MAC Cosmetics - Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour Simply Smoked

Matte reigns supreme

Hi everyone!

Back in January, MAC launched eight new Retro Matte Liquid Lip Colours to add to the existing 15 shades. With a combination of muted and deep tones and a liquid matte formula, MAC is really hitting the trend. 

A little round up before

Before diving in, I just wanted to give some thoughts I had after trying the shades from the first release. The formula was extremely dry, it left my lips feel like the desert. The darker shades applied really patchy and hard to build up, making it really hard to make them look nice on the lips . The applicator is really nice, it's not your classic foot applicator, it's a flat, teardrop shaped applicator, which is really easy to work with. My favorite shade was tailored to tease, which is a cool-toned, rather bright plum colour. 

If you want to read about the first release of the Retro Matte's, click on the picture below.

Why did you buy one again?

The reviews on the first release weren't that great, but everyone seemed to find their way to work with them. I will discuss mine further down.

I would've been surprised if MAC would release eight more shades, without doing something with the feedback of the make up lovers, so I decided to get one more of the new release. 

Simply smoked

I am a big fan of the matte lipstick in the shade Stone, so I decided to get a similar shade in the Retro Matte range. Judging from the tube, I picked out Simply Smoked. 

Simply Smoked is described is a neutral taupe color. And I must say I totally love it! I'm not sure if MAC has changed up the formula, or if the formula works really well with this pigment, but this shade is amazing! It really makes me want to try more shades again.

Here you see Stone and Simply Smoked swatched next to each other. As you can see, Stone has a slightly more red tone, while Simply Smoked has more grey tones in it.

How I make them work

First method: conditioner

- Make sure your lips are exfoliated, you can use premade scrubs (like Lush) or make it yourself with olive oil and sugar (which I do)

- Take care of your lips, use lip balm or lip conditioner regularly. I always do my lipstick last when I do my make up, so I have lip conditioner on the whole time while doing the rest of my make up. My favorite balm/conditioner is the MAC Lip Conditioner

- You can go in with an extra primer, but sometimes I feel like this makes your lips a bit too slippery, so be sure to wipe off any excess product before applying any lipstick

- Make sure your lips are dry

- Apply your lipstick evenly and work with it while still matte

Second method: gloss it up

Do you love the shade of your lipstick, but hate it being so dry on your lips? There's a simple hack!

I use the slightest bit of MAC clear Lip Glass Lip Gloss over the top, which will make the lipstick less dry and a little more glossy.

Facts

Retail price: €24,50

I hope you enjoyed this little update and review!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

xo

Gaëtane

Make Up - Kat von D Beauty

Once you go Kat, you never go back!

Hi Mad Family! 

I've been trying out a totally new brand of make up recently, at least it's new to me, and I'd love to talk to you about it! So if you want to read about Kat von D Beauty products, just scroll down!

Why Kat von D Beauty?

I've been a fan of Kat von D ever since the first seasons of Miami Ink. Her portrait tattoos are to die for! She's such an idol to me, because she doesn't take shit from anyone, she knows what she wants, basically everything I'd want to be! Back in 2008 (if I recall correctly), it was first announced that KvD and Sephora would collaborate to design a line of lipsticks. Quickly KvD Beauty grew to a full range of make up with foundation, powders, eyeshadows, lipsticks, just everything you need. There was only one downside: it was so hard to get my hands on from here in Belgium. I'm not a person that shops for make up online, because I'm always scared that the images online will not be try to reality, also foundation is really hard to match online. So I was really happened when it was announced KvD Beauty was coming to Debenhams in the UK (which is still not close, but we do you to London twice a year)! And also recently they announced the launch in Sephora France, so I can't wait to pick up more stuff!

How I choose what to get

Because I had been researching and waiting to get the make up for so long, I really went into Debenhams on Oxford Street with a mission: I wanted a Full Face of Kat Von D Beauty Make Up. For people not familiar with this term, it basically means that you can do your full make up, using only make up from one brand.

The products & first impressions

Face

KvD Lock It Foundation in the shade Light 47 Neutral. It is a 24hr wear, full coverage, transfer-resistant foundation with a matte finish. The shade range is really big, with 33 colors available, it's really easy to find the perfect shade for your skin. For a full coverage foundation, the texture isn't really thick (not like the Urban Decay All Nighter Foundation at least). The finish is indeed really matte and even a bit powdery. I wouldn't say that it is transfer-proof, because on my nose for example, it easily rubs off. Anyway, it gives you a really flawless look, even if you have dry skin. The actual tube is a bit chunky, but I like the way it's working. When you push foundation out, the bottom actually moves up, so you don't waste any product in the tube. 

