MAC is one of the most popular brands amongst beauty bloggers and beauty enthusiasts, and rightfully so, as their products are generally very good quality, prices are not too shabby and there’s a wide range of products and shades to appeal to all kinds of tastes. What I love about MAC is that you can build a really good ‘makeup essentials kit‘ without needing to step foot anywhere else – granted, it will cost you more than shopping at the drugstore / high street, but you can be sure to get a full face of good quality makeup that will see you through from the simplest to the most elaborate makeup looks.
Mac Gems: Winclone is a must-have utility for Boot Camp users. Today's Best Tech Deals. You can view a list of this year’s apps, updated daily, on our handy GemFest page. Yes, MAC makes amazing quality makeup with an impressive lineup of products, but only a handful of those products are my MUST-HAVE makeup. The rest is lovely but i will forever insist that any mascara over $10 is over-priced and while MAC makeup is stunningly beautiful, it can also be stunt your wallet. The 10 must have apps for RVing help with specific things RVers need in their unique lifestyle. With the smart phones of todaythere is an app for everything! Apps are wonderful for searching areas for camping and gas. Check out the 10 must have apps for RVing and download some help today! The app for a phone or tablet is $3.99, but to sync with the app on a Mac computer, a separate app has to be purchased for $20. Instacast would be a good option if syncing between an iOS device and a Mac computer is a must. However, Downcast has a more streamlined, user-friendly approach. Price: $3.99 for iPhone or iPad app, $20 in Mac App Store. Common Sense Media call this app must-have for making photos and videos. Obviously, it needs to be controlled by Mac parental controls software, but still is a good tool to let your kid be creative. Who knows, maybe another Steve Spielberg comes out of it.
However, this plethora of products available can make it quite difficult for makeup newbies or MAC-virgins to know exactly what to buy without wasting your breath on things that are not worth it. The experience of shopping in MAC can be quite daunting and a little intimidating if you’re new to the brand – I know I found it difficult when I started my MAC journey, and I still sometimes struggle with the sales assistants! So, with all that in mid, today I’m sharing my MAC Must Haves – a list of my favourite products from the brand, the ones that are actually worth your time and money. Embarrassingly enough, my MAC collection is a quite a bit larger this, but if you’re looking for the best products to try, these are my top picks.
Face
MAC Face & Body Foundation, £21.50 – John Lewis
A lightweight liquid foundation for everyday-wear with light to medium coverage. It evens out the skin tone and hides minor imperfections, leaving a satin finish on the skin. It’s water-resistant, very hydrating on the skin, it can be used all over the face and body, and it works well on most skin types. My Summer shade is C4 and my Winter shade is C3. (review here)
MAC Pinch O’ Peach Blush, £18 – Debenhams
It’s described as a ‘matte warm peach‘ colour, but I personally think it’s more of a warm pink shade. It’s highly pigmented, but very easy to blend on the skin and super wearable for the daytime and evening. Unfortunately, this shade has been discontinued – a similar shade to Pinch O’ Peach is MAC Dame Blush. (review here)
MAC Peachykeen Blush, £18 – Debenhams
The newest one in my collection, but I’ve fallen head over heels for it. It’s described as a ‘very baby peach‘ and I definitely agree that it has peach undertones, although I’m not sure about the ‘very baby’ part. It has a slight sheen to it, which I love because it gives my skin a warm glow and it highlights my cheekbones at the same time.
MAC Pink Swoon Blush, £18 – Debenhams
Described as ‘clearly pink‘, I cannot disagree with that! This is your classic blue-toned, Barbie-pink blush. I wouldn’t necessarily think this blush was flattering on me by looking at the shade on the pan, but when worn on the apples of my cheeks, mixed with a peach-toned blush on the cheekbones, it gives my complexion a super healthy and natural flush of colour. This is also a discontinued shade, but MAC Well Dressed Blush is very similar to Pink Swoon. (review here)
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural Powder, £23 – Selfridges
A do-it-all powder that mattifies the skin, controls shine and adds a little bit of extra coverage to your foundation. I have used this powder for years and, even though I’ve tried many powders throughout my life, I always seem to go back to this one, as it doesn’t enhance any dry patches on my skin and it’s very comfortable to wear. My Summer shade is Medium Dark and my Winter shade is Medium.
