Tag Archives: MAC

What’s On My Face – Volume 9

January 22, 2014Makeup, TutorialsBourjois, Cargo, CoverGirl, Dior, Hard Candy, Hourglass, INGLOT, Joe Fresh, L'Oreal, Laura Mercier, MAC, Make Up For Ever, Makeup Geek, Maybelline, MUA, NYX, Physicians Formula, Revlon, Sleek, Tarte, yabyChelle

New year, new looks! And I’ve got plenty of new goodies to play with that I’ve accumulated over the holiday season! 20140124_look1.1

I love this one so much. Everyone has gone insane over rose-gold everything and I think I’m starting to see why. This was a makeup combination that just made me feel like I looked especially pretty. I’m also having a love affair with Makeup Geek’s Bitten and I’m more than happy to use it constantly on my eyes!

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Eyes:

L’Oreal Amber Rush all over the lid.
Makeup Geek Bitten in the outer corner and crease.
Makeup Geek Creme Brulee at the top of the crease to blend the two lid shades together.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow. I used Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner in 13 Black to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my top lashes. For brows, I used MAC Omega.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation in 51 Light Vanilla
Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronzer Booster in Light/Medium
Blush: Cargo Mendocino
Highlighter: Dior Amber Diamond
Lips: MAC Dark Side

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Good grief do I ever love this one too! I can’t claim ownership though, I relied on Shaanxo’s video for inspiration. Anything with neon (not to mention neon AND green) and I’m a total sucker for it.

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Eyes: I first applied NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk all over the lid and blended it out with my finger. I also brought it down below the inner tearduct as well.

Using the white from Sleek‘s Acid palette, I applied that all over the inner third of the eyelid, bringing it down around my inner tearduct.
With the same Sleek palette, I used the neon green shade and patted that on the center of my lid. (This took a lot of layers in order to get it to be so vibrant!)
Using MAC‘s Greensmoke, I placed it in the outer corner of my lid and tried to blend it as best as I could with the neon shade (wasn’t that easy and I don’t think I was overly successful).
I then used MAC‘s Cork through the crease.

Brule was used to highlight the brow and MAC Omega was used on my brows. I used Make Up For Ever‘s Aqua Liner in 13 Black to do my winged liner and applied L’OrealVoluminous Carbon Black mascara to my upper and lower lashes. For the lower lash line, I used a bit of Greensmoke on the outer corner, then lined my inner waterline with NYX‘s Milk(which actually had decent longevity!).

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in shade 51 Light Vanilla
Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
Blush: Joe Fresh cream blush in Apricot
Highlighter: Hard Candy Tiki
Lips: NYX‘s Butter Gloss in Vanilla Cream Pie

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This look came about as I was trying to use products that I had bought, but hadn’t used yet. The primary inspiration came from MUA‘s Shade 9 which is one of the most beautiful duochromes I’ve ever owned. Unfortunately, I’m not keen on how the blue turned out, as it applied rather chalkily.

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Eyes: I used Urban Decay‘s Eden primer this time as opposed to my usual Original one. In retrospect, that was a stupid idea considering I was using a very shimmery shadow and Eden is a very flat, very matte primer.

MUA Shade 9 Pearl on the inner half of the lid.
Makeup Geek Neptune on the outer half of the lid.
Makeup Geek Creme Brulee in the crease.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow with MAC Omega through my brows. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my upper lashes with MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline to create the winged liner.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: MUA BB Cream in Light
Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
Blush: Tarte Exposed
Highlighter/Powder: Hourglass Ambient Lightning Powder in Ethereal
Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Creme Brulee

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Heh, I’m not even sure what to say about this one. *I* think it’s rather bland, but looks like this tend to be when I get the most compliments. I wanted to use the Naked 3 palette and dip into a few products on to my “To Use Up” list. I don’t find the end result very inspirational, so when I use the Naked 3 again, I’ll definitely try out different combinations.

