MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC and MAC Vera Collections: Event Pictures & Swatches

I got an invite to the MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC (formerly Shop Shop Shop, Cook Cook Cook) event at my local Pro store so I went there lugging my camera to take some swatch pictures and to check out the Tendertones (I've been waiting years for their rerelease and have been spamming the world about my eagerness for them). They also had the Vera Collection available to check out. I got home from the event a few hours ago and wanted to get pictures up as soon as possible!

I took a few pictures of the outside of the store in addition to swatch pictures of Shop MAC, Cook MAC and Vera.

All the employees had cute aprons and big hair. I loved the mix of bright blues and pink plaid.

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This picture is basically the same as the one above but I was just amused at how it looks like the security guard is giving me a look.

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Here are a few of the decorations in front of the store. This is a small shopping cart with a bunch of themed boxes.

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Here's a better view of the front and everyone inside getting a pep talk before the event

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Another one of the cool decorations in front of the store. The gloves, sponges, and bags were actually given away to some people who got the invite in the mail.

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Here's a closeup of the gifts being given away. I chose to get a tote bag instead of the sponges or the gloves. I will admit that I was hoping the giveaway item was going to be something makeup related. Although they do fit the theme, I didn't expect to be able to choose them so I defaulted and got the bag.

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Now onto pictures of Shop MAC, Cook MAC products.

Here's the Shop MAC part

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and here's the Cook MAC part

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I didn't swatch everything but I swatched a lot of the collection!

Call Me Bubbles Eyeshadow Quad: Call Me Bubbles, Fresh Daily, Full of Flavour, and Brash

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I apologize for the lighting change but the colors look fairly accurate (to me at least!)

Lipsticks: Innocence, Beware!, Naughty Saute, Runaway Red, Watch Me Simmer, Dish It Up, and Quick Sizzle

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Cremeblend Blushes: Florida, Optimistic Orange, Restores Dazzle!

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Fluidlines:

Added Goodness, Midnight Snack, and Wholesome

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I also took product pictures of the fluidlines

Added Goodness

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Midnight Snack

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Wholesome (similar to Blacktrack but not as black)

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and MAC Vera!

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the Vera Plushglasses

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The Crushed Metal Pigment stacks. I love the look of the middle one, it reminds me of a mermaid!

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the Pearlmatte Face Powders: Flower Fantasy and Sunday Afternoon.

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and I also swatched the Pearlglide eyeliners in the collection. I'm a little confused though since the official color story has seven Pearlglide eyeliners listed but I only saw six in the display and I only swatched the ones I saw.

Industrial, Petrol Blue, Designer Purple, Undercurrent, Black Line, and Lord It Up

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I had a nice time at the event and it was my first time ever going to one. When I was swatching the tendertones on my lips (using clean disposable lip brushes), two of the customers there asked me questions on them and watched me try on Hot n Saucy, Tread Gently, and Purring. It was fun to say the least!

Edit:

Oh I forgot to say that they had snacks and cocktails available. I didn't drink anything but I got this nice potato snack and they also had little pigs in a blanket!

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Kindness from a fellow Blogger

I just wanted to share about an amazing package I got from Mara of "He Calls Me Mara". She's also a beauty blogger and utterly talented at smokey eyes. I also love her posts because it's always been difficult for me to find someone with Asian Eyes whose looks I can really copy in color and shape. Please follow her, her looks are to die for and she's the type of person that doesn't pull any punches and is straightforward about everything she does.

A long while ago I sent her a few Sugarpill loose eyeshadow samples and a Wet n Wild Silent Treatment trio and on Friday she had tweeted at me (You should also follow her on twitter!) that she wanted to send me a few things and I expected a few things, definitely not this awesome package.

I especially loved that I got the Sleek Original Palette. When I had come home from England, I originally got a Sleek Original Palette for myself but decided to give it away and now I have one of my own :)

Thank you Mara for your kind gesture and I hope more of you guys discover her blog and her makeup looks!

Mara Love Package!

New Sugarpill False Eyelashes!

Remember when I posted a sneak peek did swatches of the upcoming new Sugarpill pressed eyeshadows? Well I also said that there were releasing new eyelashes and they're finally here!