MAC Prep + Prime Skin Primer, £21 – Debenhams
A liquid silicon primer with a hint of shimmer that truly helps my makeup stay in place for longer. This was one of the first products I ever bought from MAC and I’ve always loved how it feels and looks on my skin; it’s not something I wear everyday, but I do like to put this underneath my foundation for an evening makeup look.
MAC Prep + Prime Highlighter, £18.50 – Debenhams
A liquid highlighting pen with sheer pigmentation to add radiance over or under your makeup, much like the YSL Touche Éclat. I like to use this is as highlighting concealer on my under eye area and on the bridge of my nose. It adds so much brightness to my face and it sets super quickly, leaving a very flawless airbrushed finish. I have the shade ‘Light Boost’, which is the lightest shade from the range.
MAC Lustre Drops, £17.50 – MAC (out of stock)
A water-based highlighter to add a sheer pearlescent radiance to the cheeks; it can be mixed with your foundation for an all-over skin glow or dabbed on the high points of your face for a sun-kissed look. I have the shade Pink Rebel, which is described as a ‘blue pink with golden pearl’, and it suits warm, neutral and cool-toned complexions. (review here)
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer, £17.50 – Debenhams
One of my all-time favourite concealers; super long-wearing, but not cakey, medium to full coverage and very comfortable on the under-eye area, on blemishes, redness and pigmentation spots. It’s creamy, but it quickly sets to a matte finish and it doesn’t crease at all. I wear the shade NC25 all over the face and NW20 on my dark circles. (review here) Eyes
MAC 239 Brush, £21 – Debenhams
A basic flat eye shadow brush with a rounded edge and synthetic bristles; it’s quite firm, so it’s perfect for packing a lot of colour on the lids, but also soft and dense enough for blending, which makes it a real makeup bag staple and one of the most useful eyeshadow brushes you could have in your kit. (review here)
MAC 217 Brush, £20 – Debenhams
A densely packed synthetic oval blending brush that takes away all the trouble out of blending eyeshadow on the lids. It’s firm for precise blending, but soft enough so you can achieve a smooth and diffused smokey eye makeup look with very little effort. It can also be used to apply eyeshadow all over the lid, and I even use this brush to blend when I contour my nose. (review here)
MAC Carbon Eyeshadow, £13 – Debenhams
Everybody needs a true matte black eyeshadow https://rexbrown617.weebly.com/blog/my-slingplayer-app-will-not-connect-on-mac-sierra. in their makeup collection, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Carbon is intense, rich, very smooth and you need very little product to achieve superb pigmentation. I use this eyeshadow everyday to lightly fill in my eyebrows, as I have almost black brows and very dark brown hair.
MAC Nylon Eyeshadow, £13 – Debenhams
This ‘pale gold with icy shimmer‘ shade was my first MAC eyeshadow, and although I sometimes wear it all over the lid for an easy daytime makeup look, I especially like it as a highlighting shade on my brow bone and inner corner of my eye. It’s very frosty and shimmery, but the warm undertones make this shade quite flattering on most neutral to warm-toned complexions. It’s also one of the most pigmented MAC eyeshadows I’ve seen.
MAC Woodwinked Eyeshadow, £13 – Debenhams
Simply my all-time favourite eyeshadow. To me, Woodwinked is perfect in every way! Described as a ‘warm antique gold’, it’s just the right shade of bronze/gold; it’s buttery soft with no fallout at all, it applies vividly and intensely without needing too much product, it works well with brushes and with fingers, it stays looking perfect on the eyes for a super long time, and when blended on its own on the eyelid and crease, it gives the effect of a brown and gold smokey eye. (review here)
MAC Sketch Eyeshadow, £13 – Debenhams
This shade adds something very unique to an ordinary smokey eye. It’s described as a ‘burgundy with red shimmer‘, but don’t be put off by the ‘red’ part – it looks a lot more like a purple burgundy shade when it’s on. Sketch looks beautiful on green eyes when worn smoked out all over the lid, but it’s also stunning on any eye colour mixed with a brown shade on the outer corner of a brown and gold smokey eye look.
