Hi everyone! I've moved the blogs about my trials and tribulations with my daughter and her recent diagnosis of ADHD to my new personal blog: Holy Stoltz!
This blog will only feature the fun things I do when it comes to my work! I will do product reviews, post photos of projects I'm involved in and discuss anything and everything beauty-related!
Please follow my new blog, if you feel like it. Thank you so much!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Happiest Girl in the World
It's about damn time!
I've had a really rough year and I'm working on making this one a better one. I'm finding things are going well so far, even though we're less than 2 weeks into 2010.
I received the BEST news today. The Glamour Puss Boutique in Charlotte closed it's doors around 6 months ago or so.
Why is this good news, you may ask? Well, one day in September 2006, I got an email from a photographer friend of mine congratulating me on my new shop. My new shop? This was news to me since my business, Glamourpuss Make-Up & Hair is a mobile service consisting of one employee...me. It didn't take a lot of time to investigate and discover that the proprietor of this shop was a local make-up artist who works with a photographer I have collaborated in the past. This photographer kept my business cards in her reception area, so it doesn't take much of a leap to figure out how all of this came together.
This was particularly frustrating for me because people were already confusing the businesses and the store wasn't even open yet. I decided to take the next logical step and get a trademark lawyer. I own the rights to the name "Glamourpuss" in NC. This has been my business name since 1999, it's the business name that is use when I file my taxes. Even if I didn't have the formal documents, I still had common law rights to the name because I had used it so long, just like a common law marriage. The trademark lawyer was insanely expensive. The retainer was the most money I've ever invested in my business.
Through the lawyer, multiple letters of cease and desist were sent. The owner of the boutique pulled the old ostrich manoeuvre for a while and did nothing. Then, one day we got a letter stating that she had plans to build a brand and expand into a line of accessories and clothing, which really wasn't the best idea anyway, since the owner of the federal trademark of the name has a clothing store and I'm sure she would've had no problems getting this little boutique closed. Long story short, she didn't want to have to re-brand and get new business cards and store signage and all that jazz. Which of course was a load of bull.
And what was most frustrating is that even though I was completely doing all of the things necessary to protect my business, it wasn't enough. Even though I had legally staked my claim on that name, it didn't matter. She could sit there with her head in the sand as long as she wanted and I couldn't do a thing about it. And if she lawyered up with a lawyer who was not completely familiar with trademark law, it could get drawn out for a very long time. My lawyer explained that if we took the next steps necessary and started actually going to court, the expenses could grow to $250, 000 at the very least.
I am only one woman, with a very small business. But I have spent a decade building my name and making sure that it is equated with nothing but the best. It is my baby, it is a part of who I am. I really hated the idea of giving up on my baby. Dominic and I discussed proceeding and looking back now, I really am amazed that he was ready to fight if I wanted to take it there. The risks were high. We could've lost way more than my business...could've lost the house, the cars...everything. But because he believed in me, he was ready to go. At the time, I was a few months pregnant with Jack and I just knew that I would not be able to go through a lengthy legal battle and stay healthy and keep Jack safe. The stress up to that point was so high already.
The only way I could rationalize it was by saying that it would be a flash in the pan business and probably wouldn't last more than 3 years...5 years, tops! Although I did find it insanely aggravating every time I heard about someone going there to look for me or someone calling to get in touch with me...and it happened more than you'd think. Then the shop started placing ads in local publications and airing TV ads and that made things even more annoying because it churned up all this stuff again and every time someone would ask me about it, it was like nails on a chalk board. And this added an extra element because I could not do any real promoting for my business because there was NO WAY I was going to accidentally send customers their way! They offered make-up artistry services...I'm sure they would've been happy to snatch up anyone looking for my services!
So, imagine my surprise when the wardrobe stylist, who was at the shoot I did make-up/hair for today, told me the shop had closed!! It was like the heaven's opened up and great rays of light shone down on me, I could even hear the angels singing! I know...melodramatic, but I cannot remember the last time I received news that pleased me so much! It's funny because I'm not really getting anything out of it, apart from my business name, but that is a really HUGE thing for me. I'm not sure what the circumstances of the store's closing were, but at this point I don't care. Glamourpuss Make-Up & Hair has endured a few years of madness but is still left standing. My name is my own again and it feels great! I love watching karma in action.
