Mac Paint Pots vs Maybelline Color Tattoos

This is a comparison post about the texture and wear of the Mac Paint Pots vs Maybelline Color Tattoos. Also, I have a dupe!

Read on...

Here are some pictures of the paint points I have. I already made a separate post of Mac Soft Ochre paint point. It's a long loved basic paint pot for those that are NC skin toned (if you are more cooler in skintone, Mac Painterly is your best bet for a base). That post can be found here: Mac Soft Ochre

Ok, so I bought NEW Mac paint pots that just came out in their Pro Longwear line recently. All Paint Pots are $20 each:

Tailor Grey is a simple taupe-y grey and Constructivist is a gorgeous shimmery brown. When I say shimmery, it's not a overwhelming shimmer. Since I just got these, I have no problems with creasing with using these and they last all day. I will be using Tailor Grey as a base for dark/fall smokey eye looks.

Now, let's get to the Maybelline Color Tattoos:

I have 6 colors. There aren't many matte shades in this line. Tough as Taupe is the only one I have that's matte (it may be the only matte one in the line). 

Let's compare the two:

Price:

Paint Pots (PP) are $20 each and Color Tattoos (CT) are usually Buy 1 get 1 50% off here in the U.S. at the drugstores. 1 CT usually runs around $5.99-$7.99 depending on where you get it.

Colors:

PP has a TON more options than the CT. Not only does the PP have a wider color selection, but it also carries a better range (more mattes, more brighter colors).

Staying Power:

I'll preface by saying I do not give in the hype of brands that market their product with things like "24hrs"...because let's be serious here, I DO NOT wear my makeup for 24 hours straight. I will say this, both PP and CT lasts all day. However, CT has creased on me if I wear it by itself, whereas, the PP has not creased on me worn alone. Neither creased if worn as a base.

Color Pay-Off:

PP has a better color pay-off than the CT. Hands down. The lighter colors in the CT line are so sheer (this may also be the reason why it creases on my lids easier). A single swipe of PP has a better pay off than a single swipe of CT.

Lasting Over Time:

I've read the stories of people having issues of their paint pots drying. I cannot give a fair comparison because I haven't had my paint pots long. I've had Soft Ochre for about a month and it's still perfectly fine. I've had some of my CT for about a year and it's perfectly fine. I believe that if you keep them sealed properly and keep good care of your makeup, it shouldn't be an issue. I store my makeup in it's separately makeup room (you can see my post here of my Makeup Room) so I think that helps.

Overall:

I think overall, if you're thinking about the price, you could technically get THREE CTs for the price  of 1 PP, however, a lot of makeup and like, many other things, it's about quality, not quantity! I definitely suggest a couple of good colors from CT (Tough as Taupe is a favorite and Barely Branded is a nice creamy with a light shimmer as well). 

Dupe Alert:

As I promised, I did find a good dupe. One of Mac's new Pro Longwear PP (Tailor Grey) and one of my favorite CT (Tough as Taupe) is pretty close in color:

I hope this post was helpful!

[TUTORIAL TIME] D.I.Y. Eyebrows

Let's get down to business, and defeat these brows!

First, let me just say, I had to grow mine out for a good 2.5 weeks to be able to do this tutorial. I hope you guys really enjoy this! I will say one thing, I do NOT use scissors. I have not ever trimmed my own brows before. I'm not THAT confident in myself yet. I have, however, used those mini razors on my brows. Let me tell you, those are amazing! They are very easy to use and are fast!

I tend to do my own brows except for maybe once a year or twice a year where I'll go and get them threaded, but that's about it. By, 'do my own brows', I mean I just tweeze them.

Here's a quick tutorial I put together. Keep in mind, I've decided to give 3 options in terms of what to use to fill in your brows. Pencil, powder and gel.

Let's get started with the tools:

The highlighter crayon is used to sketch where you will be tweezing. You can use anything. I choose this particular crayon because it will also double as my brow highlighter.

The Color Tattoo, Mac shadow (in Brun) and the Sephora Brow Pencil are the 3 products we will use to fill our brows at the end. All the rest of the products you see are the tools we will use to prep our canvas.

Step 1:

I didn't actually mean dirty...I meant unkept..anyhow. If you google 'brow arch' you will find a billion and one search results for different shapes. First, I'd like to apologize for not including my nose (which is oh-so-important when measuring arches). Basically, you want to keep your arch natural. Don't try to change anything outrageous. If you at the left line, I clearly have a LOT of eyebrow hair to the left of that line. Does that mean I should tweeze all of that? NO! The lines are just a guide! However, if you look at the middle line, your highest arch, should align with you outside pupil and the outer nostril. Alright, enough staring at my unkept brow? Let's move along...

Step 2:

Sorry for the blurry picture. Alright, I've marked where I'd like to tweeze. Anything outside the line can be tweezed. Let's go!

