Beauty Basics: MAC Face Brushes
Beauty Basics is a series covering basic products and tools that help to make applying your makeup easier. To view the entire series to date, be sure to visit the beauty basics, or you can view posts within the series about MAC Face Brushes.
Focus On: MAC 194 Concealer Brush
MAC 194 Concealer Brush ($19.00) is a small, flat brush with a paddle-shape that’s slightly tapered. It’s a good brush for initially applying product. I use this to dab on foundation from pumps/bottles, concealers that squeeze out or come in liquid form, etc. I find it makes it easy to simply get the product onto my face without too much getting caught in fluffier brushes’ bristles. After I’ve used the 194 to dab on the product, then I’ll go to whatever brush is actually going to blend it in/apply it fully. I prefer fluffier brushes like the 217 or 275 for blending out concealer personally. This brush, however, is good for applying concealer if you need a bit more precision — say around your brows — but if you don’t need strong lines, then it’s not as necessary.
How do you like to use this brush?
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Beauty Basics: MAC Face Brushes
Beauty Basics is a series covering basic products and tools that help to make applying your makeup easier. To view the entire series to date, be sure to visit the beauty basics, or you can view posts within the series about MAC Face Brushes.
Focus On: MAC 192 Cheek/Face Brush
MAC 192 Cheek/Face Brush ($32.00) is a flat, paddle-shaped brush with a more tapered edge than the typical paddle-shape. It’s made out of synthetic fibers, and it is designed to be used with creamy/emollient face and cheek products, like blushcremes, moisturizer, Strobe, etc. For application of blushcremes (or cream blushes–same thing), I like to use the tip to just gently apply a few dots of color on the cheek. Then I use the entire brush to blend it outwards and get a soft, smooth look. I’ve also found that the size of this brush (smaller than the 190) makes it a good brush for blending concealer in, too. It’s large enough that it only takes a few brush strokes to blend your concealer into place, but it isn’t so large that you can’t get into the nooks and crannies. This is a solid brush, and actually sometimes prefer this one to the 188 for blushcremes.
How do you like to use this brush?
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Make Up For Ever #311 Eyeshadow
Here’s kind of a mish-mash of shades — plummy/browns.
- #311
is a shimmery burgundy shade. It runs a little on the reddish wine side, and the shimmer is noticeable without being too much. It’s a diamond shadow, so it has a frostier finish than other iridescent shadows by Make Up For Ever.
- #141
is a sheer, slightly shimmery pale mauve-pink. It doesn’t have the best color pay off, but it can be layered to get a little more pop out of it.
- #162 is a matte, brownish-burgundy shade. It can be layered for increased intensity, though it has decent color pay off. I like it for the crease, personally!
- #84 is a shimmery, smoky green with gray tone. It has golden shimmer laced throughout. It reminded me of a lighter MAC Greensmoke eyeshadow, actually.
- #47
is a matte, grayed-down green. It’s kind of like a drab green in a way, but it’s a nice way to add depth to the crease without adding a lot of darkness.
Which of these are your favorites?
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Naive
Along with Glossimers, Chanel released two shades of Rouge Allure Lipstick ($30.00 each) with their Les Naturels de Chanel collection. As you can guess, the collection was designed to be wearable and natural, and Chanel delivered well on both.
Rouge Allure Lipsticks
- Naive is a soft, sheer layering of subdued pink with a little mauve in it. It goes on very my-lips-but-better. It is slightly creamy, though not opaque nor overly so. It has just the lightest dusting of golden shimmer that’s extremely subtle (more so than Glossimers). Looking back at the swatches now, it’s reminiscent of Urban Decay’s Naked lipstick, just not as shimmery.
- Curious is a soft, sheer brown-based nude with subtle golden shimmer that’s just as slight as Naive. Both of these have finishes that look more like a soft sheen than glossy, shimmery, or frosty.
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Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow/Liner
($19.00 each) is available in twelve different shades, ranging from soft white-gold to golden brown to gray. The Creaseless Cream Shadow is a crease-proof formula that can be sheered out or layered for a more intense effect.
