How to Spot FAKE M.A.C. Brushes

Okay the second part of my earlier post hehe. I actually did this a while back but never got to finish it. So, yes they even copy brushes and they started off making ones that were easily identified as fakes ones. Ofcourse theyve gotten better. And again, if you have no idea what to look out for you will be fooled ( haha so tagline na siya lol)

Anyway, most people would want to get brushes from MAC because they are of good quality and one of the best out there. And if you arent a professional make up artist, buying just one or two of the basic brushes will burn a hole in your pocket. Most sell for about 20 plus dollars each. So finding relatively cheaper or rather overwhelmingly cheaper ones is like a dream come true and you ignore that little voice telling you ITS FAKE. lol

Its pretty hard to tell if the brushes are fake from pictures. So it really is up to you to take the risk of buying one online.


THE SIGNS

- Okay, first things first. There are a lot of MAC brush sets for sale now. And im positively sure that ALL FULL SIZED MAKEUP BRUSH SETS are fake (yes, theyre too good to be true. Unless its the the Pret-a-Porter)

- MAC has never offered full sized makeup brushes until November 2006 with the release of Pret-a-Porter brush set which had 8 full size brushes (187, 190, 129, 213, 224, 266, etc) and came with a black satin brush roll.

The Pret-a-Porter brush set. If it does not include the 18 skunk brush, its fake. And the fake ones they sell are in a leather roll that is incomparable to this one.

- They do however release travel size (short handled) limited/special editions that usually come in a set of 5

Okay, on to the detailed stuff:

-The most obvious sign is the fake brushes only say M.A.C. on the handle. The real brushes will have the number of the brush next to it (eg. MAC 187) BUT the new fake brushes even have the numbers on them.

- MAC brushes have black matte handles with the exception of the special edition/ special edition sets (some come in different colors). The fake regular brushes have tiny shimmers on them. So sadly, by the time you realize that your brush is fake, the seller might have run away with your cash. **Another thing is, the seller might also not be aware that the brush theyre selling is fake.

- Not always, but some of the fake brushes have a strong odor of lacquer to them. The real ones may have it too but its usually faint.

- The real mac brushes come in a clear plastic sleeve with a barcode. They do NOT have extra plastic covering that hold the bristles? of the brush

- If you try scraping the MAC label and number off with your nail it can come off easily. The fake ones wont come off and are usually heavily imprinted on the handle.

-If you check real MAC brushes, at the end of the handle it says france, USA or Japan and theyre usually very faint and not very noticeable -(its just marked? but its the same color as the handle). Some of the fake brushes have this too but are heavily imprinted.

- The silver thing that holds the bristles can be used to tell if the brush is fake too. But I cant find a clear way of explaining this so i suggest that you compare them to brushes that are store bought.

- Also, i think most people have enough sense to doubt brushes that are sold way too cheap.

- Ive also seen some limited edition brush sets that are fake. I used to think that it would be safe to buy those on evilbay. But oh well.

**Keep in mind though, that whoever makes them keep improving their junk haha so who knows, in a few months they could probably make better fake ones.


That's all I got to research. I finally decided not to buy them online because I dont think i'll ever be sure and its just a hassle getting fake ones and having to return them (it would be worse if the seller ran away with your money). And besides there are cheaper brushes that work too. A few good brushes are:

- Sonia Kashuk's
- The kirkland set at costco! ( I swear! haha but they only come out once a year I think, during the holidays? and the sets keep changing every year)
- Loew Cornell painting brushes! I love their dupe of 239-Maxine mop brush. you can also get paint brushes and use them as angled liners, blush brushes, powder brushes etc. I love going to Michaels! :)
- If you have CCO nearby, it is heaven! brushes, M.A.C., origins, clinique, Bobbie brown and a whole lot of other stuff at 30% off!

Pretty Purple and Pink

Soo for a change I decided to use a color ive never used. Pink and Purple! I hated these colors when I was a kid haha but anyway, I loved it!

Here are the pictures. I apologize for the unruliness though haha I took the pictures 11 hours after application!! And it was pretty much still intact except for one of my falsies which look like its ready to fall off! Ohh and the pink E/S were not as vibrant but hello, 11 hours! haha

I also used a blush from the contour palette and even though it was huge, I stuffed it into my bag thinking that I would need to re apply. And surprise surprise! 11 hours after, it was still as vibrant! I wouldve posted a picture of my whole face but after 11 hours, I looked super exhausted haha

What I used:
Urban Decay primer Potion
Coastal Scents 88 Matte Eye shadow Palette
M.A.C. nylon (inner corner and tear duct)
Loreal HIP eyeliner
Ardell false lashes



I dont know if the pictures would help but these are the colors that I used (Click on the images to see a larger version - I encircled the color I used in red using paint haha):


1) Highlight - brow bone


2)Wash above the crease


3) Dabbed on both colors and applied on the lid


4) Applied on the crease



5)Used the 2 purples on the outer corner of eyes and crease, applied a little black on the outer corners and blended to add depth to the crease.

