Blush -MAC - Mineralize Blush - Utterly Game
sweetmalinche 8/29/2010 12:59:00 PM
This came out with the 2010 Fabulous Felines collection. I was really underwhelmed with the collection and only picked up this and a pigment. I love peach blushes and only recently started wearing blush, so I am still adding to my collection. It's not completely matte (you can see a few small gold sparkles), but it's by no means frosty. It's more peach than Superdupernatural (which is more of a coral and has pink sparkles). It's slightly more pink than Nuance. Both Utterly Game and Nuance have gold sparkles. Nuance has a lot more of them. It is 10 times less frosty than Improvise blush and is slightly pinker. All in all, I like the color and like the matte-ish texture.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Resort Life Lipgelee
sweetmalinche 8/7/2010 12:38:00 AM
I bought this product when it came out with the Lilyland collection. I am only writing this review because it's being re-released in special edition packageing with the Disney Villians collection in fall 2010. I ended up returning this because on my lips it looked exactly like my MARK Juice Gem lipgloss in Honeydew, which was less than 1/2 the price and smells/tastes better (like honeydew melon). I will say that this is smoother than my Juice Gem, but I didn't love it enough to keep it. I like the texture of these gelees (way better than lip glasses and you get more product for the price). This particular color (which just ended up looking like pretty glitter on my lips with no base color whatsoever) just seems way over priced. I would love to find a good peach or true nude in a gelee.
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Eye Shadow -MAC - Pigment in Sweet Sienna [DISCONTINUED]
sweetmalinche 8/1/2010 4:11:00 PM
I love pigments and I wasn't into MAC when Sweet Sienna was released. This is one of the most sought after, hard to find pigments. After reading a the reviews here, it sounded like it would be right up my alley. Once I got my hands on it, though, it was just "meh." [Note: I still gave it a high rating because it's a great product (smooth pigment) and an unusual color, but the color did not work for me.] It is a slightly taupe-y gray with pinky and slightly purple undertones and gold shimmer. With very few exceptions, I HATE pink makeup. The pink undertones were automatic turnoff and I saw none of the green undertones that some reviewers have referred to. I was actually looking forward to the green undertones (green looks great with my light brown eyes) but so disappointed not to find them anywhere. :( I have compared them to other taupe-y grays I own. All colors were tested on my NC30-35 skin. SWEET SIENNA VS. BEFEFIT'S SKINNY JEANS Same base taupe-y gray color. SJ does not have the pinky or purple undertones that SS has. Nor does SJ have the gold shimmer. I do, however, see the so slight, almost imaginary green undertone in SJ that I do not see at all in SS. SWEET SIENNA VS. MAC'S SMOKE AND DIAMONDS S&D is more pewter gray than SS. S&D does not have the pink, purple or gold shimmer. S&D is most like SJ in color, except that don't see any green undertones in S&D. SWEET SIENNA VS. MAC'S EARTHLY RICHES (MES) These two are closest in color, although not exact dupes. ER has the same pinky or purple undertones as SS. ER does not have the golden shimmer of SS. ER is more intense/pigmented than SS, even when SS is applied over a creamy base. Great pigment, just soooooo not for me. Mine is going up for swap.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Highlighters -MAC - Skinfinish-Stereo Rose
sweetmalinche 7/9/2010 2:12:00 AM
PREMISE: *Sigh* You know, I really got to stop watching YouTube. It makes me want things that I might otherwise pass on. (Again, read my Flurry of Fun review.) The sad part is that in my "real" life, I rarely succumb to peer pressure and yet, when it comes to makeup, I can't seem to stop myself from jumping on the bandwagon. PRODUCT REVIEW: It's coral. I like coral. I don't love coral, though. So why the hell did I pay $28 for something I just "like"? It's pretty, but in some light it reminds me of mineralized version Marine Life sans the gold overspray (and oh how I loath Marine Life). When the MA put SR on my freckled cheeks, it looked nice, but nothing special. I have other blushes that I adore more than this. (And it doesn't appear to be anything that couldn't be duped with a mineralized blush and highlighter.) ANALYSIS: So why did I buy it if it's just ok? It's that whole "limited edition" factor. I had the same conversation I had with myself when I saw the Alice in Wonderland BOS at Sephora. "Everyone wants this so it must be great. It's so limited, I am gonna be kicking myself in butt if I don't get it now." All of sudden, the "okay" looking coral blush became a "must have." PROFOUND QUESTION: With that said, I don't want to return this because I am not sure what MAC does with returned products, and I would hate to see such a desired item end up in the dump. (This riddle is much like that of socks in the dryer: Does anyone