Semi-Recently, Maybelline came out with a collection of matte lipsticks. Just from swatching them in the store, I was blown away at the quality and texture of these lipsticks. For matte lipsticks, or just lipsticks in general honestly, these babies were unbelievably buttery and smooth.

I’ve always had a love for Maybelline lipsticks. Even their regular line of lipsticks have great pigmentation and texture, and are not drying on the lips what-so-ever. For someone with exceptionally dry lips (..like I mean my lips are pretty much ALWAYS chapped) it is really important for me that a lipstick has a non-drying formula. Which is why I actually tend to stay away from most matte lipsticks.

But since I’ve been obsessed with Maybelline lipsticks for so long, I decided to trust their brand and purchase a few of these bad boys to try… and OH MY LORD am I glad I did.

These lippies are unlike any other mattes I’ve ever experienced. Not only do they not drag across your lips like most matte formulas do (cough, MAC’s Ruby Woo cough), but they actually glide on smoother than most of my regular lipsticks. They almost feel like you are applying a very soft, light layer of butter on top of your lips. Not in the greasy sense, but in a smooth application sense. And the best part, they aren’t drying AT ALL. Like I mean AT ALL. I’ve had no problems throwing these on, even when I have a little flakey-ness on my lips, because they don’t accentuate the dry spots at all. It just glides right over them and sits beautifully on the lips.

When I first applied these lipsticks, I actually didn’t think they were as matte as I liked them. However, with the amazing formula and price, I honestly didn’t care. They still gave off a gorgeous, almost velvety finish, which I was perfectly fine with. However, as these lipsticks wear on your lips, they actually get more matte as they settle! So if you swatch these in the store, and they don’t seem that matte to you, be patient, as the formula actually dries to be quite matte.

I think there were about 8-10 colours available at my London Drugs, but I only picked up four of the colours. They also had some great reds and pinks, but these four were the ones that caught my eye the most.

From left to right the swatches are : Mesmerizing Magenta, Lust for Blush, Daringly Nude, and Touch of Spice.

My favourite out of the bunch has got to be Touch of Spice. It is such a beautiful darker brown nude colour, and actually makes a great Kylie Jenner lip colour.

Have you tried the new Maybelline Matte Lipsticks? If you have, what do you think about them and what’s your favourite colour in the collection?

Until next time !

MY MAKEUP GEEK EYESHADOWS ARRIVED. GAH. I’ve been waiting so long to try these babies out, especially hearing pretty much ALL of my favourite Youtubers rave about them. SOOOO I finally decided to order them !

Now don’t get me wrong, these are super affordable. That isn’t the reason I held out on them. It was more so because I have a very long wish-list, and it took me a while to get down to these. But I regret those months that I lost, buying other shit. Because these babies are fan-freaking-tastic.

With Makeup Geek, I pretty much went ahead and picked out the shades that I’ve heard are the most loved and most popular. So what if they’re all super neutral, and my friends all think I’m crazy because they look super similar. They look different to me, and I use them all for different purposes so fuck em’. I love them.

Let me just start out by saying that the quality of these eyeshadows are unreal. They are so comparable to MAC eyeshadows. Creamy, pigmented, and a pretty large variety of colours. They are sold for $5.99 each, which just blows me away considering MAC is pretty much double the price, yet the quality is on par with each other. Definitely going to be purchasing more eyeshadows from them. The only downfall with Makeup Geek eyeshadows is that you can’t swatch the colours yourself, since they are only selling online right now.

Okay now actually onto their shadows.

1. Creme Brulee – A medium sand color with a soft matte finish

Similar to MAC’s soft brown, but a little more tan than Soft Brown. Great transitional shade.

2. Peach Smoothie – A light peach beige with a soft matte finish

HOLY. GRAIL. I totally understand why people love Peach Smoothie now. It makes a great transitional shade. It’s dark enough to show up on your skin so you can set a guide line to where you want the rest of your eyeshadows to be or end, yet it’s light enough that it doesn’t add anything extra to the look. Just helps blend it all together.

3. Beaches and Cream – Creamy Matte Natural Beige with Just A Hint of Peach

Beaches and Cream turned out to be lighter than I imagined it, but I still enjoy it a lot. I will use this to blend out the edges of Peach Smoothie at the very end just to make sure there are no harsh lines WHATSOEVER. It’s also light enough to be a matte all over the lid colour as well.