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Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden all over the lid. All shadows are from the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette:

Burnout on the inner two-thirds of the lid.
Factory on the outer third of the lid.
Limit through the crease

I used Strange as a brow highlight and applied Blackheart as a very thin line along my upper lash line with a faint flick at the outer edge. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara on my upper and lower lashes.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Yaby Foundation in Buff
Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
Blush: Tarte – Dollface and Dazzled mixed together
Highlighter: Hard Candy Tiki
Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Red Velvet with Creamsicle layered on top.

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I had to laugh at this one… I didn’t intend for this to come out nearly as dark as it did, or nearly as ridiculously bright on the lips… for a weekend brunch. While I was also wearing workout clothes. Hah. Ah well.

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Eyes: Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze was applied all over the lid, keeping it below the crease. On top of that I layered:

Inglot 152 Shine over the entire eyelid.
Laura Mercier Bamboo on the outer corner of the lid.
Laura Mercier Espresso was used to blend out the crease and pull the shadows out at the corner of my eye into a slight V shape.

MAC Brule to highlight the brow with MAC Omega through the brows. Bamboo and Espresso were mixed together to line the lower lashline. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara were applied to upper and lower lashes.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: CoverGirl CC Cream in 110 Classic Ivory
Bronzer: Revlon Photoready in Bronzed & Chic
Blush: Tarte Exposed
Lips: Revlon Cherries in the Snow

Products I Regret Buying

January 20, 2014Makeup, ReviewsCoverGirl, Illamasqua, Joe Fresh, L'Oreal, MAC, Maybelline, MUA, Physicians Formula, Revlon, Urban DecayChelle

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Today I’m sharing the items in my collection that I really regret buying. These, in general, are the items I reach for the least in my collection. Looking over the items I’ve pulled out, most of them are cheaper products which is a bit of a relief. I think this is because I tend to research more expensive products before purchasing them. Anyway, let’s see which items I’ve had a buyer’s remorse over!

One of my most recent purchases was such an immediate regret that I ended up taking it right back! It’s Illamasqua‘s Paranormal palette.

I’m reposting the exact same image from my haul just a few weeks ago because I used it twice, noticed the EXCESSIVE creasing, then hightailed my butt back to the Illamasqua counter and returned it. I had called them day before I returned it and had gotten some spiel about how my Urban Decay eyeshadow primer wasn’t good enough because these were cream to powder eyeshadows and I need to be using a creamy primer. I wasn’t buying it. Urban Decay‘s primer has NEVER lead me astray and I can’t remember the last time I had anything crease on my eyelids because of that primer! When I returned it, the woman was very lovely about it and didn’t give me any hassle. It takes a lot for me to return a product but this one was so expensive ($45 CAD) that there was no way I was going to keep it. I mean, just LOOK at the creasing:

At the end of the day, I do love the Illamasqua products I’ve tried, primarily their blushes and pigments, but I’m going to be avoiding these “cream to powder” products in the future.

Physicians Formula Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Bronzer & Blush (Bronze/Rose)

Sigh. I bought this Physicians Formula product thinking since it was a bronzer and a blush in one, it’d be perfect for travelling. The truth is I’ve not travelled even once with this item in the year or so I’ve owned it. I love the shade of the bronzer, but I’ve not even touched the blush. And let’s be realistic… without a proper division between the two products, it’s pretty hard to get JUST the blush when you dip into the product.

Urban Decay – Mushroom, L’Oreal Infallible – Pepsy Coral, Maybelline Color Tattoo – Too Cool

These were just poor choices all around.

Buying an Urban Decay single eyeshadow (Mushroom) is just a bad idea when so many of their shades come in palettes at a much better value. Not to mention that I don’t need yet another taupey, silver-grey shade – I think there’s even an exact dupe in my Naked 2 palette. Plus, this just isn’t the kind of colour I reach for much anyway.

