Summer Must-Haves is a new section I’m working on and will be updating throughout the summer. Its all about the must haves during the summer months! Enjoy!

In part one I’ll be talking about my face basics. I don’t do my make-up foundation in the hot summer days without these things .

After washing my face, the first thing I put on is my Mac Fast Response Eye cream. I have big eyes that get puffy when I sleep so this takes care of the puffiness, and any fine lines that I may have around my eyes. This is great to use after nights of hard summer parties !

After letting that soak in for a minute or two next is my Mac Oil Control Lotion. I have oily skin, especially in the summer, and this combats the problem with ease. I’m particular about getting it around my nose, forehead, and chin regions (t-zone)  because those are the oiliest. I’m very light with it around the cheeks, because I find that since they don’t get that oily it dries them out too much.

Next, I step out of the Mac region (just for a moment!) and into smashbox for their Photofinish Primer Light This is a under foundation primer that makes your skin ready and smooth for the foundation application. The reason I use the light formula is that I find that the regular formula adds on in my oiliness, and that is NOT something I’m looking for at all!

Next, its back to Mac for my final summer face basic, Mac’s Select Tint SPF 15. In the summer I like my skin to look as dewy (not oily) and “un-foundation” touched as possible. This shearish tint gives me exactly what I want, coverage that feels like nothing and looks like nothing. Who wants their face feeling heavy under foundation in 90° weather? Not I. A tip I can give you about this is make sure you match your shade to your new summer completion especially if you are outside a lot. For example, I am usually an NC50 in the winter, but for my summer foundation I use NW45 for the new warmth and color the sun gives me. The only people I wouldn’t recommend this product to are those with severe acne or that have deep discolorations. Since its a light formula it might not cover those up completely. I have moderate acne hyper pigmentation on my cheeks and while it may not cover it up like a heavier foundation or concealer, it does my skin justice.  Another good thing about this is that you get SPF 15 right in the foundation. I finish off my look with a very tiny bit of powder (usually mac’s blotting powder in dark) and depending on the day I might put on some color, or I might put on some clear lipgloss and be out!

Man. I have never brought this much from one Mac Cosmetics collection before in my life. I have to say though, I had a personal bias to liking this collection from jump (not just because its MAC lol!). If you follow my regular blog you will see that I have a “thing” for the french artist fafi and her girly world of Faffinettes. When I found out that mac was going to do a collection I had to jump on the bandwagon.

For the most part I liked this whole collection. At first I didn’t think it would be WOC friendly, do to most of the promotional images looking kinda pastelly. A lot of pastels (in my opinion) look chalky on darker skinned woman. I was shocked when I actualy got to see the colors in person just how WOC friendly they actually were. This is one of those rare collection which blurs color lines. You tuber Fauryn78 shows just how WOC friendly the Fafi Eyes 1 pallet is in here tutorial HERE (sorry, embedding was disabled).

Here are some Swatches and comparisons of the lip products. Colors may not be true to life being I used the flash. They are as close as I could get them though. Sorry about that. Click for larger picture.

When I first saw the Fafi L/G “Totally It” I thought of the bright L/G “Love Rules” from the very limited “A-Mei” collection. They look similar in the package, but Totally It is brighter, richer, and the glitter is finner then the fat glitter chunks found in “Love Rules”.

 These are the 4 lipsticks I purchased, though I think im going in for “High Top” when I get some extra cash. Flash-N-Dash wasn’t that orange at all. The flash didn’t capture the true color of that shade at all. The only person that I knew who could rock a orange lipstick that bright and look good in it was my Grandmother (god rest her soul)! Fun N Sexy came out more purple on my skin then bright pink which I thought was beautiful. I love purples!

 When I opened up “Squeeze It” L/G I was sad. It looked JUST like 4N. Then, when I swached it next to 4N and other browns I saw the difference. You can’t judge something just by the packaging. You have to open it up and test it to see the  true color intended.

Maybe my own Fafi Tutorial? I’m thinking about it!

Today I was able to get my hands on a few of the lip and face items from the mac N collection. If you dont know much about the N collection ….

Seductive and ripe for scandal. A color collection daringly stripped-down, voluptuously finished, with everything you could possibly need to play up the nakedness of your look. Think of it as naked - with coverage.

I didn’t bother with any of the eyeshadows, but I did pick up two lipsticks, N4 and N5, two lip glosses, N3 and N4, and a Mineralize Skinfinish in Warmed.

I think EVERY Chocolate skinned girl like myself should have the N4 lip gloss. It was personally my favorite thing out of the collection. Its always good to have a chocolate-ty lip gloss as a staple in your traincase. Think “Mary J Blidge” brown.  I’ve swatched it with some of the other sparkly brownish staples (and purple-ish Pop Mode) in my collection. Click for a larger picture.

Eww. Sorry for the sloppy lips. Anyway, I swatched N4 lipglass along with Sinnamon (lustreglass), everyone’s favorite Oh Baby, and Pop Mode. If Pop Mode wasn’t a purplish color and was more towards the brown it would be N4. Same texture and all.

As for the Mineralize Skinfinishes I was kinda disappointed with Warmed. I mean, it didn’t have as much glitter as Global Glow which in my book is a good thing, but the darn color didn’t show up well on my NC50 skin. Not even a glow. I think I may have to take a trip to MAC and see if the lighter shade works better. Sometimes light shades with sparkle vanning work well as highlighters. Glissade is one of my faves for highlighting my cheeks. This MSF doesn’t come close.

Why am I saying all of this? To get you ready for my “brown down” tutorial! It should be up by tomorrow!