MAC Face and body foundation review and comparaison with MUFE face & body

Two weeks ago, when I came face to face with the closed Inglot shop, I went to console myself at MAC. Even though I promised myself I wouldn't by any other foundation I still couldn't resist the urge to try this one.

MAC is not know for their foundation and most of their offering are quite thick and full coverage and frankly not appropriate for dry skin. Face & Body is an exception, it's a very fluid water based foundation that contains no fillers. It's a light to medium coverage foundation with a dewy finish. They come in N (neutral) or C (cool but actually yellow undertone). I bought it in N1 and the match for my skin is perfect. If you are a true porcelain skin in North America they sell a pure white version  that you can mix and match your color. The foundation comes in 120 ml / 4 oz for €33.50 or 50 ml / 1.7 US fl oz €28.00. If you are not sure or have a lot of foundations I would buy the smaller size because the foundation separates after a year and becomes unusable. 

Left before, right after.

How does it compare to Make up for ever face and body?

Here's a very unflattering before after with MUFE Face & body

1. The price
Make up for ever face & body is 35,50€ for 50ml and MAC in the bigger size is €33.50 for 120ml so more than double of the size for 2 euros cheaper. 

2. The texture and finish
The MAC version is a very runny very watery foundation. I apply mine on a metal blending palette, I do my skin care and then I start applying it. It gives it time to be less watery. Make up for ever is a gel texture and it is easier to apply. I find both foundation to be applied best with fingers or you waste too much product.

The finish is different, MUFE has a natural finish and MAC has a dewy finish. They both look very natural and like a second skin.

3. The wear and coverage
They are both long wearing. MUFE is completely transfer proof and MAC transfer resistant. The coverage is light to medium for both. They are both buildable without being caky.

Overall I have to admit that it's almost a tie between the two foundations. I like the color match and the price of the MAC and I like the easier to work with texture of the MUFE and the fact that it doesn't transfer. They are both quite hard to remove so use a good make up remover!

Skin care routine essentials

Today, I realized that I never actually posted anything else that make up reviews and one article about hair. I'm not really a perfume or skin care addict (thank god for my poor wallet).

When it comes to skin care I like to leave my skin alone. I have dry, reactive skin with a lot of redness. I do not use any anti-aging product, I'm trying to get as much antioxidants as possible with my flexitarian diet.

There are however, three products that I can't live without right now:

Vichy pureté thermale calming cleansing solution sensitive skin and eyes.
I can't live without this stuff, it's a huge bottle and it's quite cheap (less than 20 euros if my memory is right). This stuff is soothing it cleanses well and really removes all of my eye make up. I really soak cotton pads into the solution and I apply it 10 seconds on each eyes and lightly wipe away. I also use this as a toner after my cleansing milk and it removes any long wearing foundation. 

Avène eau thermale skin recovery cream (rich)
This is a great moisturizer it's nice and thick and leaves a protective layer for the cold months. It contains no perfume and no preservatives and comes in a squeeze tube.

Clinique turnaround concentrate radiance renewer
I discovered this in June and it really solved my dry patch problem. This is a chemical exfoliant serum and it helps with the skin renewal. It really help with the dull rough skin. When I run out of this I immediately notice a difference. It contains polyhydroxy acid (PHA) which is similar to alpha hydroxy acid without the sensitizing effects. It's really one of the best skin care product I ever tried.

blue smokey eye with MAC and MUFE

I haven't done a face of the day in a while and I have to admit that I've been quite conservative with make up lately. With the winter coming, I thought it was time to give some love to my dark cool toned eye shadows.

Here's what I used:

Make up for ever aqua cream in 20 intense blue, a medium bright blue cream shadow as a base
MAC moon's reflection which is a lovely medium purple blue in the veluxe pearl finish
MAC contrast a navy blue with a int of purple in the velvet finish

Here's how it came out

I quite like it, I think this look is a keeper for nights out in the cold season.(sorry for the empty look I have a big cold right now!)

Make up kit basics for everyone - avec traduction FRANÇAISE

I heard a lot of my non beauty obsessed friends and colleagues commented on their inability to do make up. Today I dedicate my post to them by giving them the basics to make up (no particular talent required!)

J'ai souvent entendu certaines de mes copines, non obsédés par les produits de beauté, ou mes collègues commenter sur leur inabilité à appliquer le maquillage. Aujourd'hui, je leurs dédie ce billet (aucun talent particulier requis!)

Make up - Maquillage

1. Foundation or tinted moisturizer 
If you are a beginner or are a bit afraid of foundation I would recommend powder foundation, tinted moisturizer or light coverage foundation. It's always better to leave a little bit of imperfections than to have the mask look. You can always apply foundation with your hands or a sponge to save money.

