making faces :: product review [mac "quite cute" collection]

welcome to the cult of cute. actually, more like the cult of kawaii, really, that particularly japanese-inspired version of cute that's like cute on a lot of meth and steroids. this is cute's cousin who's hot in that way that all completely insane chicks are. it's really a perfect idea for a spring collection that's both girly and freaky and it's particularly perfect for mac, who are a company in a very feminine industry that always keeps a bit of bite.

mac's collections almost always have interesting imagery associated with them, although it's sometimes a little difficult to make the connection between the inspiration and the end products. (one of the worst examples of this was 2010's "fabulous felines", which did not have colours that i associate with any of my cats, but which was phenomenal nonetheless.) in this case, the links are pretty strong, since the imagery is seriously cutesy, laced with bright pinks, pastel purples, hint of light green and peach. although i'm not a huge fan of pastels as a rule, but these colours did kind of draw me in. purple products? now that's a spring fling i can get behind.

unfortunately, while i was excited when i read about what was included, the collection overall is lacking a little in the not-so-cute light of day. i love mac for keeping a busy schedule of collection launches, since it's nice to have something new to look at, but i'm starting to wonder if that schedule isn't causing some burnout. it's not that what's coming out is bad; i think of it the way i think of a lot of lengthy albums that i own- great stuff but padded with a lot of filler.

WATCH ME PASS JUDGMENT!



i apologise for the fact that i didn't do proper swatches, but i do have some pics of products "in action" later on.

first up, we have the "cutie" eye shadow quad. mac has these quads with many of their collections and i normally gobble them up. they're a great deal- $43cad for four full-sized shadows in a palette, compared to $14 per shadow plus about $7 for the palette if you bought everything separately (assuming you could, since most of the colours are limited edition anyway). these quads are usually conceived as complementary, so that all four shades can be worn together in various ways and this one is no different. i think that the mix of a bright white-green, light pink, violet with silver sparkle and rich, deep violet could make an interesting combination. unfortunately, only the last of those colours- named azuki bean- gives much colour. that one is just gorgeous and i wish they'd bring it back on its own, but the others are frustrating. there's pastel and there's colours that just don't show up. i know others who have made this work, so maybe their skin is more forgiving, but i got a combination of poor colour payoff and flakiness. no one looks cute with eye shadow crud sprinkled over their face.

there are four lip glosses with the collection, which i'll deal with all at once. they are mac's "plush glass" formula, which is supposed to plump lips. while they do tingle, i've never noticed any plumping effect from the ones that i've tried. these glosses are always sheer and the ones in this collection are all pastels- two pinks, a nude and a lavender shade. i could barely see them on my hand, let alone my lips. plus, the colours are very flat. if you want a sheer pastel effect, mac released a collection of glosses under the name "lightfully bright" earlier this year. they're also subtle, but they're far more interesting in my opinion.

it doesn't have to be like this

there are also three lip liners, something i've always approached with caution because i associate it with some very bad moments in fashion. the ones in this collection are quite nice- in synch (a peachy-pink), naked (a light flesh tone which lets you line without worrying about matching colour) and boldly bare (a brick red). used properly, liners are your friends. trust me on this. all that nasty feathering and smudging you can get from lipsticks? that's what lip liners are for. practical products, but not terribly exciting.

now, we get into the cutesy pastel meat of the collection. there are five lipsticks. i'm a lipstick fiend, so this is usually where i do some damage and, true to form, this is where i found what happy place i could in the collection. honestly, reading descriptions of the colours, there isn't a single one of them that i would have ruled out.

"playing koi" :: described as a white peach. peach colours are very tricky on me, because they can easily turn into a very bad light orange that looks like poorly matched concealer. it's a satin finish lipstick, which means the end product can be a bit unpredictable. if you have dry lips, this one could go very wrong on you. it's fairly thick and, if your lips are patchy, it's going to show. the nice part is that it's quite opaque when it does go on evenly. i find really light colours are more challenging than really dark ones (other than black) because any sheerness translates to your natural lip colour poking through and that always looks awful. i like that the colour has a real peachiness to it, rather than just being flesh-toned, like other colours in the mac line.

