MAC Brush Cleanser

You clean your brushes, right? After every use, just like you're supposed to? If you're saying yes right now, I bet you floss regularly and iron your sheets too.

It's funny. When I'm painting on canvas, I clean all my paintbrushes right away. I suppose because I'm usually running out of the house shortly after I paint my face that my makeup brushes don't get the same quality treatment.

Now I always wash my brushes before and after I do a makeup job. Always. Other people's health and hygiene are stake. But when it's just me, I confess, I can go waaaaay to long between brush washings. Like weeks too long. And yeah, that's just kind of gross, but I know there are some people out there who just don't wash their brushes, ever. Ewww.

Brushes are lovely places for bacteria and other such evils to conglomerate. A quick washing and you're in the clear from all those nasties. I mean, think about it for a minute. You spend how much on cleansers, facial treatments, makeup and brushes trying to make your skin look amazing, but if you don't clean your brushes regularly, you might as well be washing your face with rats. Also your makeup goes on better as the colour isn't contaminated and you're not fighting with residual goop.

So now that I have you concerned about bacterial infections, breakouts and a nasty case of pink eye, let's talk brush cleansers. Since good brushes are made a lovely fibres like goat and boar hair, it's a good idea to use a very gentle cleanser. I'm a fan of the MAC brush cleanser. It costs about $10 and does a nice job. It's pretty easy to use and since most of my brushes are MAC, I feel pretty confident about it prolonging their life. I use paper towel or a clean tea towel to dry them off after rinsing and lay them out to air dry.

If you don't feel like throwing down $10 every so often, you can also use baby shampoo, as it's also tremendously gentle. Make sure you dilute it though. I tend to use it for deep cleaning. Benefit used to make a combination makeup remover/brush cleaner, which they discontinued a few years back. However, gentle makeup remover can also be used as a brush cleaner. It's still removing makeup after all.

What matters most is that you get your brushes clean, regularly. Make it part of your cleaning schedule and stop rubbing nasty old makeup on your face every day.

HRH

MAC 187 Duo Fibre Brush

Brushes generate some conflict in me. The pragmatist in me says "A brush is a brush. It gets the makeup on your face one way or another," and then the artist in me says "Just try it, feel the difference in applying make up with one brush. Feel it on your skin." And suddenly I'm throwing down $50 for a brush.

I don't always wear foundation. Even though I have foundation that I love, I'm trying to let my skin show through before I get old and splotchy. But there are times when I need to look polished or when hormones wreak havoc that I need to pull out the big guns.

Back in the day, latex sponges were all the rage and then the revelation came that a foundation brush would not only give you better coverage and more control, it would also cause you to use less product as the sponge tends to do what sponges do, absorb.

The MAC 190 Foundation brush has been good to me for awhile now. Upon reading a rave review of the 187 Duo Fibre Brush that made claims of pleasant application and gorgeous results I decided to give it a try.



The brush is a blend of goat and synthetic fibres. I've used it for applying foundation and pigments like blush and have been really impressed by it. It's so soft going on and it blends beautifully. It makes the 190 feel like I'm throwing paint on a wall with roller. So much so that my inner pragmatist has been fully silenced.

The only, only problem I have with it is that a lot of bristles fall out. Not a tonne, but enough to annoy me. Hopefully with more use it will happen less. It a drag to have this soft and even complexion with little black tufts stuck on the surface. I expect it will improve as I clean it more.

HRH

MAC Lip Glass La La Libertine

The perfect pink lip gloss. Looks amazing on all who touch it. I loved it so much that I bought one for each of my bridesmaids. Go get some already. It's a limited edition!

HRH

MAC Brush off

Sorry for the extended hiatus. Wedding planning was a boatload of fun, but consumed a lot more mental energy than I would have predicted. Anyway, back to products.

I've made a couple of recent purchases that have been pleasant additions to my kit. I got my hands on two new brushes. You really can't have enough brushes. Learning to use brushes properly is the key difference between makeup that looks like you don't wear it very often but you're trying it for fun and makeup that does what it should; amplify your beauty.

Being the eyeliner addict that I am, the procurment of MAC's 266 small angled brush has brought me to untold levels of glee. This brush will be your best friend this fall if you're trying to recreate any of the heavy-lidded Mod looks of the season. When using it be sure to wipe of an excess on the sides of the brush and keep the colour focused on the angled tip, then pull your lid to the side to make your eyelid as smooth as possible. This will help you control the line much better. It takes some practice, but once you've mastered it, there's nothing quite as sexy.

The other brush I've added to my collection is MAC's 150 large powder brush. Becuase this brush is about $50 it was always fell to the bottom of my beauty wish list. Now that I have it, I'm sorry that I'd put off buying it for so long. I'd forgotten about the polish that dusting your face with loose podwer gives you.

Of course now that I have new brushes, I only want more. There are some great brushes out there by Stila and, should I win the lotto, I'm heading straight to Shu Umera in NYC to buy a completely new set.

Still on my brush list are (all MAC):

• Short powerder/blush brush 129 (for travel)


• Small angled contour brush 162


• Buffer brush 182


• Square shader brush 259


• Medium angled shading brush 275

HRH

MAC: Lip Brush

While I live on the lip gloss side of the street most of the time and am a confessed lazy lip laquerer I have finally done the right thing and gotten myself a lip brush. I've been wearing makeup for a long, long time, I've learned lots, but I wish that I'd learned of this brush sooner. It's soft, it's easy compacted and covered for travel and it makes the lips look oh so luscious. Oh so.

Further prooving to me that no brush is a bad idea.

HRH

MAC: Prep + Prime Skin

I have my friends so well trained that when they hear the words "makeup" or "cosmetics" they immediately contact me with the new information they've procured. It's just too awesome and I love it. After years upon years of pavlovian conditioning my dream has been realized. I know have a highly intelligent army of discerning and beautiful women reporting back their discoveries to me. Mwaa ha and ha.

I was able to enjoy the fruits of all my evil work with Tyla last week, when she very generously invited me to attend a MAC event with her. Tyla is an excellent makeup buddy because she has super-librarian powers. You wouldn't typically think that librarian would mesh with cosmetics-lust, but you just wait until you need concrete information on sunscreen and are without a makeup obsessed kindred professional to guide you through the piles and piles of literature. You just wait.

So we're at MAC and they're plying us with drinks, cookies, cheese and chocolate dipped strawberries. Already I'm in a great place, but then I get a good 10 minutes with "The Foundation Guy" who gives me the lowdown on Prep + Prime Skin. I'd heard raves about it from other members of my highly intelligent army of discerning and beautiful women. but wanted the first hand pitch and tester experience.

MAC is really good at things like foundations, I'm still afraid of their lip products, but I've been a devotee of their creme concealer from the age of 14. People think I have great skin. I don't. My skin is terrible. I have MAC creme concealer and a MAC concealer brush. Thus, people think I have great skin.

My rouse is that much better with the Prep + Prime Skin. Primer gives you a lot of lasting power. I'm sure that most women these days are like me and are fortunate if they have two minutes to spare to check their face. I'd gotten used to the 4 p.m facial meltdown with other primers or no primer at all. I have oily skin and serious primer is needed. Tyla made a reference to Paris Hilton in House of Wax as I pled my "my god I need primer" case to her, describing my face at the end of the day.

So here's the deal with Prep + Prime Skin. It makes the skin very soft and smooth. It fills in "character lines" beautifully and blush holds it's colour a good three to four hours longer. There's also less of the face melting. Prep + Prime Skin has a very subtle amount of sparkle in it as well. Just enough to give you a nudge of glow, but not so much that it would be inappropriate for the office.

All in all, it's a great addition to your makeup rountine. It takes a second to put on, but gives you hours more good face time.

HRH

MAC: Pro Longwear Lustre Lipcolour

I didn't buy this product, but I'm mentioning it because I tried it on at the MAC counter last night and then practically had to sand my lips down to get it to come off. Some might see this as a good thing. Those who like lipstick and like it to last until after judgement day might be pleased by it. Me? I was freaking right out.

Service at the MAC counter last night was pitiful. There were two makeup artists working; one was giving someone a makeover and the other was busy being a waste of skin. As such, shoppers were basically left to their own devices when looking for products. The Pro Longwear Lustre Lipcolour caught my eye, as the idea of not having to reapply lip gloss 5 times a say was pretty enticing. The staff pretty much left me to my own devices when trying on this stuff, which I'm fine with, but what would have been really good to know would be that you need Cleanse Off Oil to actually remove this stuff. While I did like the colour (Go Vin Go) I got so annoyed at the lack of service that I went back to the Benefit counter and spent my money there instead (and I will be reveiwing that product after a little more testing).

I got home and tried to take the stuff off my lips and had NO luck. See I didn't know until I'd consulted the Interweb today that I learned that need an oil-based make-up remover to get it off. I have one, but it just didn't come to mind as I was freaking out. I tried waterbased, I tried rubbing alcohol (OWWWW! DUMB ME), I tried towels... it wasn't until I'd basically promised my first born child to lucifer that I got the infernal stuff off my lips.

(As I side note, if any on is looking for a really ghetto way to plump up their lips, rubbing alcohol and a rough towel do a pretty decent job. You get a good 3 hours of swollen lips out of it. NOTE: I'm KIDDING!)

The moral of this story: I should never deviate from lip gloss. Ever.

HRH

MAC: Fluidline

Summer can be an icky time for makeup. Especially for lovers of eyeliner. Kohl is usually my choice for bringing out my big browns, but come summertime (and the cursed allergies) it's just not feasable. That's when items like MAC's new fluidline eyeliner come in very, very handy. All the drama and precision you need, but in a formula that dries and stays put.

And have I mentioned the colours! Weeeee. Never before have I been so thrilled at owning purple eyeliner. While it looks very intense in the jar, a modest application can even work during the day. People just think something looks a little different.

Make sure you get an eyeliner brush to go with it. As always, your makeup only looks as good as your brushes are.

HRH