Brand: Make Up Store

The eyebrow job

~ tirurit ~ 17 Comments
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Eyebrow shaping tools

Learning how to frame your eyes in the most flattering way is no easy feat.

Many among us may have committed all kinds of crimes against the eyebrow; from overtweezing to tadpole shapes to insisting on a line that is not natural to you.

Fortunately, with time and practice one finds what best suits ones features. You simply use a spoolie and some scissors to cut long hairs and some tweezers to get rid of the ones that grow outside your shape. And once peace has been signed with what mother nature provided, we want to help our eyebrows to look their best.

The first type of product that I ever used was a pencil. Initially I was really reluctant to follow the advice I had been given and give my too short eyebrows a little tail with a brown eye pencil.

I ended liking the effect and fortunately I found more appropriate shades than dark brown and more appropriate formulas as well.

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Kiko Precision Eyebrow Pencil in 03

These days I am using Kiko Precision Eyebrow Pencil in 03 (5,90€) which is a medium brown shade that leans a bit warm. It is perfect to harmonize my black eyebrows with my dark brown hair.

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Depot like you mean it: how I organized my blushes and eyeshadows

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One of my recent resolutions when it comes to make up is to consolidate as much as possible. One way that I have found to do this is to depot anything and everything that I can so I can have the products more easily accessible.

I keep all my Z-palettes plus a few other odds and ends in these two Ikea cardboard folders. It is a cheap and convenient solution for storage. You could even write on them with a marker.

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MAC Pro blushes in Rhubarb and Coppertone and Sculpt Powder

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MAC Coppertone, Rhubarb and Sculpt

This second post on my recent epic haul contains the face powders I got at the MAC Pro Store.

In general, the shades exclusive to the Pro stores are brighter or less common than those found in normal stores or counters, so I definitely took advantage of the chance to check them out in person!

 

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MAC Coppertone, Rhubarb and Sculpt

I came back home with two gorgeous Blushes, Rhubarb and Coppertone, and one the Sculpting Powder in Sculpt.

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Bye bye: various brushes and 28 neutral palette

~ tirurit ~ 4 Comments

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For some time now I have been decluttering my stash of lower quality products, those that did not work for me or simply those that for any reason I did not reach for.

In the case of the ones featured in this post, we could consider them my training wheels, as I am putting aside to give away or throw away some brushes that I bought when I first started and a cheap basic palette that has allowed me to play with different colours without breaking the bank.

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Kiko has some decent brushes and at affordable prices. They have both permanent and limited edition brushes, which are worth a look if you are in the market for basic brushes (specially if you take advantage of the frequent sales).

Above are pictured the face 102 brush and two limited edition brushes. The powder brush is quite dense, works well to blend powder on the face but is scratchy. I have found nicer substitutes to this one.

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How to depot: Make Up Store Microshadows and Cybershadows

~ tirurit ~ 8 Comments
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Scissors, nail clipper, knife, tea candle, lighter, eyeshadows and cardboard

When I started depoting all of my powder products, the first thing I did was run to youtube for some good depoting tutorials. There are plenty of MAC tutorials, but at the time I did not find a single tutorial for Make Up Store eyeshadows!

I didn’t give up though, and I discovered that the brand is in fact the easiest to depot that I have encountered to date! After figuring out how to depot them, I currently have all my MUS eyeshadows and blushes in Z-palettes.

So, I thought that as I had a few MUS Microshadows and Cybershadows to depot, I could photography the steps so that others could too depot theirs. The eyeshadow featured is a Microshadow, but as Cybershadows have the same pots only smaller sized, the same method can be used with those.

Necessary items

  • Eyeshadows
  • Tea candle and lighter
  • Knife, preferably one that you do not use to cook
  • Nail clipper, useful if you need to cut through the plastic casing or to use as thongs if the plastic casing becomes too hot while you hold it over the candle
  • Scissors, to cut the labels
  • Cardboard, as a working surface. It helps you keep your desk clean and cushions the impact if an eyeshadow slips and falls
  • Paper tissues, I use them to protect my fingers from the heat (forgot to include it in the picture above!)