"quite cute" :: i wanted to love this. the eponymous colour of the collection is described as a light white-lavender. lavender shades are fairly rare, because it's a challenging colour. it's very cool-toned, which limits its appeal and even on people who can get away with it, there's often a "freshly asphyxiated" look that some people find off-putting. not me. i'm always happy to see one of these chilly tones from mac and i wear them with pride. since this one was supposedly lighter and chillier than the others, it seemed like even more of a challenge. unfortunately, i could not get it to apply properly. even a couple of passes left it terribly splotchy and, the horror, you could see lots of my natural lip colour. so sad. they would have been far better off re-releasing cult favourite lavender whip, which is a little darker. if you do want a very pale shade that's similar to quite cute but works, try inglot 151.

"saint germain" :: a very cool light pink that mac has available as part of its permanent collection. i have this one already. it's the kind of colour you have to be a bit careful with- it ain't your grandma's pink lipstick for sure.

"candy yum yum" :: seriously, that's the name. i'm actually quite fond of hot pinks, but this one just didn't work. although i'd heard it was a cooler pink, it looked exactly like a bright barbie pink on my lips, which is not my preference. on top of that, it's a matte shade, which means it has no dimension. there are two shades in mac's permanent collection- fusion pink (warm coral pink) and show orchid (incredibly bright cool pink) that are way better. nonetheless, this is likely to be the superstar of the collection from what i've seen, so if you are interested, hop to it. i do think that this shade would look incredible on women of colour.

"play time" :: every time mac comes out with a new collection, it seems, they like to tease me with a new purple lipstick. too often, these turn out to be pink colours with a slightly magenta cast, which is not the same thing as purple. there have been at least three of them in recent months. but this one is actually pretty purple, i have to admit. it's a medium violet colour that's very cool and that does take a little bit of work to build up (or you can just leave it sheer, if that's your thing).

overall, there is a nice mix of shades here, a bold colour like candy yum yum makes an excellent "star", but it seems like a medicore actor trying to play hamlet. playing koi and saint germain are cool because they're pastel, but surprisingly bold. play time is a great wearable purple that adds a dash of eccentricity. quite cute just falls flat.

[not clear on all the lipstick finishes and what they mean? you can always look at the lexicon.]

the final part of the collection is the blushes. as seems to happen a lot with mac collections in the last little while, these are the real superstars. they are all mineral blushes, which means that they have a lot of sheen and shimmer to them and can be used a little damp for more intense pigmentation. on the down side, they have a tendency to turn a little powdery or ashy, particularly on darker skin. i've also found that they can emphasise pores more than regular face powders.

each one of the three blushes exclusive to the collection has a base colour plus an "extra" colour in a little heart in the centre. quite cute indeed. of course, the size of the blushes means that it's pretty much impossible to use either colour on its own, so the end result is going to be a mix.

"miss behave" :: a very soft peach with a mint green heart. green blush? well yes. and no. the blend makes a colour that's very difficult to photograph, because it's very pale. on very pale ladies, it gives just a hint of colour, but a very nice highlight. trust me, it really brightens your cheeks, which is a look i love. (just what i need, something to make me whiter.) i can't imagine this looking good on medium to dark complexions, though. i think it would look like you smudged the contents of an ashtray on your face.

"giggly" :: a sweetheart pink blush with a plum-coloured heart. it comes out a bright candy pink, which is nice, but hardly unique. dainty (part of the permanent line-up) is similar, but a little warmer and more toned down. dollymix, another permanent product, is also similar, but it's a regular blush, not a mineral one. if you want a nice pink blush that can be layered for more colour pretty easily, you could do worse than this one.