BLEND BLEND BLEND!! :)




Anyway, wore this to a baptism and a birthday party. The baby im baby sitting was baptized today then we had lunch at a korean/japanese/chinese buffet somewhere in Vallejo. We then went to Danville for Sarah's 6th birthday celebration with her family. I am exhausted!

Me and Jhelyn after she was baptized

My cousin in her new blue dress that she wore. Soo cute! Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland

NLE vs. NCLEX

I recently just passed the NLE. While I did take review classes for about 4 months, and had review sessions with friends all the time. I still think that passing the NLE involves some kind of "luck".

First of all, some of the questions you will encounter are out of this world. There were a lot of questions in the November NLE that I never learned in school. Most of them are research questions.

During my review we were taught to use some strategies.

1. If youre not sure of your answer, choose the letter C - this sounds stupid but they said this was proved in a study.

2. Again, if youre not sure, choose the answer that is gramatically correct - Now, this is hard because well, what if all the answers are gramatically incorrect? haha

3. Choose between the longest and shortest answer - 0.0

4. Box keywords to analyze the questions better. The questions tend to be tricky and some are quite long. By the time you get to the end of the sentence, you kinda forget what is really being asked.

5. Do not doubt yourself. Your first answer is most likely correct.

6. Avoid erasures? - well im not sure about this one, but I did try to avoid making any and only had about 3.

7. When taking the test, BE OC with the INSTRUCTIONS. if youre not sure about something, skip it and wait until the proctor comes to clear whatever youre confused about or has clarified what to do.

8. Make sure you indicate THE RIGHT SET. I dont know if they re-check them manually but I doubt it.

9. Do not cram or stay up too late days before the exam!! Make sure youre well rested, have had coffee (if you regularly do) - I didnt get to have some coffee on the 2nd day and though I slept early, I kept falling asleep! which is hilarious now but it caused me some anxiety wondering if i understood the questions half asleep.

10. Manage the time given to you. I think youre given 2 minutes for every question? So, if you dont know the anwer to a question, skip it and go back after youve finished the rest.

11. If you can, answer the test on the test booklet first.

12. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR ANSWER SHEET. keep it away from bottles of water, pens or anything that may leave a mark on it. GUARD IT WITH YOUR LIFE hahaha

Anyway, there are probably more but these are what I remember. But I think that the main difference between the NLE and the NCLEX is the amount of time you need to prepare. In the NLE, you can cram (though I wouldnt suggest that) you can pass by simply memorizing stuff. The NCLEX on the other hand, requires mastery.

All those tricks I listed above will not work for the NCLEX. So forget about those strategies.

• It is based on integrated nursing content and not on the medical model of medical, surgical, obstetrics, pediatrics and psychiatric nursing alone.
  

• It is NOT a test about recognizing facts. And what makes it difficult too is identifying what the question is asking.
  

• The questions and answers are written in such a way that you will not be able to predict or recognize the correct answer.
  

• The people who write the questions make the incorrect answer choices look attractive to the unwary test taker. They make sure that strategies like length of answers, grammar cant be used in the NCLEX
  

• Those who write the exam try to HIDE what is really being asked in the question. So again, focus on what is really being asked.

• Most of the background information are useless. So dont focus on it, you dont need it to answer the question
  

Soo yeah. :/ haha

I basically unlearned everything from the 4 months since the NLE. I havent reviewed and im just about to start. But i guess thats okay, since most of the stuff you learn or study for the NLE are not entirely "useable" for the NCLEX. Soo clean slate lol. wish me luck!

Challenges

I love challenges. I guess its because it gives me a chance to prove myself that I can do things I dont normally do or would hesitate to do .... Although, I rarely put myself up for it and people had to do it for me. So this years resolution is to grab every opurtunity that I get and to stop being soo effin negative about everything.

Last years "challenge" was joining the School pageant (HAH!). Yeah, so that was forced on me too. I honestly hate pageants or hated pageants (i dunno). I hate/hated it because

ONE: I dont like being judged by my physical appearance (which coincidentally was the question they asked me in the Q&A). I hate hate hate it. I think its rooted from past experiences, where I felt like I was not at par with what society considers to be beautiful. it's a load of bull, i know. But, growing up in a country where people only consider the mestizas to be beautiful- its kind of natural to think that way.