KvD Lock It Concealer Crème in the shade L7 Warm. I got this shade because it's two shades (approximately) lighter than the foundation. This concealer is available in 21 shades, one of which is basically white, which is lovely! It says to be super-creamy, blendable full coverage with 24hr wear, which is all true! I love the concealer. Only think I'd have to say about it, is to work quickly with it, because it sets rather quickly. So I recommend to work it in quickly or use a damp brush while working with it. I like this a lot, because it doesn't go into my fine lines, which the Nars Concealer does.

KvD Lock It Translucent Setting Powder. This is really THE discovery of this haul for me. I've informed multiple times at MAC to get their loose setting powder, but every time I walk out with something different. So I was convinced to pick it up and I've never realized how much one needs a loose powder in his life. It has a light shimmer in it and makes your skin even more lovely matte, without the cake. You get a big tub of 19grams of powder, which is really good value.

KvD Shade 'n Light Face Contour Palette. Without a doubt the most hyped face product by Kat von D Beauty and which a reason, because it's amazing! It has 6 contour/non-shimmer highlight shades, divided in light/medium/dark. The palette has a large mirror in it and the powder are highly pigmented, so a little goes a long way. My favorite combination is the light contour shade called Sombre, with the highlight shade from the medium area, called Lyric. This palette recently was released with refillable pans. I am not familiar with any other contour palettes, but I feel like this palette works for everyone!

Eyes

KvD Shade 'n Light Eyeshadow Quad in Plum. This was a bit of an impulse buy if I'm honest, I had the Metal/Matte palette on my list, but this wasn't yet available at Debenhams. So I remembered a video by Helen Anderson and she had the Plum Quad which looked beautiful on her, so I decided to pick up that one. It goes really well with my green eyes. The colors are very pigmented again, so you only need a little for a full look. On the back, it actually says base, define, contour and highlight, which makes it really easy to use, but of course you're free to use the colors however you want. Another hit, although four colors is a bit limited to create an eyelook with for me personally.

KvD Tattoo Liner in Trooper. I never want anything else! I had never used this type of felt-tip pen to apply eyeliner, you don't need a hand as steady as a liquid eyeliner, but you can create more movement than with gel eyeliner. The tip consists of individual hairs if I can say that, with makes the tip ultra-fine and moveable. The liner itself is extremely black and matte and lovely to use. I really want to try some more dramatic eyeliner option with it.

And last but not least, I picked up three of the KvD Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks. These are available in 30 shades. They are long-lasting and highly pigmented. Only remark I have to make that they are rather drying for your lips, but so are most matte (liquid) lipsticks. They do are long lasting and really easy to apply. I picked up the shades Witches (pitch black), Ayesha (midtone purple) and Exorcism (deep red).

It's also nice to note that all these products are 100% cruelty-free and vegan!

When buying 50 pound worth of products, you got a free tote bag

Full Face of KvD Beauty tutorial

On the Wishlist

- Metal/Matte Eyeshadow Palette

- Alchemist Palette

- Pastel Goth Eyeshadow Palette

- Brushes

- Priming mist

- Lock-It Color Correcting Eyeshadow Primer

I hope you enjoyed this little review. Let me know if you are planning on picking up some KvD products or if you have already tried them, which ones are your favorites?

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

xo

Gaëtane

Make Up - Urban Decay - Lipstick is my Vice

Too much vice is never enough

Hi Mad Family!

I still remember the press release by Urban Decay coming out: they were going to relaunch their existing lipstick range and were going to be added shades to reach a huge launch of 100 lipstick shades! Yes 100 shades! Which girl wouldn't swoon away by the thought of that?

Urban Decay only became available in Belgium in April 2015 at Ici Paris XL, but only in certain bigger stores. My fellow make up addicted friends had told me 5 million times before: you have to try Urban Decay it's great! But for some reason and also because it was hard to get, I never really bothered. I always kept track off their releases and at the end of last year, when they released the Gwen Stefani collab, I picked up the products from that range and fell in love with the brand (which is hard to admit as a former hard core MAC junkie). It was hard not to pick up any of the lipsticks then, because the word for the relaunch was already out. So I saved up a fair bit of money to have a big haul when the new lipsticks launched.

Information

The relaunch consisted of 100 shades (some of them already existing, most of them new ones) in 6 different finishes: mega matte, comfort matte, cream, metallized, sheer and sheer shimmer. Alongside, they launched 52 24/7 glide on lip pencils matching the shades. Are you impressed yet? Well, it gets better! They also launched an app for smartphones where you can take a selfie without any lipstick on and try on all shades, swiping left/right for like/dislike. It's basically Tinder for lipstick. 