Step 3:

MUCH BETTER! Now that you've tweezed everything outside the line, go ahead and clean everything up! After the crayon mark is wiped up, take a closer look. Use the spoolie and brush everything in place and see if you need to tweeze any additional stray hairs. This is also a good time to use the clear brow gel and stick everything in place and double check!

Step 4:

Time to fill it up! Take your favorite product and start filling your brow up! Remember to fill the outside first, then use the mascara spoolie and brush it in and step back and take a look. Don't overfill! Then if need be, fill the insides last. This is done with Mac's eyeshadow in Brun. My hair color is jet black for reference.

Below are some other ways of filling in your brows:

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know if there are any other tutorials you'd like to see!

Mac Blushes 101

This post will be about Mac blushes. It will only be about the powder blushes. So no cremes, no mineralized, no pro longwear, and no limited editions blushes.

Let's get started. I am breaking the blushes up into 4 sections:

1. Warms/Peaches/Shimmers
2. Pinks
3. Bolds/Pro (you don't need a Pro card to buy Pro items, you can order online or from a Pro store)
4. Others/Contours/Highlights

WARMS/PEACHES/SHIMMERS

All colors are great alone by themselves, descriptions are taken from Mac Cosmetics directly 

 1.  Sunbasque: Peach with pearl (sheertone shimmer)

 2. Ambering Rose: Muted rose (sheertone shimmer)
 3. Margin: Peach with golden shimmer (frost)
 4. Melba: Soft coral peach (matte)
 5. Peaches: Pure peach (sheertone)
 6. Pinch Me: Medium dirty rose coral (sheertone)

PINKS

These colors are great alone as well, but I like to layer colors with these so that they show up more

 1. Well Dressed: Immaculate pink (satin)
 2. Pink Swoon: Clearly pink (sheertone)
 3. Fleur Power: Soft bright pinkish-coral (satin)

BOLDS/PRO

These colors on my NC25 skintone are a bit bold, I like to blend them out with another, less harsh color

 1. Devil (Pro): Bright coral orange (satin)
 2. Apple Red (Pro): Fire engine red (satin)
 3. Rhubarb (Pro): Bright magenta (satin)
 4. Dollymix: Pure candy pink (sheertone shimmer)
 5. Salsarose (Pro): Lightly iridescent coral (satin)
 6. Azalea (Pro): Bright iridescent blue pink (frost)

 OTHERS/CONTOURS/HIGHLIGHTS

For these particular ones, here's how I use them:

 1. Shadowy: Deep brown matte sculpting powder--I use this to contour
 2. Lightsweep: Warm beige with fine pearl shaping powder--I use this to powder
 3. Emphasize: Off white with fine pear shaping powder--I use this to set my under eye
 4. Trace Gold: Gold with shimmer (sheertone shimmer)--I use this as a summer highlight
 5. Cantaloupe: Rich warm cantaloupe (satin)--I use this as a base for my bold blushes sometimes
 6. Blushbaby: Beige-pink (sheertone)--I use this alone as a very subtle blush

I hope this has been helpful to you if you are searching for a Mac blush. Remember, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is just the regular powder blushes. You can buy all of the blushes mentioned on Mac's website. Keep in mind that you have the option of buying them individually in the refill pan's for $17 each here or you can buy them by itself for $21 each normally here.

Lastly, the sculpting and shaping powders are not considered blushes, they are $16.50 each and are Pro items only. Pro items can only be bought via refills only.

Mac Soft Ochre Paint Pot

As a warm-toned Asian (NC25 in Mac), Paint Pot in Soft Ochre is about the best thing since sliced bread for me.

How much do I love Soft Ochre? Let me count the ways:

1. It's a base: it makes my eyeshadows THAT much more vibrant and colorful.
2. It's a primer: goodbye primers, since I've been using Soft Ochre, I haven't had the need for my primers. Before you say anything, let me just preface by saying, I GOT SOME GREASY LIDS. Eyeliners transferring? Check! Eyeshadows creasing? Check! Eyeshadows disappearing at the end of the day? Check! Obviously, you can still feel free to use your primer, but this particular shade of Paint Pot takes care of everything for me.
3. It's a concealer (for my eyelids, don't be confused, I only use it on my eyelids): I take it all the way up to my brows though, this means it conceals the redness of when I have just plucked my brows.

What else do you need to know:

1. It goes on creamy and dries fast. Very fast. So blend it out right away and let it set and then do what you have to do afterwards!
2. Store it upside down (this is what's been rumored on the web, do a search if you don't believe me), but I honestly haven't had mine long enough to know, nor have I been storing mine upside down!
3. Soft Ochre vs Painterly: as with all Mac products, they breakdown their line to NC or NW (though newer products are more neutral)...these two popular paint pots are just that. One is more yellow/warm toned and the other is more pink/cool toned. I obviously love Soft Ochre because it suits my skintone better. 

So to my fellow NCers (in skintone), Soft Ochre is the way to go!

You can find this product at:

Mac Cosmetics for $20

I give this product a 9/10