Your nephew is such a ham!
Tabby Hearts MAC
The Blog Got a New Outfit!
Here it is 12:37 a.m., and Makeup and Beauty Blog is playing dress-up.
I hope you like the new layout. I’ll be ironing out the kinks over the next few days (hopefully most of them tomorrow), but take a look around, and let me know what you think.
A few of the new changes…
- A much-improved search engine (thanks to Google!)
- A brand drop-down menu (I’ll be adding the links to the brand posts in it soon)
- A whole slew of galleries with ga-jillions of pictures
- And more stuff I’m sure I’m forgetting now because it’s way past my bedtime
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
For Corporate Climbers and Business Beauties, the MAC Office Hours Collection Puts in the Overtime
Eyes: Pro Longwear Eyeshadows in Linger Softly and Bloom On; Cheeks: Pro Longwear Blushes in Eternal Sun and Baby Don’t Go; Lips: Pro Longwear Lipglass in Boundlessly Beige
Cubicle crusaders, overworked assistants and every other late-night office dweller logging in extra office hours every week, say it with me now!
We’re not gonna take it!
NO, we ain’t gonna take it!
We’re not gonna take it…ANYMORE!
We’re saying “No!” to wimpy wear time and makeup that malfunctions while we’re working overtime (which reminds me, anyone who says that working for a plus-size kitty supermodel is an easy gig obviously hasn’t done it before).
“No!” to the naysayers who say that it’s wrong to wear anything but bone or brown in the workplace.
“NO!” We demand delicious pops of pink, coral, plum and red to go with our office neutrals.
It’s time for our blushes, eyeshadows and glosses to work as hard as we do! Time for long-lasting makeup capable of keeping up with our busy schedules! Time for makeup able to log in just as much overtime as we do while still looking stylish!
Yes, the time has come for all of those tired, played-out pieces with weak wear time to step aside, and make room for the new 25-piece MAC Office Hours collection.
Starting with that first sip of coffee in the morning, all the way until your after-hours snack (don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your secret chocolate stash), the MAC Office Hours Collection never goes home early. When it comes to wear time, this limited edition collection of MAC Pro Longwear products for lips, cheeks and eyes just plain shreds!
The MAC Pro Longwear products are still relatively new, but I feel like I’ve loved them forever. I mean, finding MAC Pro Longwear Concealer was almost a life-changing experience. Remember Styledriven from last fall? — with the Pro Longwear products for lips and eyes? Office Hours feels like an extension of that collection to me.
It’s office makeup, MAC-style. Okay, sure, the overall look has “super-wearable” stamped all over it, but MAC included just enough color to hint at the rebel that resides behind most button-down shirts, pinstriped suits and sensible shoes.
The color palette includes shades of nude, pink, peach, beige, red and rose for lips; ivory, rose, brown, camel, red, mauve, gray and blue for eyes; and coral, beige, pink, rose, brown and plum for cheeks.
Here’s a quick look at six of the pieces…
Pro Longwear Eyeshadow in Linger Softly
Share a Tip Tuesdays: Unconventional Makeup Storage Ideas
Organized chaos. 🙂 That’s how I describe my current approach to organizing my makeup, and I’m always looking for new ways to store products and make them easier to find.
To that end, I’ve made some of my best makeup storage discoveries in some pretty unlikely places, like fabric stores and discount retailers with home sections like Marshall’s and T.J.Maxx.
Fabric, arts and crafts stores are veritable cornucopias of great storage ideas (with excellent prices compared to The Container Store!), and JoAnn is one of my faves.
That’s where I found that clear ArtBin box up at there at the top with 18 compartments for $7!
Shoot, that same thing would probably cost three times as much at The Container Store.
I’m guessing it was designed for beads and buttons, but I use it to store my MAC Paint Pots and Benefit Creaseless Creams.
Something tells me it doesn’t mind…
It’s also great for storing the MAC single eyeshadows I keep meaning to depot, and the compartments are just big enough to fit most products that come in tiny tubes.