I've had a really rough year and I'm working on making this one a better one. I'm finding things are going well so far, even though we're less than 2 weeks into 2010.
I received the BEST news today. The Glamour Puss Boutique in Charlotte closed it's doors around 6 months ago or so.
Why is this good news, you may ask? Well, one day in September 2006, I got an email from a photographer friend of mine congratulating me on my new shop. My new shop? This was news to me since my business, Glamourpuss Make-Up & Hair is a mobile service consisting of one employee...me. It didn't take a lot of time to investigate and discover that the proprietor of this shop was a local make-up artist who works with a photographer I have collaborated in the past. This photographer kept my business cards in her reception area, so it doesn't take much of a leap to figure out how all of this came together.
This was particularly frustrating for me because people were already confusing the businesses and the store wasn't even open yet. I decided to take the next logical step and get a trademark lawyer. I own the rights to the name "Glamourpuss" in NC. This has been my business name since 1999, it's the business name that is use when I file my taxes. Even if I didn't have the formal documents, I still had common law rights to the name because I had used it so long, just like a common law marriage. The trademark lawyer was insanely expensive. The retainer was the most money I've ever invested in my business.
Through the lawyer, multiple letters of cease and desist were sent. The owner of the boutique pulled the old ostrich manoeuvre for a while and did nothing. Then, one day we got a letter stating that she had plans to build a brand and expand into a line of accessories and clothing, which really wasn't the best idea anyway, since the owner of the federal trademark of the name has a clothing store and I'm sure she would've had no problems getting this little boutique closed. Long story short, she didn't want to have to re-brand and get new business cards and store signage and all that jazz. Which of course was a load of bull.
And what was most frustrating is that even though I was completely doing all of the things necessary to protect my business, it wasn't enough. Even though I had legally staked my claim on that name, it didn't matter. She could sit there with her head in the sand as long as she wanted and I couldn't do a thing about it. And if she lawyered up with a lawyer who was not completely familiar with trademark law, it could get drawn out for a very long time. My lawyer explained that if we took the next steps necessary and started actually going to court, the expenses could grow to $250, 000 at the very least.
I am only one woman, with a very small business. But I have spent a decade building my name and making sure that it is equated with nothing but the best. It is my baby, it is a part of who I am. I really hated the idea of giving up on my baby. Dominic and I discussed proceeding and looking back now, I really am amazed that he was ready to fight if I wanted to take it there. The risks were high. We could've lost way more than my business...could've lost the house, the cars...everything. But because he believed in me, he was ready to go. At the time, I was a few months pregnant with Jack and I just knew that I would not be able to go through a lengthy legal battle and stay healthy and keep Jack safe. The stress up to that point was so high already.
The only way I could rationalize it was by saying that it would be a flash in the pan business and probably wouldn't last more than 3 years...5 years, tops! Although I did find it insanely aggravating every time I heard about someone going there to look for me or someone calling to get in touch with me...and it happened more than you'd think. Then the shop started placing ads in local publications and airing TV ads and that made things even more annoying because it churned up all this stuff again and every time someone would ask me about it, it was like nails on a chalk board. And this added an extra element because I could not do any real promoting for my business because there was NO WAY I was going to accidentally send customers their way! They offered make-up artistry services...I'm sure they would've been happy to snatch up anyone looking for my services!
So, imagine my surprise when the wardrobe stylist, who was at the shoot I did make-up/hair for today, told me the shop had closed!! It was like the heaven's opened up and great rays of light shone down on me, I could even hear the angels singing! I know...melodramatic, but I cannot remember the last time I received news that pleased me so much! It's funny because I'm not really getting anything out of it, apart from my business name, but that is a really HUGE thing for me. I'm not sure what the circumstances of the store's closing were, but at this point I don't care. Glamourpuss Make-Up & Hair has endured a few years of madness but is still left standing. My name is my own again and it feels great! I love watching karma in action.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Most Recent Shoot
I recently got together with one of my favorite subjects, Jenn Ryan, and we had a fun day of shooting. We were limited with locations, but I feel like we really worked what he had!
