The Makeup Box

Top Beauty Products to Check Out @ SEPHORA

Anonymous: Hi! I will be going to sephora soon, but there’s nothing in particular that I’m looking for. Are there any must-haves (especially mac lipstick)? Also, do you have any recommendations for a good foundation? Thanks :)

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Product ranges do vary from store to store, and country to country, so I can only list some items that are available in most places, and that I’ve tried and really recommend!

Update: MAC is only available in select Sephora stores outside US.

(I’m not sure if I’m helping you or enabling you LOL!)

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Foundations:

Make Up For Ever Face and Body Foundation: Absolutely one of the most amazing foundations I’ve tried for those who like the flexibility of sheer-to-heavy buildable coverage and a super-natural looking no-makeup makeup finish. It’s not cheap but if you can, do get color-matched and try it out.

MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus: For those who want something quick, portable, medium-to-high coverage, and good for oily skins, this is the MAC Classic that I’ve been using for about 10 years. In Asia, MAC stores carry the Lightfull SPF25++  (white case) version, but the regular one (black case) also has SPF15.

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Eye Products:

Urban Decay Shadows: Gorgeously-rich and pigmented, and available in both singles as well as palettes. If you’ve never tried these, swatch a few and see how you like it.

Sephora Flashy Liners: These house-brand metallic pencils come in single pieces, as well as a gift set including every color in the range. Definitely check out if you don’t want to shell out for more expensive brands!

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Concealers:

TheBalm Time Balm Concealer: This creamy pot concealer covers well, conditions dry under eye skin, and actually smells quite nice. TheBalm is not carried outside of US Sephoras though.

Make Up For Ever Full Coverage Concealer: Industry-strength matte concealer for marks and spots. Enough said.

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Cheek Products:

MAC Blushes: I love these. If you can still get hold of any of the Pearlmatte Powders from recent limited edition collections, definitely check out as well.

Too Faced Bronzers: If you love bronzer, you HAVE to get yourself to the Too Faced counter to check out the bronzer sets and individuals.  

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Face Powders:

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural: The best setting powder if you want a bit of extra coverage over your foundation/concealer, but don’t like to look flat and matte. This doesn’t make you look shiny. It just looks like luminous, matte skin.

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Lip products:

MAC lipsticks: Everyone likes different textures, but I highly recommend their satins (Pink Nouveau, Faux, Rebel, MAC Red) and mattes (Ruby Woo, Diva, Please Me, Kinda Sexy), as well as Amplified Cremes (Morange, Saint Germain). I don’t particularly love the Lustres and Frosts because I prefer full coverage that I can sheer out as I like, rather than sheer pigmentation that I can’t build up, but you should check everything out anyway!

Sephora House-brand Lipsticks and glosses: There are some REALLY good lipsticks in this range, despite the fact that they don’t get a lot of love from beauty bloggers and gurus. 

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Body/Hair Products:

Soap & Glory: Affordable, kitschy and wonderful bath and body products. Try their Hot Cloth Cleanser, body scrubs, and fabulous body lotions!

Bumble & Bumble: I don’t think this is available outside the US (at least it’s not available where I am), but you HAVE to check out their dry shampoos and Surf Spray.

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Ultra-Splurges:

Prevage serums: Idebenone is one of the most powerful antioxidants around and this really works to correct sun damage. But be prepared to put up with a hefty price tag.

Lancome Visionnaire: My absolute love right now. This is not just an antioxidant serum which helps to even out the skin tone. It helped to calm and shrink my pores sooo much in the past month that I’ve used it.

Nia24: This isn’t available in most Sephoras any longer (WHY, Sephora, WHY???) but it’s one of the best and most effective anti-aging and photo-damage repair lines that I’ve tried. The face cream is one of the few that I’ve actually repurchased not once but TWICE. And then they discontinued it in Singapore. Bummer.

The Cult of Ruby Woo Retro Matte Lipstick: Lip Swatch and Color Comparisons!

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You know I previously posted about how I keep going back to the MAC counters to swatch Ruby Woo. (And thank you to those of you who sent me messages about how I could get it to work better!) Well, I hated the texture of those display lipsticks but I kept suspecting that they got that way because of how MAC staff sterilize their lip product by dipping them into beakers of alcohol.

Note on sterilizing lipsticks: Please, everyone, just wipe the top with a sheet of clean tissue to remove most of the dead skin cells, dust, etc that might have settled there, and then use a spray bottle to mist the top of the lipstick with alcohol (everywhere it might touch the lips). This kills the bacteria. THEN, wipe on a clean section of tissue once more to remove the last bits and the bit of lipstick at the top that might have been “changed” by the alcohol.