4. Cocoa Bear – Matte reddish brown

OH. MY. LORD. This colour is so freakin’ beautiful. Just LOOK at the swatch below… LOOK AT IT. Matte colours never swatch that beautifully, but oh my lord it is so creamy and fantastic. It’s also pretty much my favourite brown now EVER. I love how warm and irresistible it is.

5. Frappe – Medium maple brown matte

I love Frappe as well but I’m not gunna lie, it just isn’t as beautiful as Cocoa Bear. However, I use Frappe hand in hand with Cocoa Bear. I like apply Frappe into my outer V and crease first and blending that in, before I go in with Cocoa Bear. I just find that when I slowly layer on the shades like that, it just makes blending THAT much easier.

All of these eyeshadows are so unbelievably creamy and buttery and pigmented, as you can probably tell from the swatches below. UNF. I cannot get enough. I will probably buy more in the future, but for now, honestly these are all the shades that I need. Plus I have a few other things I want to spend my money on first.

Hope this was a helpful little post. If you haven’t heard of or checked out Makeup Geek eyeshadows before, definitely go take a gander. They are definitely very comparable to even MAC shadows, yet only costs about half of what MAC charges.

Oh yeah, and if you were wondering, they don’t actually fit into the MAC palettes as well as the MAC shadows themselves do (obviously). The Makeup Geek eyeshadows are the same size as the Coastal Scents eyeshadows. They’re exactly the size of the palette holes, which means I really have to wedge them in there. But since they do wedge in there, it holds the eyeshadows and makes sure it doesn’t fall out, so I’m fine with it. Makeup Geek also sells Z Palettes on their website for those of you who want to customize their own palettes.

Love y’all ,

I don’t even know if I qualify to write this post or not, because I personally do not own a super large collection of MAC eyeshadows to begin with. But these are the MAC shadows that I started out with and I am extremely glad that they are the ones I ended up picking ! I feel like it’s a good selection of eyeshadows that are neutral enough that you would use them often (because I don’t know about you, but if I’m spending over 10 bucks on a single eyeshadow, I better be goddamn using it a lot), but also unique enough that you’re not just buying an eyeshadow you would find anywhere.

These eyeshadows have quickly become some of my holy grail eyeshadows of all time, so I wanted to share them with you too !

So the four eyeshadows that’s been my tried-and-true holy grail MAC shadows are Nylon, All That Glitters, Sketch, and Soft Brown. Let me tell you why.

1. Nylon – Pale gold with an icy shimmer

I LOVE Nylon for a highlight. Nylon was actually the second highlight shade I picked up from MAC, Phloof being the first one, but definitely ended up being my favourite. It’s just such a beautiful, versatile shade. I probably use Nylon in my inner corners 90% of the time, when I do decide to put make up on. It is just so unbelievably pigmented and gorgeous; It gives your inner corners a pop like none other. I also love dusting this lightly on my brow bone for a highlight as well, or as a very bright all over the lid shade.

2. All That Glitters – Beige with gold pearl.

UNF. ALL THAT GLITTERS. I would describe it as more of a very beautiful satin rose gold shade. Being such a pretty, unique colour, I actually use it way more than I thought I would. It looks amazing all over the lid, and some how it seems to work so SO well with a bunch of different looks. It’s definitely neutral enough that makes it very wearable, yet such a pretty shade that it stands out and pops. I will also use it on the inner half of my lower lash line for a pop of brightness and highlight.

3. Soft Brown – Soft golden peachy brown.

Definitely a cult favourite, Soft Brown is a must-have for anyone starting out with MAC shadows, or starting out with make up in general. When I first started to use makeup, I definitely did not know about the magic or importance of a transitional shade. If you had shown me Soft Brown I would’ve stared at you blankly and asked “Why the HELL would I spend 12 bucks on this bland brown shade”. Yet now, I seem to use Soft Brown probably literally every time I put on eyeshadow. It is just the most perfect warm transitional shade. Or even just as a crease shade if you were doing a super natural eye look. It seems to work when I’m doing a super dark smokey eye as well as when I just want to run out the door real quick and throw it on, by itself in my crease, to give my eyes some depth. I. Love. It. All that time that I spent trying to blend out black eyeshadow on it’s own… oh man. If only I knew about this beauty earlier.