know where returned MAC products go?) ACTION PLAN: I am gonna put this up for swap and see if I can get hard to find items on my wishlist. If in a few months I don't swap for this for something I adore, I will use it. Stereo Rose is not horrible, just not wonderful. BOTTOM LINE: Dear Stereo Rose, I was in lust with you earlier today. You gave me heart palputations and flushed cheeks. What more could a girl ask for? Those moments of passion have proved to be fleeting, as lust often is. Stereo Rose, my little coral butterfly, I am going to send you out into the world in the hopes that you find someone to love you the way I can't. And if in the end, you remain with me, then I guess it was meant to be....Not to ruin the poetry of this moment, but I have to make this clear: If you do stick around, Stereo Rose, don't be mad if Light Flush gets a lot more action than you do! :)
31 out of 42 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Sock Hop Lipglass - Heatherette
sweetmalinche 7/1/2010 10:33:00 PM
I paid $19.99 for this last week on www.allcosmeticswholesale.com. As it is, I think that MAC lip glasses are kinda pricey for the amount of product you get. I wasn't into MAC when the Heatherette Collection came out but the pink tacky packaging might have dissuaded me from buying this lip glass anyway. I love peach lip glosses and I am always on the hunt for different shades. I had seen swatches of SH online and it looked so damn beautiful that when I saw it for sale online, I had to get it despite the cost. It was worth the extra $6. Unlike Flurry of Fun (which for me was all hype and no delivery ---> see my review for more on that), this lipgloss lives up the hype. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It's flattering on my NC30/NC35 skin tone. It's pigmented for a lip gloss, but soft enough to wear with strong eye makeup. It's a beautiful peachy-coral that makes my full lips look even more yum. (If I could kiss myself with these lips I would. LOL) I have to fight the total urge to whip out my credit card and see if I can get at least one more of these bad boys. Who's *ss at MAC do I have to kiss to have this repromoted (at the least) or made permanent (dream come true)?
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Flurry of Fun (To the Beach Collection)
sweetmalinche 6/25/2010 11:48:00 PM
Picture it! May 2010. Temptalia.com posts information about the (then) upcoming To the Beach Collection. I see that there is a peachy gloss (woo hoo!)....but with teal sparkles. What?! Who the hell would buy, much less wear, a lip gloss with teal sparkles? Christine later posts pictures of her wearing the peachy Flurry of Fun lipglass. I was pleasantly surprised at how great it looked on Christine. Flurry of Fun then made my list of things to buy. Flashforward to the release date of the To the Beach collection. I swatch Flurry of Fun on the back of my hand. It's lovely. But the thought of teal sparkles on my lips seemed juvenile. I do not purchase. By chance I watch Lisalisad1's haul for this collection. She says that blue sparkles in gloss make your lips look bigger. Hmmmm....I think to myself. I watch haul after haul on Your Tube where everyone and their MAC wearing mother are talking about how gorgeous this color is. I learn it's sold out online. A sense of regret creeps over me. Which brings us to today. I am on my way to the Body Shop (awesome sales right now! An additional 50% off of sale/clearance items!), and am forced to walk by the MAC counter and the To the Beach display. I see Flurry of Fun winking at me. I stop cave in and purchase. As soon as I get in the car, I whip it out and slather that vanilla-scented goodness on my lips. I catch a glimpse of my lips in the mirror as the sunlight caresses my lips....and I look like a 5 year old who has slathered too much Bonne Bell gloss on her lips before taking her school picture. The teal sparkles were ridiculous and down right unattractive. I blame this purchase on Christine (still got love for you, though, girl), Lisa (never am I believing your theories), and every You Tube hauler who overhyped this dud of a product. While Marine Life is without a doubt the most overrated product in this collection, Flurry of Fun takes the silver medal. I hate this gloss.
11 out of 16 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Ember Glow
sweetmalinche 6/24/2010 3:46:00 AM
I am a big fan of peach lip glosses. Whenever I would close my eyes and imagine the perfect peach shade of gloss, I imagined this color. When I saw this lip gloss on the display (it looked different online), I just about tripped over my own feet to get to it. It's apricoty-peach, which is an unusual shade of peach. And it's creamy and pigmented, which is awesome. It does settle in the fine lines of my lips but I can tolerate it for lovely shade. I will admit that sometiimes it seems a little light for my NC30-NC35 skin, but I don't care. I love it. I bought a back up at retail price, which I have done with very few products. And if I find this sucker at the CCO, you best believe I am gonna stock up.