First of all, I prefer the heat method, specifically the tea candle method, so keep in mind that you are working with fire and a sharp object (knife) and that when melting the plastic can emit fumes. To summarize take all necessary precautions.

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New: Make Up Store Cybershadows

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IMG_0945 The Make Up Store’s Cybershadows featured today are eyeshadows with a metallic finish which are the same size as a MAC eyeshadow. In this case I brought home three that could be considered variations of gold and two in the purple family. IMG_0946   The first three shades are Venus, Gold and Sable. As with all MUS Cybershadows, they are the same size than a MAC eyeshadow and they contain 2g of product.

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Favourites 2014

~ tirurit ~ 8 Comments
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Favourite products 2014

 

So this is the almost compulsory feeling post that features all those products that I kept reaching for during 2014.

When you keep using a certain product it is because it performs well and you trust it to deliver good colour or to stay put for as  long as you are wearing it. Personaly, I love reading this type of posts as you can always find little treasures that you knew nothing about. So even though this blog is quite new, let me introduce you to my favourite products of 2014.

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Comparison: MAC Parrot and MUS Buzzer

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MUS Buzzer and MAC Parrot

 For some reason I am really really drawn to intense blues and teals despite not wearing them as often as other colours. You may have noticed that in my recent post about my colour eyeshadows.

I have had MAC’s Parrot for some time now, as I acquired it when it was repromoted with the Art of the Eye collection during summer 2013 but Make Up Store’s Buzzer is a more recent addition.

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MUS Buzzer and MAC Parrot

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Disapointment: My country’s Make Up Store’s Pro Store’s customer service

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As someone who has worked in retail, I am a firm believer that the way to fidelize your customers is to give them something that makes a difference.

There are stores much like Zara that rely on overwhelming the customer with plenty of choices and a reasonable or cheap price. Other stores can’t compete with this strategy and opt for a better and more personalized customer service.

I have been shopping at my MUS store since they opened their doors and their products are second in number in my stash only after MAC. I have seen their evolution and many a sales assistant come and go. The sales assistants have mostly been friendly and helpful but with some I developed a closer and warmer relationship, while still retaining our roles as customer and employee. We live in a small sized town after all, and people get to know each other. And after this long shared history, today they made me feel like a mere number.

I was interested in some of their Cybershadows, and, before going to the store, I checked out their website to know the shades available and prices. Surprise! Some of their shades were on a 30% off. Hurray! I went to the store and purchased my items while chatting with the sales assistants (“Oh, I’ve seen pictures of the new packaging” “Yeah it is very nice. And they are also launching new and better brushes” “Sounds like I’ll have to check them out!”). So imagine my surprise when as I was once more on the street, I look at my receipt and I see all the items at full price on it!

I went back and asked for a refund. At first they were reticent, telling me that those offers were only available online (a lie, when I have had the discounts applied in store before) but as I would not budge they gave it back to me in the end. The price difference? 15€.

I could not care less about those 15€. Hell, last week I spent quite a bit on brushes alone (Wayne Goss and Laura Mercier), but I refuse to let them get away with it. If I frequent a store it is because I like the relationship you develop with the staff, being able to share the excitement for upcoming releases and being able to check the items in person before you purchase them. If I get none of the perks and on top of that I feel like they are ripping me off, then I am afraid that the store has lost a customer. They can try to give me whatever excuse about “the system” and “orders from Stockholm”, but the truth is that my value as a loyal customer was diminished when confronted with potential face-less online customers. Cashing 15€ was more important than a loyal customer. Why should I be less?

I still like the brand, but from now onwards I will be very selective on whether I buy an item and if at all possible, on WHERE I buy it.

What about you? Any retail anecdotes?

Disapointments: Make Up Store Egg sponge

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MUS Egg sponge

After the launch of the Beauty Blender Micro Mini (17€ for two sponges), the sponge designed to reach all corners and blend flawlessly your concealer, I decided to give the similar Make Up Store Egg sponge (8€) a try.

As you can see  in the picture below, it is not as small as the Micro Mini. Where the Micro Mini is barely half the lenght of a dry Beauty Blender, the Egg sponge is almost as long but quite thinner. It is a black sponge with the MUS’s logo in white and two pointed ends, which I thought would be very useful.

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