"sakura" :: a delicious shade of medium lavender with a magenta heart. there is nothing not to love. and it is a really nice colour, it's just that i wanted a lavender blush. do you know how difficult it is to find a nice purple blush? harder than it is to find the lipsticks. in this case, the magenta heart makes the colour a cool pink and there are already a lot of cool pinks. granted, this is one of the bluest pinks i've seen, but chances are you have something like it. it does have the nice sheen, so that may be a factor. i thought about it long and hard, but finally decided it just wasn't special enough. sorry sakura.

even though i like these blushes, i think that they could have been better. mac has been super-sizing so many products lately, i can't believe no one in their marketing team ever floated the idea of making these big enough so that you could comfortably using both colours. i think with miss behave in particular, being able to play with the colours separately could have made a nice product into a must-have.

there are also three nail polishes- mint green, bubblegum pink and lavender- but i did not have a chance to test these. 

my haul :: playing koi, play time, in synch (looks awesome with playing koi), miss behave

for me, that's a surprising peach bender, but i'm happy to see variants of the colour that aren't as warm as usual.

overall, the collection is, appropriately enough, quite cute. it has some nice highs, some forgettable lows, but it's far from something that i'm going to remember as a standout. products are available at mac stores and counters and online.

here are a few things i've done with the products i've picked up. have fun creating your own cuteness. [all products are mac unless otherwise noted.]

"saint germain"

saint germain

this is a bit of a cheat, because i've had saint germain for a while. (no, i don't know why mac put regular products in with the limited collections, but my guess is that it helps call attention to them, which boosts sales- and saint germain is actually a good fit here.) this look was something i was playing around with for a post i was planning on doing on bright, colourful makeup and where it evolved from (a piece which may still happen). this was fun to try out, but it's not exactly an everyday look for me. i do think it illustrates that, especially where saint germain is concerned, there is such a thing as a challenging pink.

products used ::

face ::

saint germain

nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
nars copacobana illuminator (i'm still playing, but i should have a review of this one next week)
prep & prime finishing powder

eyes ::
painterly paint pot as base
electric eel e/s
blue calm e/s
suave intentions e/s
crystal avalanche e/s

saint germain

love lace e/s
blacktrack fluidline eye liner
fascinating eye kohl
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
pink power mineralise skinfinish [blush + bronzer + highlighter in one]

lips
saint germain l/s

"play time"

play time

although the colour is pretty playful, i wanted to try to incorporate it in such a way that it wouldn't seem odd or out of place, even in an office. i think that the main thing anyone would notice is that i actually matched my lipstick to my shirt, because the look itself is pretty tame. still, i love finding new ways to wear purple.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes ::
painterly paint pot as base 
silverwear e/s
courtly e/s
chanel fauve e/s

play time

vile violet e/s
smoky heir liquid liner
ysl faux cils mascara [for some reason my lashes were really sticky on this day, so the application is pretty terrible. i stand by the product.]

cheeks ::
hang loose blush [note: if you have this, you really don't need sakura]

lips ::
play time l/s

"playing koi"

playing koi

what's cuter than a beatnik? lots of things, but i just really love doing this sort of look with pale lips. it's so completely out of the ordinary that i find it's quite arresting- more so than dark lips. this was actually incredibly quick to do, considering that it looks quite dramatic. as an aside, the fluidline eye liner was used as a base over my eyelid. it looked very sharp and intense, applied precisely and lasted all day. in fact, when i removed it, i found that my lids were stained blue for some time. whoops. these are the hidden dangers of experimenting. could have been worse. a friend of mine painted her face green for a halloween costume with much the same results. green faces are never work-safe.

face ::

playing koi

nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
nars copacobana illuminator

eyes ::
painterly paint pot as base
siahi fluidline eye liner [all over lid]
moonlight night loose pigment [over siahi]
black swan pearlglide eyeliner [oh, and speaking of things you're not supposed to do, i put this on my lower water line, which isn't safe... don't do as i do...]
false lashes mascara

playing koi

cheeks ::
miss behave
golden lariat

lips ::
in synch lip pencil
playing koi l/s

making faces :: spring lips for vampy ladies

the wrong of spring

every year it happens. you've had months to indulge your love of deep, dark, come-hither lips and then
suddenly, the mercury starts to rise. sure, you can still get away with those vampy looks at night- that's always when they're most appropriate- but during the gradually extending daylight hours, those blood red or eggplant purple lips look less elegant and more emo kid. all around you, people are doffing heavy coats and black leggings in favour of featherweight fabrics and pastels. but if pink and peach make you shrink and screech, what are you supposed to do?

