I have been putting this post together for quite some time now and I finally managed to finish it today. It's basically a guide that provides readers with many of the acronyms/terms that I and other beauty bloggers use on a regular basis.
Let's get to it.
LOTD - Acronym for "Look of the Day" which is basically whatever makeup one is wearing on any particular day.
FOTD - Stands for "Face of the Day" which is basically the same as LOTD (above).
EOTD - Stands for "Eyes of the Day" which is generally posted when one only posts pictures of their eye makeup as opposed to their whole face.
Haul - Some might this that this is an acronym but it actually isn't. A haul is basically what one posts after they've purchased products that they want to show their readers.
Dupe - Again, this is not an acronym, it's just an abbreviation of the word "duplicate". It just refers to when 2 products are very similar or basically the same.
B2M - Stand for "Back 2 MAC" which is a recycling program that MAC Cosmetics offers where customers can bring back 6 of their empty MAC packaging (eyeshadow pots, lipgloss containers, etc) and receive a free eyeshadow, lipstick or lipglass (dependent on where you bring the containers back: a free-standing store, a counter or send them through the mail).
To learn more about the B2M Program, click
here and use the dropdown menu to select "Recycling with Back 2 MAC".
MSF - An acronym for a MAC product called "Mineralize Skinfinish".
E/S - Shorthand for "eyeshadow" (not brand specific).
L/S - Shorthand for "lipstick" (not brand specific).
L/G - Shorthand for "lipgloss" (not brand specific).
E/L - Shorthand for "eyeliner" (not brand specific).
P/P - Shorthand for "paint pot" (MAC).
MES - Shorthand for "mineralize eyeshadow" (MAC).
CCB - Shorthand for "cream colour base" (MAC).
UDPP - Shorthand for Urban Decay Primer Potion (a very popular eyeshadow primer).
TFSI - Shorthand for Too Fase Shadow Insurance (another very popular eyeshadow primer).
HG - Stands for "Holy Grail". One would usually call a product their HG product (for example, HG foundation) when they find their favourite, go-to, suits them perfectly product. For example, L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara is my HG mascara.
MA - Shorthand for "Makeup Artist".
MUG - Shorthand for "Makeup Geek" which is an online forum (and also a store) run by Marlena from MakeupGeekTV on youtube. She's amazing! Check out her site
here.
MUA - Stands for Makeup Alley which is an online beauty community where users can write product reviews, sell/swap items with other users and more. Check it out
here.
LE - Shorthand fot "limited edition" which is when a product or a line of products is only available for a certain amount of time.
DC - Stands for "discontinued" which is when a product is no longer available for purchase.
Nail-specific Terms:
NOTD - Acronym for "Nails of the Day" which is the same concept as LOTD from above except that it's referring to whatever nail polish/nail art one is wearing on a particular day.
VNL - Stands for "visible nail line" which is when the smile line of one's nail is visible through their polish. This can occur when the polish is very sheer or just when it requires another coat of polish.
Tip wear - Refers to when polish starts to wear away/pull back at the tip of the nail and the bare nail becomes visible. This is usually the first sign of nail polish wear and can be sped up when one does a lot of typing (I'm definitely speeding up the tip wear of my current notd doing all of this typing).
Tip wear can be delayed by wrapping nail polish around the free edge of the nail and slightly under the tip of the nail. It will still start to wear away after time but the process will be delayed and manicures will last longer.
Franken - To "franken" a polish refers to when one mixes their own colour of polish using 2 or more colours.
Shrinkage - Refers to when a coat of polish shrinks on one's nail and creates a visible space at the tip of the nail. The effect is the same as tip wear (see above) but shrinkage occurs soon after applying top coat (and can sometimes be the result of using a fast drying top coat).
Shrinkage can be avoided by wrapping the nail not only with the colour polish one is wearing but also with whatever top coat they're using as well.
For use when selling/swapping:
FS - Shorthand for "for sale".
ISO - Shorthand for "in search of".
BNIB - Stands for "brand new, in box".
BNNB - Stands for "brand new, no box".
CP - Stands for "custom purchase". A custom purchase usually occurs when a product is not readily available to one beauty community member and another member who is able to easily access the product kindly purchases it for the other member (using the money the other member would have sent them via paypal or some other method of money transaction) and mails it to them.
(V)HTH - Stands for "(very) hard to find" which refers to a product that is rare.
That's all I could come up with for now. I will update this post on a regular basis if more come to mind.
HTH! (Translated: Hope this helps!)