The Official Urban Decay website: Lipstick is my vice!

In Belgium available at Ici Paris XL: Vice in Belgium

Get the app: search for Vice Lipstick in Google Play or App Store

A little review
The budget I pulled out for this haul, allowed me a fair amount. So in advance, I made a list of the shades I really wanted to pick up. In the end I also picked up the Ultimate Ozone Primer, which is really a must have primer in my opinion! It is amazing and helps your lipstick last a long time, even when eating or drinking.

I picked up 19 shades in total, with at least one of each finish. Going from nudes over purples, to the really out there blue and black.

I took picture of every shade individually, but posting all those pictures would make this post extremely long. So I have selected some group ones. The packaging is really beautiful black with a sliced up lipstick on the front and says VICE in golden lettering. There's a sticker with the name of the shade and a representative of the color inside on the side. I do feel that the actual color in the bullet is slightly different, but at least you can see what shade is inside without having to open the whole thing. The bullets themselves are very sleek and are silver with a golden bottom. When I first opened a packaging, I did struggle a bit to open them, as the base is really small to grab on, but when you get used to that, that's totally no problem. One slight issue I've had a few times carrying these in my handbag and having to go through an X-Ray, I get stopped and asked to take them out and show them to security, probably because they are so metallic and hard to distinguish in an X-Ray.

I had watched a ton of YouTube videos with swatches before deciding which shades to get. The main thing for me to make a decision was that the colors had to be different from the MAC lipsticks I already had. Knowing me, I did end up with some purples similar to ones I already had, but you can't have enough purple lipsticks!

Top row: Backtalk (Comfort Matte) - Violate (cream) - Peyote (Metallized)
Second row: Frenemy (cream) - Amulet (Metallized) - Perversion (Comfort Matte) - Heroine (Comfort Matte)
Third row: Rapture (cream) - Conspiracy (Metallized) - Blackmail (Comfort Matte) - Liquid (Sheer)
Fourth row: Pandemonium (Mega Matte) - Afterdark (Comfort Matte) - Venom (cream) - Bad Blood (Comfort Matte)
Fifth row: Jawbreaker (Mega Matte) - Twitch (cream) - Bittersweet (Comfort Matte) - Seismic (sheer shimmer) - 

Generally, I can say I am really happy with this haul! The shades I picked up are amazing! They are so pigmented, are long lasting and are very hydrating for the lips (even the matte ones)! I have used every single one of them multiple times already. The only two finishes that I'm not a fan of, which is totally personal, are the sheer and sheer shimmer. I had picked up Seismic (Sheer Shimmer) & Liquid (Sheer) and they are just not my cup of tea. I like the out there very outstanding colors, so when I have lipstick on, I want them pigmented. These two are just a bit to transparant on their own, but I do like them as a glossy layer over one of the matte purples. I am definitely planning on picking up some more shades!

The Nudes: Peyote (Metallized) - Violate (cream) - Backtalk (Comfort Matte) - Rapture (cream)

Have you already splurged on some of these lipsticks? Or did you get tempted reading this post? Which one is your favorite? Feel free to leave a comment!

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

xo

Gaëtane

MAC Cosmetics | Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour + an extra

Hi lovelies!

Today was the day all Belgian make-uplovers had been waiting for! It was a MAC Collections launching day <3! Both the new Ellie Goulding collection as the Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolours were launched in store today...

So even if it was Saturday, no sleeping in for me! Why? Because I had to be at my local MAC Store (Ghent) at opening time... When I arrived, one girl is also waiting outside to splurge... We both get in at 10am and hand over our wanted-list to the girls at MAC. An anxious peek into the drawer tells us that stock was limited again, so we were lucky to get there early. Four colours sold out immediately, because the stock for the particular colour was limited to 2 or 3 pieces. So we were lucky to get the colours we wanted...

These are the colors I picked up, all retailing at €24,5 euros a piece. If got 8 colors of the 15 available...

Back in Vogue - a peachy nude

To matte with love - a bright raspberry

Tailored to tease - a bright fushia

Oh lady  - a deep wine

Recollection - an intense bright violet

This color is pretty much the twin of Heroine by MAC, but even more matte (love love love). Along with 'How chic is this?' from the Vamplify range this could make a holy threesome!

High drama - a deep dark plum

Dance with me - a deep cranberry red

Feels so grand - A deep true red 

We've got triplets! This is matchy matchy with MAC's Cardinal (Satin finish) and Suggestive from the Vamplify collection!

