Properly Made Up

And lastly in this bunch…

…I picked up some MAC staples which I’ve never had before, but really needed in my personal collection.

I picked up the ever so beautiful Up The Amp lipstick.  I also picked up two permanent eyeshadows in Saddle and in Bronze.

Here is a close up of my Up The Amp lipstick and a swatch.  I saw it on a girl on Specktra.net in an FOTD recently, who said it was her favorite MAC lipstick, whose skin tone was around an NC45 so I immediately added this lipstick to my shopping list.  I’ve seen Up The Amp on other girls, but not on women of color (where have I been?) so I was amazed at how beautiful it looked on her.  Price $14.00

Swatch!

Here are close ups of my eyeshadows (left is Saddle and on right is Bronze) and swatches (top is Bronze and bottom is Saddle).  And I was in desperate need of a blending eyeshadow so I finally picked up Saddle.  I bought Bronze by accident meaning I swatched it and immediatley like it because it caught my eye.  It’s a GREAT all over eyeshadow for when I need to go out in the evening and don’t have time to do my eye look properly. I  also do that with NARS Galapogos too, but that’s another story.  Price: $14.50 each

And in this bunch…

…I picked up a few things from the MAC Spring Colour Forecast collection.  I got two lipsticks in Radiccio (lustre finish) and Bronzilla (frost finish). Two lipglasses in Gold Dust and Kumquat.  I also picked up Vintage Grape ombre blush.  I didn’t get any of the single eyeshadows or quads because none of them looked unique to me. I went in wanting  Straw Harvest eyeshadow, but when I swatched it it came out more corally pink than orangey pink so I passed!

Here is a close up of my lipsticks (left is Radiccio and right is Bronzilla) and swatches (top is Radiccio and bottom is Bronzilla).  I love both of these lipsticks a lot and they were the only ones I liked from the entire collection. Bronzilla makes a great nude lip for me that gives some sheen to my lips so I’m in love with it.  Radiccio is such a sweet, frosty, pink purple that is so pretty! Price: $14.00 each

I do not know what happened, but I was so mad when I got home.  I was missing a lipglass.  I asked the MA at my counter to get me Lavender Wind lipglass and she did…it just never made it into my bag. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!  I know they are all sold out now so no need to cry over spoiled milk.  I wanted to put Lavedar Wind over Radiccio and Faultlessly, but oh well.

I, however, am not missing my Kamquat and Gold Dust lipglass and I’m happy about that.  I find that these two lipglasses are very pigmented and show their true colors on my lips.  I really love these two lipglasses a lot and they are unlike any other MAC lipglasses I own.

Here are close ups of my lipglasses (left is Gold Dust and on right is Kumquat) and swatches (top is Gold Dust and bottom is Kumquat).  Price: $14.00

Last, but not least, I picked up three blushes and the reason why you only see Vintage Grape in the picture below is because I ended up taking Azalea Blossom because it came out too light on my skin and I guess I’m too dark for it.  I also gave away Ripe Peach, which I totally regret now because it’s sold out everywhere, because it only gave my cheeks sheen.  I have a lot of MSFs that can do the same thing so I dumped it right away.  I should have kept it because the shimmer was light and it probably could have looked nice over another blush (I’ll never know).

I kept my Vintage Grape because it shows up on my skin and it’s beautiful.  It is my first purple blush and I love it.  I’ve been wearing it a lot recently.  It’s really hard to swatch so I didn’t because I find that I have to build up the color to get pay off, but the pay off is well worth it.  Price: $25.00

Haulage alert!  This is my last haul before MAC Liberty of London collection comes out.  I can’t wait for that collection to come out because I see a lot that I want for myself.

Back on topic!  Here is my MAC Spring Colour Forecast and some other stuffs haul.

Let me start off with the most exciting products I bought the day after they came out.  I’m talking about Viva Glam GaGa and Viva Glam Cyndi!  I went in knowing I was getting Cyndi, but after looking at and swatching GaGa I knew it would look good on me…NC45/50.   Both lipsticks are lustre finishes.

I am very happy with my new lipsticks although I’ve only rocked GaGa so far.  Ha! GaGa goes on sheer so you have to build it up if you want a hotter look.  I don’t do that or I’ll look like a fool. I totally missed out on the limited edition MAC Viva Glam GaGa makeup bag for $25.00, but whatever.  I’m mad ‘cuz nobody told me. 

The packaging for these products are kind of cool both having the signatures of the musicians.  Pure love!  I kept my boxes.  Price:  $14.00 each

From left to right…MAC Viva Glam Cyndi and GaGa:

Swatches! On the top it’s Gaga and on the bottom is Cyndi.

Unfortunately I am very disappointed in the fact that I didn’t want anything more than what I picked up from this collection, Warm & Cozy.  I am devastated that I didn’t want anything from the All Races, Love Lace and Lilyland collections as well.  Eeeeek!

So what this means is that I am not really in a good mood right now.  I had a list of stuff I wanted and I came up with that list from looking at bloggers/youtube guru swatches and reading the descriptions of each product from the MAC website.  I went to my MAC counter and I was only able to purchase two things…YES TWO THINGS…in good faith in the fact that I will use these products for sure.  If I had bought anything else I probably would be trying to make trades or sell by the end of next month from non-use.