Here are the fruits of our labor:
Here are the fruits of our labor:
Monday, October 26, 2009
Return to Glam...Sorta
Finally...blog with a glam edge to it! I know it's been a while!
A couple of months ago, I got a voucher in the mail from MAC cosmetics to take any one "master class" they offer their clients with MAC Pro memberships. The really good classes I am interested in are usually taught in NYC, so I've never been able to take any. This time around there was a cool class offered in Atlanta, so I decided to take advantage of it! The class was about recreating legendary icons...you know, like Jean Harlow, Lucille Ball, Diana Ross, Madonna, etc. I am always inspired by things from the past, so I figured it would be right up my alley! This 2-hour class was $100 and that money was redeemable for product at the end of the class. With my voucher, I only had to pay for gas for the over 500 mile trip (round trip). Cool!
I got there early, despite having a couple of unrelated issues on the road. I wanted to have some time to get really "hands on" with the products, I like to feel the products on my skin and see how they blend and what the texture is like...usually by the end of this, my arm looks like an abstract painting! This also gave me some time to create a list so I had some idea of what would work with my budget and it would make it easier for the employees to pull the products I wanted.
I had to wait an hour from the time the store closed and the time the class started (7 o'clock). A LOT of people took this class, it was standing room only. Fortunately, I managed to get a chair about 3 rows back. The woman teaching the class oversees the training of employees for ALL of North America! She was super-nice and knowing her background and a little bit about her credentials gave me very high hopes! I always look for an opportunity to learn something.
Some of the info was common sense. If you have a project with a specific icon in mind, one major advantage is to get a model who resembles the icon. Check. And you should know your history to know what was going on in the world and what factors were influencing the trends of the time. Check. At this point in time, I was realizing that my love of make-up, quest for knowledge and the very intensive training I got when I worked for the very first Sephora store in the US had covered pretty much all of this. So, I thought that watching the hands-on demonstrations would be exciting.
Well, I was sad to discover that one model was completed before we even showed up. She was made up to look like Diana Ross from her days with The Supremes. She had the frosty, light lips and played up eyes. The next model came out and I was hoping to see the transformation from clean face to finished icon. But...no. The second model was about 80% done. She was echoing the strong look of Joan Crawford. The foundation was on, blush and eyeshadow. The strong brows were already completed. That means I only got to see her lips be done and the false lashes applied. Woo.
There was a question and answer part (I realized later was just to fill up time). I asked a couple of questions. One was if the make-up artist preferred being hands on when applying foundation rather than using an airbrush. And she does. She said that by the time she sets up the compressor and gun that she could have a face done by hand. (FYI - It takes me about 2 minutes to set my airbrush equipment up. Ask my models.) As long as you clean your gun after each use, set up is a breeze. Then I asked her if she carries around every single shade of her two or 3 favorite formulations of foundations or if she has a few shades she prefers and uses to mix for a range of shades. She said that she does carry every color for her favorite types of foundation, she just transfers them to smaller containers for her kit. But for 2-3 varieties of foundation, that's at least 60 colors. Maybe she does...but my gut thinks not.
After she was finished with the class, she turned us over to the employees so we could load up on products. I had paid no attention to the time, but even after I had to wait FOREVER to get waited on, I ended up walking out of the shop at 9 o'clock. That class was NOT 2 hours. It could not have been more than an hour of actual instruction because I waited a very long time to get my products...so much so that I almost walked out empty-handed. But I know that ordering online or by phone is a toss up with what products are in stock...usually the limited edition items don't last long that way. Of course the essentials I wanted were NOT in stock. No problems with the limited editions, just the good ol' basics.
I find that make-up artists either love MAC or hate it. Some don't want to pay the annual fee for the discount. Some feel very strongly because whenever MAC is recruited for a fashion show or an event, they send out their hourly employees, which ultimately takes away work from freelance make-up artists like myself...and lowers the value of what a make-up artist is worth. Why pay by a half-day or day rate when you can get someone for $10 and hour?