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Eye Shadow -NYX - Midnight
sweetmalinche 6/24/2010 3:38:00 AM
This is a BETTER due for MAC's Greensmoke eyeshadow. I have Greensmoke and prefer Midnight to Greensmoke. While Midnight is not as pigmented or buttery as other NYX shadows, but the color pay off is way better than Greensmoke. I paid $4 for Midnight and $10.25 for Greensmoke (CCO) and I haven't touched Greensmoke since purchasing Midnight. ***UPDATE ON 10/27/11*** NYX is notorious for changing the color, texture, formulation, etc. of their eyeshadows but keeping the name the same. Unfortunately, the newer version of this color is not as pretty as the original. The older texture was softer and the very fine shimmer was both silver and gold, making the older version more rich and complex. The newer version is not as smooth, and the biggest change is that it now has chunkier, silver glitter-like shimmer. It's not full on Urban Decay glitter, but it is not fine as it was in the older version. There is no gold shimmer in the new version, so it has less complex and makes the shadow much more cool toned. Wish I would have bought a back up of the original version had I known there was going to be a change. :(
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -NYX - smokie mountain
sweetmalinche 6/24/2010 3:33:00 AM
I love this eyeshadow. It's a great dupe for NARS Night Clubbing. (An eyeshadow that I love to pieces but can't bring myself to spend the money on at this point in time.) It can be applied over bare lids for a soft, smokey, almost black shade. Or it can be patted on over a dark creamy base to keep those beautiful sparkles intact. I wear it over a dark base and it's wonderful am looks just like it does in the pan. As another reviewer said, some NYX shadows (and this is one of them) are better than MAC. Quite honestly, some of them (Exotic Green, Frosted Ocean, Midnight, and Smokie Mountain just to name a few) are better than a lot of other shadows out there, including high end brands. This particular eyeshadow is buttery soft (softer than MAC's veluxe pearl finish or than an Urban Decay shadow), which makes it really pigmented. The ONLY downside to this shadow, is that it is so soft that it can break very easily. In fact, mine has a few chips missing from the edges and I have never dropped the eyeshadow on my carpeted floor. This is a "must have" NYX shadow and one of my favorite eyeshadows in my entire eyeshadow collections.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -Sally Girl - Mini Baked Eyeshadow - All colors
sweetmalinche 6/24/2010 12:31:00 AM
I have this eyeshadow in the color Sage, which as another reviewer perfectly described as being green/gold/taupe. This is a really unusual color and it looks wonderful against my light brown eyes. I wore this eyeshadow (applied wet and with olive green eyeliner smudged around my eyes) and the MAC manager came up to me and demanded to know what I had on my eyes. She agreed that it's an usual color and the olive green eyeliner brought out the green tones in the shadow and in my brown eyes. I almost always use my mineralized eyeshadows wet so I can't say how this looks applied dry. I would imagine it wouldn't be very pigmented. But honestly, for 99 cents for a mineralized eyeshadow in such an unusual color, it's more than worth it. I bought one in Bronze (brown), which is a VERY inexpensive, 99% exact dupe for MAC's Chocolate Brown pigment (for those of you on a budget). (I passed this along to my sister, as I will never finish my CB pigment.) I also purchased one in Dark Aqua (teal), but didn't care for the color, as it was brighter than MAC's Teal pigment and too bright and clownish for my earthy-meets-goth-chola sensibilities. BOTTOM LINE: Apply them wet and use a primer like UDPP. For 99 cents these suckers waaaay better than Covergirl and Revlon singles.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Palettes -Urban Decay - Book of Shadows - Alice in Wonderland [DISCONTINUED]
sweetmalinche 1/31/2010 1:14:00 AM
Let me first start off by saying I don't actually own this BOS because I saw it in person and walked away with my $52 bucks still in my wallet. I love Alice In Wonderland and was thrilled when I heard UD was going to release a special edition BOS. By the time I was able to order it from the UD website, it was out of stock. Booo! So I happened to be in Sephora when I saw two of them sitting behind the counter. Absolutely delighted, I asked to see one. The worker pulled it out of the box and my heart jumped when I saw little Alice and the mushroom forest pop up. My heart sank though when I actually saw the shadows. I loved the names (all Alice-esque) but they all looked so familiar. None of them stood out as being unique or pretty. (I thought the colors looked prettier online.) Plus some colors looked too similar to one another. And even in Sephora's soft lighting, I could see they were all glittery. While the sales girl was ohhing and ahhing over it, I was underwhelmed and mentally debating on whether or not to get it just because it was Alice and special edition. I told the girl I would think about it and left the store. As much as I love Alice, something just didn't feel right. When I got home, I jumped on the computer and did some research. Sure enough, all the shadows are in the UD permanent line. Booooring. And none of them were ones that I wanted/needed anyway. I give the idea for this BOS 5 lippies, but the actual BOS makes me want to say "off with thier heads!"