1. Fond de teint ou crème teintée 
Pour les débutantes ou les femmes qui ont peur du fond de teint, je  conseilles d'opter pour une crème teintée, un fond de teint en poudre ou un fond the teint à couvrance légère. On peut toujours appliquer la base avec une éponge ou les mains pour sauver de l'argent.

2. Concealer
They are many different types of concealer, but I would say that liquid concealer suits most. If you have heavier undereye circle you can go for a creamy concealer. Do not go too light or you will end up with the reverse panda look.

2. Cache-cernes
Il y a différents types de caches-cernes, mais en règle générale la version liquide est la plus facile à travailler. Pour des cernes plus marquées une version crème aura d'avantage de couvrance. Attention à ne pas aller trop clair ou look penda inversé garanti! 

3. Blush
I think every woman needs a good blush. You can't go wrong with a color that emulate a "just came back from the cold look". As always try it on first! Avoid putting blush too close from the nose. Keep a two fingers distance from your nose and blend the blush towards the hair line.

3. Fard à joue
Toutes les femmes ont besoin d'un bon fard à joue. On ne peut pas se tromper en choisissant une couleur qui émite le look "je reviens du froid". Il faut éviter d'appliquer le blush trop près du nez et garder une distance d'environs deux doigts. On estompe ensuite le fard vers les tempes jusqu'à la naissance des cheveux.

4. Lipstick or gloss
It's really hard to go wrong here. Just choose a finish and color that you like and have fun with it!

4. Rouge à lèvre ou gloss
C'est difficile de se tromper ici. Il suffit de choisir un fini et une couleur qui nous plaît et de s'amuser!

5. Eyeshadows
They are endless possibilities when it comes to eyeshadow but I'd strongly recommend getting those shades:

• A matte color close to your skin color to put on the brow bone and blend on the crease. 
• A matte taupe eyeshadow to sculpt the eye shape and put on the crease
• A dark brown eyeshadow for the crease or the outter V to darken the outer corner of your eyes. You can also use it wet as an eyeliner. 
• A neutral lid color with a satin, pearl or frost finish to keeps things interesting.

5. Fards à paupières 
Les possibilités sont illimitées, mais je pense que tout le monde a besoin des couleurs suivantes:

• Une couleur matte près de la couleur de notre peau pour mettre sur l'arcade sourcillière et estomper les couleurs du creux de la paupière. 
• Un taupe mat pour sculpter le creux de la paupière.
• Un brun foncé qui peut être également utilisé dans le creux, dans le coin externe et utilisé mouillé comme eyeliner. 
• Une couleur neutre perlée, irisée ou satiné pour la paupière mobile question de rajouter de la dimension et garder les choses intéressantes. 

 6. Mascara

Tools - outils

7.  Blush brush 

I personaly prefer smaller more precise brushes like the nice pointy one from eco tools. This way you can control were you apply blush. 

7. Pinceau à fard à joues

Je préfère des pinceaux un peu plus petits comme ce joli pinceau pointu de chez eco tools. Ça permet de mieux contrôler où on applique le fard à joues.

8. All over eyeshadow brush or flat eyeshadow brush (lay-down brush)

When I want to do a precise eyeshadow look I use up to five different brushes (including the eyeliner brush), but this is a post about basics, not to turn us into a professional make up artist!

An all over eyeshadow brush is a fluffy flat brush. Like the name says, you can use it to apply eyeshadow all over. Since it's fluffy you can also blend with it. It's great when you use a single medium darkness shade all over because it's very quick. You can't do precise crease application with that. I also like it to apply my Ivory shade on my brow bone everyday.

A lay-down brush is a flat stiff brush that you use to pack on color. You need to tap the color in. It's more precise than the all over brush but it takes more time. It's meant to put eyeshadows on the lid. 

8. Pinceau ombreur doux ou pinceaux ombre rigide

Quand je veux avoir une appliation très précise d'ombre à paupière je peux utiliser jusqu'à cinq pinceaux différent (en incluant le pinceau à eyeliner, mets ce billet concerne les produits et outils de base. Le but n'est pas de faire de nous des artistes maquilleurs!

Un pinceaux ombreur doux (all over eyeshadow brush) est fait pour appliquer et estomper en même temps. J'aime bien l'utiliser pour applique mon ombre de couleur peau sur mon arcade sourcillière. C'est aussi bien pour appliquer une seule ombre a paupière d'intensité moyenne sur la paupière mobile et dans le creux.

Un pinceau de type "lay-down" est un pinceau plat et rigide. Ça sert à appliquer les ombres à paupière de manière intense et précise en tappotant la couleur sur la paupière.