no! no no no no no. n-o

well, i've long since made my peace with the girlie spectrum of tones, but i still feel more like me wearing a colour that's quirkier. luckily, the world of cosmetics is no longer trying to force us into a single spring mold. there are lots of colours available that are perfectly appropriate for a balmy spring day without making you feel like you sold you dark, misunderstood soul.

in choosing a few recommendations for the rest of us, i limited myself to colours that form part of the permanent range of colours each company has available. there's no point offering help if i'm just pointing you towards things that you have to buy from scalpers on evil-bay. that said, trolling on line can be lucrative and not everyone is selling deleted items for an arm and a leg, so it's always worth keeping an eye out.

HELP IS AVAILABLE! SEE OPTIONS PLUS A SPRING LOOK



urban decay :: oil slick :: hey, haven't we seen this one recently? yes, it was getting oil slick (reviewed in detail in my last post) that got me to thinking about this subject, but i did want to underline it's post-vernal equinox appropriateness. it's black, but it's sheer enough and has that dewy sparkle that gives the impression of being ready for sunnier weather. by the time they've figured out you're wearing a vampy lip colour, you'll already have bent them to your will... or whatever you were intending on doing. [$22cad, exclusively at sephora locations or on line at sephora.com]

mac cosmetics :: date night :: this is actually a gloss, part of mac's "dazzleglass" range of products. these are very sheer, to be sure and feature a ton (not literally) of sparkle and shimmer. most are quite

date night

pastel and therefore useless to someone looking for something darker, with the exception of this one colour. while it's far from being intense, the gloss has a cool purple base that does lend a darker cast to the lips and has a lot of blue and purple shimmer (don't worry, it's not gritty), that make your pout subtly cooler. of the selections i've made, it's probably the one that's furthest from those ultra-opaque matte tones, but it does make for a hint of something a little mischievous. the formula on these glosses is quite slippery, so it requires reasonably frequent touch-ups if you want to keep it looknig fresh (and keep the pigment at its most intense). like all glosses, they are quite moisturising. i've noted in my own collection and read reports from others, that these glosses are subject to "evaporation", meaning that once you open them, they have a tendency to deplete faster than you use them. given the price, that's more than a little annoying, so keep the cap on tight and feel free to use them often over the course of the warmer months. it's not like you're going to want a gloss come september anyway. [$22cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

good to be bad

mac cosmetics :: good to be bad :: i have no idea why, but it seems like someone discovered a burning need in the hearts of cosmetics consumers sometime last year: women everywhere were tired of having to choose between the pigmentation of a lipstick and the soft, moist feel of a gloss. and so, this spring, every company in the world seems to have responded with their own version of a hybrid product. chanel launched their rouge coco shine collection, guerlain's rouge automatique is hot off the presses and dior, not to be outdone by anyone, has just revamped their entire dior addict line with an overwhelming 50+ shades as a gel-based hybrid product. the thing is, the huge majority of those products (editor's note- i haven't seen guerlain's in person yet) are pastels.

as usual, it's mac to the rescue with a smaller collection of a new product called "sheen supreme", which has a nice range of colours from soft pinks to this shade, a vampy dark red that any black-clad girl would love. the colour can actually get pretty intense on this one, but it can be applied sheer as well (i'd say the image on the right represents a medium between the two).

these products are super-soft and moisturising, but i find that this also makes them prone to melting. it's not a product i'd recommend carrying in your purse if you're going to be out and about in the summer sun all day. that softness can also make them a bit messy to apply if you press too hard, so a light hand is always a good idea. the pigmentation is excellent and it actually lasts longer than most gloss-type product. [$17.50cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

nars :: fast ride :: nars has a whole collection of sheer colours that are often quite pigmented and warrant a look from anyone searching for a decent pop of colour that isn't heavy. fast ride looks almost intimidating in the tube (or at least it would to people who don't normally wear dark lips), but in fact it's colour is an inviting currant red that seems to blend with the natural lip colour of the wearer. the pigmentation is good, although you're not ever going to get it close to opaque and it glides on easily.

