MAC & Sephora Haul

Last week was really stressful, so it had to culminate in some retail therapy.

From Sephora: Clinique blush in "Aglow" along with Clinique Perfectly Real foundation
From MAC: "Quite Natural" paint pot, "Blankety" lipstick, "Underage" lipglass, "Peachykeen" blush (not shown), and a new Fix+

The foundation was an impulse buy. I got matched with shade 18, which is for fair-medium skintones with neutral undertones. The shades they had were so weird, there was a huge gap in between light and dark. Most shades had really obvious pink or yellow tones. Although the box claims the foundation neutralizes skins varying undertones. I always have a hard time with my neutral coloring. The match was good though, kind of orange upon application but the color evened out once it was blended. It was hard to blend out though (I used a foundation brush); the consistency was thick. Next time I'd use the beauty blender, I have a feeling the application would be better that way. The foundation definitely did not cover up everything. The finish really was nice, but the lack of coverage took away from the whole effect. It does seem like it's going to be medium-full coverage right when you apply it, but it just disappears! This foundation is supposed to be for dry combination to combination oily skin. Weird description.. what does that leave out? It was a bit shiny on me, and I have combo skin that's starting to become oilier as the weather heats up. For the finish and the price ($21), I'd say it's worth it if you can get a good color match.

Swatches:

"Aglow"

I've been eyeing the blush for a while, cause it looked so beautiful on display. I would call it an apricot pink with golden undertones. I actually tend to shy away from pink blush, I think it looks really unnatural on me. I love my peach tones though. Well, I finally got around to trying it, and I'm undecided. The texture was chalky, and it didn't blend out that well. The color didn't look nearly as amazing on my cheeks as it did swatched on my hand. I thought it would be a glowy, beautiful rosy peach color but it turned into more of a flat dirty apricot. The worst part was after a few hours, it turned into a blotchy mess.. but this happens sometimes when I use loose powder. I'm gunna see if I can get a better result next time. This retails for $19.50.

"Blankety"

I have a love/hate relationship with nude lippies. I want to love them, I think they look so gorgeous when I see other girls wearing them.. but I seldom reach for them when I do my own looks. I don't know, its just that nude lips don't ever seem to go with the rest of my makeup. My other mac nude lipsticks include "Peachstock" (hello, walking corpse), and Cherish (beautiful, but once again, one I don't find myself reaching for often). So I came to the conclusion I needed a honey colored nude, not too pink and not too fleshy. Well, I struck gold here. I didn't even try the color on in the store (I know, bad); I've seen so many people wearing it I didn't feel like i needed to. I just got it, and I'm glad I did. It's an Amplified, and I find it way more creamy that some of my Cremesheen's. On my lips it's a honey-ish, mauve-y nude, just what I was looking for. Although it shows up more on the pink side in the pictures, it's way more toned down in real life.

"Underage"

It was between this and Florabundance. I had my mind set on a milky pink, so i went with Underage in the end. Florabundance was so pretty though, it won't be long at all before I cave in ;). Underage is a well known color: a sheen-y, milky light pink. My lips are pigmented, but over Creme Cup (how I intend to wear it), Underage is the perfect frosting for pretty, opaque pink lip. It's extremely pigmented, but I do find it to be sort of spoltchy and hard to get even. When you do though, the result is beautiful.

"Quite Natural"

To me this is a neutral medium brown. I love the texture of paint pots, but I actually don't like to use my flesh colored ones as primers because I think they actually dull my shadows (I totally prefer cream color bases). But as bases, paint pots are amaaazing for their cream-to-powder finish. I'll put up a look using this soon.

"Peachykeen"

This is a "sheertone shimmer". On me its a sheer, warmish pink with golden shimmer, which lends the pink a peachy color.. so its not a straight-up pink. I tried this on in store, and it gave me just what I look for in a blush.. a pretty, subtle glow. Not obvious rouged up cheeks. I though it was similar to Nars' Orgasm when I had it on in the store, but now I see they're completely different. Orgasm is peachier. I actually like Peachykeen's texture more than Orgasm. It's not as gritty and sparkly, and applies way better.

Fix Plus speaks for itself. I cannot live without this; I don't care if it's glorified water. After a long day of classes, a few spritzes of this un-cakes and un-creases all my stale makeup and allows me to touch up my cheeks and shadow without looking like a clown.

Happy Tuesday :)