L’Oreal‘s Pepsy Coral was an impulse buy at a warehouse sale I was at in October last year. It’s now three months later and I’ve still not used this shade. Plus it looks identical to MAC’s Paradisco which I already own.

Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Too Cool is a shimmery white cream shadow. It goes on patchy and the shade is very similar (if not identical) to MAC‘s Crystal Avalanche. Boo.

CoverGirl – Watermelon Twist, Revlon – Charm, Revlon – Rendezvous, Revlon – Romantic

I am so over these chubby lipstick crayons. SO OVER IT. First of all, the CoverGirl one (Watermelon Twist) broke apart the first time I used it (the bullet fell right out of the tube). It also tastes awful. How does a drugstore product still taste terrible like this? Most of the other brands have grown out of the artificial, chemical smell of makeup from decades long past. The colour is okay, but I can’t get over the smell/taste. Although I do have to say… hot pink is not the colour I think of when the word “watermelon” is in the shade name.

As for the Revlon ones… also over it. They don’t actually stain that much. The lighter, peachier one (Charm) ends up staining my lips slightly pink (?!?). The red one tends to bleed outside my lip line quite a bit and reapplication only makes it look worse. On the bright side, they do have a nice minty smell, quite akin to dental floss actually, but I do like it! However, I’ve been avoiding any other crayon type lipstick once I realized how disappointed I was in these.

Oh man, I’ve seen people so divided over Urban Decay‘s Naked 2 palette.

There are some colours in here that I love – specifically Tease, Verve and Blackout (but really, that’s just a black). But there are a lot of shades in here that just seem to blend together into nothingness when I try to put a look together. Maybe I’m using the wrong colour combinations or something, but my looks with this palette have been pretty dismal.

MUA Matte Lipsticks – Peachy Keen, Wild Berry & Scarlet Siren

It’s hard to regret something when you only paid £1 for it, but these matte lipsticks from MUA do frustrate me. These have decent pigmentation when swatched and they *are* lovely colours, but they feel terrible on the lips. They ball up, go tacky and they seem to fade awkwardly, which is especially weird for a matte lipstick. Plus, check out the bottom right-hand picture above: You have to apply the lipsticks so hard on your lips to get the colour you need that it causes huge indentation marks in the side of the bullet. When that happens, the bullet starts to ooze a clear substance which is just icky. As soon as I finish this post, they’re going straight into the garbage bin.

MAC Mineralize Eyeshadows – Blue Flame & Blue My Mind

I didn’t notice till I sat down to write this post that both of my MAC mineralize eyeshadow regrets are both blue. Blue Flame is beautiful, but I rarely use it. Blue My Mind is… meh. The light side is a pale, powdery blue that can be kind of awkward to wear. The middle section is nice, but it needs to be applied damp to get a good colour payoff. Plus the middle strip is so small that you need a rather small brush in there. The last section is black and it’s okay… but it’s a bit underpigmented.

I bought Maybelline‘s gel liner in Blackest Black after hearing many raves reviews from people saying that this was better than MAC‘s Blacktrack. Unfortunately, for me, this wasn’t the case. This just didn’t feel as fluid or creamy as MAC’s gel liner does and I sometimes end up with skipping problems along my lash line despite using the same brush for both gels. Because it’s just not as nice to use as MAC’s product, I’ve since gone back to MAC‘s fluidline and emptied out the jar so I could put something else in it.

Maybelline Irresistibly Ivy Eyeshadow Quad

While I like the colours and they’re quite well pigmented, I just don’t reach for this palette that much. I was sucked in by the pretty green shade and the fact that this was on clearance since they were discontinuing this particular quad.

I regret this for no reason other than that this shade (Myth) looks like death warmed over on me. I love nude lipsticks, but this is not a shade I can pull off despite trying to make it work several times.

I forgot to photograph this with the rest of the group, but this is one downright awful product. It doesn’t ever dry down on the lips. If you talk, the product will magically disappear from your lips. If you lick your lips, the product completely disappears. But you definitely DON’T want to lick it off because the product tastes absolutely awful. This is another one going straight into the garbage bin as I can’t make this work even if I wanted to!