There are 19 new pairs that retail for $5.00 each! I'm going to hold out for a little while longer before making a purchase because I think Sugarpill may be doing something for their birthday but if you can't wait, you can pick them up now at the Sugarpill* site!

sugarpill new eyeslashes

*Disclaimer: Post contains an affiliate link which will give me a commission for sales made through that link!

Aromaleigh V1 Pure Eyes Matte and Gothic Nightmare Eyeshadow Swatches

I just wanted to give a shoutout to Amanda over at Glitter and Bubbles! She and I are in the same makeup group (Never Too Much Sparkle! which was started by the lovely Makeup Zombie) and when I had lamented about not trying Aromaleigh earlier, Amanda generously offered to send me some of her extras from her Aromaleigh collection.

I received 10 eyeshadow bags in total, five Ooops! shades and five shades from the Pure Eyes Matte and Gothic Nightmare collection. From what I could tell, her Ooops! shades are just colors that weren't added to the Aromaleigh Core Line or her Collections but they're the same quality as the rest of the brand's eyeshadows. I decided not to swatch any of the Ooops! shades since they're not ones you can easily find or describe by color but you can actually still get the four Pure Eyes Matte shadows on the Aromaleigh website (and they're on sale too!)

From the Pure Eyes Matte Collection, I got Chocolat, Cornflower, Cupid, and Kiss. From the Gothic Lolita Collection, I got Plush Romantic. These were swatched over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer.

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Chocolat: "A delicious, deep chocolate brown. Intense and dramatic" In the bag it looked really orange but it actually is a dark chocolate brown.

Cornflower: "Cornflower matte shadow makes blue eyes sparkle!" This is the perfect baby blue color.

Cupid: "The palest blush. Petal pink, with a delicate hint of mauve" On my skin, Cupid applies so lightly that it looks so white on my skin with the tiniest amount of pink.

Kiss: "Darker than our pale Cupid, this is a lovely pink with a hint of mauve" The description is dead on, it's a pink with a bit of mauve.

Plush Romantic: "Mysterious smudged indigo with brilliant bright sparks of blue. This beauty can't be captured by camera" This is a grey-blue eyeshadow with tons of blue shimmers. I personally thought this eyeshadow was a little sheer and needed lots of packing on.

Of the four Pure Eyes Matte, I found that Chocolat looked the best on but I think that's only because the other three are very light pastels which can sometimes look a little chalky. These weren't chalky though and applied very well, especially for loose mattes which I never usually go for. Some of the Pure Eyes Mattes do smell a little like baby powder but you can't detect that when you wear it!

Do you own any loose matte eyeshadows? Can you recommend a brand that does them well?

Bold Gold Quick FOTD

I did this look really quickly yesterday before I went to the local Tet Festival for Vietnamese New Year. Gold is a really prominent color in the festival so I used Maybelline's Color Tattoo Eyeshadow in Bold Gold and did a winged liner with it with my Physicians Formula Eye Booster Liner. The blush I used is my current go-to blush, theBalm's Downboy.

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Close up picture which is weirdly greyed out considering my full face picture looks fine. Either way, it shows off the liner better. I also managed to get some of the cream eyeshadow on my undereye which is talent right there.

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Hopefully you guys enjoyed/are enjoying your weekend! I've got a swallowing disorders quiz on Wednesday :( but luckily there's a new Once Upon A Time episode tonight!

MAC Pigment Collection Swatches

To borrow a line from Pink Sith, these are swatches of many pigments that you can't have. I thought I might swatch and post about the pigments I do have as a reference for myself and for anyone else who may deem it relevant. I've been in a huge swatching mode lately trying to swatch everything I own and I also included product photos for future reference.

These were all swatched over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer and the pictures were taken in daylight.

Azreal Blue, Blonde's Gold, and Blue (Rebel Rock version)

Azreal Blue, Blonde's Gold, Blue (Rebel Rock)

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Azreal Blue (Frost): "Cool soft silver blue with silver pearlized pigments"

Blonde's Gold (Frost): "Light tan with gold and white pearlized pigments"

Blue (Frost): "Cobalt Blue"

Circa Plum, Coco, and Frozen White

Circa Plum, Coco, Frozen White

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Circa Plum (Frost): "Frosty dirty mid-tone lavender"

Coco (Frost): "Neutral taupe with frost" One of my favorite eyeshadows, ever!!