fast ride

compared to the other products mentioned here, i found this less moisturising on the lips. it did have a bit of a tendency to settle into lines a little, although it's far from uncomfortable. it also has less of a sheen than the other products mentioned here and tends to look more like a nice stain, as if you've been drinking a little red wine, or the blood of your enemies. because it blends with one's own lip colour, i can picture this working on warm or cool skin tones, although i think on very dark lips, it wouldn't show up as well.

for a fairly sheer product, the lasting power is very good. i didn't find i needed much in the way of touch ups unless i was eating and/ or drinking. it's a lovely colour that feels very "me" without calling a lot of attention to itself. [$29cad, available at nars counters in major department stores, murale locations in canada and, for u.s. customers only, on line at narscosmetics.com, also available through nordstrom.com]

if none of these grab your fancy, here are a few suggestions from old mac collections that you might be able to find through the magic of the internet ::

overdone :: originally released in 2006 with a collection called "rockocco", it was described as a "smoky plum". it's a brownish berry tone with hints of purple in a lustre finish (look here if you're confused about what that means) with a faint shimmer. it's fairly light and sheer in texture, but it's still definitely the kind of colour you don't see every day. i almost cried when i finally had to admit that, yes, i'd used it all up.

jampacked :: this deep grape coloured gloss was released in 2008 with mac's "cult of cherry" collection, also known as the greatest cosmetics collection in history. any lady who likes deep lips should own at least a few items from this. although it was released for fall and the colour is pretty deep, i find jampacked looks sheer and juicy enough to work just fine in the spring.

boys go crazy :: released as part of the 2010 "digi pops" collection, this is a dazzleglass, like date night, but it's more like date night's cousin from the wrong side of the tracks. it has the same sparkle effect, but deeper, darker, and an overall bluer shade of purple. apparently, there are a lot of women like me, because when the collection launched, this sold out in about a week.

and, to wrap things up, here's just something that i did for a spring day that i think still sticks pretty close to the look i have regularly (insofar as i have a regular look). all products are from mac unless otherwise specified ::

face
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes
painterly paint pot as base
unbasic white e/s
silverthorn e/s
fashion e/s
shu uemura metallic olive e/s
carbon e/s 
blacktrack fluidline eye liner
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks
vintage grape blush ombre
springshine blush ombre

lips
nars fast ride l/s

making faces :: a passion for purple

purple

apparently, purple is the colour preferred by most teenage girls. that doesn't entirely surprise me, because in their teens, girls still identify with the perceived femininity of the colour, but they've advanced beyond the pure girlishness of pink (although many circle back in later years, that's another story). but aside from it's feminine aspects, purple has always been the colour of the outcast- an appealing thought to any teenager- the colour of the minority. perhaps it's that's why it's still one of my favourites today; i never grew out of that phase.

in fact, there are good reasons why purple is an "outcast" colour. for starters, it's an outcast from the colour spectrum, because there is no such thing as purple light. there is violet light, which many people would say was purple, but in fact, in terms of their wavelengths (which are what makes our mind register them as colours), they are distinct. violet is much closer to blue than true purple, which is a mix of red and blue. purple, therefore, is ephemeral. it exists only as a mix of other colours.

violet

of course, originally, people didn't understand how colours in the light spectrum worked, but purple was still a special shade. the first use of purple as a fabricated colour came from phoenicia, where a colour now known as "tyrian purple" was made from ink extracted from a type of mediterranean snail. because the dye was difficult to produce, it became the purview of royalty. later on, the emperors and senators of rome adopted this shade as a sign of their nobility and thus began a long-time association of purple with the privileged classes. even after the collapse of the roman empire, when tyrian purple lost its allure and was replaced by difficult to manufacture blue dyes, a bluer shade of purple, now termed "royal purple" became the shade of monarchs.