That’s it for me! Any products you’ve picked up that you regret buying?

My MAC Neutrals Palette

January 13, 2014Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesMACChelle

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I thought I’d show you all a look into my MAC Neutrals palette. I also tend to think of this palette as the one with the “metals” because the middle row inspired me to think that way (gold, bronze, copper).

In order to identify my palettes since I do have the old style and won’t be converting to the new ones (I don’t see the point really, kind of a waste of money purely for aesthetics – says the person who loves makeup… lol) I put a piece of tape on the top left hand corner and then paint a nailpolish colour or two that best describes the shades in the palette. For my neutrals palette, there’s a stripe of nude polish and one of a sparkly orange because that was the closest I could get to neutral shades out of what I had!

Although the highlight shades are used quite often, this is probably my least used MAC palette. Some of the browns are showing a lot of pan, but that’s because those are my oldest shades that date back to when I had less makeup so they got used a lot more often. Since I tend to prefer coloured eyeshadow, I don’t reach for this palette as often.

These fantastic labels were completely stolen from Zabrena. You can find her video tutorial for creating these templates here. They are fantastic and much nicer looking than the ghetto Post-It notes I had stuck to the top of the palette before!

Let’s take a look at the individual shades I’ve plunked in. All swatches will be a diagonal stripe through the middle of graphic – I point this out because some of the swatches were a bit too close together on my arm so you may see more than one colour in some pictures.

Name: Blanc Type
Finish: Matte2
Notes: Blanc Type is one of MAC’s buttery, soft Matte2 formula. On my my skin it looks slightly pink in the swatch, but it does wonders to brighten up any look and I tend to think of it as whiter than my other highlight shades. The texture is very, very smooth.

Name: Dazzlelight
Finish: Veluxe Pearl
Notes: This shade is slightly underused in my palette, but to me it’s a paler, whiter Shroom and definitely more shimmery.

Name: Brule
Finish: Satin
Notes: Brule is an off-white that seems to completely melt into my skin. I’ve been trying to bust through this shade but it feels like the pan is never ending! This makes a great brow highlight on me and honestly, that’s the only thing I ever use it for. When I’m done with this, I’ll end up using Blanc Type as my usual brow highlight as I prefer the brightening effect that Blanc Typeprovides.

Name: Shroom
Finish: Satin
Notes: I like to think of Shroom as a shimmery Brule. I’m confused as to why this shadow is a satin finish because it definitely has shimmer to it that you don’t often see in satins. A great deal of people compare Shroom to Urban Decay‘s Virgin, but I personally do not feel they are the same.

Name: Ricepaper
Finish: Frost
Notes: Ricepaper is a yellow tinted, shimmery beige. It has a frost finish, but it doesn’t reflect the same amount of frost that some of the frost finishes do… such as the next one:

Name: Nylon
Finish: Frost
Notes: Nylon is phenomenal. In the pan, it looks like a white-gold, but on the skin it definitely seems to just embody the term “frost”. It definitely has a frost finish and looks slightly yellow. This is my second pot of this shadow and one of the first ones I ever owned from MAC.

Name: Gorgeous Gold
Finish: Veluxe Pearl
Notes: This was was a nightmare to photograph in the pot, but as you can see from the swatch, it’s a beautiful reflective gold with hints of green.

Name: Amber Lights
Finish: Frost
Notes: I know this is supposed to be phenomenal for blue eyes, but I must be mixing this with the wrong shades because it never looks that good on me. It’s very frosted and very orange. The pigmentation is fantastic and it smoothes on the lid beautifully.

Name: Bronze
Finish: Frost
Notes: Beautifully pigmented, although not one I use often.

Name: Coppering
Finish: Veluxe Pearl
Notes: This is an absolutely outstanding colour, easily my number one favourite by MAC. This is a bright copper that has wonderful pigmentation.