Politics aside, I use MAC because I don't get to NYC enough to really load up on products from the companies I truly love...Make-Up Forever and Face Stockholm. If need be, I can run to one of the MAC counters in Charlotte and get my "hands on" fix with new products. I cannot do that as easily with MUFE and Face because they aren't local. Then there is also the fact that most non-industry consumers really trust the brand. "What brand of make-up do you use?" is a question I get asked frequently. One of my personal complaints is that many times, even their lightest colors in foundations/powders/concealers are not light enough for me. I contemplated trying the liquid mineral make-up since it looked so good on Rachel when I did her make-up for MTV's My Super Sweet 16 show. But as the make-up artist who was helping me pointed out...it was too dark for my pale self. Yet they cannot keep the shade of Studio Fix I use in stock...seems like someone somewhere would get the hint.
I felt like this class was one big advertisement for MAC. Like watching an infomercial live. And even if that WAS the ultimate goal, not education, they still fell short because they did not have enough of the products on hand that the make-up artist used. It seems to me that if you have these classes around the country, then you should have an idea of what you are going to do, what products you plan on using and see to it that the stores have ample stock for the number of attendees...just in case! Sure they were getting a shipment in today, but that does me no good since I am not in Atlanta. It's highly likely that I was the only one there from out of state.
Back to the make-overs. The Diana Ross was pretty good. My one critique would be that when she was with The Supremes, she wore heavy liquid eye liner. I consider that to be her trademark from that period in her life. Here is the main image the make-up artist used as inspiration alongside the finished model. In the larger photos of the finished model, you can also see that in the inner corner of her left eye the fake lashes are coming loose.
As for the Joan Crawford, there was a brief time when she had such angled eyebrows. Most of the time she stuck with rounded arches as you can see in the photo below which was the inspiration for this look. The lips were spot on! BUT when the make-up artist got around to applying the eyelashes, she realized that she had inadvertently switched the ones she meant to use and the Diana Ross model was wearing the ones intended for the Joan Crawford model. Instead of getting another pair to complete the look from this era, she went ahead and decided to use the overly-exaggerated ones intended for the other model. This threw the look entirely. She also opted to NOT use the heavy liner that you can plainly see in the photo she used as inspiration for her Joan. Was this just laziness? It seems to defeat the purpose of recreating an icon if you're going to just fudge it to make do. It's not like we were short on time.
An interesting tidbit is that the artist referred to Joan Crawford's hair style (as seen above) as a "pageboy". A pageboy is usually a short bob, traditionally with bangs more often than not. There are some examples of that classic Breck girl hairstyle that can be referred to as a pageboy, but they are smooth and curled under on the edges.
Another inaccuracy was when she was referring to there always being extremes in make-up...the yin and yang for every era. Well, that's not exactly true. I would say the extremes really started to happen in the late '60s when there were the mod looks, the natural hippie looks...that sort of thing. And that HAS continued since then. She referred to the '80s when things could be so over the top, but then a company called "Ulta II" launched a huge line of nude lipsticks. No, there is a current store called Ulta, but the company she was referring to was called Ultima II. (And the lipsticks were fab...I had 2 of them!) It just irked me since this woman was a self-proclaimed trivia geek when it came to make-up.
Let me just state, I don't know everything...I don't claim to. If there is ever a time in my life when there is nothing else to learn, then I don't want to be around. I just had high hopes taking a "master" class...but was disappointed to find that it was geared towards novices. I'm glad I didn't travel to NYC to take any classes.
And here's a bit of fun. For those of you who only think of "Mommie Dearest" and wire hangers when you hear the name Joan Crawford, here are some images of what a stunning beauty she was before she hit the pinnacle of her career.
A couple of months ago, I got a voucher in the mail from MAC cosmetics to take any one "master class" they offer their clients with MAC Pro memberships. The really good classes I am interested in are usually taught in NYC, so I've never been able to take any. This time around there was a cool class offered in Atlanta, so I decided to take advantage of it! The class was about recreating legendary icons...you know, like Jean Harlow, Lucille Ball, Diana Ross, Madonna, etc. I am always inspired by things from the past, so I figured it would be right up my alley! This 2-hour class was $100 and that money was redeemable for product at the end of the class. With my voucher, I only had to pay for gas for the over 500 mile trip (round trip). Cool!