MAC Fluidline Gel Eyeliner, £16 – Debenhams
One of the best – if not the best – gel eyeliners on the market. It’s smooth, smudge-proof, long-lasting, it applies very easily with a small angled brush (even for people who struggle with eyeliner, like me), and this truly intense ‘solid flat black’ shade called Blacktrack makes it very easy to create the perfect winged eyeliner look.
MAC Pigment, £16 – Debenhams
A highly pigmented and very fine loose powder that adds a real intensity and vibrance to any eye makeup look. The shade ‘Rose Gold’ is described as ‘a smooth, tarnished gold with a touch of rose’, but I think it leans more towards a bronze gold, which I actually prefer, as it suits my skin tone better. Mac Pigments are extremely versatile and can also be used on your cheeks, nails and even on your hair. (review here)
MAC Paint Pot, £16 – John Lewis
The ‘yellow beige‘ shade called Soft Ochre makes this Paint Pot a truly multipurpose eye product that can be used to even out pigmentation on the eyelids, on its own as eyeshadow, as a primer before eyeshadow and as a creamy base for other eyeshadows. The pigmentation is great and the thick creamy texture, once blended, sets on the eyelids and it doesn’t crease. Lips
MAC Please Me Lipstick, £15.50 – Debenhams
Described as a ‘muted rosy tinted pink‘, this is a true matte lipstick that feels comfortable on the lips and looks particularly nice on me when I’m skin is a bit paler. It pairs really well with all kinds of lipglosses and it’s very long-lasting on the lips. I would love to own a non-matte shade of this lipstick, so if you know of any similar shades, please let me know. (review here)
MAC Plink! Lipstick, 15.50 – Debenhams
This was my first ever MAC product, and although it probably shouldn’t, it is still going strong. Plink! is a described as ‘a warm seashell pink’ and it’s one of the most wearable lipsticks in my entire collection. It adds a sheer pink sheen that is not too cool or too warm-toned. It’s a lustre finish lipstick, which doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I think it really works on this colour as it can be used very softly to add a pop of brightness to the lips. (review here)
What are your MAC Must Haves? Do you have any product recommendations for me? If you want to read more of what I have to say about MAC products, click here to browse through every MAC-related blog post I’ve ever written here on the blog.
Previous MAC Reviews
Mac Pigment in Rose Gold (Review, Swatches & Photos)
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer Review (Before & After) My MAC Eyeshadows (With Swatches) MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle (Review & Photos) My MAC Lipstick Collection (Swatches) Shop The Post
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Windows10's market share is increasing slowly but steadily over time. This December ittouched 33% which means that over one-third of world's computers now arerunning Windows 10.
Beit the fluent design, multiple desktops or return of the Start Menu, Windows 10has taken many right steps, but, also few wrong ones in areas of privacy andupdates. One area where Microsoft has done a commendable job is improving thenative apps.
Edge is now way better than IE, there is native PDF support through Edge, support for Multiple desktopsand the list goes on.
Now nobody has to hunt for an alternative app like a PDFreader or image editor as the built-in apps are more than enough for such basictasks.
However, there are still some parts of Windows 10 where we need improvement. Aspects of the OS with which users interact daily such as Windows Explorer, file operations(move/copy/rename), installing/uninstalling apps are still somewhat the same as before.
So, today we will talk about fifteen apps that will improve your Windows experience and help you in accomplishing daily tasks in a much quicker way.
1. Clover
Windows Explorer has got a design upgrade in Windows 10, but, functionality wise it's still the same. Clover is an app which adds the much-needed features to Windows Explorer. Tabs, Bookmarks, enhanced keyboard shortcuts are some of the highlights of the long list of features this app has.
Plus, it integrates seamlessly with Windows, so you will not notice any out of the place visual changes.
Qttabbar is another alternative app for Clover. It is much more powerful and offers a hugenumber of options to customize it as per your needs.
2. Unchecky
Our next app keeps a vigilant look at all the programs we install on our computers. Many of the freeware or shareware type programs often contain sneaky little tick boxes during installation which silently install the advertiser's app or make changes to your system like changing the default homepage, adding a toolbar or even changing the default browser.