Name: Charcoal Brown
Finish: Matte
Notes: Another shade I’ve not used often. Seems to apply quite well, but it’s not as smooth as their Matte2 formula.

Name: Haux
Finish: Satin
Notes: This pan is my first ever MAC eyeshadow, bought in 1995. Yes, this shadow is that old! It’s a rosy-tinted brown and does wonders to make my eyes look awake. I use it in my crease with some kind of light shimmery shade on the lid.

Name: Shag
Finish: Unknown, likely a satin
Notes: This is another incredibly old shade. MAC doesn’t seem to make this shade anymore and a quick Google search didn’t indicate to me when they discontinued it. That being said, it’s very similar to Haux. Maybe slightly deeper, but not by much. I usually pair this with Nylon.

Name: Cork
Finish: Satin
Notes: I used to use this shade a lot, but I don’t even remember touching it in the last year.

Name: Handwritten
Finish: Matte2
Notes: If you buy this shade, one of the first things you need to do is touch it with your fingertip. The texture is so incredibly soft that it actually feels pillowy. I’ve never felt a shadow like that before! The pigmentation on this is insane – to the point where it can actually be too soft so be careful when you stick your brush into the eyeshadow!

MAC Neutral Palette – Swatches – Click to enlarge

Blanc Type
Dazzlelight
Brule
Shroom
Ricepaper
Nylon
Gorgeous Gold
Amber Lights
Bronze
Coppering
Charcoal Brown
Haux
Shag
Cork
Handwritten

So that was my neutrals palette! I’ll have three more MAC palettes to show you in the upcoming weeks.

Products I Want To Use Up In 2014 (and don’t intend to repurchase)

January 10, 2014MiscellaneousCoverGirl, Jack Black, MAC, MUA, Physicians Formula, RevlonChelle

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Last year, before I had this blog, I made a list of products I wanted to finish in 2013. I managed to finish about half of them which isn’t too bad! This year I thought I’d put fourteen products in a bin and do my best to use them up. The intent behind these products is that I won’t actually be repurchasing them after I’ve finished them up. It’s not so much that I dislike them (if they were really that bad, I’d just pitch them in the bin) but they’re just “okay” products. I like them enough, and use them, but I have other products I love more. Also, by forcing myself to use some of these products up, I end up discovering new ways to wear them. In essence, it makes me get creative! So let’s see what I’ve dumped in that “to finish up” bin!

CoverGirl CC Cream in 110 Classic Ivory and MUA Matte Foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand

There’s nothing especially wrong with these products – they’re just not my top picks. On my winter skin, the CC Cream is actually too dark right now but the MUA one is just right. The packaging on the MUA one makes it very easy for travel… or so I thought. The cap on the product doesn’t actually latch on very well so it ends up overtwisting and not aligning properly. Very annoying. The CoverGirl CC Cream on the other hand is actually quite nice – it has a pleasing scent (I’m not sure everyone agrees about this) and I love that it has a pump…. but it’s just not my favourite. If I wear these regularly, I should be able to get through each in about a month or two.

I bought this because Christina @ Temptalia raves about this balm. To me, Jack Black’s lip balm feels no different than vaseline and I don’t actually feel like it has a lot of healing properties on rough, dry lips. I used to apply this product predominantly when I would go for a run. The reason behind this is I find my mouth/lip area gets very dry while running and wanted something soothing on my lips while I did my exercise. Unfortunately, this product seems to ball up/go tacky when my body warms up/starts sweating a bit so this actually became incredibly uncomfortable to wear while exercising. Instead, I’ve been wearing it as a protective layer throughout December while we’ve been experiencing freezing temperatures of -33C. I don’t feel it heals chapped lips, but the vaseline content of the product will certainly protect again snowy wind burn.

