MAC Haul

A Small MAC Haul :)

MAC recently dropped the price of their single pan shadows to $6.00 USD, which I think is a great deal so I had to take advantage of it. I believe it's a permanent change, as well! I don't currently have a Z-palette to store them in but I plan to get one after my birthday, so for now I'll just keep them in their cardboard packaging while I'm not using them. I also got a couple of lipsticks that I had been wanting for a while now because I've discovered that I love MAC lipsticks and I want to build up my collection.

I got to choose a free sample, so I went for the Strobe Cream because I already have a sample of the primer and I didn't want a mascara. I tend to prefer matte face makeup, but I'm willing to give this a try.

The first eyeshadow I got was Wedge, which is a very basic light neutral brown, perfect for a crease/transition shade. Before I made this order my only MAC shadow was Amber Lights but I love it and I wanted something I would use everyday.

The second shadow I got is in the shade Motif. It's described on the MAC website as a gold peach with pink pearl, and I think it's absolutely gorgeous. I wasn't expecting it to be as duochrome as it is but it's definitely a pleasant surprise.

The last shadow I got is Cranberry, because not only does it look beautiful but I also heard that it looks great on blue eyes. I'm already starting to love this one.

I got Russian Red! I wanted a classic cool-toned red and Russian Red seemed like the best option so that's what I went with. I only had MAC lipsticks with satin and amplified finishes before this, so I'll have to see how I like the matte formula. I've worn this once so far for about six hours and it wasn't too drying so I'm loving it so far.

This last product has been calling my name since I saw it when it came out a couple of months ago. It's a bright orangey-coral that I think will be perfect for the summertime. It's another matte finish, so I'm really hoping I end up liking the matte finishes from MAC. I originally also wanted the lipstick Among The Fireflies from the Faerie Whispers collection, but it seemed like it might be too brown to look flattering on me.

Eye Look

Eye Look Using MAC Amber Lights

I just got the MAC eyeshadow Amber Lights and I wanted to play around with it. I ended up liking how it turned out, so I'm posting it here. I think I'll experiment with using it wet next, since it's not quite as vibrant as I'd like on it's own. I also used the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette to create this look.

I started with the shade Combust as my transition shade. This shadow is one of my favorite transition shades.

I used a couple very light layers of Whiskey in my crease. I didn't want it to be very dark so I kept it really light.

Next, I put the star of the show, Amber Lights by MAC, all over my lid and blended it a bit up into the crease.

After that I used the shade Dirtysweet on my lower lashline. I wet my brush before using it so that it would be more intense.

I used the shade Thirteen wet as my browbone highlight. I used it wet since I find that on it's own this shade never really shows up on me.

I put the shade High on my inner corner, and the shadow is done!

Eyeliner is optional, but I do highly recommend mascara. I think mascara is an essential for any eye look because I feel it really pulls everything together.

Here is the look paired with MAC's Craving, which is an Amplified finish. I like how the darker lips look with the eyes.

Two-Palette Look

Maggie Plays With Eyeshadows

I've been loving the Hard Candy Look Pro Neutral Eyes palette, as well as the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, so I was playing around with them together and I ended up liking how it turned out. I was also experimenting with using shadows wet, since I like my shimmery shades to be really shimmery. I use my iPhone 6 camera to take the pictures that go on my blog, and it doesn't pick up on shimmer very well, so I'm really sorry about that.

First I took the shade Chatty from the Hard Candy palette and ran it through and above my crease as my transition color.

Second, I took the shade Salted Caramel from the Too Faced palette as my crease shade and blended it into my transition.

For a pop of major shimmer, I took the shade Girlie from the Hard Candy palette and used it wet all over the lid. I just used water to wet it, which apparently you're not supposed to do, but I did it anyways because I'm a rebel.

Next I took Girlie, still wet, and put it on my lower lashline.

After that I got my brush wet and took the shade Champagne Truffle from the Too Faced palette as an inner corner and browbone highlight.

Add winged liner and mascara and you're done!

Here's how it looks paired with a lip option. I put a Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Margaret on top of a MAC lipstick in Brave. Brave is my go-to lip color because it goes with pretty much every eye look.

Halo Eye

Halo Eye Eyeshadow Tutorial + Lip Option

I've been really wanting to try out doing a halo eye look, and the shade Girlie in the Hard Candy Look Pro Neutral Eyes palette looked like it would be perfect for a pop of shimmer in the middle of the lid, so I created this look using that palette. I experimented a bit with using shadows wet as well, so I'll note which shadow I did that with when we get to that step.

Using a blending brush, buff the shade Chatty into and above the crease as a transition shade so that your crease shade will blend easier and look more gradient.

Put the shade Toying in the crease, working in light layers and slowly building up color.

