
 
Hope you guys find this helpful.



Coming Up...

Hey guys,

So I know the blog has been a little MAC-centric lately. And I’ll be honest—the next couple posts will be MAC’s collections. In fact in the next post I’m about to tell you about MAC Cham-Pale and Stylishly Yours with a bit about Mickey Contractor and Peacocky.

Buuuuuuut, I finally caved and purchased NARS ultra-favorited Orgasm blush along with Orgasm gloss and Bad Education gloss—the last one I couldn’t pass up from the swatches I’ve seen! Alas, I placed my order on Monday and it only shipped yesterday or today. I’m not sure as I got the shipment confirmation saying it shipped “today” Thursday at 12:26 AM so it’s sketchy. As soon as I’ve gotten them I’ll put stuff up. Yeah, I know I’m late for the band wagon and that’s only because I don’t bother with blush. I’m usually pretty flushed without it so until recently I didn’t bother.

I’ve purchased a Z Palette after watching Marlena from Makeup Geek TV’s review on palettes. I chose the Z Palette because it seemed like a happy medium between the three she reviewed in quality and cost. I’ll review that once I have time to work with it a little bit. I’ve never done de-potting before (I’ve kept the shadows in the packaging they come in just because why not?) so I’m going to research that and…maybe video tape my attempts? It will probably be a very sad, sad fail video but maybe you guys can learn from it!

I have also been going through some Etsy cosmetics companies/sellers/whatever you want to call them. I ordered this beautifully luscious red color I am oh-so-excited to receive. There are a couple companies I want to get a few shadows and/or pigments from and of course, reviews will follow.

If you guys have any questions feel free to email me or leave a comment.

See ya!

L'Oreal Magic Smooth Souffle

Hey lovelies!

I wanted to do a quick review about the new(ish) L'Oreal Magic Smooth Souffle foundation I picked up the other day at my local Walmart for $13.97. 

I had seen this a couple weeks ago--which is when it was probably released in my area--and when I passed by it I thought, "So L'Oreal is doing a Maybelline Dream Mousse knockoff then?"  L'Oreal's product touted the same as Maybelline's Dream Mousse: poreless, smooth, flawless skin.  Let's be honest--there's no such thing.  Not even the models who rock these products have perfect skin but I digress.  This weekend when I walked by, I grabbed a jar and opened it to get the consistency and color of the product inside. 

This seemed much thicker than Maybelline's Dream Mousse.  I couldn't help it...I poked my finger at it.  And I was right, much thicker and MUCH smoother when I swatched it on my hand.  After patting it for a second or two, it completely blended into my skin tone.  The only discernable difference was that the foundation evened my skin tone and made my skin appear smoother. 

I know it's really difficult to see (foundation swatches are a little silly) but you can kinda tell how the foundation filled in the fine lines on my hand.  The foundation feels like it has primer built in--although I could not find any official info that can confirm there are any primer-type ingredients.  It definitely has that silicone-y smoothness to it.  Although the product is thicker, it applies nicely.  If you choose this foundation, keep in mind a little goes a long way.  I used a clean finger to pat once into the jar then dabbed one spot on each cheek, my forehead and chin and blended with my fingertips.  I added teeny dabs to places I need extra covering.  I didn't use any concealer this time so I could see what kind of coverage I could get with it.  I'd say medium coverage--which is what I perfer.  I have noticed that this foundation is buildable, I just have to tweak it a bit.  The way this blends SO well into my skin, I think I could use it as a spot foundation as well just to cover a few imperfections than spread it all over my face.

I took the above picture right after my full face application in natural light.  I know my face looks a little weird--we had nothing but gray skies here which made the light outside coming in look strange.  Also, I have no color on so you guys could see how it applied to my face. 

I like the way this wears, also.  I've worn it for 8 hours (with no primer, just washed my face and applied moisturizer) and it still looks nice.  It hasn't really faded even though I've gone out in the bitter cold winter temperatures of the midwest then inside a couple stores.  Halfway into wearing it, I noticed my skin looked a little dewy but if I had had some pressed powder or even blotting papers at the time, I'm sure it would have resolved that small problem.  At times, I have slightly oilly skin so I'm pretty confident it was my skin that caused that than the product.  The dewy sheen happens with many foundations I use.  Looking at a mirror now, 8 hours later, I have a little bit of excess oil but my skin tone still looks even.  There is no product build-up on the top of my chin which can sometimes be an issue with me and I don't see any "scales" either (scales being where product can kinda separate on my cheeks which can make my skin look dry).

I know, I know.  I look...tired, drunk and probably a couple other things lol!  I'm downstairs and the lighting down here is dumb.  It took a lot of wriggling to get even this shot.  Anyway, you can see a little bit of sheen on my cheek, nose and forehead but otherwise it lasted pretty well.

If you wanted to know, I chose 512 Classic Ivory.  I believe it's the 2nd to the lightest shade.  For MAC uses for reference, I'm an NW15.  Yeah, I was shocked I didn't get the lightest shade too.  This was the first color I grabbed when I wanted to check out what it looked like inside the jar and it blended SO well.  Right now there is not a lot of shade choices but I've noticed drugstore brands sometimes release limited shades then once the product takes off, they begin to offer more.  So, if you don't find your exact shade, they may offer it later!

Let me know what you guys think!
Would you get it?  Are you going to pass?  Or will you wait on forming an opinion until you can stick your finger in the jar at a local store?