MAC lipglass in Strawberry MaltMAC lipglass in Strawberry Malt

I bought this Strawberry Malt lipglass early last year when the Archie’s Girls collection launched at MAC. The colour itself is gorgeous, but I find it fades really awkwardly on my lips and bleeds outside my lipline. Not attractive and it makes it far too fiddlesome for a gloss.

MAC eyeshadows in Brule, Shroom, Swish and Haux

If you’ve been reading any of my eyeshadow tutorials, you know that I use Brule almost every single time to highlight my brow bone. I use this product almost daily and I feel like I’m never going to finish this pan of it! The colour is nice, the blendability is fine, but I have other shades that are similar that I’d like to get through as well. The same applies to Shroom, which is essentially just a shimmery Brule.

Swish on the other hand… oh man, this colour needs to DIE. I bought this in my teens and it’s horrible – I don’t even know how I managed to hit so much pan on it! It’s a frosty pink shade that just looks, in my opinion as my older, wise self, just ridiculous. I’ve only come up with one combination this looks okay on, but I need more ideas if I’m going to make it through the rest of this pan!

The last shade is Haux – it’s a wonderful slightly rose-tinted, brown shade with a satin finish. It’s also my oldest eyeshadow – this guy right here is 18 years old. I’m not kidding. It needs to get finished up so I can move on with my life!

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium

I think this is going to be the most challenging product to get through, but I wanted to include something that I had made almost no dent in. This bronzer is perfectly adequate – it blends nicely and the colouring is nice. I had bought it on a whim in late 2012 while I was in the US because I love Physicians Formula products, but they’re incredibly expensive in Canada (like $22 for a bronzer!). However, I have too many bronzers and I really need to put some out to pasture. I am slightly concerned that from past experiences, I have to use a single bronzer for an entire year before I finish it up – so this may become my daily bronzer. We’ll see how it goes.

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Twilight

I love this colour (Twilight), I just don’t wear it enough. I’m a big fan of Revlon‘s lipstains (NOT their balm stains), they can apply slightly patchy, but with enough layers it generally tends to even out. Plus they feel, to me, incredibly comfortable on the lips. In general, I prefer these to lipsticks, but for lipstains to work, they usually have to be pretty dark colours, which is why I don’t have more of them – since they all tend to blend together (colourwise) after a while. This one can get REALLY dark after several applications which is why I tend not to favour this one. Still very pretty though.

Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss in Sunset Peach

Revlon‘s Sunset Peach is an easy shade for me to wear throughout the summer and one I reach for often. I’m fairly certain I’m close to done with this shade as it’s looking quite patchy through the tube. My main reason for wanting to finish this one up is that while I think the packaging is quite pretty, the reality is that I don’t carry a purse (SHOCK, HORROR) and this tube is just too darn big for my pocket, which makes it incredibly unfriendly for carrying anywhere.

Revlon Lip Butters in Creamsicle, Cherry Tart and Red Velvet

I loved these Lip Butters by Revlon, but I’m over them. Creme Brulee is my favourite and I’ll continue to repurchase it, but I don’t feel I need all of the colours like I used to. Creamsicleactually looks rather ghastly on me and Red Velvet always just seems too dark (although I’ll often see it on other people and like it, so not sure what’s up with that!). While fiddling around with these colours and swatching them, I tried swatching Creamsicle over Red Velvet and they looked gorgeous together. Cherry Tarte, however, is beautiful on its own, but I have other shades I prefer.

So that’s it! I wonder how well I’ll manage to get through these products by the end of the year.

What’s In My Travel Makeup Bag – Christmas 2013

December 19, 2013Miscellaneous, VacationCoverGirl, Hard Candy, Jack Black, L'Oreal, MAC, Maybelline, NYX, Revlon, Tarte, Too Faced, Travelling, Urban DecayChelle

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On Saturday morning I’ll be flying to Ottawa for a week off work to celebrate Christmas with my family. Since I love looking in other people’s makeup bags, I thought I’d share with you what beauty goodies I’m bringing with me on the trip.