Sorry this picture is out of focus, I didn't realize until after I had completed the next step so I couldn't retake it. I took the shade Philander and placed it on the inner and outer thirds of the lid, staying away from the middle of the lid entirely. I did take the color up into the crease a little bit.

Next, I wet my brush with the Hard Candy Fast & Fabulous Setting Spray and dipped into the shade Girlie before putting it on the middle third of my lid. I wet my brush so that the color would be more intense and metallic looking. It doesn't look nearly as good on camera as it did in person, but believe me, it makes a huge difference. Make sure to blend the edges of the lid colors together.

After that I blended my crease some more so that everything looked more put together.

I put the shade Coy on the lower lashline because I think it makes everything look a lot more complete.

Adding the shade Bashful as an inner corner and browbone highlight pulls everything together nicely!

Blend some more, add liner and mascara, and you're done!

For the lips, I applied Wet' n' Wild's Mega Last lipstick in Just Peachy under Stila's Stay All Day Vinyl lip gloss in Nude. I think this look would also look nice paired with a red lip.

Eyeshadow Review

Wet' n' Wild 5-Pan Eyeshadow Palette Review

I recently got the Wet' n' Wild 5-pan eyeshadow palette in Tunnel Vision because I wanted to test out Wet' n' Wild eyeshadows a bit better. It comes with a sponge tip applicator and a little brush, neither of which are very good. The brush is usable but I don't plan on using it since I have better brushes. I find that the shadows are kind of blendable, but not super great. They're very pigmented (other than the white shade), but I prefer blendability over pigmentation since you can always build a color up if it isn't pigmented but it's hard to work with hard to blend shadows. They last pretty well and don't crease too much as long as you use an eye primer. I find it odd that the crease shade has sparkles in it, but they don't really show up much on your eye. These shadows also seem to have quite a bit of fallout.

I created this look using the shadows the way the pans say to - I put the shade that has "crease" engraved in it in my crease, the shade that says "eyelid" on my lid, and so on. As you can see, it looks kind of muddy and the crease color isn't blended very well. I tried for a long time to blend it out better but it doesn't seem to get any better than this. Overall, these eyeshadows are okay, but I'm not a big fan.

Super Bright Eye Look

A Super Bright Electric Eye Look

I wanted to do a super bright eye look today, so I used the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette and the Urban Decay Electric palette to create this look.

I started off by putting the shade Salted Caramel from the Too Faced palette in my crease as somewhat of a transition shade.

Next I applied a white base all over my lid so that my lid colors would really pop.

Apply the shade Jilted from the Urban Decay palette all over the lid.

Put the shade Urban from the Urban Decay palette on the outer half of your lid, blending it into Jilted well.

Use the shade Champagne Truffle from the Too Faced palette as a browbone and inner corner highlight.

Blend, blend, blend! This step really pulls the look together.

Put on liner and mascara and you're done! If you want to use a color on the lower lashline as well, go for it.

I paired this eye look with the Wet' n' Wild MegaLast lipstick in Mauve Outta Here. I think it matches the eye look pretty well without distracting from it.

Naked Smoky Look

Naked Smoky Palette Eyeshadow Tutorial

Put the shade Password in the crease. Don't worry about blending it out yet, we'll do that at the end.

Apply the shade Dirtysweet all over the lid. This is one of my favorite shades in the palette.

Use the shade Smolder on the outer half of the lid, blending it into the outer v as well.

Apply the shade Black Market to the outer v to deepen the look.

Blend everything together and clean up the edge of the shadow.

Apply liner and mascara. I used two or three coats of mascara since this is quite a dramatic look.

Here is the eye look paired with Too Faced's Melted Berry. I think they go pretty well together, although a nude lipstick would look good as well.

Naked Smoky Tutorial

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Eyeshadow Palette Tutorial

I wanted to try out my new Naked Smoky palette, so I decided to do an eye look tutorial using only shadows from that palette. I think it turned out pretty well, so I'm posting it here.

Apply the shade Whiskey all over your crease, not worrying too much about blending yet. We'll get to that in a bit.

Apply the shade Armor all over the lid, blending it slightly up into the crease.

Put the shade Dagger in the outer v of the eye and blend it partially into the crease.

Apply the shade High to the inner corner and lower lashline, blending it to the inner third of the eyelid as well.

Blend everything out to make the look softer and less harsh. I also used a makeup wipe to clean up below and next to my eye, as well as make the shadow into a harsh line extending from my outer corner.

Apply liner, curl your lashes, apply some mascara, and you're done! A super easy yet pretty smoky eye.

Here is the finished eye look, paired with Too Faced's Melted Chihuahua. I think this eye look would go well with most lip colors, but I thought that a nude would keep more attention on the eyes.