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Tessa Virtue’s Moulin Rouge Lipstick – MAC Mehr (Review & Swatches)
Story time (with a point, I promise)! I used to skate when I was younger, going so far as to compete locally in Ottawa, until I quit around the age of 17. I kind of fell out of love with the sport – I mean it made sense at the time – I was getting older and my tastes were changing, but I was also tired of going to the rink 3-4 times a week for 2-3 hours at time (including 7 am practices on Saturdays which is never fun for a teenager who craves nothing but sleeping till 1 pm on the weekend). All this to say, I fell out of love with a sport that I had devoted almost all of my free time outside of school to.
It wasn’t until this year, 18 years later, that I found myself completely re-enamoured by the sport – and that’s in large part due to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
(And for those who don’t know who I’m talking about, they’re a Canadian ice dance duo that are now the most decorated figure skaters of all time!)
If you’ve been following my Instagram stories over the last month or so, you’ve seen me go from “piqued interest” in figure skating to “stark raving mad”. I fell deep down the rabbit hole thanks to Virtue and Moir (their Team Dance skates really set me off), and by the end of the Olympics, I was so filled with terror that they wouldn’t win gold that I was almost sick to my stomach. (Which was followed by blood curdling screams of joy at Julie‘s apartment at midnight on a Monday evening when their results popped up and confirmed they had won gold after the free dance!)
Exactly one week ago I had the opportunity to actually MEET Tessa Virtue at the brand party for her partnership with Nivea here in Toronto and I was so, so terrified. I had gone from not caring about figure skating much anymore to feeling deeply involved and completely enamoured by her and her partner. So when I actually got to speak to Tessa Virtue – I was shellshocked (see that post here!).
But, thankfully, I was sent in to the Nivea event with a mission by Steph (her friend, actually) to ask Tessa what lipstick she wore during the Moulin Rouge finale free dance. A conversation piece I could work with – thank heavens! So I asked Tessa, and her answer was that it was the MAC matte lipstick in Mehr. So course I ran out the next day and picked it up!
MAC‘s Mehr lipstick is described by the brand as a “dirty blue pink” with a creamy rich formula, high colour payoff and a no-shine matte finish. It’s a permanent product, and I’ve known about the shade for quite some time, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you how long the brand has had in their range.
Mehr fits into that “my lips, but better” category. It’s a deeper shade than my own lips, but not by much. Honestly, I was a touch surprised that Tessa would choose a shade like this to match with a red dress (as she traditionally wears in her Moulin Rouge performances) as my first thought would be to whack on a red lip. But then I started looking at her other performances this year, and I half wonder if it’s just her shade of choice because it’s the kind of colour that will match anything. Here she is in her ice dance short program outfit – I swear it’s the same shade!
Swatched out it actually comes out a bit darker on my hand than it does on my lips. I’d classify this as darker rose shade.
And on the lips? It’s perfect. This is absolutely one of the easiest shades to wear and it will match almost every single eye look I could think to throw at it. I can see why Tessa reaches for this kind of shade! Also, since it’s a matte formula, it’s not going to move around on your lips very much, which is helpful when you’re being tossed around by your partner on the ice! I was also impressed with the formula – it’s been quite a while since I bought a MAC matte lipstick, and I was pleasantly surprised with how easily the lipstick glided onto my lips!
For the sake of the rest of my makeup, I tried to replicate what Tessa seems to do with her eyes – a lot of ringed pencil liner and darker shadows on the outside of her eyes to make them more expressive.
I hope you liked this little bit of insight into Tessa Virtue’s makeup routine! I wish I had asked her more to be honest, but hey, I was having problems stringing sentences together in her presence, so this in and of itself was quite the feat!
MAC Mehr lipstick is a permanent item and can be purchased on maccosmetics.ca for $22 CAD/maccosmetics.com for $17.50 USD or on nordstrom.com for $17.50 USD.
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VIDEO: Pinky Rose Bright Lights – Review, Swatches & 5 Looks
Too Faced Rainbow Strobe Highlighter (Review & Swatches)
How it’s happened that I don’t own a single rainbow highlighter (until now) is beyond me, but hey – here we are! I have to say, when one of my favourite brands decided to put out a rainbow highlighter with their latest collection, I was all over it – I had to have it!
Too Faced‘s Life’s A Festival collection focused on rainbows and unicorns, and one of the items that caught my eye the most was this Rainbow Strobe Highlighter. I just loved the idea of just putting a straight rainbow pattern on my face! But you do always have to question if it’ll come out just as pretty as you imagine it will.
The Rainbow Strobe Highlighter is infused with rose quartz to add some love energy to your makeup but I wouldn’t say that it actually does anything – just makes for cutesy marketing! They do claim it has a prismatic effect, and for me that basically boiled down to discovering that there are bit of finely milled glitter that are in the formula.
Too Faced encourages you to use a flat brush the width of the pan in order to get the full on rainbow effect. They do also make a rainbow brush that perfectly matches the size of the pan and all of the stripes, but I opted to only buy the highlighter and use one of my existing makeup brushes.
I had mixed feelings when I initially swatched the product. I expected the colours to come through a lot more. As you can see on the left, there is a hint of rainbow, but it’s quite pale. I suppose that’s what most people are going for when they want a rainbow highlighter – something subtle and not too in your face. I’m the opposite I suppose – I wanted something a little bit louder! You will have to layer the product a bit in order to get the effect you see on my arm.
When the colours are swirled all together, you get more of a pale-golden sheen. This is where the glitter sparkles are a lot more obvious, and I think it’s because they get knocked loose in the pan a bit more.
I first tried out the rainbow highlighter on my temple in this video, and you can see how it’s there… but it’s still what I would call a hint of a rainbow – it’s definitely on the sheer side of things. I also found that application was a little bit difficult: you have to have a brush that’s wide enough for the pan (which is not something most people have I don’t think) and you have to layer it on a lot in order to get the rainbow to show up. Also, the first few times I applied it I would it to be a bit chunky and the edges definitely needed blending out. Oddly, hard-pan formed pretty much instantly in the compact itself, but I didn’t notice much of a difference in colour payoff.
It was almost comical to me how the highlighter had SO MUCH more impact when I swirled it all together and applied it to my cheekbones. I actually gasped with shock the first time I did this because the light reflect from my cheekbone was so strong, it looked like I had applied five times the amount of highlighter that I normally would. This is also when I noticed that there were pieces of glitter in the formula. I can barely even express just how LOUD the highlighter looked swirled together. If you’re looking for a booming highlighter – this one will definitely deliver.
Final Thoughts
In terms of the Too Faced Rainbow Strobe Highlighter delivering a rainbow effect on my face… I’m not totally sold, but for me that’s because I wanted something a little bit stronger in pigmentation. However, this product really shines when you swirl the whole thing together. The highlighted effect is really, really strong that way, obnoxious even! Just be aware that there are glitter particles in it (that doesn’t bother me, but I know not everyone is keen on that).
The Too Faced Rainbow Strobe Highlighter can be purchased on sephora.ca for $38 CAD or on sephora.com for $30 USD.
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