I got there early, despite having a couple of unrelated issues on the road. I wanted to have some time to get really "hands on" with the products, I like to feel the products on my skin and see how they blend and what the texture is like...usually by the end of this, my arm looks like an abstract painting! This also gave me some time to create a list so I had some idea of what would work with my budget and it would make it easier for the employees to pull the products I wanted.
I had to wait an hour from the time the store closed and the time the class started (7 o'clock). A LOT of people took this class, it was standing room only. Fortunately, I managed to get a chair about 3 rows back. The woman teaching the class oversees the training of employees for ALL of North America! She was super-nice and knowing her background and a little bit about her credentials gave me very high hopes! I always look for an opportunity to learn something.
Some of the info was common sense. If you have a project with a specific icon in mind, one major advantage is to get a model who resembles the icon. Check. And you should know your history to know what was going on in the world and what factors were influencing the trends of the time. Check. At this point in time, I was realizing that my love of make-up, quest for knowledge and the very intensive training I got when I worked for the very first Sephora store in the US had covered pretty much all of this. So, I thought that watching the hands-on demonstrations would be exciting.
Well, I was sad to discover that one model was completed before we even showed up. She was made up to look like Diana Ross from her days with The Supremes. She had the frosty, light lips and played up eyes. The next model came out and I was hoping to see the transformation from clean face to finished icon. But...no. The second model was about 80% done. She was echoing the strong look of Joan Crawford. The foundation was on, blush and eyeshadow. The strong brows were already completed. That means I only got to see her lips be done and the false lashes applied. Woo.
There was a question and answer part (I realized later was just to fill up time). I asked a couple of questions. One was if the make-up artist preferred being hands on when applying foundation rather than using an airbrush. And she does. She said that by the time she sets up the compressor and gun that she could have a face done by hand. (FYI - It takes me about 2 minutes to set my airbrush equipment up. Ask my models.) As long as you clean your gun after each use, set up is a breeze. Then I asked her if she carries around every single shade of her two or 3 favorite formulations of foundations or if she has a few shades she prefers and uses to mix for a range of shades. She said that she does carry every color for her favorite types of foundation, she just transfers them to smaller containers for her kit. But for 2-3 varieties of foundation, that's at least 60 colors. Maybe she does...but my gut thinks not.
After she was finished with the class, she turned us over to the employees so we could load up on products. I had paid no attention to the time, but even after I had to wait FOREVER to get waited on, I ended up walking out of the shop at 9 o'clock. That class was NOT 2 hours. It could not have been more than an hour of actual instruction because I waited a very long time to get my products...so much so that I almost walked out empty-handed. But I know that ordering online or by phone is a toss up with what products are in stock...usually the limited edition items don't last long that way. Of course the essentials I wanted were NOT in stock. No problems with the limited editions, just the good ol' basics.
I find that make-up artists either love MAC or hate it. Some don't want to pay the annual fee for the discount. Some feel very strongly because whenever MAC is recruited for a fashion show or an event, they send out their hourly employees, which ultimately takes away work from freelance make-up artists like myself...and lowers the value of what a make-up artist is worth. Why pay by a half-day or day rate when you can get someone for $10 and hour?
Politics aside, I use MAC because I don't get to NYC enough to really load up on products from the companies I truly love...Make-Up Forever and Face Stockholm. If need be, I can run to one of the MAC counters in Charlotte and get my "hands on" fix with new products. I cannot do that as easily with MUFE and Face because they aren't local. Then there is also the fact that most non-industry consumers really trust the brand. "What brand of make-up do you use?" is a question I get asked frequently. One of my personal complaints is that many times, even their lightest colors in foundations/powders/concealers are not light enough for me. I contemplated trying the liquid mineral make-up since it looked so good on Rachel when I did her make-up for MTV's My Super Sweet 16 show. But as the make-up artist who was helping me pointed out...it was too dark for my pale self. Yet they cannot keep the shade of Studio Fix I use in stock...seems like someone somewhere would get the hint.