As an extra I got the patent polish lip pencil in Revved from the Elle Goulding collection:

Some more pictures of the liquid lipsticks

 

Click on the last picture to go to the full Flickr album...

I hope you enjoyed this post <3!

Are you planning on picking some of these colours up?

xx

Gaëtane

MAC Cosmetics | Magic of the night collection | Holiday collection 2015

We are the heroes of the night

But we're dancing with the demons in our minds

November 7th must've been marked in all diaries of beautylovers in Belgium and The Netherlands, because MAC was launched its Christmas collection in stores. The online launch was on October 29th, which I missed to some other magic happening at Disneyland Paris (which you'll read about in a later blogpost). I love going shopping in my not-so-local, but still closest to my house MACstore in Ghent, where I'm always welcomed with open arms and amazing tips & tricks.

I left my house early, because I didn't want to live the same disappointed as with the Cinderella collection (long story short: arrived late-ish in the city centre, all parking lots were full, arrived at the store 3 minutes after opening time and BAM some stuff had already sold out). I ended up being half an hour early at the shop, seeing the lovely girls who work there putting together the most AMAZING make up look using all the products of the new range. Having a little peek through the window, I also saw that the Enchanted Eve collection also had already entered the building, but I was here for the Magic of the Night one. Don't get me wrong, the other collection also looks amazing, especially the make up bags, but the addict that I am, I do have at least one product in each of the sets, so that left me more money for the Magic of the Night collection.

My haul

My aim with special collections is only to get the stuff that is exclusive for that collection, by which I mean not to buy for example a lipstick that is always in the range, but just in the special packaging. I managed quite well this time, I only gave in to Nightmoth lip pencil, as I heard so many people rave about it and I actually never tried it.

Nightmoth lip pencil, blackened plum (€16,50)

The other lip pencil released was Redd, but as I don't really have problems wearing red lipstick without pencil underneath, so this one could stay in the shop. Two other things that I did not pick up were the Pearl Glide Intense Eye Liners in Petrol Blue and Black Swan (just because I did not need more eyeliners in my life).

The packaging for this collection is shiny purple and green and looks just fabulous! Also the color range on all products ranges from shiny pinky nude to green and purples, all with the help of glitter.

Every time that we rendez-vous

The lipstick part of this collection consisted of 4 lipstick, two of which are new. Please Me (matte) and All fired up (Retro Matte) being the repackaged already existing colors. The new colors were Evening Rendezvous which is a beautiful matte purple lipstick with red undertones, slightly similar to Instigator, but more bright purple.

The second new color is Dark Side a deep browny, burgundy red in the amplified creme formula.

Evening Rendezvous (€21)

Dark Side (€21)

Dark Side & Evening Rendezvous

Starry eyed

Next up are my favorites of this collection: the Colourdrenched Pigment Eyeshadows. All of these five pressed eyeshadow have a frost finish, which is oftenly said to be more sheer and less pigmented, but OMG these colors are out there. All of these retail at 23 euros a piece.

Night thrill is a gold shimmer color, and probably the most sheer one of this fabulous five. On me, it turned more yellow that gold, but all depends of course on your skin tone and type.

Ascent of Glamour is a cobalt violet-blue and my favorite of the five, just because it matches nicely with my green eyes.

Tonight's the Night is a deep blackened teal.

Moon is blue is as the name says a royal blue and would go perfectly with Atlantic Blue eyeshadow (also from MAC).

And last but not least is No Taboos which is a blackened blue.This one turns grey with blue undertones on me.

All these colors are perfect to create a festive shimmery smokey eye look and are buildable in intensity of color, but the color payoff is extremely good. They can be used wet or dry, just note that if you use them wet, the consistancy might change a bit after a while.

Beams are gonna blind me

Last up are the Extra Dimension Skinfinish pressed powders.

Shaft of Gold & Oh Darling

Oh, darling(€34,5) is a metallic gold powder, that can be used as a highlighter. There are no huge chunks of glitters or sparkle in there, it's a very pigments yet flawless powder with tons of shimmer. For some reason the name of this powder reminded me of Cruella (well Disneygeek for life).

Shaft of Gold (€34,5) is a deep bronze powder, that can be used for contouring or blush. If you like contouring with shiny powder, this will be your friend, as well as if you like skiny brown-toned blush. Notice that if you have really fair skin, Shaft of Gold might be too dark to contour with.

I had nothing but love for this whole collection, that's why I picked up so many pieces of it (Disclaimer: yes, I bought all of this from my own money). Availability is limited though, so hurry if you got excited seeing these beautiful products

xx

Gaëtane