TWO: I do not like being compared to other people. Which is but natural in pageants. Its kind of because I sometimes feel inadequate and also because no two people are alike so I dont think its fair to compare people. haha

THREE: I do not feel like I need to be scrutinized and to have to exert much effort into making people believe or try to convince people that I am beautiful. BECAUSE I AM! belat! haha

FOUR: Does anyone really need to join those things? I see it as one way of trying to seek approval. And its nonsense. If youre sure of yourself, you dont need validation from anyone.

I can go on with this list, but its mainly because of my first reason. You dont immediately get to that point where the norms dont bug you anymore. Soo, you doubt yourself of being capable. But I am secretly and highly competitive though. hahaha. (BIG emphasis on secretly!) If you remember me asking you in college what your score was on a test, I wasnt as concerned of how you did but of how I did! hahaha. I do go about it differently though, so I may not seem like it. And I hold nothing against those I secretly compete against hahaha. Its gotten to a point where I dont think its normal anymore- I think it should go away after school age years- but thats off topic. LOL. The good thing about being competitive is that once you get into something, you really do go all out or at least try to do your best. I mean, youre already there so might as well go through the whole shebang without having to be shy or whatever.

So anyway, it turned out to be a great experience. For a couple of hours, I didnt feel like I had stage fright haha. Thanks to my friends, family and the Nursing department too! they were all very encouraging and really supportive. And everyone was so nice, and it wasnt like what you saw in movies where all the girls were catty and plotted against each other. haha. Oh no wait, there were some stuff that were odd and well some people who acted nice and all that crap but they really werent haha But I got along with everyone so that wasnt much of a problem.

P.S.: I won too, so that made the experience a 100 times better! haha

L: With MJ, Venus, Gang and Junneth; R: With the HRS Deparment Professors, Heads and Dean

L: With the other Pageant winners; R: My good friends from Grade school, High school and College! :)

L&R: With Jane who was the previous year's winner, my group/duty mate, blockmate and BFF haha

L: With my family =); R: With my blockmates! :)

My Girlaloos!

A few of the photos from the pageant and from the shoot.

More images HERE, HERE and HERE

How to Spot FAKE M.A.C. Eye Shadows

I recently just got into Online Shopping. I had no access to visa cards in the Philippines hahaha and I dont own a credit card (thank goodness!) So imagine how crazy I got when I finally got one, okay yu know what, dont! haha

Anyway, I was alittle skeptic with some of the stuff that was on evilbay. Some had weird containers, new colors and what nots and I actually thought: "Oooh I didnt know they had that!" So I searched the M.A.C. website for the stuff that I saw online and I was puzzled since they didnt seem to have it.

So I decided to do a little research. Ive probably seen every sinlge entry on how to spot them and compiled them. And here it is! lol "HOW TO SPOT FAKE M.A.C. EYESHADOWS"

This post actually came from my blog in multiply (HERE).




Eyeshadows:

-MAC eyeshadows never come with a sponge tip applicator. NEVER. or have mirrors on the back of the pots

-They will ALWAYS HAVE A NAME and not just a number. At the bottom of the pot, it will have a number combination (eg. A97) with the name of the eyeshadow along with the description (eg. Frost, velvet, satin, etc.)

-The box will have a sticker on the top with the name of the shadow and a UPC code sticker on the bottom. Fake macs will have the "UPC codes" printed on the bottom of the box

- The best way to check is to compare it on the mac website, but there are a lot of stuff that are discontinued so you might have to check for other signs to see if they're fake.

** The top part of the eyeshadow pot, the clear plastic thing has the mac logo. and its NOT supposed to be very dark or engraved heavily. On the real mac you can barely feel it, basically its barely there. If you can feel it with your fingers, its fake.

- Palettes with a sponge tip applicator are fake. Palettes that come with an applicator usually have a mini brush that says SE after the number (special edition)

- Mac does not have cream eyeshadow palettes. They only have cream color base, the one pictured above is obviously fake.

- In Real mac eyeshadows. the pans of the shadow itself will be lower than the lip of the pot, the fake macs will have the pans higher above the lip of the pot. ( i don't know if you get that, ill try to look for a picture of it)

AHA!! haha The pictures not very clear (I'm sure the seller meant it to be that way haha) But you can see that the pan is much higher than the whole pot itself. Even the upc code at the bottom of the box is a giveaway, its too small and if the picture was much clearer I'm sure you'll be able to see that it isn't an actual sticker and its printed on the box.

