Reviews – Let's Make It Up

What is the Best Fiber Lash Mascara Ever?

October 15, 2014Katherine

Why You Need to Buy Younique Moodstruck 3D

Fiber Lashes Mascara

Regular Mascara

Anyone who reads my site knows that I am a MAC Cosmetics fan and have used their products almost exclusively for just about 20 years now. (Whoa I feel old…). I have been a makeup artist for a number of years and I have tried SO MANY different mascaras I cannot even count. I have tried Maybelline, Cover Girl – especially if I see a commercial that looks super amazing and makes me want to run to the nearest drug store to try it! I have tried Dior Show, Lancome, Clinique, Laura Mercier, and about 10 different mascaras that MAC makes (that is not an exaggeration by any means, literally I have tried 10 different mascaras MAC either currently makes or has made in the past). I do have a few go-to MAC mascaras that I use on a regular basis, which does usually involve some level of mixing, in order to get the right mix of volumizing and separating. Let’s just say I want my lashes to look the best they can look.

Beyond Mascaras

I have also used false eyelashes. This usually involves some horrible struggle with me, duo glue, and never quite getting the lash line to line up so that my eyeliner looks right. It is usually messy, sticky, and feels wrong all day and/or night.

When it started becoming popular on Groupon I started joining the eyelash extension crowd. That is 1) Time consuming (3 hours on a Sunday every 4 weeks), 2) Costly, and 3) Doesn’t allow me to use my eyelash curler or mascara in between fills, so right before you get them filled, there is a good week where your lashes look pretty pitiful and sad.

The Amazingness of Younique Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes

I will admit, I was skeptical at first. I saw a few pictures online, and I had tried a drug store brand fiber lash mascara in the past. Let me tell you, this mascara will CHANGE YOUR LIFE! SERIOUSLY! If you like to have amazing full, long lashes that literally look just as good as extensions, while taking less than 2 minutes to apply – this is totally for you!!!!!! AMAZING!!

First, you can curl your lashes and apply your regular mascara if you want (or some people don’t even do that first part – I do).
Next, you apply the Transplanting Gel – it is the longer of the two tubes you receive and it looks like and goes on just like regular mascara.
Immediately, while the Transplanting Gel is still wet – you apply the natural fibers, they adhere to the Transplanting Gel and extend your eyelashes in thickness and in length.
Last, you go over the natural fibers with another coat of the Transplanting Gel to set it, and lock them into place.
I make sure to do steps 3,4,and 5 right away one eye at a time for best results.

That is it. Very simple. The last coat of the Transplanting Gel smooths out the fibers, sets everything where you want it, and makes your eyelashes look super AWESOME!! Here are some before and after pictures. The before pictures are with my regular mascara and eye makeup the same morning just before applying the Younique 3D Fiber Lashes – which you can see in the after picture just a couple minutes later. They look noticeably fuller and longer. I have gotten comments from co-workers and friends. I cannot recommend this mascara enough. Seriously. Go buy it. I bought it from the nicest woman who sells the Younique products. Her name is Rebecca. Here is a link to where you can buy the mascara from her: www.youniqueproducts.com/rebeccahunwardsen

Here are the before and after photos:

See what I mean?? Go buy it!!

What Are the Best MAC Nude Lipsticks?

September 2, 2014August 20, 2015Katherine

My Go-To MAC Nude Lipstick Collection

Let’s face it, the nude lip is one of the best looks and one of the hardest to find in the right shade. After several years of trial and error and trying to find the right nude for the right smoky eye, and the right nude for a fall jewel tone outfit, here is my list of absolute favorite MAC nude lip colors. The list include my favorite lipliners, lipsticks, and lip glosses. At the end I put some of them together and show you what some of my absolute favorite pairings look like.

First, the lipliners:

MAC has several different kinds of lipliners, and I really love them all for different reasons and different uses. Usually, lately my go-to lipliners have been the Pro Longwear Lip Pencils, simply because they last FOREVER! My favorite nude Pro Longwear Lip Pencils are: Etcetera and Nice ‘N’ Spicy. Etcetera is much lighter, and Nice ‘N’ Spicy is great to wear all over the lip before you put on your lipstick.

Next, the Cremestick Liner. These are the automatic type of lip pencils that you can twist up. I like the fact that they provide a very rich color and creamy texture. They do not get clumpy at all on the edges of the lips. My favorite nude Cremestick Liner is Cream O’ Spice. It is similar to MAC’s Spice liner, but does not go on as orange looking on me, and provides a little more color on me.

Last, for the regular Lip Pencils. MAC makes great lip pencils in great colors. They last a long time and these can get the sharpest best point on them of any of the lipliners. This was a hard selection because MAC has many nude lipliners, and sometimes you just have to see what works best on your skin. For me, my go-to nudes are Stripdown, which is a very true nude on me, it doesn’t go gray or orange, and Oak, which is a little lighter but still has a great nude color on my skin tone.