9. A crease brush or a stiff blending brush

Depending on your eye shape and size you might be able to get away with only a blending brush. Ideally, I would recommend to have both a crease brush and a blending brush, but if you can't afford both try to get a multitasker like the MAC 217 that can be both used for applying and blending eyeshadows on the crease. To soften up the edges of the crease color blend it with that color that matches your skin tone. 

A traditional crease brush is a dome shape stiff brush. You can choose the size depending on your eye shape and how precise or soft you want the look. 

9. Pinceau contour de l'oeil ou pinceau estompeur rigide

Selon la forme et le format de l'oeil, il est possible de s'en sortir seulement avec un pinceau estompeur rigide multiusage comme le MAC 217 pour à la fois appliquer et estomper les ombres sur le creux. Dans le meilleur des mondes, il est préférable d'appliquer les ombres avec un pinceau et de les estompers avec un autre. Pour adoucir les contours on peut tout simplement estomper notre ombre à paupière de couleur peau avec la couleur du creux de la paupière.

Un pinceau contour de l'oeil traditionnel a une forme conique et es rigide. On choisi la grosseur en fonction du format de notre oeil et du degré de précision que le veut attendre. Plus le pinceau est petit plus les looks font être intense et précis, plus il est gros plus se sera diffut.

 

MAC VIVA GLAM V lipstick and gloss review

This year for Christmas MAC is releasing a pouch containing the Viva Glam I lipstick and and lipgloss. As lovely as the original Viva Glam combo is, it's not the most wearable shade for work. For those of you not familiar with the Viva Glam range, all of the profits are going to Aids found that help people that are living with aids.

I have been a fan of the VIVA Glam V lipglass a nice neutral brownish pink since it came out. But I haven't tried yet the lipstick. After the Inglot "fiasco" I decided to cheer myself up and to pick up the lipstick that has been on my wishlist for a while and their face & body foundation (to be reviewed once it's been properly tested).

The lipgloss

The lipgloss is described by MAC as a neutral pink, but there is a lot of brown in there. It's a nice color that goes pretty much with everything and it's not too light so it doesn't wash out ladies with fair skin. As you can see this shade as been getting a lot of love. It's also a great shade to make your lips appear a bit bigger. It doesn't contain any glitter.

The lipstick

The lipstick is also described as a neutral pink, but for this one the description is actually accurate. I comes in the luster range and it has a small gold glitter. This shade as been described as flattering on all skin tones. I find that shade easier to pull off than the lipgloss.

This is more sheer than the lipgloss but you can build it up to medium opacity. It also feels quite moisturizing and it wears for about 3 to 4 hours. Because the lipstick is sheer and the lipgloss is pigmented I wouldn't wear both of them on the same time because it's quite pointless. I would just keep the lipstick for day and wear the lipgloss for evening.

With now six Viva glam shades, without counting the limited editions, I'm sure you can find a shade that fits you. And it's for a good cause.

Maybelline color tattoo review in inked in pink, bad to the bronze and audacious asphalt

I feel like it's been a while since I reviewed something from an affordable brand. Today I'm going o do a quick review and show you some swatches of three of the permanent color tattoo range from Maybelline. I'm not going to spend too much time reviewing the products, because they did get a lot of hype and reviews when they came up last year.

Bad to the bronze (On and on bronze in Europe)

This color is one of the best one from the range, pigmented, blendable and long wearing. Some of the colors are apparently less good but I didn't experiment that with any of the three colors I picked.

Audacious Asphalt (Immortal charcoal) 

This color is a bit dryer and it contains glitter. You can get better charcoal shades out there, but for the price it's still quite nice. I like to use this one for a smokey eye and blend it also on the lower lash line.

I'm wearing this eyeshadow on this picture.

Inked in pink (pink gold)

This is a lovely rose gold shade, which is one of the newer colors. It's also my favorite shade for everyday wear. Because it's light it's easy to apply as a wash of color with my fingers in the morning a bit of mascara and I'm out of the door.

Here's a close-up on my eye

If you haven't tried yet the color tattoo range and recommend checking them  out. They are not the easiest eyeshadow to blend compared to other cream eyeshadows like sheiseido or Benefit (I use a dome brush with the darker shade) but they hold like a rock ad they are very affordable. Apparently the orange and purple shades are to be avoided and lack pigmentation.

And you did you try the color tattoo eyeshadow?

Eindhoven make up city?

I just went back from Eindhoven in the Netherlands with my boyfriend. We decided to go there because I really wanted to go to an Inglot store. Little did I know that Inglot Netherlands just went bankrupt. Of course neither Inglot or the Piazza (the mall where the store is located) decided to update that info.I spent literally two weeks anticipating this and making plans for my would have been awesome 20 eyeshadow palette. We went in the madness the weekend before "Sinterklaas" for absolutely nothing!

