The NKOTB

I’m the New Kid On The Blog. I have openly admitted that I’m a makeup late bloomer, so I might as well fess up and say that I’ve been quite a makeup jargon dummy too. Everybody has to start somewhere! Trying to guess the meanings of abbreviations and acronyms in the early days was like a fun sport for me, a kind of mental jogging.

One of the first abbreviations that I came across when I was researching makeup for problem skin last year was MMU. Since the topic was on makeup and not on a university in Manchester, I quickly realised that it stood for mineral makeup. And while on the subject of MMU, have you ever tried EDM? I have bought several products from Everyday Minerals, including its flat top brush which has received very good reviews. It’s really a great face brush……but I digress.

Well, there was also MUA. After circling the internet block quite a bit, I found out that MUA could mean Makeup Alley, the popular beauty community website, and it could also stand for makeup artist, though the latter is sometimes also represented by MA, I think.

“I have yet to find my HG foundation.”

When I first read that in a blog written by this very anxious girl, I didn’t have a clue as to what HG meant. “Is that a brand?” I wondered. “Does it stand for High Grade, a product of superior quality?”

On another blog written by a very enthusiastic female: “MAC MSF is my HG highlighter!!”

[Eyes glazed over]

Thankfully, I came across a forum where someone, unaware that she was doing me a great favour, kindly typed out the full words ‘Holy Grail’. Enlightenment!

I had to Google for MSF though because my guesses were associated with:

(a) Doctors Without Borders, and
(b) Microsoft

neither of which made any sense in this context, of course. Yes, ladies, I now know what MSF means but I still haven’t got a clue as to what it actually does for the face. [Shrug]

While we’re on MAC, itself an acronym (and it’s a good thing that I never once thought it was a computer!), how about PP? I keep reading great reviews on these Paint Pots. Many ladies out there are saying that it’s a better e/s primer than UDPP and TFSI. Is that true? I don’t own any of these three, but up till recently, from watching all those videos on Youtube, all I noticed was that the Urban Decay one seemed to have a bigger following than the one by Two Faced. Oops, Too Faced, I mean.

Oh, I musn’t forget MUFE! My initial thought when I saw MUFE was that it was probably a Japanese brand, pronounced ‘meeoof’. Think a little deeper, I said to myself. It can’t possibly be meeoof, stewpid!

[Contemplative silence]

Why, of course! Make Up For Ever! The French brand that has stores with shelves and display areas on wheels, fashioned to look like huge makeup train cases. I had walked past one such store hundreds of times before in my pre-beauty awakening era, but of course, back then, that meant nothing to me.

So, I've read that MUFE has an HD Foundation. I can guess what HD means, thanks to the parallel advancement in television technology, but there was also MUFE F&B. Right, it’s got nothing to do with the catering business, I’m sure. A check on Google tells me that it’s some kind of foundation for the face and body. O-kay.

This last one is the one I find funniest. It’s neither an abbreviation nor an acronym. It’s just a word. Lemming.

“I am so lemming MAC’s new Colour Craft Collection!”
“This blusher is on my Christmas lemming list.”

A lemming is a small type of rodent that lives in and around the Arctic and it’s also known for periodic mass migrations that sometimes result in mass drownings. Metaphorically, it refers to the act of following the crowd without thinking on a course towards disaster.

So, in the makeup context, I kind of guessed it had something to do with ‘a crave’. To be sure, I went back to trusty Google and found this definition on Urban Dictionary:

“A lemming refers to a purchase/wished-for item which results from reading an enthusiastic post about a new fabulous product. Overcome by compulsion, readers follow like lemmings diving off a cliff. Originally coined in the alt.fashion newsgroup in the late 90s, the term has permeated numerous beauty boards/forums/sites. May be used as a noun or verb. May apply to the buyer but more commonly to the item of desire.”

Anyway, I’m lemming the NARS (that’s not an acronym, btw) lipstick in Belle de Jour. What are you lemming these days?

Posted in makeup jargon