Don’t dunk the whole thing into alcohol because over time, that’s going to screw with the natural oils in the lipstick and change its texture. 

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As it turns out, I was right, and a fresh tube of Ruby Woo is NOT hard, dry, crumbly and a pain to get on. It IS more dry than MAC’s other mattes, because this is a “retro matte” texture, but I don’t find it any more drying than most mattes. It’s not as lightweight as Revlon Really Red, but I don’t really love those because they contain too much silica (what makes it more silky feeling) and aren’t as pigmented and opaque as I like. The silica and lower pigment content is also the reason why many shades go on patchy and uneven, or quickly become so as the day wears on.

To illustrate, I swatched it with 2 other of my favorite MAC reds; (L-to-R) MAC Diva, MAC Russian Red, MAC Ruby Woo.

If you’ve tried many modern matte lipsticks, you’ll know they are still quite creamy feeling since most people do not enjoy a really dry lip. On their own, they look matte, but there is still often a tiny bit of sheen when you just apply them (see Diva and Russian Red).

Well, Ruby Woo has zero sheen. It’s a true, powdery, fire-truck, red-red, as opposed to a deeper red like Russian Red. MAC describes these 2 as blue-reds, but I really beg to differ. They are red-reds, which means they lean neither towards yellow (coral undertones) nor blue (magenta undertones). This means it can appear different on different skin tones. If you’re more yellow-toned, it will look more yellow. On porcelain pink-toned skins, it will look like a blue-red.

The best thing about this lipstick is that it’s so matte but it doesn’t look dull (it looks darker in the tube than against the skin due to the natural visual contrast against skin). In fact, it almost glows and lights up the face. (I don’t wear blush with it.)

Lip swatch: MAC Ruby Woo

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Tips for wear:

• Prep your lips to make sure it’s not flaky and chapped. Remove any excess lip balm prior to application.
• If you have a dark lip line, make sure to cover the lip line with a little bit of concealer or flesh-colored lip primer.
• Apply a coat (you can use a lip brush but I love just applying it straight from the tube) and gently blot. Stop right here if you just want a light layer of color.
• [Optional] Apply red lip pencil to shape and define the lip if you need.
• [Optional] Apply a second coat of Ruby Woo if you want a super-intense red lip. Blotting again at this point is optional.

You can also top it with a little clear gloss for a Maraschino cherry lip but I love how it looks matte.

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One More Lipstick Tip:

All lipsticks will go on creamier and then “set” slightly more matte after a couple of hours, as the environment and your lips will draw away the emollients/oils in the product. What you’ll be left with is more pigment. Always get a slightly creamier formula than you intend as what everyone will see an hour later is different from what you see when applying.

So it may not be necessary to blot a lipstick like Ruby Woo a second time, unless it’s for the sake of making it bullet-proof (aka super-long-wearing). It will end up very matte as the day wears on.

Myth-Busting: 

Many people think Revlon Mattes are more moisturizing and less dry than traditional lipsticks because they apply smoother, but that’s a misconception caused by the “silky” feel of silica. If you check the ingredients list, they actually don’t contain the emollients present in most lipsticks, and contain mostly wax, silica and pigment. Combine that with the fact that silica absorbs oil, and you have lipsticks that are in fact more drying for your lips over time.

It’s a convenient (and cheap) way for companies to make something smooth and matte without having to increase the pigment content in their lipsticks.

Ode to Ruby Woo (MAC)

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[Pic source http://birdsandshoes.com/]

This is one of those obsessions where maybe once a week, I’ll find myself making plans to stop by a MAC counter. I haven’t given in because every time I do drop by and pick up a tube of Ruby Woo to swatch on the back of my hand, the uber-hard, “drying-clay” texture shocks me all over again.

I find myself asking the same question that I’ve asked a dozen times before. “How can a lipstick made in this century be this dry and hard to apply?”

Well the answer is simply that Ruby Woo is what MAC classifies as a Retro Matte. (Meaning, they intentionally made it a pain in the wazoo to apply, so that you remember it’s not “just another red”.) Gimicky? Maybe. But it’s also completely matte, even compared to other mattes.

But it’s an undeniably rich, beautiful, true pin-up red. If you can actually get it on to full intensity properly without rubbing your lips off.

[Pic source: http://becauselondon.com]

I’d liken it to the hot guy who just won’t look your way. It just makes you want him more.

Well, I have a staple red lip. It’s called (what else?) Russian Red. It’s actually a smoother, richer texture, and a heck of a lot more comfortable to wear than Ruby Woo. But then I know the next time I pass by a MAC counter, I’ll find myself going up to the lipstick rack and picking up a tube of that most gloriously-red and unbelievably-stubborn lipstick named Ruby Woo to scrape across the back of my hand.