MAC Powder Kiss Lipsticks | Review + Swatches

One of my favorite things about the beauty world is watching trends evolve. First everything was all about the super opaque and precise matte liquid lip look, and now we’re coming around to more sheer stains and glosses. MAC’s new Powder Kiss Lipsticks are coming at a perfect time - they promise a soft, weightless, velvety finish perfect for a blurred lip stain straight from the runway, that you can wear every day.

When I first saw the photos of these lipsticks, I was immediately intrigued. The bullets themselves looked SO matte that they seem like they could be powders pressed into a lipstick bullet shape. They also come in a rubberized matte tube - think NARS packaging. I’m all about a more sheer, worn-in lip look so the Powder Kiss Lipsticks seemed perfect for me.

When first swatching these I was surprised at how easily they glided onto my lips/skin. They truly feel velvety and are like nothing I’ve ever tried. They feel so lightweight as you apply them and while wearing them - it’s almost like you can’t feel them at all. They’re not quite as pigmented as MAC’s regular matte lipsticks, and they have a soft-focus finish to them that makes them look like a lipstain once applied. Weartime has been good for me, a few hours if I’m not eating, and they’re easy to blend back into place as they wear away, too. I’m surprised something with such a matte finish doesn’t feel dry on the lips - they almost feel like you’re wearing a lightweight balm, so even my prone-to-dryness lips stay hydrated throughout wearing them. They apply best on dry lips (with no balm), otherwise they can tend to go a little patchy. And just as a heads-up - the scent is a little different than most MAC lipsticks here: it’s like the normal MAC lipstick vanilla scent, mixed with a little bit of rubber (?), which isn’t great, but the scent doesn’t transfer to the lips. I just love the finish of these - it’s like you spent a lot of time blurring and blotting down your regular full-coverage lipstick, and you’re left with this beautiful blotted stain.

MAC Powder Kiss Lipsticks come in 16 shades (descriptions from MAC’s website)::

MAC Powder Kiss Lipsticks in (top to bottom) Devoted to Chili, Fall in Love, Lasting Passion, Impulsive, Sultriness, Style Shocked, Influentially It, Burning Love, Sweet No Sugar, Scattered Petals, My Tweedy, Shocking Revelation, Mull it Over, Mandarin O, Best of Me, A Little Tamed

Devoted to Chili - warm brick red

Fall in Love - bright creamy fuschia

Lasting Passion - clean bright red

Impulsive - warm brown

Sultriness - baby blue pink

Style Shocked - clean red orange

Influentially It - nude beige

Burning Love - deepened red wine

Sweet, No Sugar - clean warm pink

Scattered Petals - pale clean pink

My Tweedy - blushy nude

Shocking Revelation - clean blue red

Mull it Over - dirty peach

Mandarin O - bright creamy salmon pink

Best of Me - pale milky beige

A Little Tamed - midtone pink

My favorite shades have been a mix of Sultriness and Devoted to Chili for daytime, and Burning Love for more special occasions. The MAC Powder Kiss Lipsticks are out now and are $19. Will you be trying them?

MAC Powder Kiss Lipsticks were sent to me for consideration, but all opinions are my own.

The Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Look

Few shades of beauty products have reached the instant fame and cult-status as Charlotte Tilbury's Pillow Talk shade has. The shade first showed up in her Lip Cheat, quickly becoming an iconic favorite for being a universally-flattering pink nude that helped to sculpt and shape the lips. She then followed by making it into a Matte Revolution Lipstick (which I ordered the second it became available). And now she's done it again, adding to the Pillow Talk collection with a new Luxury Palette eyeshadow quad and a Cheek to Chic Blush.

The eyeshadow quads and “swish and pop” blushes have been favorite formulas of mine for awhile, so it’s no surprise that I’m absolutely in love with these two new additions. Charlotte Tilbury’s eyeshadows are some of my favorites - they perfectly toe the line between creamy and soft, hitting that sweet spot between too dense and too powdery. They’re buildable shadows, so they can be applied as a sheer wash or built up to something more intense, and they layer on top of themselves easily with no fallout. These eyeshadows are also some of the longest lasting on me - I always use a primer of course, but there’s no creasing or fading at the end of a long day (they even last through my kickboxing class, which is the ultimate test for me). The shades in the Pillow Talk quad just completely speak to me - the setup is the same as her other quads, with the “Prime, Enhance, Smoke, and Pop” shades. Prime is a soft pink champagne that brightens the eyes and also doubles as a lovely inner corner highlight. Enhance is a pinky brown matte that adds soft definition to the crease. Smoke is a deeper pink-brown that’s perfect for adding some depth to the outer corners or smoking out an eyeliner. The Pop shade might be my favorite, a lovely rose gold glitter that I’ve been packing on with my finger. I haven’t gone a day without wearing these shadows since they were delivered - they’re so wearable, and I could definitely see myself finishing this palette.

T-B | Liner, Lipstick, Blush outer, Blush inner, Eyeshadow Prime, Enhance, Smoke, & Pop

The blush is also a beautiful formula. The other shade I have is First Love, which is a light peach, so using the darker nude shade of Pillow Talk made me realize how pigmented these blushes really are. I simply need to tap my brush in the compact once to have more than enough product for my cheeks. The Pillow Talk Blush shade is the absolute perfect pinky nude that adds both a flush of color and definition to the cheeks. Rather than another blush color in the center, the Pillow Talk Blush houses a rose gold highlight instead. Some days I mix the two together, and others I apply the outer ring as my blush and the inner circle as my highlight. They’re both beautiful, finely milled powders that blend over the cheeks seamlessly.