Like this is not disturbing enough...

 For those of you not familiar with the concept, yes it's white people painted in black. And it's even more disturbing in person. Somehow this is not seen as racism in the Netherlands.

I still tried to make the best of my day, after all I dragged my boyfriend all the way over there, it took us one hour just to find a paid parking that wasn't full. I ended up shopping around in de bijenkorf. The one in Eindhoven is especially nice. They have a lot of skin care brands dr. Hauschka, Ren, Kiehs among others. They also have a lot of make up brand. None of which are impossible to find in Belgium. They also have two ici paris and one Douglas (I didn't go in because there were those creepy white people painted in black in front of the store).

Here's a couple of pictures I took in de Bijenkorf (sorry for the quality I forgot my memory card)

And it all ended in an Irish pub...

The verdict?
Eindhoven is a nice shopping city, but I wouldn't say it's worth the detour striclty for makeup. I would recommand Bruxelles over that because they have a full Bobbi Brown make up store, a make up for ever store and many others. I think the next makeup "Pilgrimage" will be in June 2014 at Imats London! And I want to thank my boyfriend to be so patient and bringing me there and fight through the parking madness.

Sephora Canada Haul

I'm happy to report that my lovely mother is coming to visit me around New Year's. I took the occasion to use order some goodies not available in Belgium that she will bring with her. I will review them once I have a chance to test everything somewhere in January.

Here's what I bought:

Bare Minerals ready 8.0 Power Neutrals

The bare minerals eyeshadows are available in Sephora France, but only a limited amount of shades are available. This particular palette is not available. I chose it because it's a great compact neutral palette and it contains mostly satin and matte shades. It also isn't too warm which I love.

 

Buxom full on lip cream in Pink lady

Buxom is a brand of Bare Minerals exclusive to Sephora and unforntunately not available on Sephora France. I love their lip glosses. The cream version is the only version without glitter, which makes it more appropriate for work. This shade is nice light transparent cool toned pink.

 

Buxom full bodied lipstick in hooligan

I heard great things about those lipsticks and I just had to try them.  I took a nice work appropriate shade described as a mauve plum.

Hello Kitty 3 piece brush set

Isn't that cute? I just couldn't resist! Sephora is getting rid of the hello kitty brand and those were discounted.The reviews are also quite good!

Sephora collection pro foundation brush #47

With my dry skin kabuki and buffing brushes are a big no no as they create micro exfoliation. I have yet to find a flat foundation brush I really like. The reviews on this are really good, so fingers crossed!

Product battle: MAC select cover-up vs Make up for ever lift concealer

Make up for ever and MAC are two companies that started up for make up artists and made their way into the greater public's heart. They also bought have a similar type of market. Today I decided to compare two of the lesser knows face products from both companies, both of which are light coverage liquid concealer and see which one performs the best.

First contestant Make up for ever lift concealer

Price: This concealer costs around 20 euros for 15ml making it 1,33 euro per ml.
Texture: liquid and creamy
Shade range: available in 5 shades

Here's a swatch on the color 1 described as pink beige

Second contestant MAC select cover up

Price: This concealer costs around 18 euros for 10ml making it 1,80 euro per ml.
Texture: liquid and a bit runnier than the lift concealer
Shade range: available in 17 shades!

Here's a swatch of the shade nw20

And now the performance...

Both concealer were easy to apply and to blend, they didn't settle in my fine lines and wore for the whole day.

Here's my eye and the lift concealer

And with the select cover up concealer

And now with mac on the left and Make up for ever on  the right

And the winner is... MAC select cover up!


With its better coverage, its similar wear and its much better color range MAC is a clear winner on that one. I even ask my boyfriend which eye was the best and he was actually able to see the difference.

Kudos to make up for ever for the generous amount of product and the brightening capacity of the concealer, but without corrector it just doesn't cover enough on its own.

Mini review: MAC paint in bare canvas

Mac Paints are a creamy eyeshadow in a tube form. I think they use to come in more shades, but now they are only available in five shades. I chose the shade bare canvas which is a cream color with a very faint shimmer. I chose this over the paint pots because cream products in a pot form always end up drying.

The packaging on this is far from being perfect though, the top is hard to screw on and the first time you use it the product keeps spitting out.

Here's the texture of the paint.

I like to use it all over my eyes as a shadow base. It covers better than most eye primer and a bit less than most cream shadows, so I find it to be the best compromise to really bring out pale shadow colors.

smoothed all over

 

As you can see it's hard to detect so it's a great match for my skin tone as a base.

In short, despise the tricky packaging, this is a great product to use to even out my eyelid and make my pale eyeshadows really stand out. It's also easier to find in Belgium than Urban Decay. I will repurchase one I run out.