Here is a picture of the following nude lipliners:

Pro Longwear Lip Pencil
Etcetera
Nice ‘N’ Spicy

Cremestick Liner
Cream O’ Spice

Lip Pencil
Oak
Stripdown

Next, the lipsticks:

Again, MAC has so many nude lipsticks to choose from depending on your taste, your skin tone, and the shade of nude you are looking to find. Here is a list of GREAT nude options for many skin tones and from almost all of the different lipstick finishes that MAC offers. Honestly, if you need to find a great nude lipstick, you should go to MAC, you will find one for you. The Matte texture will provide lasting and pigmented coverage. The Satin texture is a little sheer but still has a great amount of coverage. The Lustre texture has a small bit of shimmer to it and can sometimes be very sheer depending on the color, but this is often the look you are going for with nudes. For the Satin and Lustre I am showing one lighter and one darker option depending on the type of nude look you are going for. The Mineralize Rich ones are very smooth and provide good color as well, but also may not last as long as a satin or matte. Again, they are great for nudes because they provide the wet dewey look that you often are looking for with a nude lip color. The two nude Mineralize Rich lipsticks are very similar, but I really love them both, and couldn’t decide which to post, so I am putting them both on here for you to see.

Matte
Honeylove

Satin
Myth (lighter)
Cherish (darker)

Lustre
High Tea (lighter)
Fresh Brew (darker)

Mineralize Rich
Luxe Naturale (lighter)
Pure Pout (darker)

Last, the glosses:

I am a sucker for a good lip gloss. MAC has so many different finishes and textures, I really cannot choose a favorite. I do not have each texture here, but just a few of my favorites that go well with nude lips. Dazzleglass is lightweight and has a lot of glitter in it to provide excellent shine. Pro Longwear Lipglass is pretty thick, but that is because it does what it says, and lasts longer than any other lip gloss I have tried. Mineralize Glass is a medium weight lipgloss with a good amount of pigment that provides a good amount of shine as well. Lipglass is the original MAC gloss. It is a little thicker than I normally prefer a lipgloss to be, and for that reason I chose their other glosses for many years. Over the past couple years I started buys Lipglass colors again, because they really do stay longer because of the consistency. It is just something you have to get used to. Last, the new Patentpolish Lip Pencil, which is a gloss in a pencil form. This is a great gloss that provides medium coverage and medium shine, but lasts very well. It’s a great mix of a gloss and a lipstick, so that you can choose sometimes just to wear it alone, without having to wear a lipstick and a gloss. (Not shown here are Lustreglass and Plushglass – both of which are AMAZING, I will write another piece to include them because I love both of those textures and formulas so much).

Dazzleglass
Girl’s Delight
Sugarrimmed

Pro Longwear Lipglass
Ready or Not!

Mineralize Glass
Lovingly Yours

Lipglass
Snob

Patentpolish Lip Pencil
Innocent

Here are some of my favorite combinations and how they look on:

As of right now, today, my favorite two of these looks that I use the most day-to-day are number two and number six. Number two is a little lighter with a pinker undertone and number six is a little darker with a warmer more orange undertone.

1. Cream O’ Spice Cremestick Liner
Honeylove Matte Lipstick
Ready or Not! Pro Longwear Lipglass

2. Nice ‘N’ Spicy Pro Longwear Lip Pencil
Myth Satin Lipstick
Snob Lipglass

3. Stripdown Lip Pencil
Cherish Satin Lipstick
Girl’s Delight Dazzleglass

4. Etcetera Pro Longwear Lip Pencil
High Tea Lustre Lipstick
Sugarrimmed Dazzleglass

5. Oak Lip Pencil
Fresh Brew Lustre Lipstick
Lovingly Yours Mineralize Glass

6. Cream O’ Spice Cremestick Liner
Pure Pout Mineralize Rich Lipstick
Innocent Patentpolish Lip Pencil

7. Etcetera Pro Longwear Lip Pencil
Luxe Naturale Mineralize Rich Lipstick
Sugarrimmed Dazzleglass

Review of MAC Osbourne Collection – Eyeshadow

June 17, 2014June 17, 2014Katherine

Last week in MAC stores, the Osbourne Collection launched, with a Sharon Osbourne and a Kelly Osbourne line. Both are Ah-mazing! I, unfortunately, was not in time to get all the Kelly lipsticks, which I desperately wanted. But I did get both eyeshadow palettes! This post is about the Sharon Osbourne eyeshadow quad.

Sharon Osbourne: Duchess Eyeshadow Palette

The colors in this palette are:

Sweet Eyes – A light golden nude (upper left of the palette)
Sexy Eyes – A soft warm bronze (upper right of the palette) I think it’s a great rose gold!!
Femme Fatale – Golden brown (lower left of the palette)
Embark – Dark reddish brown (lower right of the palette) A MAC standard color

On this day, I put Sweet Eyes on the lid, on the inner corner of the eye, and on the highlight. I used Sexy Eyes on the lid on the outer corners of each lid, taking it from about 3/4 of the way out to meet the crease. Then, I used Femme Fatale in the upper part of the crease and under the bottom lashes. Last, I used Embark on the outer part of the crease.