Frozen White (Frost): "High-frosted white pigment with duochrome". Chunky chunky texture with this one.

Golden Olive, Goldenaire , and Helium

Golden Olive, Goldenaire, Helium

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Golden Olive (Frost): "High frosted green/gold"

Goldenaire (Frost): "Pink with gold pearl"

Helium (Frost): "Light pink with red duochrome" You can tell this also have a really chunky texture, much like Frozen White.

Jardin Aires, Melon, and Platinum

Jardin Aires, Melon, Platinum

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Jardin Aires (Frost): "Tan with gold pearlized pigments"
Melon (Frost): "Bright golden peach"
Platinum (Metal): "Smooth, high-shine platinum"

Provence, Silver, and Tea Time

Provence, Silver, Tea Time

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Provence (Frost): "Light neutral with reflects"
Silver (Metal): "Smooth, high-shine silver" One of the best silver eyeshadows that I ever used (even if it technically wasn't eye-safe)
Tea Time (Pearl): "Bronzed brown with multi-dimensional pearlized pigments"

Teal, Violet, and Your Ladyship

Teal, Violet, Your Ladyship

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Teal (Frost) "Medium blue/green with pearl"
Violet (Frost) "Violet with pink pearl"
Your Ladyship (Frost) "Creamy white with gold pearl"

I also did a couple of comparison swatches.

Goldenaire and Jardin Aires. I never thought the two were similar until I was taking swatch pictures. Turns out Jardin Aires is much less pink.

MAC Goldenaire and Jardin Aires

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Platinum and Silver. Platinum on the left, Silver on the right. Platinum has this warmth to it that Silver doesn't have. It looks like Platinum has gold intermixed within it whereas Silver is just a straight up shiny metallic silver.

MAC Platinum and Silver Pigment


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I hope this post has been helpful for anyone looking for pigment swatches and maybe it's made you a little envious of my pigment stash!

Boom! Chocolate Twinkles EOTD

After swatching the Silk Naturals Eyeshadows I got from Judi, I felt inspired to do a brown smokey eye, especially after seeing this Navy Smokey Eye Look tutorial Lisa Eldridge. The colors aren't obviously the same but I liked how Lisa explained how she did smokey eyes on the model, who happens to have a similar eye shape to me. I think it can be difficult sometimes to find eye looks that suit my eye shape so I liked the tips that she gave in the video.

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I used to have a little issue with eyeshadow on the lower lashline. The way I think I'm going to do it now is to taper it to meet up with the eyeshadow at the outer corner. I think it looks a lot more flattering than having it even!

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I positively love the red sparkle that's coming off of the eyelid.

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Eyes
Coastal Scents Shadow Poxy Matte Eye Primer
Silk Naturals Boom on the eyebrow
Silk Naturals Frills in the crease
Silk Naturals Chocolate Twinkle on the eyelid and the lower lashline
Wet n Wild Coloricon Eyeliner in Mink Brown on the lower lashline
Maybelline EyeStudio Master Shape Eyebrow Pencil in Deep Brown
Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express WP in Glam Brown

Lime Crime, you're STILL doing it wrong.

*Please read here for my response to her blog post on the Chinadoll Campaign*

Oh I seriously cannot wait to talk about what's happened since my last update. I had a contingency post written out on the off chance that Doe did not contact me but now that she's had. Long story short, she's completely blown me off basically.

To recap, I posted my blog post on Wednesday, the Makeupbee collaboration contest was cancelled on Friday and later that night, Doe contacted me.

To prove that she did, here's a screencap of the Facebook Message from Doe Deere.
lime crime's initial outreach

I did verify her identity since clicking on her picture lead me to her real profile. I immediately responded back saying this:

my response to her initial post

Immediately following my correspondence with her, I wrote this update post, indicating that I had received a Facebook message from her saying that she wanted to announcing that I would neither accept nor purchase any Lime Crime products at this current time and in the future.

