MAC Cosmetics: Guide For The Newly Addicted, Part 9 — Terminology

MAC Cosmetics: Guide For The Newly Addicted, Part 9

Terminology

These are some terms that are commonly used by MAC fans that may be a bit confusing to newcomers.

• Acronyms | Many things get abbreviated on the internet, and makeup is no different. If you’ve seen one and don’t know what it is, MakeUpAlley has an excellent abbreviation list that should help you!
• CCB | Cream Colour Base
• Depotting | This is the act of removing the eyeshadow pan/palette from the black container that it came in. There are several methods on doing this, the most common requires a lighter/candle and knife. To begin, you can pop out the plastic insert that lays in the container (basically, there are two pieces to the container, the entire outer casing and a little “plate” that holds the eyeshadow pan). You can easily do this by taking your knife point and inserting it where the two parts meet, which is the same place where the lid closes and clicks in place. After you have removed that portion, take a lighter and melt the bottom of the eyeshadow container enough that you can push a knife point up through it to pop out the metal eyeshadow pan. You can also quickly melt the label found on the bottom of the eyeshadow pot (just enough to make it easy to pull off, too much and you’ll blacken it) and adhere it to the bottom of the eyeshadow pan.
• E/s, L/s, L/g | Eyeshadow, lipstick, lipglass
• Eyeshadow “in pan/palette form” | The typical eyeshadow comes inside a black plastic container with a clear top that pops open. Eyeshadow bought in pan/palette (means the same thing in this context) is when you buy a metal pan that is filled with the eyeshadow color with a magnet on the bottom of it. Essentially, it does not have any protective case or black plastic container. It is the bare bones product. You would then place them in an empty quad or palette.
• Empty palettes, quads | When you purchase an eyeshadow or blush in pan/palette form, you place it inside an empty palette/quad. An empty eyeshadow palette can hold either 15 or 4 eyeshadows (referred to as a quad), and it is a slim black container. An empty blush palette can hold 6 blushes.
• FOTD (EOTD) | Face of the Day or Eye of the Day; essentially, it is someone’s makeup from that day
• MA | Makeup Artist
• MLBB | My Lips But Better
• OTT | Over The Top - as in, that bright blue eyeshadow is over the top for wearing to the office