EXPLORE THE MYSTERIES OF PURPLE AND SEE SOME LOOKS INCORPORATING DIFFERENT SHADES...

in the new age movement, purple auras- and lavender, a lighter, bluer sibling colour- are associated with wisdom, imagination and spirituality. (that last association is deeply ingrained in western culture- the coloured academic robes in french universities assign purple to those who have studied divinity.) the union of purple and mysticism goes some way to explaining why purple has come to be perceived as feminine- these areas are generally associated with the late-twentieth century burgeoning of women's studies and female mysteries, both parts of the larger feminist movement.

purple has also for years been associated with queer sexuality. lesbians in the early-to-mid twentieth century would supposedly tattoo themselves with a purple star in order to make others discretely aware of their sexual preference. now, purple is linked to sexuality that is most difficult to define- bisexuality, genderqueer identification (particularly the shade lavender) and polyamory. from the colour of kings, purple has become the colour of the resilient minority.

of course, purple is also the colour of psychedelia. there's a reason that jimi hendrix's haze was purple and not yellow. in timothy leary's eight-circuit model of consciousness, purple is the colour of the eigth level, the highest and most mystical, the level of quantum consciousness where the mind has evolved to its highest state.

there is no colour that has such varied and provocative associations as purple and, personally, that's part of the reason i love it. it also helps that being pale, blue-eyed and cool-toned means that purples of various sorts tend to suit me better than, say, browns or bronzes. plus there's the fact that purple is flexible. there is a range to any colour, but purple seems to express a wider variety than most. it can be closer to blue or red, but it can also mix with pink to form a bright magenta of a softer colour, like those of orchids or heliotrope. it can mix with silver or taupe/ brown to give a cooler cast to either colour. it's probably the only colour i can think of where virtually all of its incarnations seem beautiful to me.

and, since lent is in full swing, it bears mentioning that purple is traditionally the colour of lent. and of crocuses, those first harbingers of spring in canada, which (hopefully) soon be fighting their way through the last of the snow to lead their way to balmier weather.

so, in honour of all the shades of purple, here are a few looks that use them. check here to see the "official" names of the shades i've used (and see if you agree with me).unless otherwise noted, all products are from mac.

"heliotrope"

heliotrope

this is a look a did a while ago in fits of ecstasy of mac's 2010 "spring colour forecast" collection. i unfortunately didn't get a good shot of the lids, but basically the entire look (with the except of one shadow) is comprised of colours from part 3 of the 4-part collection. each part was based on a specific colour- pink, coral, plum and amber. does it surprise anyone given this post that plum was my favourite? these products are mostly sold out, but you can sometimes track them down through ebay or, if you live in the u.s., at cosmetics outlet stores. a few pieces (although sadly, none of the ones used in this look) are still available on the canadian mac web site. no, i have no idea how i got that nice glowing halo effect around my head, but i wish i could get it in real life.

face:

heliotrope

mac studio fix fluid nc20
mac mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes:
rosy outlook e/s
mink pink e/s
bruised plum e/s
black tulip e/s
jungle moon e/s
boot black liquis e/l
plushblack plush lash mascara

cheeks
vintage grape blush ombre

lips
radicchio l/s

"tyrian"

tyrian

before i wrote this blog, i wouldn't have had a clue what to call this colour, but, in the grand spectrum, this shade of reddened purple is what i think of when i'm asked my favourite colour. there are others that come close, but the lipstick i'm wearing here comes as close as anything i've tried to the exact tone i was looking for. the eye has some purple in it too, although it's more subtle. even the browns have a bit of a purple tinge to them.

face:
prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20

tyrian

prep & prime finishing powder

eyes:

dazzlelight e/s
laura mercier african violet e/s
star violet e/s
satin taupe e/s
blacktrack fluidline e/l
smolder e/l
black black false lashes mascara

tyrian

cheeks
amazon princess blush

lips
chanel rouge coco ballet russe



"eggplant"

eggplant

mmm... deep dark purple, almost black. i'm a huge fan of dark lips, so i tend to do looks like this a lot.  undoubtedly, it'll be the subject of a future face-post, but for the time being, here's a nice, deep purple.

face:
prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20
mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes
silverwear e/s
to the ball e/s
hold my gaze e/s

eggplant

heather belles e/s
smoky heir l/l
false lashes mascara

cheeks
azalea blossom blush ombre

lips:
faithfully yours prolongwearl/s
fab frenzy superglass

"fandango"

fandango

what a wonderful name for a colour. why is it called fandango? i have no idea. especially since i associate the fandango with warmer climes, which might suggest fierce reds and oranges, marigold tones, russets and terracottas, but not purple. and yet here it is. a lovely pink-purple shade a few strokes darker than magenta. now i feel like dancing.

