MAC Addict

A few days ago I splurged a little bit at the MAC store.  Instead of keeping the joys of my custom eye shadow palette or obsession with Fix+ to myself I decided to write about it.  During my visit I picked up a custom eyeshade palette, the MAC 217 brush, Brow Set, Fix+, Cremesheen Glass, and a bottle of Snob.  I’m going to talk about the eye shadow and Fix+ spray.

Making a custom eye shadow palette was an impulse decision.  I’m a big fan of the Naked 2 (and who isn’t?) but I wanted something small for on the go.  My heart was set on picking up one of the Yves Saint Laurent quads.  The beautiful packaging and shimmery pigments compelled me on Sephora.com, but in person I found the sets lackluster.   At MAC I realized a better move was creating my own palette with four perfect colors.  The artists helped me pick a good combo that was pretty close to the colors I use most in the Naked 2 palette (Bootycall, Tease, Half-Baked, and Suspect). The colors here are Naked Lunch, Haux, Wood Winked, and Mulch.

The way that MAC custom palettes work makes so much sense to me as a consumer.  The palette itself is made to last.  The eye shadow pans are magnetized and can easily be changed.  So if I run of out of one color I easily can buy a new pan and replace it instead of having to wait until all the colors are used up.  Another perk—if I get sick of a color I can just change it out.  The palette costs $9 and each eye shadow pan is $12.  Individually packaged eye shadows (not pans but full containers) cost $15 for the same amount of product.  To complete my on the go kit I also grabbed the 217 brush because it can be the only brush I need for basic eye.

I love shopping at the MAC store because I learn something new every visit.  I picked up a great tip about wetting a synthetic eye shadow brush with Fix+ and using it to get a much bolder eye color.  Fix+ is basically a miracle product.  I was reluctant to buy it because it seems like a $21 bottle of water, but honestly it’s so much more.  It can be sprayed on the naked face as a skin refresher, used to set color, and in the words of Beyoncé, “it makes your skin look like skin again” after putting on make up.  (You know that icky look of foundation on skin?  When you can totally tell someone is wearing make up because of that weird, unnatural texture?  Yeah, Fix+ takes care of that).  I love everything about Fix+ its light, clean scent and it’s incredible result.

Here is a swatch of Urban Decay’s Chopper applied with the Fix+ trick and without.  I’m pretty impressed with the result—perfect for some bolder going out type make up.  With Fix+ on the brush the color goes on more like paint.  Something I really like about this is that no flecks of color stray off the eyelid (does anyone else have this problem?  I always get shadow on the side of my nose).