OK so this is what I bought and I am very happy with my purchases.  Honestly, I am still thinking about picking up 5N lipstick from All Races and that Raven kohl power pencil from Love Lace.  I may just go back and get those soon.

Spiced Tea Lipstick $14.00 and 3N Lipglass $14.00…

Swatches!  On the top it’s Spiced Tea lipstick and on the bottom it’s 3N lipglass.

My best friend Lisa dragged me (oh yeah I was really kicking and screaming LOL) to my CCO because 1.  she wanted quality makeup and 2. she had never been before so we had to go last Wednesday night.

We arrived at Jersey Shore Outlets around 6pm and we literally stayed there for close to two hours swatching and looking through everything.  The people at my CCO are wonderful always!  I’ve only been twice and both times the customer service was phenomenal.  Everyone was eager to help us out there despite our being loud and going back and forth throughout the store.

Earlier in the day we had called down to the CCO just to make sure that the Fascinating palette from the 2008 Christmas collection.  I have it and Lisa wanted one too so we got it.  She really adores the smokey look so why not just get it all in one palette and save than to spend lots on pans at the MAC store?  So, that was a go.

We get into the store and locate the Fascinating palette.  An employee told me on the phone earlier that they had So Ceylon MSF in so I went and grabbed that and she grabbed one as well.  My best friend and I were talking about Gorgeous Gold eyeshadow some time ago because we saw it at a counter in Macy’s and it was a color we wanted so we picked that up at the CCO.  We made our way over to the brushes because finally they were all back in stock so we picked up our first MAC brush ever which is the 217 and I truly adore it!

Over where the brush display is I noticed that they had Hello Kitty stuff plastered down too. EEEEEEEEEEEK!  The last time I was at the CCO an employee told me they were all sold out of Hello Kitty so when we saw it we went for Pink Fish immediately.  I was kind of bummed because two weeks before I hunted down a Hello Kitty Lip Conditioner in Popster at Bloomingdales and bought that.  Had I gone to the CCO I would have gotten both Popster and Pink Fish at the discounted price, but how could I know?  *shrugs*

My CCO also had one of the Hello Kitty quads and my best friend picked that up.  Both beauty powders were available as well, but I passed because the compact is not big like the Heatherette one so I didn’t like it and I love my Smooth Harmony so I may just go back and get another one.  They also had the Hello Kitty mystery powder, you know the one with the Swarovski crystals in the compact?  Yes, that.  They only had two available at $68 bucks and I didn’t have the money for it so I passed on that.  It was a very good deal though.  There are were no Dazzleglasses unfortunately or we would have gotten a few.

My best friend bought two of of the Christmas collection lipglasses - I forget what they are called.  So she got 6 lip glosses (all neutral colors) and 6 dazzelglasses for $28 bucks.  The sizes of the lipglasses were half the size of a regular lipglass.  Still a good deal because these will last her for a long while.  She also got a compact of 3 lipsticks and another compact with 6 eyeshadows in it from the Christmas collection as well.

We hit up the MAC store in Shrewsbury, NJ at the Shrewsbury Mall because she wanted the 226 brush.  We also picked up a 239 brush as well.  I didn’t get a contractable lip brush, but she did so she ended up with four MAC brushes.  Sweet!

To make things even better, everything I got that evening my best friend paid for as a gift to me.  She said that I’m always helping her out and stuff and that I deserved my goodies.  Because of her I was able to get my first MAC brushes.  Yay!  I’ve been giving my Essence of Beauty brushes the evil eye for a while now because I hate them despite all of the rave reviews.  I do LOVE LOVE LOVE MY ECO-TOOLS POWDER BRUSH THOUGH - so go figure!

Here are pics of my lovely CCO and MAC haul with the Viva Glam promo card with Fergie on it!!!

239, 226, 217 MAC brushes

MAC Gorgeous Gold Eyeshadow

Hello Kitty Tinted Lip Conditioner in Pink Fish

MSF in So Ceylon

Swatches: Pink Fish, Gorgeous Gold & So Ceylon

Most of my hauls will be teeny because I cannot afford to spend hundreds or even 50 bucks a haul on makeup at one time so I’m adding to my stash slowly. 

OK so I stopped by Bloomingdales yesterday because they are the only store that (I believe most of them in the tri-state area) has some MAC Hello Kitty stuff left so I picked up the Hello Kitty Lip Conditioner in the shade Popster and I really like it! I put it on as soon as I bought it. The pigmentation is there, but the application is sheer if that makes sense. It is not as moisturizing as I thought it would be, but it’s fine. I did eventually put some lipgloss over it (NYX).

I also bought my first MAC Paint Pot in the shade Painterly. I’m hoping to give some brightness to my eyes as it will be a bright base for me AND will definitely make my eyeshadow pop more. I like the consistency of the product and I know for sure I’ll just need to use a teeny bit because the pigmentation it goes a long way.

That’s it for my teeny MAC haul. I told you all it was teeny. I am a MAC NW45 so this is how swatches show up on me.  So now, here are the pics!  Excuse my messy computer desk!

Ooooh...a MAC bag!!!

I see something!

Yes...2 products @ 33 bucks. Don't ask!

Paint Pot in Painterly & Hello Kitty Lip Conditioner in Popster

Paint Pot in Painterly & Hello Kitty Lip Conditioner in Popster

Swatches!

Swatches!