MAC haul: Fix+, Select Cover Up Concealer, Eye Brows in Lingering

Hey loves,

I hope you're having a great day :-)

So like the rest of the female population, I am indeed a MAC fiend! My obsession only started within the past year, but I've since moved near to a branch and I'm clearly obsessed.

I work right next to the MAC in Neal Street, Covent Garden and I am forever popping in to look at the new collections or generally to have a little nosey around.

I feel sorry for whoever I take my lunch break with because they're usually dragged into MAC with me against their will!

I usually try and behave and not buy what I don't need but often my spontaneous head takes over and... well, here we are!

I re-purchased a full-size MAC Fix+ and Lingering eye pencil and bought the Select Cover Up concealer for the first time. Here's what I thought...

MAC Fix+

I've re-purchased Fix+ two or three times now - I'm definitely a convert! I know this is hit and miss kind of product with a lot of people, with some people saying they don't see the benefits, but I certainly do.

It is essentially a glorified water spray but my God is it worth it! You just need to read the ingredients list to see how good it is for your skin - green tea, chamomile, cucumber to name a few.

It's just such an essential part of my make-up regime now - I use it a couple of times a day without fail.

The first thing I use this for is to prime my skin and help my make-up 'stick' to my face. Then, once I've applied my foundation, I buff it in with a stippling brush spritzed with a little of this. I then spray it on my face after I've applied all my make-up to give it a fresh, dewy finish.

I also spray it onto a spoolie brush (old mascara wand) and brush it through my brows to set them in place. I continue to spray my face with this throughout the day when it's in need of a 'pick me up'!

I would definitely recommend this! You could always buy the travel version first and see how you get on, and if you decide you don't like it you've still got a mini spray bottle to keep! Ha.

MAC Eye Brows in Lingering

This was another re-purchase and something I use pretty much every day without fail.

I went through a phase of having really dark, defined brows but I realised they were probably scaring people off so I ditched them in favour of a more natural look.

This is almost exactly the same colour as my brows! It's a self-sharpening style meaning you just twist it up to get the pencil and you don't have to carry a sharpener around.

It takes me about 30 seconds to fill in my brows using this. I literally just colour them in, it's so easy - and it looks so natural.

The only issue I have with this is - because the nib of the pencil is so thin - it ALWAYS snaps off! It's so frustrating, because it's quite expensive and I normally wouldn't mind but when it snaps off it wastes so much product.

I'm on the hunt for a decent dupe for this but I haven't found anything so far. The closest I've found is a brow product only available in the States - Maybelline Define a Brow! Grr. Let me know if you have the same problem :-(

MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer

This was the first time I bought this after a friend recommended it. I have to admit, I'm not overly impressed with this product!

I was colour matched as NW20 in this - which I'm sure is right - but it just doesn't conceal enough. Under my eyes, I still have dark circles and my blemishes aren't covered that well either.

I have quite high expectations of concealers because I have problem skin - don't get me started! - so it has to conceal REALLY well or I'm not interested.

So far, the best concealers I've found for hiding blemishes are Benefit Boi-ing and MAC Studio Finish. The reason I say both is because Benefit is slightly too dark for me naturally so I use it on nights out when I've got a bit of fake tan! I need to try it in the lighter shade too though really.

For concealing dark circles under your eyes, I've found the Yves Saint Laurent Touché Éclat to be the best so far.

That's it for today's MAC haul but I'm sure there will be more coming your way soon!

What are your favourite MAC products? Let me know over on Twitter now.

Love,

Sophia

xo

Back to MAC: My first experience of recycling my old MAC products for new ones

Hi loves!

I hope you're having a good day and looking forward to the evening ahead.

So I don't know about you, but I am absolutely OBSESSED with MAC make-up. My obsession with the Canadian beauty brand only started a couple of years ago but my collection has expanded hugely.

I find it near enough impossible to go to a MAC counter and not buy anything/come out with swatches all over my hands.

I only heard about the Back to MAC scheme about a year ago and started collecting MAC empties since then. I thought you needed five MAC empties but actually it was six. Here's how it works...

1) Use your MAC products like normal and keep the empty packaging. I stored my empty MAC containers in a small box and ticked off how many products I used up. The rules state you need to have six 'primary plastic containers' in order to qualify for Back to MAC but all my empties so far have been eligible.

My six products were - 2 x Eye Brows (Lingering), 2 x Fix+ (travel size), 1 x Fix+, 1 x Pro eye make-up remover (travel size). Yes - mini sizes do count! Or at least they did in the stores I visited (Covent Garden/Pro in Soho).

2) Swatch until your hearts content! As far as I'm aware, you're only allowed a lipstick in the UK but I think in the States you can get a single eyeshadow instead.

I didn't really go in with a certain lipstick in mind to get. I knew I wanted to swatch Ruby Woo, Impassioned and a couple of others but I wasn't set on them.

3) Choose your lipstick! In the end I went for the Cremesheen Lipstick in Hang-up, which is a deep berry shade - perfect for AW13. The first store I visited (Covent Garden) didn't have Hang-up in stock annoyingly as I swatched it and fell in love with it. I went into the Pro store in Soho the next day and they had it in stock, thank God! I simply took my lipstick to the till and they sorted out the recycling.

4) Use your free lipstick! It's as simple as that. They took away the packaging for Hang-up lipstick (not sure why, must be one of the rules of Back to MAC) but I still got the lipstick brand-new and most importantly, FREE! Here's how it looked on a night out IRL:

My verdict on Back to MAC

I think it's pretty amazing actually! You get a free lipstick for using up products you would do anyway. I was also really happy to find that travel-sized products count as I buy a lot of those. It's a shame you don't get to keep the packaging for the new lipstick but it's still full-sized and un-used. It's definitely made me want to use up my MAC quicker!

Have you used Back to MAC before? What was your experience like? What did you get?

Love,

Sophia

xo