face:

prolongwear foundation nc15
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes:
almond icing e/s
mating call e/s

fandango

beautiful iris e/s
parfait amour e/s
siahi fluidline e/l
false lashes mascara

cheeks
lancome butterfly ballerine blush

lips
quite the thing sheen supreme l/s

"regalia"

regalia

this one was tricky to place. as you've probably sussed at this point, i'm taking the colour names here from the various shades of my lips in the images. for this one, i had trouble placing something that was a rich purple with a blue sheen. i guess that's the difference between theoretical colours and real colours. the real ones have depth and layers. just to complicate things. the blush and lipstick in this look are from the "jeanius" collection, brand new from mac- available for a limited time only.

face:
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
prep & prime finishing powder

eyes:

regalia

inglot #352
restless e/s
freshwater e/s
love lace e/s
contrast e/s
blacktrack fluidline e/l
yves st. laurent faux cils mascara (some of you might have caught that mac has a mascara with the exact same name, just translated into english. tricky.)

cheeks
overdyed blush

lips
riveting rose l/s

"lavender"

lavender

this is one shade of purple that always scares me a little. because it's both pale and cool, it matches my own colouring pretty closely and can end up making me look a little ill. so i chose to dress it up with, yes, more purple and a pop of green tucked away on the eyelid. this lipstick is discontinued and still highly sought after. inglot has a couple of decent imitations in the meantime.

face:
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20
mineralize skinfinish natural light

eyes:
inglot #352
dame's desire e/s
memorabilia e/s

lavender

vile violet e/s
lucky green e/s
shu uemura me olive 471 e/s
bad bad black opulash mascara

cheeks
play it proper beauty powder
azalea blossom blush ombre

lips
lavender whip

i could seriously go on about this a long time, but you get an idea of the range. feel free to comment with your feelings on purple, good or bad. what colours spark your imagination?

friday favourites 11.03.11

wow. i almost forgot that today was friday... i realised part way through and so, yes, i'm a little late posting my friday favourites but hey, better late than never, right?

overall, this week was a marked improvement on last for me. although i'm still trying to figure out my mysterious allergy to food, i've overall been in a better mind frame this week than last. today, of course, was the mild, runny topping on the dessert of the week, because it was beautiful outside. it felt nice to enjoy fresh air for a change.

of course, the last twenty-four hours have given a lot of people a lot of things that are pretty damn horrible and my heart goes out to them. so one of the things that i have to feel good about is that i live in relative security.

and on that slightly sombre note, here are some of the things that helped me to think that i'm a pretty lucky lady:

firefox live :: i wasn't sure what my browser was talking about when it asked me to look at "firefox live". isn't an internet browser always live? but this is something completely different. instead, this is a joint project between mozilla and the knoxville zoo to raise awareness about the creatures that give the browser its name. it's made of adorable and stuffed with squee and it's exactly the kind of thing you need to remind you that the world is full of fascinating, lovable things.

SEE MORE FAVOURITES AND THIS WEEK'S CAT PIC!



patton oswalt :: i have dom to thank for introducing me to this gentlemen. i find that the world of stand-up comedy suffers for want of the next hicks, carlin or pryor and while patton oswalt may not quite have their stature yet, he's probably the closest i've heard to the greats in many years. one of the interesting things to me personally is that he is so obviously a product of the same 80s and 90s alternative culture as i am. even with comedians i really love, i'm unused to a sense of conjunction that i feel with oswalt. he's a cultural geek, into movies and comic books, his taste in music is delightfully offbeat- it's the voice of a time that, while important in shaping the world we're in today, often gets drowned out by the generations both before and after it. and if that's a little to heady for you, the guy is just funny as hell. check out one of his many live videos, or, for the capsule version, follow him on twitter.

