MAC Heroine Lipstick from the Fashion Sets Collection I did a Haul of Shame post about recently literally sold out in a few hours on the MAC website and very quickly at MAC stores and counters.

This is a shade that I’ve never worn before. As a new ‘lipstick convert’, I tend to wear more traditional shades like neutrals, but I have dabbled in (and loved) the super bright pinks and corals.

Although I’m very confident about wearing virtually any shade on my fingernails, when it comes to my lips, I was pretty self-conscious.

Wearing those louder shades on my lips made me curious about experimenting with other colours that I had previously ignored because I didn’t have the confidence to pull them off.

Purple is a shade I adore on others because it makes a big statement, and because, well, purple is one of my favourite colours.

(Green is my number-one favourite colour, hehe, if you couldn’t already tell from the many times I’ve gushed about green nail polish! But, I can’t say that I ever want to sport green lipstick unless it’s Hallowe’en. I’m not quite ready to go that far, even if I love goths who wear crazy lip shades!)

So you can imagine how nervous I was about MAC Heroine Lipstick. I’m happy to report that after this, I’m no longer too shy to sport purples. I really love how it’s an interesting and different shade – unexpected, actually! (At least it is on me.)

It makes a statement, but it’s not too crazy that it’s inappropriate for daytime wear. I just love it, and I think it suits my personality. Plus I seem to get lots of compliments when I wear it. That doesn’t hurt!

I’m curious now to see how far I can stray from the ‘lipstick norm’.

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The majority of my blog posts are about nail polish, but I’m a huge fan of beauty products, too.

You may remember that I was taken over by insanity on many counts and placed an astronomical order because the MAC Archie’s Girls Collection dangled a hook with a ‘worm’, and well, I’m a Pisces, so I fell for the trick. Darn!

If you follow me on Instagram, you already got some sneak peek lip swatches on MAC Ronnie Red Lipstick.

Excuse me, but I am in love with Ronnie Red! And this is coming from someone who hardly wears red lip colour. I wanted to try this one, plus the Veronica Lodge packaging was too good to pass up.

I’m so glad I bought the MAC Ronnie Red Lipstick because it’s literally the perfect wearable red lipstick for me. Since buying it, I’ve worn it so much that I’m considering going to the MAC store and buying a back-up!

P.S. I also want to take this opportunity to say that I’ve read a lot of the comments that you’ve left in my Illamasqua Raindrops Giveaway post, and I’m incredibly touched. I will try my best to reply to comments on the weekend (because right now time is soooo tight).

But I wanted to let you all know that I am just so grateful that I have the BEST blog readers around! You have no idea how much what you’ve said means to me. I work hard on my blog, and the fact that you appreciate it makes me teary eyed!

THANK YOU for your support and for being vocal about it. It really does motivate me to continue blogging for as long as I can.

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If you’re into makeup, chances are that you were highly anticipating the MAC By Request Collection, which features the winning former-bestselling-and-discontinued shades as voted on by the public.

One vote per person per day was allowed, and for nearly the entire duration of the poll, I voted for MAC Candy Yum-Yum Lipstick!

When this neon pink was originally released last year, I took too long deciding whether or not to get it, and then it sold out in the blink of an eye.

This time, I wasn’t playin’, girlfriend! I stayed up late and checked the MAC website the second it was released online (since this was an online-only release). Once I was able to, I quickly placed my order for 4 tubes in a frenzy – 2 for me and 2 for a friend. (My palms were sweaty. Yes, that’s when you know you’ve got it bad, Usher…when your palms sweat because of a coveted lipstick shade.)

And, thank goodness I decided to be a crazy fanatic about it because in roughly just 12 hours of it going on sale, the limited-edition shade was sold out…again. And there doesn’t seem to be any plans by MAC to restock just yet.

So…I guess this blog post is quite the tease, but I had to share my excitement about finally getting to try out MAC Candy Yum-Yum!

And, yes, the neon-love train is still chugging along over here at Swatch And Learn. Choooo-chooooo! All aboardddd!

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The MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions Collection just came out on June 21st. Several beauty bloggers got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create the lip gloss of their dreams. (There are also some gorgeous eye shadows in the collection.)

While I wanted to buy all of the MAC Tinted Lipglasses, I stuck to my budget and only bought one.

The MAC All of My Purple Life Lipglass didn’t just speak to me – it screamed at the top of its lungs, “Get me because I’m different!” (Usually I don’t like getting yelled at, but from a MAC lip gloss, I can overlook it…hehe!)

This unique lip color was created by Afrobella, who I hadn’t heard of before this MAC collection dropped. Her goal was to come up with the perfect purple for all women of color.

This pigmented purple MAC lip gloss isn’t for the faint of heart. And I hesitated to buy it for that very reason. Normally I like wearing clear, pink, or beige-gold on my lips. And I rarely wear super-dark, bold lip colors. So the MAC All of My Purple Life Tinted Lipglass was a far departure from anything in my current stash. Continue reading →