And ArtBin makes a similar container for pencils called the Prism 6-Compartment Box (about $7 in stores, or $9 online). I use mine for eyeliners and to organize lip pencils by color, but it’d make a pretty good storage bin for glosses, too.
Oh, and you know those clear shoeboxes that you can get at The Container Store? Nice thing about them? They’re the perfect size for nail polishes.
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I Spy a Smokey Eye!
NARS 413BLKR Eyeshadow Duo, a shimmery amethyst and a black with red pearl ($34), available now at the NARS Flagship Boutique in New York City and narscosmetics.com.
I’m not sure how the red pearl in the darker shade’s going to play out (sometimes red eyeshadow makes me look like a zombie), but we shall see…
Guess the Mystery Fruit!
I visited my parents last weekend and gobbled down this entire bowl o’ fruit. Can you name it?
MAC Unsung Heroes: Sublime Nature Paint
I have a big crush on beige…
…MAC beige eyeshadows like Brule, Shroom, Bare Study, Soft Ochre and Sweet Satisfaction.
It’s a crush that borders on an obsession, coupled with symptoms of hoarding, LOL!
And I don’t expect to be breaking up with beige anytime soon, not with products like MAC Paint in Sublime Nature out there to tempt me.
More workhorse than thoroughbred, this mid-toned beige cream eyeshadow ($18.50) might not have the flash or pizzaz of a bright teal or purple, but given have the chance, it can do great things for your lids. 🙂
Before there were MAC Paint Pots, there were MAC Paints. Yup, they’re old school. Picture a Paint Pot in a tube, and you’ve got something like a MAC Paint, except softer and fluffier, which I think makes them easier to spread on lids. Coming in a tube makes them ideal for travel, and I’ve always liked how lightweight they feel (lighter than a Paint Pot, I think). For fast, easy eye looks, I usually apply them with fingers.
Sublime Nature is like a perfect pair of boots that goes with almost everything. Sometimes I’ll layer it beneath brights to crank up their intensity (try it with MAC Club sometime!), or wear it with neutrals when I want to look professional.
Lately, I’ve been wearing it as a base with MAC Sable Eyeshadow layered on my lids and MAC Prunella eyeliner on my lash and water lines. Simple, refined and easy. Yes, yes, yes.
I know it looks small in its tube, but a little goes a long way!
Sublime Nature Paint on the left and Bare Canvas Paint Pot on the right
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The New Anastasia Want You to Want Me Holiday Kit Sings Songs of Soft Satin Finishes and Long-Lasting Wear
I have an urgent and important question for you, friend!
Are you ready…?
Brace yourself. Here goes: what’s your karaoke song?
LOL!
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t important in the Merriam-Webster sense of the word, but I’m curious.
Me? I have a couple of musical standbys honed by the fires of fifty Filipino family gatherings! Seriously, you can always count on two things at a Filipino party — 1) a redonkulous amount of food and 2) karaoke! 🙂
Myself, I like to warm up with a little Phil Collins…
“She’s an easy lover! She’ll take your heart but you won’t feel it!”
And then really get the crowd going with Cheap Trick…
“I waaaant yoooo to want meeee!”
The later meets the three crucial criteria of a top karaoke song. It’s upbeat, almost everyone knows the words to it (so they can sing along), and it doesn’t require any complex vocal gymnastics, which is good because I reserve that kind of thing for my car or shower.
Next time I hit the mic (hopefully soon — karaoke, anyone?), I’m wearing Anastasia’s new holiday 2012 eye makeup kit, because not only does it pay homage to my go-to karaoke tune, but the colors are just plain pretty!
The $34 limited edition Want You to Want Me kit’s lush velvet case houses enough eye makeup to keep your eyes glowing softly while you rock all night long.
The kit includes…
- A gift box with a velvet cover, chain detailing and a magnetic closure (so pretty!)
- An eyeshadow palette with nine powder shades in mostly shimmery brown, beige, taupe and purple colors; the palette pops out of the larger velvet box for easy touch-ups on the road
- A black liquid eyeliner with a thin brush applicator
- A clear brow gel
- A small dual-tipped brush