4. Sketch – Burgundy with red shimmer.

I know you must be thinking, “Angel… why the hell would I buy a maroonish burgundy colour if I was just starting out with make up… when the HECK am I ever going to use this?” Honestly, you would be surprised. Sketch turned out to be such a versatile shade for me. It’s like All That Glitters. It’s unique enough that it gives your eye looks a cool little spin, yet actually is super wearable. I love putting sketch in my crease and outer V to darken up a look instead of black or a dark brown. Because it is a burgundy shade, it really changes up an look and makes it look like you’ve put a lot more effort in than just blending a black shadow into your crease. Yet it’s dark enough of a colour, and not some bright maroon shade, that it doesn’t look like you’re trying too hard to use colour. I also love putting sketch all over my lid for a wine coloured smokey eye. I think it looks so sexy and endearing… like you’ve really given your make up some thought… When in reality, I just threw it on all over and blended it out.

I also love these four shades because they work really well together as well. One of my all time favourite looks of 2014 has been using Soft Brown in my crease as a transitional shade, Sketch in my outer V and crease to darken the look up, All That Glitters all over the lid, and Nylon as a highlight. It just gives beautiful rose gold and wine coloured smokey eye. JUST. SO. BEAUTIFUL. Not to mention super duper easy to achieve.

I do a very similar look with almost identical colours in the video I linked below. I created that look prior to purchasing All That Glitters, Sketch, and Nylon (but I use Soft Brown in it). But I replaced Amber Rush with All That Glitters, Deep Damson with Sketch, and the highlight shade with Nylon, and never returned.

I hope this was helpful for my girls that are just starting to dabble into the world of MAC cosmetics. I know when I first walked into the MAC store, set out to purchase my first set of eyeshadows, it was definitely a daunting experience. But I’m telling ya, you’re going to love these shades. They are shades that you will wear often, yet love for ages.

Let me know what you thought of these shades, if you’ve tried them out! OR what are your favourite MAC shadows that you think I should try out !

Much love,

I stopped by the MAC store the other day while I was at the mall with a friend, and I decided to pick up two products of their’s that I’ve been eyeing down for a while now. I’m not going to lie, for it only being January 12th (not even 2 weeks into the fresh new year), I’ve already spent quite a bit of money on make up. Other than the packages that I’m still waiting for the arrival of, this might be the last new make up haul post I put up in a while. I think it’s time for me to start actually saving money, instead of living paycheque to paycheque.

But since the money has already been spent, and the pictures already taken, here’s a little bit about my gorgeous new Melba blush, and Stone lip liner.

I first discovered MAC’s Stone through Samantha from Batalash Beauty 

She wears this Grey-ish Nude lipliner BEAUTIFULLY. (You can see what I mean here and here) Since discovering it on her, I seem to be seeing more and more of it in the beauty blogger/youtube world. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a whirl. 

On my lips, it appeared true to the colour that it shown at the end of the of lipliner pencil. I wore it with a Essence Long-lasting lipstick in 06 Barely There which toned down the grey a little bit and definitely made it a lot more wearable. Not that I wouldn’t have worn this gorgeous grey on it’s own, but it’s definitely a little out of the ordinary as far as lip colours go.

The other product that’s been on my wishlist for ages is MAC’s Melba blush. The reason I’ve been so interested in this specific blush is because (and this is going to sound quite stupid) it is very similar in shade with one of my favourite blushes of all time; The Balm’s Fratboy blush.

I know, I know. Why buy a blush that looks the same as a different blush you own. Well, it’s simple. Because I love it so god damn much ! This is one of those shades that just looks so absolutely stunning on my skin tone, whether I’m slightly more tanned from the summer sun, or pale as can be from the winter months. It is a very universal neutral peachy blush that literally goes with any and all the eye looks that I’ve created in my life. So what’s a better bang for your buck than something you can wear everyday and not get sick of?

Here are the two products swatched. If you want to purchase these products online, go to www.maccosmetics.com

What are your favourite MAC products? I’ve been slowly dipping my toes into the ocean that is MAC cosmetics because I’m starting to realize the importance of the quality of your makeup products. So I’m always open to suggestions of new products to try. Let me know! (I’ve been really into blushes, lipsticks, and lip liners lately, so if there any at all you think I need in my life, please help a brother out)

Until next time,