I felt like this class was one big advertisement for MAC. Like watching an infomercial live. And even if that WAS the ultimate goal, not education, they still fell short because they did not have enough of the products on hand that the make-up artist used. It seems to me that if you have these classes around the country, then you should have an idea of what you are going to do, what products you plan on using and see to it that the stores have ample stock for the number of attendees...just in case! Sure they were getting a shipment in today, but that does me no good since I am not in Atlanta. It's highly likely that I was the only one there from out of state.
Back to the make-overs. The Diana Ross was pretty good. My one critique would be that when she was with The Supremes, she wore heavy liquid eye liner. I consider that to be her trademark from that period in her life. Here is the main image the make-up artist used as inspiration alongside the finished model. In the larger photos of the finished model, you can also see that in the inner corner of her left eye the fake lashes are coming loose.
As for the Joan Crawford, there was a brief time when she had such angled eyebrows. Most of the time she stuck with rounded arches as you can see in the photo below which was the inspiration for this look. The lips were spot on! BUT when the make-up artist got around to applying the eyelashes, she realized that she had inadvertently switched the ones she meant to use and the Diana Ross model was wearing the ones intended for the Joan Crawford model. Instead of getting another pair to complete the look from this era, she went ahead and decided to use the overly-exaggerated ones intended for the other model. This threw the look entirely. She also opted to NOT use the heavy liner that you can plainly see in the photo she used as inspiration for her Joan. Was this just laziness? It seems to defeat the purpose of recreating an icon if you're going to just fudge it to make do. It's not like we were short on time.
An interesting tidbit is that the artist referred to Joan Crawford's hair style (as seen above) as a "pageboy". A pageboy is usually a short bob, traditionally with bangs more often than not. There are some examples of that classic Breck girl hairstyle that can be referred to as a pageboy, but they are smooth and curled under on the edges.
Another inaccuracy was when she was referring to there always being extremes in make-up...the yin and yang for every era. Well, that's not exactly true. I would say the extremes really started to happen in the late '60s when there were the mod looks, the natural hippie looks...that sort of thing. And that HAS continued since then. She referred to the '80s when things could be so over the top, but then a company called "Ulta II" launched a huge line of nude lipsticks. No, there is a current store called Ulta, but the company she was referring to was called Ultima II. (And the lipsticks were fab...I had 2 of them!) It just irked me since this woman was a self-proclaimed trivia geek when it came to make-up.
Let me just state, I don't know everything...I don't claim to. If there is ever a time in my life when there is nothing else to learn, then I don't want to be around. I just had high hopes taking a "master" class...but was disappointed to find that it was geared towards novices. I'm glad I didn't travel to NYC to take any classes.
And here's a bit of fun. For those of you who only think of "Mommie Dearest" and wire hangers when you hear the name Joan Crawford, here are some images of what a stunning beauty she was before she hit the pinnacle of her career.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Hello Kitty + MAC = LOVE!
So, my lovely pretties from MAC arrived today. I missed out on their fabulous Barbie line of products a few years ago and refused to miss out on the Hello Kitty goodies!
Sometimes MACs collaborations are all over the place...from Diana Ross to Emanuel Ungaro to, very recently, the grand Dame Edna! (Not to mention MANY others!)
Overall, I'm really pleased with this collection. The compacts are black with pink glitter embedded into it and the HK logos are really cute! There were two color palettes for this collection, one was "wild" and the other was, you guessed it, "mild". I was disappointed in the eyeshadow quads they had for each palette. One was made up of cool colors like blues and aquas...the other one had a gold, bright orange and black...I can't even remember the fourth color. I was hoping for colors that were more candy-inspired.
I love the lipsticks and lipglass colors. That one BRIGHT pink one reminds me of that neon pink-blue color of Superstar Barbie's satin dress. I seriously doubt that it ever touches my lips, I feel like I am currently to frumpy to be fashionable, so why draw attention to myself...but it will come in handy in my kit. (And I'm not fishing for compliments...just "keepin' it real...we'll talk about this again in 50 lbs time.)
