Beauty

MAC Brant Brothers Collection

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If there’s anything from MAC I’m familiar with, it’s their foundations, and their eyeshadows. I’ve gone through dozens of their foundations, and my first eyeshadow palette was a MAC one from around 2008-2009. Is it wrong to admit that I still have it?

I guess I can now replace it with the Brant Brothers quad I received for review, considering the colours in it are similar to the one I had back in the day.

MAC-Brant-paletteYou gotta hand it to MAC, the packaging is incredibly sleek with a glossy finish, and matte branding on top.

Open it up and it’s full of perfect neutral shades. Ahhh, right up my ally. MAC-Brant-Open

Shades in the Pillars eyeshadow quad:

  • Mother’s Milk Soft matte beige (Satin)
  • Sandstone Soft matte taupe (Matte)
  • Mystery Muted plum-brown (VLXP)
  • Carbon Intense black (Matte)

MAC-QuadCarbon seems to make its way into multiple MAC eyeshadow palettes. Hmm. It’s a colour I rarely reach for, but it’s a nice shade to smoke out the eye-look if you wanted to have it more night-time appropriate. You could even use the Carbon colour as an eyeliner shade to darken up the look, too. I almost feel like I haven’t practiced enough to create darker eyeshadow looks. One slip of the hand with a dark shadow on your brush and bam my entire eye makeup look is ruined. For me, I require full concentration doing an eyeshadow look. I clearly need more practice.

I’ve never had bad luck with MAC eyeshadows (I have a 15 make-it-yourself palette filled up with all sorts of neutrals shown here in 2009!!!), and I’m happy to report these one’s from the Brant Brothers collection is just as wonderful as they once were.

MAC Brant Brothers Collection (Pillar quad is $33 USD / $43.50 CDN) is now available.

Disclaimer: MAC Brant Brothers quad was sent for review.

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Beauty

MAC Cosmetics | Soft Serve Eyeshadows

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MAC-Soft-ServeIn May MAC Cosmetics launched the limited edition Soft Serve collection which are $22 cream eyeshadows available in 12 colours, that dries down to a powder finish. I feel like the two MAC Soft Serve eyeshadows I have for review mimic the two pantone colours of the year for 2016. Don’t you think? The entire collection is completely wearable pastel-ice cream type of shades. Mmm!

They have such a bouncy/spongy texture to it that is easily applied with your finger tips. Swipe on, and go! And in a ton of fun colours for the summer time. The texture is similar texture to the Dior Fusion Mono’s (seen here) if you are familiar with that. The texture is gorgeous and glides onto the eyelid seamlessly. I’ve only worn them on their own, or together, never mixed with a powdered shadow to see how they perform that way. Anyone else try to use them with other shadows?

You’ll notice that the packaging is quite similar to their paint-pots (I used to own one of the nude-coloured ones, but I actually prefer MAC paints over their paint pots!).

MAC-Soft-Serve-ShadowLeft-right: Girls, Girls!, Big Bad Blue. 

MAC-soft-serve-swatchesThere are two types of finishes from the 12 colours they released, a satin and a pearl. The two colours I received for review are satin finish. When you apply the shadows, they are a little more sheer than a regular shadow would be, but nothing a little buildable coverage can’t fix. They build easily and when you apply a primer underneath they’re set for the day. However, I did go without a primer once and it lasted a couple of hours before fading away.

What are your thoughts on the shadows? If you know the type of makeup look I tend to go for (natural, dewy and not powdery at all) you know that I’m definitely all about these creamy-like shadows. So nice!

Disclaimer: MAC Cosmetics soft serve eyeshadows were sent for review.

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Beauty, Daily

A true minimalist makeup bag | Stowaway Cosmetics

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LexusTripI don’t think I’ve told you guys this yet, but I’m heading out on a trip to Oregon with Lexus in, well, less than a few weeks really! That’s all I’m going to be telling you about that (for now). I’ll get into details later on! I’m a super organized packer and I never want to forget anything, so I tend to make a list of what I’m going to need a week or two in advance.

Stowaway-HeaderI’ll be travelling for a few days so a ton of makeup isn’t that necessary, and since I’ve claimed my love for miniature makeup/travel sized items, I thought it’d be neat to bring your attention to Stowaway Cosmetics whose brand solely focuses on petite-sized makeup.

Stowaway-in-my-handLook at the slew of products in this bag! Your entire face is covered from BB cream, to mascara. Ultimately, I think I’ll be packing a full-coverage makeup that will last me all day long (I’ll be bringing of course a travel-friendly sized foundation), along with some bronzer.

I’m sure you’re all wondering how it performs on the skin, and how it applies. One of the two creators of Stowaway Cosmetics has a makeup artistry background, and worked with makeup on clients for years (you can watch the short video about them here).

Now, let’s get down to the fun before/after pictures:Stowaway-Before-AfterI used everything provided in the Essentials Kit (you can select your own colours/shades). If there’s a few additions I’d suggest to the kit, it would be an eyebrow pencil and some bronzer. I had to use my Burberry Eyebrow Definer in Sepia, to polish off the entire look. But could easily skip on the bronzer if I ‘had’ to. Though, I did apply a different brand (not shown in the video below, oops).

My thoughts:

  • The BB cream went on with more coverage than expected (which is fantastic considering you don’t need much at all).
  • Concealer did an amazing job at brightening my under eyes, a thicker formula but not sticky.
  • Eyeshadows did have a bit of fall-out, but were really pigmented and easy to blend.
  • Wish the cream blush had a bit more pigment.
  • Wasn’t a huge fan of the lipstick colour (more like a ‘concealer’ nude shade on my lips).
  • Mascara provided a nice bit of volume and length, but still super-natural looking.
  • The gloss evened it out, so that saved the day.

And a quick YouTube tutorial to see how it all goes on!

Stowaway Cosmetics is USA based company who started a few years ago. Their products are paraben free products, gluten, and cruelty-free formulas. But, why the idea of small-sized products that can fit into the palm of your hand? The brand wanted to sell products that you actually will be able to finish, before the product itself expires. It also of course, makes it incredibly easy to bring when travelling considering the size of the makeup bag.

While the products are mini, they aren’t too small to use.Stowaway-in-hand

Stowaway-eyelinerTheir packaging is total goals. I love how everything is streamlined, and clean. If I was their Graphic Designer (side note; hey I’m a graphic designer if you didn’t know! Lol), I would totally something similar when designing a makeup product/logo. I love clean lines. I love grey, and white together.

Stow-in-bagYou can buy the products individually, or in a set. Like I said above I received the Essentials Kit, but they also sent a lipgloss over too (thank you!).

Stowaway Cosmetics
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