Too Faced – A Few of my Favorite Things palette

Now this is a bit controversial for me! Ever since I first got my hands on the Urban DecayNaked palette several years ago, it has been an absolute must have in every makeup bag I have ever brought with me on vacation. That being said, there are a lot of similar shades in the Too Faced palette, as well as several fun colours that give me a lot more options.

Plus, with two blushes and two bronzers, it makes this a very easy palette to take on vacation. While the palette is quite slim and layed out nicely, it’s also rather large, which makes it a bit cumbersome for some vacations so I wouldn’t necessarily bring it on an international vacation. However, for going back to Ottawa, this looks like it’ll be a fun palette to play with for the week.

Jack Black Lip Balm in Natural Mint, MAC Prep + Prime for Lips, MAC Brick Lip Pencil, MAC Russian Red lipstick, Revlon Cherries in the Snow lipstick and NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee

My choice of lip products basically covers any type of makeup situation I could possibly need to cover while on vacation. The Jack Black lip balm isn’t particularly a favourite, but it’s an easy “go to” when I need something to take care of my lips if they get dry in the cold winter months. And since I’ll be doing a lot of snowboarding while on vacation, I’ll definitely need this while out on the mountain.

NYX‘s Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee is my absolute favourite gloss at the moment. It’s an easy shade to wear which makes it a very easy choice when I was packing up my makeup bag.

MAC Russian Red, Revlon Cherries in the Snow, NYX Creme Brulee

Of course I’m bringing along MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lips as I absolutely must have it if I’m going to be applying any kind of lipstick. MAC Russian Red lipstick and MAC Brick lip pencil are a combination that I use quite often around the holiday season. I just love this shade of red, and to me it just screams “Christmas”. And in case I don’t feel like wearing matte red lips, I’m also bringing along Revlon‘s Cherries in the Snow which is a very deep, vibrant pink shade.

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline, L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara (waterproof formula), Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original and MAC Omega eyeshadow

I do a lot of winged liner and lately my preference has been to use a gel liner – so for that I’m bringing along MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline. The other eye products I’m bringing are items that I use daily: L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara in the waterproof formula, Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original to keep my eyeshadow from creasing and MAC Omega eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows.

Hard Candy So Baked Bronzer in Tiki, Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush Exposed and Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Hot Tamale

Hard Candy‘s “bronzer” in Tiki wouldn’t be a bronzer on anyone’s skintone – instead it’s a beautiful highlight shade with a slight golden/yellow sheen. This highlighter isn’t particularly shiny or shimmery, so it’s an beautiful shade to wear on a daily basis.

The two blush compacts I’m taking are my usual vacation staples. Tarte‘s Exposed is my most used, most loved blush that goes with absolutely any eye look I create. Maybelline‘sHot Tamale cream blush is for when I want that extra brightness on the cheeks. I most like this shade for making my cheeks look like I’ve been outside in the cold weather.

Covergirl & Olay Tone Rehab 2 in 1 Foundation (CC Cream) in 110 Classic Ivory

I’m not planning on wearing a whole heck of a lot of foundation while on vacation, so this is mostly just for the days where I want to play with full face makeup. Covergirl‘s “CC Cream” helps even out my skin tone and since it has a pump, this was an easy choice.

MAC Turquatic is my most compact bottle of perfume and fits nicely into the makeup bag I’m bringing with me. I’ve been wearing this perfume for a few years now (it was replacement signature scent after Michael Kors stopped making the original Islandperfume). While I love the scent, I will say that the lasting power isn’t the best although that doesn’t stop me from re-purchasing this scent time after time.

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Miraculously, all of that makeup fits in this Too Faced makeup bag that came with the “A Few of my Favorite Things” palette. It’s a pretty tight fit though and unfortunately my makeup brushes won’t fit in there so I’ll probably throw them all in a small ziploc bag that I’m sure will end up buried at the bottom of my suitcase!