The beauty powders are really cute, HK's head is imprinted in the powder. I love the colors of the blushes, they are so pretty.
The nailpolishes are cute. The pink reminds me of a color they already have called "Steamy", it's just a hot pink cream polish. The other one is indeed gray. Tate's been wanting a gray shadow and now she has one!
I like the glitter eyeliners...they are so easy to use and really add a little extra oomph when used over your regular eyeliner. The lipglasses are quite lovely too. The one that appears bright orange isn't the shade of coral I thought it would be, but I can live with it. The peachy-pink one is my favorite and it's called "Mimmy" who is HK's sister. I am also really liking the tinted lip conditioners. I used to use MAC's lip conditioner way back when it had different packaging, but always found it too greasy and the packaging too dull. (I'm a packaging whore...make it pretty or cute and it's mine!) Last year I tried their tinted lip conditioner in a stick/tube form, but wasn't wild about the amount of color on the lips, which was VERY little. But these are really nice, the coral one is very bright in the pot, but subtle-yet-visible on the lips.
Last but not least is the glitter. It's called "reflects very pink" and that it does! I was expecting something different thought. When MAC started doing the "reflects ______" names, the glitter was clear with a colored shine to it. This is just straight up pink. And I love that MAC has started making their glitter super-fine, almost like a powder...like their pigments. That keeps it from looking tacky/overdone and makes it easier for the average consumer to use. No one wants to run around looking like a disco ball!
Oh yes and the lipstick has the sweetest little imprint of HK on the side! Enjoy my photos!
**My only gripe is that I couldn't use my industry discount for this special line. :( **
Sometimes MACs collaborations are all over the place...from Diana Ross to Emanuel Ungaro to, very recently, the grand Dame Edna! (Not to mention MANY others!)
Overall, I'm really pleased with this collection. The compacts are black with pink glitter embedded into it and the HK logos are really cute! There were two color palettes for this collection, one was "wild" and the other was, you guessed it, "mild". I was disappointed in the eyeshadow quads they had for each palette. One was made up of cool colors like blues and aquas...the other one had a gold, bright orange and black...I can't even remember the fourth color. I was hoping for colors that were more candy-inspired.
I love the lipsticks and lipglass colors. That one BRIGHT pink one reminds me of that neon pink-blue color of Superstar Barbie's satin dress. I seriously doubt that it ever touches my lips, I feel like I am currently to frumpy to be fashionable, so why draw attention to myself...but it will come in handy in my kit. (And I'm not fishing for compliments...just "keepin' it real...we'll talk about this again in 50 lbs time.)
The beauty powders are really cute, HK's head is imprinted in the powder. I love the colors of the blushes, they are so pretty.
The nailpolishes are cute. The pink reminds me of a color they already have called "Steamy", it's just a hot pink cream polish. The other one is indeed gray. Tate's been wanting a gray shadow and now she has one!
I like the glitter eyeliners...they are so easy to use and really add a little extra oomph when used over your regular eyeliner. The lipglasses are quite lovely too. The one that appears bright orange isn't the shade of coral I thought it would be, but I can live with it. The peachy-pink one is my favorite and it's called "Mimmy" who is HK's sister. I am also really liking the tinted lip conditioners. I used to use MAC's lip conditioner way back when it had different packaging, but always found it too greasy and the packaging too dull. (I'm a packaging whore...make it pretty or cute and it's mine!) Last year I tried their tinted lip conditioner in a stick/tube form, but wasn't wild about the amount of color on the lips, which was VERY little. But these are really nice, the coral one is very bright in the pot, but subtle-yet-visible on the lips.
Last but not least is the glitter. It's called "reflects very pink" and that it does! I was expecting something different thought. When MAC started doing the "reflects ______" names, the glitter was clear with a colored shine to it. This is just straight up pink. And I love that MAC has started making their glitter super-fine, almost like a powder...like their pigments. That keeps it from looking tacky/overdone and makes it easier for the average consumer to use. No one wants to run around looking like a disco ball!
Oh yes and the lipstick has the sweetest little imprint of HK on the side! Enjoy my photos!
**My only gripe is that I couldn't use my industry discount for this special line. :( **
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