Sticker

Real MAC eyeshadows pans are much lower then the lip of the pot

- Not always, but most will come from china. If seller claims that the packaging is different because the "packaging here in ** is different" or "they don't have names on them because here we only have numbers", well then that's fake. But some may come from the US or Canada (maybe buyers who didn't get a refund are trying to sell their fake stuff idk haha)

- if the item is listed as "as it is" or the seller does not know the name of the eyeshadow that's a red flag right there.

-But there are a lot of duped products that come close to the real ones and the only way to find out is by destroying the pot or eyeshadow. The pans are sometimes different and you can only see that when you depot the shadows.

- Fake ones have wider lips than the real ones. i don't have a picture of it but you can compare them to actual pots from the store that you already have.

- The boxes may be different too, they're usually much shinier, they may have names like Prismisque or Lustre with the numbers 02, 03, 6, 7 blah blah blah.

I don't know who they're trying to fool but this one is obviously fake haha

As for the quality, I really have no idea. They might suck, be quite good if not close to real ones but the thing is you're being tricked into thinking that you're getting an authentic product. They re usually much cheaper than the real mac products or almost the same. Although, I'm not saying that all are fake. There are some artists who sell items that were meant to be used as samples at the stores since they don't get to use all products meant for that purpose. But I think the best way to go is to just buy them from counters or from the stores. BUT!! And I cant stress this enough. SAMPLES will be labeled with the color/shade or whatever, it will be like the regular ones. The only difference is it will be labeled or will come with a sticker that says SAMPLE. Sooo, those who say that "no theyre not labeled because theyre factory seconds or samples that werent used ladidadidaa.." are full of crap. haha

Hope that helped and good luck shopping for bargains!! =)"

Coastal Scents -Green and Black

This was the first look I made when I got my palettes from CS. I obviously went a little crazy with the colors out of excitement and used 5 shades of green. This actually looks a lot like the previous post except that the creases are more defined, I used black on the outer corners, and used a yellow green shadow on the inner corners.


Things I used:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Loew Cornell Mop Brushes 3/8, 1/2 and 1/4
MAC 219 Brush
Angled eyeshadow/ crease Blender from 2007 Kirland set
Loew Cornell angled liner brush
Loreal HIP eye liner in black
Rimmel Glam Eyes Mascara (which is fairly decent; not as bad as Maybellines Colossal Mascara)

I was on skype talking to Phil. haha. Thats why he is awesome, my ladidas dont bore him as much as it would other guys.

Coastal Scents - Green and Yellow

Ive had the CS Palettes for about a week now but I havent played with most of the colors. Simply because im usually just at home and have nowhere to go. So today, I decided i'd do something a little bit colorful (dont even ask where we went haha I just wanted to play with my new toys)

And yes, im using green again. I dont know, im a little fascinated with the color green. Next week i'll try purple. Anyway here it is. I think it looks reggae-ish. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, bad lighting.








Of course I used Urban Decays Primer Potion. I was alittle dissapointed with the yellow shadow in the mate palette. I got the color to pop by packing it over and over again, but after a while it would kind of fade. Oh well, at least I can go and get chrome yellow knowing that I can wear a yellow shadow. Another thing that I noticed, the shadows had more fallout than the M.A.C. shadows. But I still love my CS palettes!

Hey Everyone!

First post!

So I think I should make this as interesting as I can. haha. I'm Maui, 22 year old R.N. from the Philippines. Still "technically" unemployed. Graduated from school October of 2008 and currently bumming in the US, though I should be studying. I do love my profession, but since i've had the time to explore things that i've always liked, it seems that im going further and further away from my plans haha.

I am on the road to self discovery LOL and want to have a blog to have something to look back at someday and to post random thoughts and whatever for people who are bored enough to read them.

EDIT:
Okay, went back to read it and saw nothing interesting haha. So here re random facts about me:

• So like a lot of people here on blosgspot, Im also a makeup junkie whose only and biggest limitation is money haha. I constantly find myself lemming on makeup and it has been the only thing that keeps me amused the whole day.

  
  

• I am the weirdest LEO you will ever meet. I do posess most of the traits but I just go about things in a different way. I do get what I want, without trying much haha (of course that doesnt apply to everything. But I am a very shy person- I think? haha

• I was taught to be mindful of everything I do or say, which I kind of hate now because I constantly find myself censoring or softening up whatever I have to say.

• I am extreme. Often times I like things that are very different or are the opposite of each other

• I appreciate honest and brutally frank people. And seek them when I want an opinion on something.

• I do not like to surround myself with negative people. Actually me and Caby are sort of wondering if we hang out most of the time because were positive or we always end up being together because we only think were positive but are actually negative HAHAHA

• I have a handful of good friends and I love them to bits! Im not patient enough to pretend that I like someone when I dont.