MAC Rich Purple Chromagraphic Pencil

One of the main reasons why I buy my MAC products from the MAC US site, as opposed to my native UK site, is that MAC PRO products are available to purchase on the US site. I'm well aware that PRO products are available in the UK via telephone orders, but it's just that much easier to add my PRO products to my online orders rather than making two separate ones!!

My recent PRO purchase was a Chromagraphic Pencil in Rich Purple. These super soft pencils are multi-use, so you can use them wherever you so desire on your face or body. There are, however, some colours that are unsafe for eye use, and some which are unsafe for use on the lips. Rich Purple, is safe for use on both these areas. I have a Halloween eye look planned with this pencil, which I will show next week, but today, I can show you how I used Rich Purple as a super gorgeous lip product.

Rich Purple Chromagraphic Pencil

You can probably see from the swatch above, Rich Purple is a very soft pencil. I personally liked this about it, as it means that when I come to use it on my eyes, it won't feel like I'm dragging it across my skin! 

Following from yesterday's post of Talk That Talk lipstick, I thought 'huh, I wonder if Rich Purple would make a good liner for this patchy-@$$ lipstick?' As you can see above, Rich Purple applies nice and evenly (unlike Talk That Talk liner, which was hard work), so my reasoning was that Rich Purple would make Talk That Talk lipstick look smoother than on top of its counterpart liner. 

NOPE! Talk That Talk is still a big ol' patchy white hot mess. Le sigh. Never mind, I'm hanging my hopes on Nars' Train Bleu when I get round to ordering it!

Have you tried any of the MAC Chromagraphic Pencils? What are your favorite MAC PRO products? 

RiRi Hearts MAC Fall: Talk That Talk Lipstick

I have today the final lipstick from the RiRi Hearts MAC Fall collection. Talk That Talk is quite possibly the most frustrating, yet heart-breakingly beautiful lipstick, all at once!

It is a deep, blackened raisin colour with a Retro Matte finish. However, whereas RiRi Woo had a creamy, easy-to-work application (at least, for such a matte lipstick it did), Talk That Talk is an absolute nightmare to work with. It applies patchy, inconsistent, and also bunches up into little rolls on your lips. Preparation is of paramount importance if you want to attempt this lipstick, so here is how I finally got Talk Talk to work for me!!!

I exfoliated my lips with a warm flannel when I washed my face in the morning. Later, when I  began doing my makeup, I applied a healthy amount of Intensive Care Baby Lips to my lips. Whilst my lips were soaking up moisture, I did my eye and base makeup. I then blotted my lips, removing excess moisture, and lined my lips evenly with Talk That Talk lipliner. I then applied TTT, straight from the bullet onto my lips. I tried it once with a lip brush, and it just made my lips patchy once more!! Here is the finished result:-

Talk That Talk 

In my honest opinion, it feels like MAC rushed the formula on this lipstick, as I have tried both RiRi Woo and Heaux, which both have Retro Matte formulas, and their application was creamy and smooth (considering they are meant to be quite dry finishes!) Its such a shame, as Talk That Talk is a gorgeous colour, perfect for the colder months! I have read online that Nars' Matte Lip Pencil in Train Bleu is a pretty close dupe for Talk That Talk, without any of the application drama. I shall be checking it out, the next time I place a Sephora order!

So, that's all the RiRi Fall lippies, over the next couple of days I shall be reviewing the Cream Colour Base and the blusher, so keep checking back!! Has anyone tried and loved Train Bleu? Or, do you have any application tips for Talk That Talk? Let me know!

MUA and Fashionista mini haul!

Today's weather has been absolutely pants, and as such, I haven't been able to take any decent swatch photos of my last RiRi Hearts MAC Fall lippie! However, what I do have to show you is a mini that arrived from MUA the other week!

You may already know that MUA is owned by the same parent company as Fashionista,which when the brand was pulled out of Superdrug stores, it became available to buy from the main MUA website, at drastically reduced price points. Yes!

I was always keen to have a Fashionista palette, so a few of their eyeshadows got added to my cart! The look I created the other week was using Fashionista Double Take Baked Eyeshadow in Trendsetter, Fashionista Secret Gel Eyeliner in Cute Route and MUA Liquid Eyeliner in shade 3 (a bargain, for just £1!)

Trendsetter

Cute Route, Shade 3, Trendsetter.

How gorgeous is Trendsetter in the pan?! I was impressed not only by the quality of this eyeshadow, but also the size of the pan- its huge! I shocked that such a good product and such a generous amount of product cost me the grand total of £1.65. Yep, this beautiful eyeshadow cost me less than a single bus ticket in Birmingham! And the Secret Gel Eyeliner? £1.50. Fashionista is truly for a Recessionista! 

I used the Secret Gel eyeliner as a lid colour and a base for the baked powder eyeshadow to adhere to. I then simply buffed the powder eyeshadow up and out towards the brow bone. Trendsetter blended out really easily with a MAC 224 brush and had a good amount of pigment to it. Trendsetter is also quite glittery, due to its baked nature, and you can probably see it best in the close up shot of my eye. I then did a simple gold line using the MUA Eyeliner in Shade 3. I have a few of these £1 eyeliners by MUA, and I love them! (I just wish they did more colours in this formula- hint hint, MUA!)

All three products lasted well throughout the day, staying vibrant for around six hours, fading after the seventh hour, and needing a refresh after eight hours. However, this is probably due to the eyeshadow being a baked product, which for me, don't tend to last as long as a standard powder eyeshadow. 

Daylight.

Artificial light with flash.