While most such additional programs are just annoying and can be uninstalled easily, there are some potentially harmful ones too which can install a rootkit or keylogger. Unchecky saves you all this hassle by alerting you whenever any programs try to pull such a stunt and automatically unchecks any such check-boxes.
And it's simple to use. Just install it and let it run in the background. No need to mess with any settings.
3. Ditto
Ditto is an awesome clipboard manager for Windows 10 which supercharges the clipboard functionality. A clipboard manager is particularly useful for someone who works with a lot of text and documents. https://rexbrown617.weebly.com/blog/mac-app-contents-macos.
It has happened to me many times, I copy a draft of an article from one app, close it, only to find out that it hasn't been copied after pressing Ctrl+V. And the real horror is realizing I haven't saved the draft anywhere.
Clipboard manager like Ditto saves all your copied text as Historyso one can easily find any particular bit of info even if they have overwritten or lost it. Other useful features include the ability to sync clipboards of two different PCs, a stats meter and of-course, keyboard shortcuts.
4. Everything Search
One of the parts of Windows 10 that has taken a nosedive compared to the previous version is the Search function. It's hit-and-miss for many users as it doesn't return the results expected and most of the time resort to web search through, yes, you guessed it, Bing. Very helpful indeed.
While you can fix the Search, Everything Search is a better app for this. Its response time to a search query is nearly instant and the results are pretty accurate as well. Plus you can run it without installation and has some really cool additional features.
It can search an external FTP server, you can exclude specific folders from search and even search a remote PC over the web.
5. Jdownloader 2
It's known to everyone that Windows doesn't have its own downloader app and the de-facto alternative to it is Internet Download Manager(IDM), which is a paid.The free alternative is Jdownloader 2, which performs same as IDM, has morefeatures and is open-source.
One unique feature of Jdownloader is the supportfor plugins which can do various things such as controlling it remotely over Web and solving captchas on its own.
It also supports premium accounts of many file-sharing sites so you can download without any limits. If you have time and patience to learn, you can automate JDownloader through Javascript too.
6. TreeSize
Num lock app mac ios. Ever wondered what is hogging storage space on your PC? You don't download a ton of things still you are running out of disk space. To solve this Windows 10 has Storage Sense feature is which frees up disk space periodically by deleting temporary and old files.
You can tweak what it does by going to Settings>System>Storage>Storage Sense.
While the Modern Storage setting does visually show which folder is taking up the maximum space, you can't see individual files or do any operations. TreeSize shows you this info in much more detail including the number of files and sub-folders.
Plus, the directory-style menu is easier to understand than that of Windows 10. Finally, there are plentyof options to customize and filter how you want to view the storage data.
7. AnyDesk
Remote connection to a computer may not fare on the list of tasks an average user does often. However, it can be very useful in times when you need to help or get help for a problem. For remote connections, Windows Remote Desktop protocol is thesuperior to other solutions out there.
Though, it has a major limitation that it's available only on Pro edition of Windows. Plus to use it you need to fiddle with the IP addresses and host-names.
AnyDesk is the free app which comes close to the performance of Windows RDP and is simple to use like TeamViewer. It also has iOS, Android and Linux apps and even works cross-platform.
8. Speccy
If you have ever felt ill-informed when someone asks how much RAM your PC has or what processor it has, you can go to Control Panel>System and Security>System and find out.
However, if they ask what frequency you RAM isrunning or what GPU it has, you will again go back to being ill-informed.
Knowing your PC's hardware helps in troubleshooting as well as gauging its capability for running certain apps and games. This way you don't go on sending angry emails to tech support stating that your new Dell AIO can't run PUBG on 4K because you don't know it has GT 1030.
Speccy provides detailed info of each component of your PC and also shows the temperatures of critical parts like CPU and GPU. Finally, you can also share the specs of your PC in text or INI format for genuine help with a problem or bragging rights.
9. Odrive
With Windows 8, Microsoft gave a lot of thrust to promoting OneDrive by integrating it natively with Windows and even offering the now-defunct unlimited cloud storage plan. OneDrive, as a cloud service is comparatively good, though there are many who use other cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox.