To complete the whole look I of course had to use as many other Charlotte Tilbury products as I could. One thing I love about her line is how well the products all work together. I started with the Hollywood Flawless Filter as a primer to give my skin a glow, and then followed up with the Light Wonder Foundation. This left the glowiest base and a pair I’ll keep using again and again. I don’t have a Charlotte Tilbury concealer (do I need the Retoucher or her new one?), so I used the Milk Makeup Flex Concealer. I also don’t have any CT brow products, so here I used a base layer of Glossier Boy Brow in Brown and then filled in sparse areas with the MAC Eyebrow Styler in Stylized. I used the Glossier Lidstar in Slip as an eyeshadow primer and then applied all four shades of the Luxury Palette in Pillow Talk - Prime all over my lids and in the inner corners, Enhance in the crease, Smoke on the outer corners, and then dabbed Pop on the center of my eyelids. Again, I don’t have a CT mascara, so I used Milk Makeup Kush Mascara on my top lashes and Glossier Lash Slick on the bottom. To sculpt my face a little I used the contour side of the Filmstar Bronze & Glow Palette (I forgot how much I LOVED this), and I went in with the outer ring of the Cheek to Chic Blush in Pillow Talk in sort of a draping-shape. I tapped on a little bit of the Beauty Light Wand highlighter to the high points of my face and then dusted over it with the inner portion of the Pillow Talk Blush. Lips were finished off with, of course, the Pillow Talk Lip Cheat and Matte Revolution Lipsticks. I’m in love with how this look came out, and frankly I’m a little offended that Charlotte didn’t release these products before my wedding - I definitely would have used them!

So the new Pillow Talk additions are a definite win for me - so much so that I’ve been contemplating picking up a backup of the eyeshadow quad when it comes back in stock. The Pillow Talk products are exclusive to CharlotteTilbury.com (you can get the full collection or the blush & eyeshadow duo as well) and are limited edition.

Have you tried them yet?

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The Sephora VIB Sale Haul

So Sephora seems to have sprung an extra VIB sale on us this year (I'm hearing the one usually in November is still happening!), and despite not having much time to save up, I still managed to come away with a nice little haul. I've come to the conclusion that I'm currently drowning in skincare to test, so I managed to not order anything but makeup and one hair repurchase. 

Briogeo Scalp Revival Charcoal + Coconut Oil Micro-Exfoliating Shampoo | I ran out of my first tub of this right before the sale, so I figured it was perfect timing. I love this stuff so much - I use it about once per week, always on a day when I've had kickboxing class and I've gotten my sweat on (anyone else get a super sweaty scalp? just me?). The particles aren't too rough, but you can still feel them scrubbing your scalp, so it's the perfect middle ground. It smells minty and invigorating, it's not too difficult to wash out, and it leaves my hair feeling super clean but not stripped or dry. I always follow up with Briogeo's Don't Despair, Repair hair mask (which we now buy in the giant size because Brett loves it, too!).

Milk Makeup Kush High Volume Mascara | I just talked about this in my recommendations for the sale, but I needed to get a backup because I'm just about out of mine. This is one of my two favorite mascaras - I use it every day on my top lashes and just love how fluffy and volumized it makes them look without being clumpy. It lasts well on me, too, without flaking or smudging, which is always so rare for me to find.

Pat McGrath Labs Lust: Lip Gloss in Divine Rose | I also mentioned these glosses in my recommendations. After wearing the shade Flesh Fantasy once, I immediately added Divine Rose to my cart for the sale. The formula is lovely - so creamy, not sticky, and beautifully glossy, and the shade Divine Rose is the ultimate my-lips-but-better for me. It seems to be slightly more sheer than Flesh Fantasy, which makes it all the more perfect for everyday for me. This has already earned its place in my everyday makeup bag.

First Aid Beauty Hello FAB Coconut Skin Smoothie Priming Moisturizer | I mentioned the Smashbox Primerizer in my recommendations post, and I really do love that, but I just wanted to try something new now that I'm almost out. I've heard nothing but rave reviews for First Aid Beauty's Priming Moisturizer, with lots of people saying they even preferred it over the Smashbox. It's a thicker consistency than the Primerizer, but it instantly plumps up the skin and makes it SO dewy and moisturized. It's definitely more moisturizing than the Primerizer. The jury is still out on which I like better, but I'm looking forward to testing this one more.

Laura Mercier Blush Colour Infusion in Rose | I was 100% influenced by Amelia's post for this one - I didn't even have it in my cart until about 10 minutes before I placed my order. I'm so happy with this impulse buy, though. For some reason I've really been getting into powder cheek products again, and this one is just beautiful. It's a soft, smooth formula that goes on quite sheer but is easy to build to your desired effect. The shade Rose is my perfect blush shade - it's actually more cool-toned when swatched than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. I'm for sure going to be reaching for this one on an everyday basis for the foreseeable future.

NARS Highlighting Powder in Capri | I kept seeing these NARS highlighters popping up in people's recommendations, and once my sister confirmed that they're worth picking up I was sold. I was originally going to get Fort de France, which seems to be the standout favorite, but she convinced me to get Capri instead, which is a more pink champagne, while Fort de France is a more gold champagne. This is so beautiful - again I find it to go on quite sheer at first, but you can layer and blend until you have a mirrorlike sheen on your skin. It has quite a unique formula too - when you swatch it, it almost feels like a gel/powder hybrid. It looks like a cream on the skin but has the longevity of a powder. On the first day I wore this, I found myself just layering on more and more throughout the day not because it was fading, but because it was just so pretty. Despite being a powder, I didn't find it called attention to skin texture. 

Are you getting anything in the sale?

The VIB Sale is currently ongoing for Rouge members and starts for VIB/Beauty Insiders on Thursday, August 30th, ending for everyone September 3rd. 20% off for Rouge with the code YESROUGE, 15% off for VIBs with YESVIB, and 10% off for Beauty Insiders with YESINSIDER.

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