Have you tried any of the Fashionista products? If so, what are your favourties? Share in the comments section! 

RiRi Hearts MAC Fall: Nude Lipstick

Hey guys! I'm gonna go right ahead and show y'all the third out of four lipsticks that Rihanna created for MAC this Fall. I have today Nude, a mid-tone brown nude with a matte finish. After road testing RiRi Woo yesterday which is a Retro Matte, this normal matte formula felt like a walk in the park to work with!!

Nude

I've gotta admit, when I first tried Nude I looked like I had poop lips. Yep, poop lips. However, when I had my full makeup on, with fairly dark eye makeup, it made Nude look pretty good! It just needed something to counterbalance itself, as it is quite deep on my skintone. Here is the look I created with it, and I think it's quite vampy on me! 

 I was going to show you Talk That Talk next, but my lips felt like they needed a rest from all the Retro Matte business!! I also have the complete MAC Retro Matte lipstick collection to show you soon, eek! I shall be begging for a gloss to review after all them!!

RiRi Hearts MAC Fall: RiRi Woo lipstick

Hi guys, happy hump day! Of course, when you work in a bar, there is no such thing as a hump day, because you're usually working all weekend. 

Work gripes aside, I have the lovely RiRi Woo lipstick to show you today. I shall keep this short and sweet, because unless you have been living under a make-up free rock for all this year, you no doubt will have already seen RiRi Woo about a gazillion times on various blogs and social media platforms. 

RiRi Woo is a cool, blue based red with a Retro Matte finish. Retro Matte is a much drier formula than a regular MAC matte lipstick, so lip prep is essential. I heartily recommend any of the Maybelline Baby Lips for this task. I usually exfoliate with a warm, damp flannel in the morning to make sure my lips are flake free, as the Retro Mattes are highly unforgiving when it comes to rough lips!

Even though Retro Mattes are dry, they last for hours on the lips. I also love the velvety look that they give. They really are a true matte lipstick, with great opacity (generally speaking, but I will touch on this in a later post!)

RiRi Woo

I shall be reviewing the other Retro Matte in the RiRi Hearts MAC Fall collection tomorrow. Talk That Talk is a deep dark purple- perfect for for Autumn!!

Have you guys tried RiRi Woo yet? 

RiRi Hearts MAC Fall: Who's That Chick Lipstick

Following on from yesterday's review of Her Cocoa eyeshadow quad, I have one of the four RiRi lipsticks up for review today!

Who's That Chick is a brightened orange lipstick with a frost finish. When I first heard the words 'orange frost', I thought we had gone back in a timewarp to the 80's! However, I gave Who's That Chick a chance, and holy sheep, I LOVE IT. (I loved the 80's anyways!)

Who's That Chick 

I thought I was all oranged out this year, with MAC releasing the Hayley Williams and All About Orange collection within months of one another, but quite clearly I'm not. Who's That Chick is unique to my lipstick stash. 

I prepped my lips with Maybelline's Baby Lips, as I find the MAC frost finishes to be quite drying. (Not as drying as Retro Mattes however!) Who's That Chick lasted around 2-3 hours, with visible fading into the third hour. It does leave a faint sparkle on your lips once worn off!

I paired Who's That Chick with a brown smokey eye, using MAC Eclair Paint Pot, UD Naked eyeshadow, and MAC Damson Pressed Pigment- all the things that I'm wearing pretty much day in, day out! 

Who's That Chick is love. I'm so glad I had the good sense to back it up when MAC online did a collection restock! Did you decide to buy this lipstick, or did the frostiness put you off? Did you buy any of the other RiRi lipsticks? Let me know!

RiRi Hearts MAC Fall: Her Cocoa Quad Pictures and Review

Did you get swept up in he RiRi craze last week. Are you still alive if you did? I had a relatively peaceful experience in collecting my goodies! I arrived at Selfridges Birmingham at 10:15, fifteen minutes after they had opened, expecting long @$$ queues. There were only two people in front of me! A MAC SA asked what I'd like while I was still queuing, and I was paid up and gone within ten minutes. Smooth.

I then visited the MAC store in the city centre. Again, not many people around, although they had already sold out of Talk That Talk lipliner and Diamonds Cream Colour Blush. This was about 10:30 am. However, I managed to get my backup Talk That Talk lipstick, and I was tempted by the SA into buying Her Cocoa eyeshadow quad.

More pictures after the jump!

MAC Pink Pepper and Summer Honey Pressed Pigments

Hey guys!

After a long hiatus, I'm finally back to my beauty writing and it feels great to be able to do it again! I've recently swapped job roles within the pub that I work, which means I can now wear make and nail polish again. Happy days!

Today I'm showing you all a look I created with MAC's 2013 pressed pigments collection. Some of this collection was limited edition, however a handful were added to the existing range that was introduced in the summer of last year. I have used Pink Pepper and Summer Honey in my look today, which are both LE shades, however at the time of me writing this, both of these shades were available on Selfridges' website. So run, don't walk, and order these if you like them!!

Pink Pepper

Summer Honey

These two shades make such a pretty combination together! I used an Estee Lauder eyeshadow pencil as an adhesive base so that the pigments had something to adhere to. I then used Pink Pepper all over the lid, and blended any harsh lines out with Summer Honey. I then used a Stila waterproof liquid liner to line underneath my eyes and create a flick. On my inner rim is Illamasqua colouring pencil in Elate. The lashes are Make Up Academy Flair lash. 

Have you tried any of the MAC Pressed Pigments yet? Please feel free to share any tips or looks in the comments below!