However, adding a desktop app for each cloud service you use becomes cumbersome and Odrive is the app which solves this problem. An all-in-one universal sync client which supports over 20+ cloud services and allows you to finely control how and what files get synced.
10. ShareX
Taking a screenshot of Windows has long been done by the humble PrtScr button or the Snipping Tool which was introduced in Windows Vista. Recently, in the Windows 10 Creators Update, a new shortcut got added, Win+Shift+S.
Third party apps for taking screenshots are dime a dozen, however, ShareX is our favorite pick. The reason being, it's free, feature rich and can be useful to both a newbie or a pro user. Plus the automation features built in are really awesome. Want to add today's date to screenshot, have it numbered and upload to Gdrive?
You can do it. Want to add a black border and watermark to screenshot, upload it to Imgur and generate a short URL? You can do that too. Need I say more!
11. Smooth Video Playback
VLC is the undisputed king for video playback on Windows. It's simple to use, has plenty features and plays almost all video formats out there. Still, if you are a movie buff or like binge-watching your favorite TV shows, you will love SVP.
Smooth Video Playback or SVP 4 converts any video to 60 FPS and higher in real time. This makes the video appear more smooth and fluid, especially ones which involve a lot of action. Sadly, the free version of SVP 4 doesn't work with VLC and you will need to use(How-To) either MPC-BE or MPC-HC player.
However, if you fork out $15 for pro version, you get support for online videos, streaming over Chromecast and a bunch of other features.
12. X-Mouse Button Control
Windows settings for configuring mouse are limited to just switching mouse buttons and at best changing how the cursor looks like. If you yearn for more customization to match your Hotkey Game, XBMC(not to be confused with the media player) will give your mouse buttons multitasking superpowers.
With XBMC, you can configure what the mouse buttons and scroll wheel does in an application and add up to 10 layers to each app, which can be switched by a hotkey.
To put that into perspective, you can configure a three-button mouse to do 300 different things per application. And that's not counting scroll wheel! https://rexbrown617.weebly.com/blog/mac-and-ipad-recipe-app.
13. BleachBit
Windows 10 has gotten a lot better at housekeeping by cleaning up after itself to prevent junk build up. Disk Clean-up does the job effectively by deleting all the temp and old files.
CCleaner has long been the alternative go-to app for this job, but, recently it was discovered to riddled with a malware which affected millions of users.
BleachBit is an open-source alternative which does the same thing and even overwrites the empty space so nothing can be recovered. It is also useful for cleaning files of a specific app like your browser, as opposed to Disk Clean-up which deletes everything.
14. Sizer
Windows 10 allows you to arrange open apps either side-by-side or stacked by right-clicking on Taskbar. Or you can resize them freely to arrange them as per your liking.
Sizer a free app which allows you to set custom sizes for each open windows(apps) and bind them to a hotkey. This way you can effectively divide your screen space, pixel-wise to arrange multiple apps like I have shown in the image above.
15. Teracopy
Initially, I wasn't going to include Teracopy to this list, as I always felt it didn't offer that much of an advantage over Windows copy. But, that changed when I gave the upgraded version a try on Windows 10.
While copying 37 GB of game files to my NAS server took Windows over 10 mins, Teracopy did it in under 8 mins.
Of course, how quickly files are copied and written is heavily dependent on a variety of factors like disk type, system load, network link etc, Teracopy speeds it up most of the times and doesn't hang if you cancel or pause the task. Further, it can also check the integrity of copied files by checking their checksums.
A Word About Contributions
Almost all the apps that are on the list have a portable version available, which makes it easier to test the app without installing it. And many of them are made by few small independent developers in their free time.
So, if you find any of the above apps particularly useful, consider donating or purchasing the pro version.
Because while drafting the list, I came across many other useful apps like ShapeShifter, PC-Decrapifier, and FileBot, which have been abandoned or gone completely paid due to lack of donations and time from the developer.
With that said, if you know or use any other such apps do share them through comments.
See Next: How to Post Instagram Stories Longer Than 15 Seconds on Android and iPhoneThe above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#windows 10 Mac Os Must Have AppsDid You KnowFree Apps For Macbook
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