I love the colors in this palette. I think they work great together, and can be used totally on their own if you don’t want to grab anything else that day or add any other colors. Can be used for a great rosy-gold spring eye, or can be darkened up a bit when fall and winter roll around, or for a smoky eye at night. This is a great versatile palette that will look great on everyone!! Great job MAC and Sharon! LOVE. It. You can get the palette online here.

Amazing Sunscreen – A Must Try

June 3, 2014Katherine

Summer is almost here and I am always looking for ways to avoid those uncomfortable days where I am burned, bright red, begging for aloe, and promising myself I will never forget the sunscreen again. Inevitably, every year, at least once, this will happen to me. If you’re anything like me, in a few weeks, you will also forget the promise you made to yourself last year, or this year on spring break, or even last weekend for Memorial Day. Recently, I found a magic cure for my problem. One of the reasons I am SOOOO bad about putting on sunscreen is because I love my makeup (obviously, if you have read my other posts), and it tends to smear it up, or change the texture, or mess it up in some other way. Another reason is sometimes, and some brands have strongly smelling, or oily sunscreen that will get all over the place. I am not a fan of getting all messy just to leave the house. Yuck! Seriously, yuck! I do not want to go sit in the sand and have the sand stick to me?! Do you?

The reason this sunscreen is different, is because it is a powder!! Yup, a powder. It is made by Peter Thomas Roth and comes in a brush applicator and you just brush it on and go! I can do that! In fact, I do that! I do it every morning, I put it on over my makeup, with no change to the color or effect of the makeup I have on. That is a huge, huge bonus to me! I LOVE it. It is easy to put on my arms, legs, face, and back. Super easy to take in my purse, conveniently sized, and doesn’t leak. It is also great for kids. I have taken it to my friend’s kid’s soccer games and it doesn’t run in their eyes, it doesn’t get in their way, and it protects them from the sun!

The one drawback is that it is not waterproof. So, if you swim, you need to reapply when you get out, and it will not work while you are in the water. If you spend most of your time at the beach or pool in the water, this is probably not for you. You will want to stick with a waterproof spray on sunscreen. But, if you are like me, and spend minimal amount of time in the water, and most of the time enjoying the sun and laying out, this is PERFECT!!!

You can get it at Sephora for $30. Worth every penny!

(P.S. No one sent me a sample, or asked me to write this review. I just wanted to tell you all about this amazing product I found and love!! Check it out!!)

Review of Maleficent Collection by MAC

May 19, 2014Katherine

Last week the Maleficent Collection by MAC came out in stores on Thursday. Here’s a look I did with the eyeshadow 4 pack, with Goldmine, Ground Brown, Concrete, and Carbon in it. I used the Prolongwear eyeshadow Carefree in the highlight.

The collection has a great pro sculpting powder, a highlight powder/beauty powder, lipglass, lipstick, nail polish, eye liner, brown liner, lashes, and a prep and prime highlighter. They made the collection using products they used to do makeup for the actual movie, which is AWESOME!!

This eyeshadow 4 pack is amazing. I love all the colors and have owned them all separately before, but such a great quad to own. They are great in a collection together!!

You should check it out ASAP!!

Review of New MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils

May 2, 2014May 5, 2014Katherine

Here they are!! I accidentally went to the MAC store a full week before they were actually launched trying to get these guys! I got 6 different colors. They come in 12 shades total, you can see them all here. I bought the coral color Go For Girlie, the brighter pink Fearless, the medium pinks Spontaneous and Kittenish, the lavender/pink Patentpink, and the nude Innocent.

Lipgloss – Lipstick – All in One

My list of the things that I LOVE about them:

1. They are large gloss/lipstick pencils, just like they appear.

2. They twist up, so they do not require sharpening, which is a huge bonus for me, because I do not carry a sharpener around, unless I am going out on a makeup job, since they are sharp and messy.

3. They stay on pretty well.

4. They have great pigment, so that they are no too glossy.

What I was not expecting (but not necessarily negatives):

1. They are not *quite* as glossy as I was expecting. BUT, I think this actually is better, upon further reflection, because they stay on better than I thought they would as a result. I REALLY like that part.

2. They are more pigmented than I thought, again because I thought they would be more glossy, and again, I think I prefer this. I thought I would have to wear a lipstick underneath and now I do not.

3. Like I stated above they twist up!! I think this is AWESOME, my ONLY teensy complaint with this is that they aren’t every sharp, but it’s a small price to pay for not ever having to sharpen them!

Here are some pictures of some of the colors that I have been obsessing over in the last couple weeks. Right now I cannot stop alternating days between Patentpink (the lavender/pink) and Innocent (the nude).

Here is the Patentpink Patentpolish with the MAC prolongwear lipliner Absolutely It mixed with a little Plum lipliner:

Here is the Innocent Patentpolish with the MAC prolongwear lipliner Nice N Spicy: