MAC Asian Flower Sheen Supreme Lipstick

You might remember that a few weeks ago I asked for help in locating a particular colour. It was a purply pink shade from the brand Classics which isn't available in Australia nor do they have an online stores that ships to Australia. Click HERE for that post.

After a few recommendations from my lovely readers, the closest colour match seemed to be MAC Sheen Supreme lipstick in Asian Flower as suggested by Sophie (and concurred by Emma). Well ladies, I give you MAC Asian Flower.

Product Directory

Hi all,

Over the last few days I've been working on creating a Product Directory on Makeup and Macaroons. What's a Product Directory? Basically all the products featured here on the blog are now all in one handy place, categorized alphabetically. If you're looking for a specific product that you know I've reviewed in the past then head on over to the directory. Likewise if you'd like to know what other products have made it on Makeup and Macaroons (after all it has been going for 2.5yrs), then again head on over to the directory by clicking HERE. You can also access the directory via the pages section just under my blog's title.

Hope you find it useful!

Lilit
xo

PS: I've also created a FAQ page, so please feel free to check that out as well.

Quick Beauty Tip #2 - making lipstick last longer on the lips

Dear Lilit,

I can see you love rocking bright lipsticks. What is your lipstick routine and how do you make sure it won't bleed and will last through the day.

Love,

M&M Reader.

5 to Try - Grey Nail Polish

Marion Cotillard sporting grey nails at the 2013 Golden Globes

Grey nail polish is so hard to pull off. It needs just the right amount of warmth and creaminess otherwise it can give you corpse hands. These 5 nail polishes are perfect if you want to try the grey nail polish trend without looking like you're going to a Halloween party.

Illamasqua lipstick in Immodest

Remember for a while I couldn't wear bright lipsticks? Well I'm getting back into them again, but my preference is for matte lipsticks as they last longer and don't smear as easily. Enter Illamasqua lipstick in Immodest*, which is from their I'mPerfection collection. Immodest would have to be the mattest (is that even a word?) lipstick I own, even in comparison to all my other matte Illamasqua lip colours. This is one of those lipsticks that you must, absolutely must, wear a lip balm first before applying. It's not forgiving on dry lips, not unless you like the flaky look. And in return for your troubles you get an absolutely gorgeous colour that lasts and lasts.

Accessories collective haul

I'm in a bit of a limboland when it comes to shopping at the moment. As much as I want to buy new clothes I just can't seem to find anything I like. Plus I still haven't lost all the baby weight (3 kilos to go, woohoo), and also I don't know if I should be buying clothes that I can wear to work when I return next month, or clothes that are more suited to the playground and getting all kinds of baby goo on. So I turn to accessories instead. They're cheaper, plus they don't care that I still have baby fat hanging around.

Here are a few things I picked up last week from various shops and online.

Review - Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish Cream Makeup

I don't own a lot of Elizabeth Arden cosmetics. I guess I always put it in the "mature brand" basket and never really gave them a chance. And yes I know, I'm in my 30s and some people would put me in the "mature" basket too but really, you're only as old as you feel and despite the grey hair masked by hair dye I feel like I'm still in my 20s. Anyway, I was recently sent this foundation to try and let me tell you it's put the brand back on my radar.


Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish Sponge-On Cream Make up

Giveaway - Elizabeth Arden Prevage Intensive Repair Serum

I have teamed up with Elizabeth Arden to give one Makeup and Macaroons reader an Elizabeth Arden Prevage pack valued at AUD $250. This product has received fantastic reviews on Beautyheaven which you can read about HERE.

A pop of green

A really easy way of wearing colour on your eyes is by lining your lower lashline with your colour of choice. In honour of St Patrick's day tomorrow, I decided to add a pop of green to my neutral eye makeup. The effect is very subtle, but it's still enough to lift an otherwise fairly boring eye makeup. I kept the rest of the face fairly neutral, with soft pink lips and cheeks to balance out the pop of colour.

Google Reader is shutting down - how to follow blogs now?

If you follow a lot of blogs (like I do!), then chances are that you use some kind of a reader to keep up to date with your favourite blogs. My reader of choice was Google Reader but yesterday Google announced on their blog that as of 1 July 2013 they will be shutting down this service. What does this mean for you? If you use Google Reader to follow blogs, you will need to find yourself another reader. My two other favourite ways of keeping up to date with blogs are Bloglovin' and Hellocotton.

Bloglovin'
Bloglovin'  has a clean user interface which is very easy to use. Once you sign up, just add your favourite blogs to follow and everytime there is a new post from your favourite blogger this post will show up on your Bloglovin' homepage. Alternately you can browse thousands of other blogs to find a new favourite. Bloglovin' also has the ability to import your existing subscriptions from Google Reader quickly and easily by clicking HERE. 

Hellocotton
Hellocotton is another Reader that allows you to add your favourite blog to follow, but also allows you to discover the most popular blogs in categories of Beauty, Fashion, Food, etc. Hellocotton also has the ability to allow you to comment on the blog post right from the Hellocotton window.

To follow Makeup and Macaroons on Bloglovin' click HERE.
To follow Makeup and Macaroons on Hellocotton click HERE.

How do you follow blogs? 

Do you know of better Readers out there?

How I fill in my eyebrows - requested

Lately I've had a lot of nice comments about my eyebrows which I find ironic as my brows are my least favourite part of my face - actually no, my nose is my least favourite part as I've broken it in a childhood fall, but brows come a close 2nd in terms of things-I'd-like-to-change-about-my-face. But none the less, thank you everyone for making me feel good about my eyebrows. The thing that's different lately is I've been using both a pencil and a powder to fill them in and here's how I do it.

This post is purely about how I fill in my eyebrows, and not how I shape them. I normally just shape them myself with tweezers trying to stick to the golden ratio rule. Anyway, moving to how I fill them in.

First, lets look at the obligatory before and after image shall we?

How horrific are my natural brows, right? I have patchy brows which means using just a powder will not give me a precise line, so I draw my desired shape then go over it with powder eyeshadow to make it look natural.

Jaded

After seeing THIS post on Rae's blog I knew I had to get myself a muted green nail polish and luckily I found one that I love. It's the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Jaded.

I have a lot of mints and aqua shades, but nothing like this lovely muted green with grey undertones. It's the perfect transitional shade to take you from autumn to winter, or if you're in the northern hemisphere this will work perfectly in spring as well!

FOTD with orange eyeshadow

A long long time ago I wore an orange blush as eyeshadow and quite liked the way it looked. (Click HERE for that post). So I went and bought myself a fairly cheap orange eyeshadow (Flormar Terracotta e/s in #M102) thinking I'd wear it often. And then somehow I forgot all about said eyeshadow until almost a year after purchasing it when I found it inside the pocket of one of my handbags, still in its plastic bag with the receipt still attached! Oops. Sign of having too much makeup?

Anyway, I decided to finally put it to good use, and yep I still like the way orange looks on my eyes.

TheBalm Balm Shelter Tinted Moisturizer review and photos

Even though my skin is generally good I usually prefer medium to full coverage foundations. For me it's less about covering imperfections, and more about having cover that lasts, which medium to full coverage foundations tend to have. Which is why I tend to shy away from BB Creams and tinted moisturisers as they don't last long on the skin.

A while back I was sent TheBalm Balm Shelter Tinted Moisturizer for review and it took me a while to use it as I just didn't think it would work for me. And... ummm... yeah, I should have used it earlier as it's actually not bad. Not bad at all. In fact I'd go so far as to say for a tinted moisturiser  it's pretty darn good.

Help me find this colour

I have this lipstick which I bought a couple of years ago in Armenia. It only cost me a few dollars (600 dram) and the colour is just awesome. I wore it here in THIS post. It's a cross between lavender and fuchsia and it's oh so wearable.

The problem is the lippy is fast diminishing in its tube and I can't find a replacement. The brand is called Classics and the shade is #227. In the tube it looks like any ordinary cool toned bright pink, but on lips you can see the purple undertones. I can't find this for sale anywhere, online or in shops. And I also can't find good dupes for it. Obviously flying almost 12,000kms to Armenia for this lipstick is not really an option.

FOTD with purple eyeshadow

This morning, bored of my neutral greys and browns I decided to pull my coloured eyeshadows out of hiding and MAC Parfait Amour caught my eye. I love purple eyeshadow, but it's been ages since I've actually worn it. You see the thing is, if you're not careful purple can make your eyes look very tired and red. Basically it's not the sort of shade that I gravitated towards as a sleep deprived new mumma. But, the trick to wearing purple without looking like you haven't slept in yonks is to keep the colour only on the top lash line.

Due to my eye shape you can hardly see the purple, but trust me it's there!

Arbonne eyeshadows - Review & GIVEAWAY

I'd heard of the brand Arbonne but had never tried anything from them until now. Their products are vegan certified, not tested on animals and free from parabens and other nasties. Sounds good right? But how well do they work? Well today I'm reviewing two eyeshadows from the brand, and I'll give you the chance to win the exact same colours for you to try yourself.

I was kindly sent single eyeshadows in Ivy and Chocolate to try. They retail for AUD $26 for 2.2gr product (in comparison a MAC e/s is 1.5gr) from their online store HERE.