Review: MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Plus

What the Label Says

A luxurios domed face powder with minerals, slowly baked to provide a dimensional yet natural-matte finish. Provides perfect low coverage. Use to set or fix foundation, or as a touch-up throughout the day.

Net Weight:

10 grams

Price:

P 1,680.00 / $27

Coverage: 

Sheer-Medium
Goes on sheer when applied using a brush but offers more coverage when applied with a sponge. 

Finish: 

Satin, almost matte. Leaves skin looking flawless and smooth yet natural looking.

This one is one of my 2011 favorites. This works great as a powder over bare skin with concealer or to set foundation. The shade Medium Plus is a dead match with my NC35 skin tone (with olive undertones). The price is a bit steep for a finishing powder, so I leave it up to you to decide whether this is a must buy or not. It's a great product and i really love it and it's been a staple in my daily makeup kit, but I am not over the moon ecstatic about it as I am with most MAC makeup. What i really really love about this powder though is how it instantly evens out my skin tone and makes it look almost flawless yet still look very natural looking - as if you do not have makeup on.

The Good
- great as a finishing powder to set foundation. 
- excellent over bb cream or tinted moisturuzer. gives a flawless yet natural looking skin. 
- evens out skintone
- lightweight
- does not cake
- product lasts a long time (been using this for 2 months and i am not seeing any dents in the dome yet)
- no breakouts (at least for me)
- great for touchups


The Bad
- EXPENSIVE(!)
- does nothing to control oiliness (i have combination skin)
- i hate that the packaging has no mirror


Overall Thoughts
This product will be great for people already blessed with good skin or for those with very minimal blemishes. Just a dab of concealer, bb cream or tinted moisturizer, then set with this, and you're good to go. You'll look flawless without looking fake at all. It feels so light it's as if you do not have any makeup on. It's the best natural looking powder i have ever tried. Here's me with no makeup,  concealer or foundation on, just my Aveeno Positively Radiant Tinted Moisturizer and set with MAC Mineralized Skinfinish Natural. 

What will set most people off though is the price. P 1,680 for 10grams of product is a very steep price for a finishing/face powder. If price is a major concern for you, then you can skip this product. I'm sure you'll find other alternatives (maybe not as good, but probably close) to this. But if price is not an issue for you, then go ahead and try this out. 

You will like this if: 

- you are not price conscious

- you already have good skin and do not need a heavy coverage foundation

- you do not like wearing "heavy" makeup on your face

You will not like this if: 

- you are price conscious

- you want a heavy coverage foundation

- you have oily skin. this will not control the oilies at all

Do you have this? What are your thoughts? 

Review: NYX Round Lipstick - Iconic & Perfect

It's no secret that I'm crazy about NYX Round Lipsticks. They're really cheap, offers a pretty decent quality and come in a whole lotta colors.

I already did a review about the quality of NYX lipsticks here so I will discuss more about the color in this post. 

Here's NYX Round Lipstick in Iconic. This is one of NYX's newer shades. On stick it looks rosey with a hint of brown. When swatched it looks more light pink. I like how it looks on my pigmented lips, because it sorts of neutralizes the color and gives off a natural looking lips with a hint of pink. Iconic is very creamy. So creamy that the stick easily breaks when pushed too hard on the lips. On very hot days, this lipstick melts like crazy.

NYX Round Lipstick in Perfect is brown with a very slight hint of pink. On my lips it gives a very neutral brown look. The color suits me very well. It doesn't wash out and is not too dark brown either that i look like an old hag. Compared with Iconic above, Perfect has a better consistency. Not to creamy for it to easily break and melt.

 

 

Overall, these are two great colors perfect for everyday use and for work. Iconic would probably suit most skintones while Perfect would be best for morena ladies.  Here's Iconic & Perfect swatched side by side. 

LEFT: ICONIC, RIGHT: PERFECT

My 2011 Makeup & Skincare Favorites

I know this is a pretty delayed post since it's almost mid-January and I'm only blogging about last year's favorites now. But hey, better late than never right? 

So friends, here is my obligatory list of makeup and skincare favorites for the year that was (in no particular order):

Revlon Colorstay Makeup w/ Softlex for Oily Skin in 310 Warm Golden
I am not very fond of liquid foundation. I just can't bear the sticky heavy feeling on my skin. Aside from this, my foundation matching attempts have all been big failures - they were either too yellow, too beige, etc. Save for this. This one here is my HG foundation. The shade 310 Warm Golden matches my skintone (NC35, Olive undertones) perfectly. And i mean PERFECTLY. It gives me just the right coverage I need (medium), and feels so light on the skin. 






Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream #27 Honey Beige
From the time I started a relationship with BB Creams 2 years ago, Missha Perfect Cover was the only brand i found a match with. The consistency, coverage and formulation suited me perfectly. Due to it's very limited shade though, i had to settle with shade #23 which was, albeit 2 tones lighter than my skintone, the closest to my skin color. Thank God for the new shade #27 they introduced this year, i finally found a great match for my NC35 skin. Read about their new shade here. 











Missha BB Boomer
The one and only makeup base that i use and have been using for the past 2 years. Find out more about this here.














Skinfood Milk Shake Point Remover
The only makeup remover use. I love that it's moisturizing but really removes even very stubborn makeup very well. Know more about this here.










ELF Two Way Cake Foundation in Rosy Beige
This one is my favorite powder foundation. I like this even more than my MAC Studio Fix Powder+Foundation. It's cheap but offers really good quality. Excellent coverage! I made a review of this here. 













MAC Mineralized Skinfinish Natural in Medium Plus
My go to finishing powder for 2011. Probably the only finishing powder i used last year. Medium Plus is a perfect match for me(NC35)










MAC Sheertone Shimmer Blush in Springsheen
 This one is one of my most abused blushes in 2011. It's great for giving that sort-of bronzed look. I raved about this blush here.  

Benefit Bella Bamba
This blush is heaven! This will probably be on my favorites list year after year after year. It's a very versatile blush that will look good on any skintone, and will great any time of the day. Gives your face an instant brightening, glowing effect. Find out how much i loved it here. 

  

 
Laura Mercier Illuminating Powder in Candlelight  
My favorite highlighter of the year! I love that the color is champagne (and not white) so it gives a more natural look and that the glitters are not too chunky you end up looking like a disco ball. Made a review of this here. 









Sleek Blush in Rosegold 
Love Love Love! The color is much like NARS Super Orgasm & Benefit Bella Bamba but this has it's own character too. Added to this, you get so much product for only P450 which makes it such a steal! Read here why i love this blush to bits.









MAC Browset in Beguille
This one i almost always use in tandem with In2It Eyebrow Powder to keep the brows from straying. I sometimes use this alone during days when I'm too tired to do a full-on makeup on my brows. Read more about this here.
















In2It Eyebrow Cake Powder
This one i cannot afford to have none in my makeup stash. I have tried other more expensive eyebrow powders but somehow I always fall back to In2It. One of the best local makeup products ever. 


 







Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus
My ultimate mascara. No clumps and lumps and extends my very short lashes making them look like i have falsies on. Wrote about how great this is here.

Milani Lipstick in Rose Hip
My first ever bright and loud pink lipstick! I am not very adventurous and daring when it comes to makeup, but this one just looks so pretty it was so hard to resist. And it's very pretty indeed! It takes a bit of getting used to though, and you might get occasional stares here and there.  But overall, this is one bright pink lipstick that matches my NC35 skin tone. I wrote about this lipstick here.  






NYX Round Lipstick in Fig
This here is my ultimate favorite NYX Round Lipstick. The color is absolutely love! It's the perfect wearable pink. Minus points on the formulation though because it's just super creamy, it has a tendency to break off from the tube and melt. This has become a staple in my makeup kit, i'm on my 3rd tube already.  

Aveeno Positevly Radiant Tinted Moisturer 
The only tinted moisturizer that worked on me. My favorite so far. It's offers just enough moisturizing and coverage that i need. Check it out here.

Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque 
My go to masque during bad skin days, like when it's that time of the month. Also works great as a spot on treatment for pimples. Find out what i like about this here.

Beauche Skin Care Set 
This one really helped clear out my skin. Last May, i had a terrible breakout episode due to a makeup product that i was allergic to. I  panicked when realized i was having a major acne breakout episode as i normally do not get pimples. This was recommended to me by a friend and it worked wonders on my skin. I do not regularly use this though, i just finish a set good for the entire month and then give my skin a break for 2-3 months. Disclaimer: What works for me may not work for you. 

 

Happy New Year, Happy New Blog Look!

To usher in the new year, I have completely revamped my entire site's layout. I had initially availed of the service of a really cool blog designer but the transaction did not push through because she had to temporarily put a halt to her blog designing business due to some urgent family matters. 


So with not much of a choice left, i had to muster whatever techie juices i had in my brain (which is not a lot) to somehow tweak the coding in my template and get the look i like. Thank God for Google i was lead to numerous websites that offered help in customizing a blog design. 

Of course much has to be done with the overall look of the site. I would still need to change the fonts, font sizing, layout, and add a few more widgets here and there. But for now, this is all my very limited html coding skills allows me to do and i would say i'm pretty much satisfied with how everything turned out (especially the signature i have added in all of my posts). Too bad though i completely forgot to capture a screenshot of my old blog's look for comparison. It would have been a great before and after transformation. 


Let me end this post by wishing all you lovelies...