loud ladies :: it's funny that latter-day power electronics is so dominated by men because to me, despite the natural association of anger and force with men, the music's (and it is music) orientation toward raw, wild emotion would seem more akin to the blind fury of a medea or the bacchae than in any male archetypes. this week, i've found my ear turning to a couple of ladies who are seemingly hell-bent on proving my point: sewer goddess and pharmakon. rough, intense stuff.

u235

u235 :: one of the fun things about hopping through the internet like tigger through the hundred acre wood is that you occasionally stumble upon things whose existence you never expected. i know virtually nothing about this french artist except that his images send a little electric thrill through my thorax.

and speaking of art, check out some images of my friend chantal cote's eerily bleached dolly art, currently on display and available for purchase at cagibi. her vernissage this past week was a great excuse to get out of the house and enjoy one of montreal's infamous march snowstorms...

chantal cote

chantal cote

chantal cote

the art of illamasqua :: dubbed "makeup for your alter ego", british-based illamasqua prods at the imaginative heart of what drives most people to start anointing their faces with paint to begin with. check out the surreal, acid-burned imagery for their new collection called "toxic nature" to see some of the characters they've created. i'll even forgive them the photoshop disaster-worthy models, since the whole idea of these images is that they're supposed to look mutated. in the past, they've also done collections based on the imagery of sirens, dystopias and 1920s berlin. the approach reminds me of urban decay back when they started and their "does pink make you puke?" launch campaign, embracing the dark side of contemporary life (too bad it didn't last). 
of course, the downside of loving these guys is that they have no distribution in canada. even sephora, who carry some products in the u.s., doesn't stock them in or ship them to canada. the only buying option currently available north of the 49th parallel is to buy direct from their web site, which means facing the unbridled horror of british retail prices. oh well. a girl and her alter ego can dream.

so that's my list of small pleasures for this week. feel free to share yours, whatever they may be.

this coming week will be a little busier for me (in a good way) and hopefully will mark a point where i'm able to figure all these bizarre dietary issues out. i'm running out of food groups to eliminate.

i'm anticipating that it's going to be one of those weeks where people like me who want to follow world news are going to have a bit of a touch go. i don't begrudge the people of japan any of the assistance that they will be getting, nor do i consider it a bad idea for people to witness what a powerful earthquake can do to even the most prepared country in the world. heck, i hope it proves to be an opportunity to spread a greater understanding of geology. my problem with these sorts of stories is that the media is so desperate for death and destruction, for scenes of pain and hand-wringing, that they just tune out the rest of their jobs. the government in yemen is still on the verge of toppling and libya is, for all intents and purposes, degenerating into a state of civil war. these are things to which attention should be paid, especially as the consequences are potentially far greater in both the short and long term. it is by know means unknown for unscrupulous dictators to take advantage of a moment of public distraction to take extreme measures to consolidate power. japan needs our help, not our prying eyes. i'll be on the hunt for what else is going on.

fans of this site might remember that i'm also posting a filming diary about conversion, to entertain the curious masses while we get the lats few details of our movie sorted out. you can continue to read the diary installments here, but you can also read the cautionary tale of dom's first feature film (it'll be a sought-after "lost gem" in the future) and the nasty things that can befall a young filmmaker who's unfortunate enough to have written a good script that generates interest.

thanks again to everyone who's stopped by to visit- your support and feedback is always much appreciated! twice this week, we surpassed our previous one-day high for total visits. hurrah! to that end, a couple of quick notes:

as you may have noticed, i've started a feature called "mental health mondays". this week, we'll be talking mania, but if there are any issues you'd like me to cover in future installments, please let me know.

there's been a great response to my "making faces" series, which is a lot of fun for me to write. so far, i've been working with myself as my canvas because dom and the cats don't seem inclined to let me use them, but if you're in montreal and would like to model for upcoming articles, please let me know.

feedback can be left in the comments section, or my contacting me directly at info@fsquaredmedia.net.
(that's also the address for any general inquiries, including anything you'd like reviewed on the site, such as music, beauty products, fluevog shoes... hell, i'll review medication if i'm reasonably certain it won't cause me to mutate in ways i won't like.)

and of course, here's this week's cat:

king arthur, monarch of our little world

thanks for reading!