I found that they did indeed live up to their name — they didn’t crease or smudge on me at any point during the day, when worn alone or as a base. I will say they did seem to perform better when used as a base, but I imagine most cream-based products do. Since I didn’t notice any creasing or fading when they were worn alone, I think they held up incredibly without anything on top, too. All of the shades I tried had a light sheen or subtle shimmer to them, which was just fine with me, but I’d definitely love to see Benefit add some more matte shades to the line-up in the future.
If you’re a big fan of MAC paint pots, I think you’d adore these! I found these more blendable/buildable than some paint pots, and I didn’t have as much trouble blending shadows on top of the deeper shades as I have with some of MAC’s darker colored paint pots (e.g. Nice Vice).
Creaseless Cream Eyeshadows
- R.S.V.P. is a slightly warmed-up champagne shade with not much shimmer but more of a golden sheen. This makes for an excellent all-over lid color when you need a quick look, but it also works well as a base shade, particularly for golds and greens.
- Skinny Jeans is a smoky, pewter-green shade. It’s kind of like like gray meets green meets gold. So, basically, all sorts of awesome. (I’m totally obsessed with the color pewter–go figure!) I love using this as a liner on the lower lash line or as a base for a really dark green smoky eye.
- Stiletto is a soft, reddish-burgundy shade flecked with microfine golden shimmer. I found this to be one of the sheerer shades just from the get-go, but it layers really well so you can increase the intensity if you want to use it on the lid. When I used an angled eyeliner brush to apply it as liner, I didn’t have any sheerness issues, it was pretty deep and intense.
- Tattle Tale is an opaque shade of white-gold with golden shimmer laced throughout. This was one of my favorites, just because it looks amazing on my warmer skin tone. It works well as an all-over lid color, neutral base (and I love that it’s a bit on the white side, so it helps colors pop more), as well as a highlighter on cheeks! Gotta love a multi-tasker!
- Busy Signal is a golden-toned bronze-copper shade. It’s incredibly pigmented, needing just one thin layer to get intense color. It is definitely a little warm, but not overly so. It seems almost neutral at times. I found I preferred to use this one as a liner than an eyeshadow (just because I personally prefer to use cream shadows as bases rather than individual shadows).
- Strut is a silver-gray with slight bluish-gray sheen. If you want a smoky eye, try this as a base!
- Flatter Me is a neutral, slightly subdued pinky shade with a little bit of peach and gold shimmer. I think those with cooler toned skin may find this perfect for an all-over color when warmer, more golden tones shades don’t work. I’m warm-toned, but I still like this as a soft lid color. It also can double as a blush if you work quickly with it!
- Birthday Suit is a soft, antique gold shade, which means I am ALL over it. It is such a gorgeous shade, and it has great pigmentation. I love it for layering with brown and gold shadows, as well as greens. I love wearing this alone or as a liner.
- Get Figgy is a mauvey-pink with slight golden shimmer. I liked this one with purple shadows, as well as some pinks, but I did find myself reaching for it more as a liner than a base color.
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Waterlily, Unity, Bel Air
Though “old” news now, Chanel’s Les Naturels de Chanel was a brief reprieve from the transition from summer to fall collections as it debuted in June. I thought I’d share the Glossimers ($27.00 each), just because who doesn’t like to peep out Chanel?
Glossimers
- Waterlily is a soft, shimmering pink with a bit of beige to it. The shimmer is a mix of peach and gold, and it transfers well to lips. There’s not a lot of color, but there is plenty of sparkle going on!
- Unity is a bronzy shimmering gloss with multicolored shimmer in a sheer, brownish-peach base. This one was the most pigmented of the three when I applied them to my lips.
- Bel Air is a semi-sheer, creamy mellowed out pink. It goes on slickly, makes lips look luscious and plump. I did get decent color out of this shade, despite it seeming like it would end up being pretty sheer. Instead, my lips looked like a nice, neutral shade of pink with an ultra glossy finish.
Of the three, Waterlily was my favorite, just because I love me some shimmering goodness, and if it’s gold shimmer, I’m probably already half-way in love.
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