After that I waited for an email, for I had thought from her wording of her Facebook message to me that she had already had the questions thought up, or at least had the general idea of what she wanted to say. I also checked my Facebook inbox carefully to check if I had missed a message. I didn't get an email on Saturday so I sent her this message on Sunday:

second response
I still hadn't gotten a response by Tuesday so I wrote this comment on her facebook wall. Awkward cropping but I wanted to put a time stamp on when I commented.

save as my third try to contact her

I think by now, I've put a lot of effort into contacting her you know? I'll give her the allowance of not responding to me over the weekend because it's likely she was busy with her personal life. By Monday though, I would have already Facebook messaged twice, and she could have seen the messages on Monday. Then after that, I commented on her personal facebook. She had also been active on the Lime Crime Facebook wall.

So today, nearly a week since she had first Facebook Messaged me, I emailed her using the email I found on her Doe Deere Blogazine site, doedeere@gmail.com
my email to doe

Finally, this is the response I got:

doe's response

My first thought when I read that was "....that's it?" I mean seriously, that's it? After everything that's been said in my post and in the comments, not to mention the public outcry on the Lime Crime Facebook and Makeupbee Facebook, that's it? After I facebook messaged her twice and commented on her personal profile, AND emailed her, THAT'S it?

This is basically a thank you but kindly fuck off email. She completely blew me off. It doesn't address ANY of my concerns at all. From this, I feel like she obviously doesn't care about how ignorant the campaign was, she obviously doesn't care that her words help to reinforce Asian stereotypes and she obviously doesn't care at all because if she did, then she would have done SOMETHING about what I said but she's not and I don't expect she will.

If she expected me to be done with this, oh no I'm just getting started. In my opinion, it's obvious from her actions that her prior "apology" means nothing now since she's STILL not changing anything.

She has said this prior to my post:

"I'm very sorry to hear that some of you found the Chinadoll concept offensive. Chinadoll is inspired by a time and a place, and is not meant to depict any contemporary or even real person. My Chinadoll is strong but not afraid to cry, rebellious but in control, traditional and untamed all at once. She is a living contradiction and, above all, a *woman* -- she can never be, or will be stereotyped. I hope you guys can continue to support our independent brand, we truly do pour our hearts and souls into it. Thanks for your feedback!-Doe"

but a friend of mine summed it up best by saying that apologizing for the way SOMEONE ELSE feels isn't apologizing, especially if you aren't doing anything to fix it. You can't feign ignorance if you don't try to figure out why people are upset and it's also silly to REPEAT more stereotypes in your apology.

At the end of the day, her behavior indicates to me that she doesn't care about being ignorant, doesn't care about perpetuating negative thoughts about other cultures, it's all about the money and what she can sell. Three weeks before the release of the palette and there has been no news on whether production is being stopped or if the release date of the Chinadoll Palette is being postponed. At this point, she has yet to legitimately apologize for the campaign. You know those computerized "thank you for your response, we'll get right on that!" emails you get from customer service? Her email was basically that, except I expect better behavior from the owner of a cosmetics company.

I think the whole thing is just bullshit. Within American popular media, women are already being told to be and act a certain way and then I'm also told how I'm supposed to be and act a certain way due to my Asian heritage and culture. Living within these confines isn't fair and it's not fair to be inundated with these ideas how I should act just because I happen to be a member of a specific community. We're not in a post-racial America and the stereotypes represented in the Chinadoll campaign are hurtful to others.

I'd like this time to thank everyone who read, retweeted and commented on my post over the last few days and thank you to everyone who started following me! I'll take this time to fangirl a little bit because I was so astonished that Sam of Pixiwoo from Youtube actually read my post, and it showed me that it really reached a wide audience and I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the topic of PC words and Asian Stereotypes, especially within different countries and their culture about it. I specifically wanted to give a shoutout to @MoonCave who took the initiative to tweet my post at Makeupbee.

Many people also got referred to the post thanks to links from fellow bloggers and other sites (please read Lillian's commentary on the situation in addition to Robyn's discussion on what it takes for you to boycott a company).

Thank you for reading, commenting, and being respectful during this whole endeavor.