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Eye Shadow -MAC - Mineralize Eyeshadow in Blue Flame
sweetmalinche 10/3/2009 4:09:00 PM
Beautiful blue on it's own, but absolutely amazing on top of a black base. (I use this over the black greasestick). I am not sure if this is the same color as MAC's starflash "Blue Flame." This color is a mix of black, blue and silver shadows. I have yellow-toned skin, so blues can be tricky, but this one makes my amber eyes look like yellow fire. You get a lot of product with mineral eyeshadows, as they are larger than the regular MAC eyeshadows. It is a mineral eyeshadow, so there is some fall out.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -MAC - Chai lipglass
sweetmalinche 10/1/2009 4:18:00 AM
I bought this to look like J-Lo. But for me, it was more like Hell-No. Love the color in the tube, but it doesn't flatter my skin (fair/medium, yellow-toned, NC30). Given the grey-ish undertone, it would probably flatter those with pink undertones in their skin. I have tried layering colors and products, but it just ends up looking frosty (very 1960's mod. Yuck). Every now and then I try to do as Tim Gunn says and "make it work," but I always end up frosty-lipped and defeated.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -MAC - Beauty Marked
sweetmalinche 10/1/2009 3:17:00 AM
Two words: False Advertisement. That pretty much sums up this eyeshadow. Basically useless without Bat Black Cream Colour Base. (Keep reading). I really want to love this eyeshadow. It has so many things going for it: it's made by MAC, it's absolutely gorgeous in the pan, it has a cool, edgy name....but it's pretty much a weak matte black with some sparkles. I was very tempted to crush the shadow into a powder to see if the color would be more "true" in that form. However, thank goodness I didn't, because I finally discovered a way to apply it so that it looks more like it does in the pan: Bat Black Cream Colour Base. This base is permanent with the MAC pro line, but it is currently available to everyone (that's me!) with the Style Black Collection (2009). I have to swirl my eyeshadow brush somewhat roughly to get enough product to pat onto the cream base, but this is the only way I know to make it look like it does in the pan. (Note: I also purchased the black grease stick that came out with the Style Black Collection. The grease stick, which is similar to a shade stick, does not provide a good base for this eyeshadow. This leads me to believe that a dark/black shade stick or paint pot wouldn't work either. In order to get any pay off in terms of color with this particular eyeshadow, the base must be cream. The grease stick does work wonderfully as a base for mineral eyeshadows, but I digress...) If you are looking for a cheap duplicate, try "Sensual" by NYX. Even with the NYX brand, I would suggest a dark, creamy base for real color pay off.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Pressed Powders -MAC - Tahitian Sand Hello Kitty
sweetmalinche 10/1/2009 1:46:00 AM
Every single person who bought this product purchased it for the packaging. Period. The beauty powder itself is like a "gift with purchase." With that said, I knew it was super sheer prior to purchasing the powder. My cheeks are naturally rosy-pink, so I don't use blush. I was hoping the peachy tone of "Tahitian Sand" would actually tone down the natural pink in my cheeks and flatter my yellow-toned skin. However, the difference is very slight and I am sure that I am the only one who notices. It does make my skin look a little silkier and slightly shimmery. (I guess that's the "beauty" in the term "beauty powder.") All the actual powder itself is only good for eliminating shine. If you don't expect any more than that from the powder and convince yourself that the powder is really a "gift with purchase" for buying the Hello Kitty compact, then you won't be disappointed. If you love the compact, be indifferent to the powder, and you won't regret your purchase. Viva Hello Kitty!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No