Archives for June 2008

Face of the Day: Simple Smokey Eye with Chanel Winter Nights Quad

June 5th, 2008 by Karen 43 Comments

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This week I received some nice e-mails asking about the smokey eye makeup I wore to my lil’ brother’s graduation last weekend. This morning, I thought I’d try the full face look again.

As far as complete looks are concerned, this one is quick and easy to do. I used shades from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad, a versatile set with four basic, but pretty shades of pink, peachy gold, green and light brown. The look works well for the office or for things like family functions or semi-formals.

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The first layer of eye makeup…

MAC Soft Ochre Paint Pot on the browbone and fully into the crease
MAC Quite Natural on the lid and barely into the crease

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The second layer of eye makeup…

Peach-gold shade from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad on the browbone and on the lower lash line (layered on top of the dark green shade mentioned below)
Light brown shade from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad on the lid and barely into the crease
Dark green shade from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad on the lower half of the lid and the lower lash line (layered on top of the Lancome waterproof liner mentioned next)
Lancome Le Stylo Waterproof Long Lasting Liner in Noir on the upper and lower water and lash lines

The corresponding shades from the Chanel Winter Nights Quad (Note: For this look, I didn’t use the pink shade):
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Ojon Rub-Out Dry Cleanser: Shower in a Bottle

June 4th, 2008 by Karen 43 Comments

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I was up until three last night/this morning reading my new book, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and, because I stayed up so late, I woke up late. After writing my first post, I was left with barely 15 minutes to get ready for work.

Not good.

Making matters worse, my hair was extra greasy and gross (sexy, I know) this morning. With very little time to get ready, I had to make a difficult decision — either I could wash my hair, or skip washing and use the time to apply minimal makeup instead.

I chose to go with the minimal makeup, but my questionable decision didn’t subject the general population to stinky Karen hair. Nope! I used one of my favorite secret short cuts for time strapped mornings: dry shampoo.

It’s an absorbent spray-on powder you apply to your roots to cut down on oil and grease. It can’t replace a cleansing hair wash, but it helps in a pinch.

The product I’m using goes by the name of Ojon Hair’s Rub-Out Dry Cleanser ($24), and I like it a lot.

One big issue I’ve had with dry shampoos in the past is that quite a few brands smell really terrible, but not Rub-Out. It smells like a mix of citrus and baby powder. The product does a great job cutting down on the shine and relieves any scalp itchiness. I wouldn’t say it cleans hair, but it certainly makes it look better.
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Are You Down with Man Makeup?

June 4th, 2008 by Karen 62 Comments

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How would you feel if the guy in your life started to wear guyliner (aka eyeliner) and power bronze (bronzer)? Younger men these days are more open to wearing makeup — eyeliner, concealer, bronzer — than ever before. How do you feel about man makeup?

“When beauty companies started investing heavily in focus-group research a decade ago, a surprising fact came to light: Some men dip into their wives’ concealer, bronzer, even eyeliner.

‘Makeup for men is a small niche category, but it is definitely growing,’ says Roman Shuster, a retail analyst for Euromonitor International. He says the influence of rock bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic at the Disco, whose lead singers wear dark eyeliner and mascara, are making the idea of wearing makeup attractive for a younger generation of men.

‘If a guy had worn makeup 10 years ago, he would likely have been beat up. But that’s changed today because more men are getting into grooming. What was once considered weird isn’t so farfetched now that you are using moisturizer and body washes,’ Mr. Shuster says. He calls this the ‘spillover’ effect.”

-Dave Lackie, Financial Post

My brother won’t even touch the countless bottles of conditioner I give to him, and El Hub gawks at my every suggestion to use moisturizing skin products (“But it’s Kiehl’s, sweetie!”). I doubt the guys in my life will be asking if they can borrow my Stila Sun Bronzing Powder, but if either of them asked to borrow some concealer to cover a pimple or asked for a few blotting papers before a big interview, I wouldn’t mind.

For the Boys: Man Makeup in 7 Easy Steps

Exfoliate with a gentle product like Clinique Seven Day Scrub Cream

Apply toner

Moisturize face (and neck!) with a lotion containing SPF

Use a brush to properly apply concealer

Dust loose or pressed powder onto forehead and face

Apply a clear or neutral-colored lip balm

Wash face before bed to remove makeup and to cleanse the skin

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Stila Multi-Effect Mascara: A Brush with Destiny

June 3rd, 2008 by Karen 13 Comments

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BREAKING NEWS: Stila’s Multi-Effect Mascara ($20) creates thick, fatty-bo-batty lashes! Check out how my lashes go from zero to luscious in just two coats.

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I gotta hand it to Stila for the curved brush they packaged with Multi-Effect Mascara. The thing flat-out rocks, helping the product deliver amazing thickness. The arch fits perfectly into the curve of my lashes (and probably yours, too), better than any other curved brush I’ve used before. With it I can really get into the lashes and coat them from root to tip.

I’m definitely loving the thickness Multi-Effect and its magical brush provide, but I was also hoping to see a more dramatic difference in length and lash curl. Stila says Multi-Effects is designed to create, well, multiple effects — longer, thicker and curlier lashes — but after two coats the difference I saw in length and curl were minimal. It held the curl but lengthened to a lesser degree than Shu Uemura’s Precise Volume Mascara does.

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Get the Look for Less: Sonia Kashuk Eye Shadow Duo in Double Whammy

June 3rd, 2008 by Karen 37 Comments

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Remember the MAC Cosmetics blue and green face of the day from a few weeks ago? Parrot ($14), a turquoise eyeshadow, and Sprout ($14), a sea green, featured heavily in the look. While I think they’re both fabulous colors, I wanted to find another more budget-friendly option, considering how $28 is a lot to pay for two colors that may not get a lot of regular use. Enter Sonia Kashuk’s Eye Shadow Duo in Double Whammy ($7.99). It offers two very similar blue and green shades for a quarter the price.
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Stila Sun SPF 15 Bronzing Powder: Here Comes the Sun

June 2nd, 2008 by Karen 55 Comments

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“Here comes the sun, little darling, and I say, it’s all right.”

When I stare lovingly at Stila’s Sun Bronzing Powder SPF 15 ($28) compact I always think of Here Comes the Sun, one of my favorite songs by The Beatles. I love the compact’s cheerful design and pretty bronze case. How can something so small put me in such a wonderful mood?

Sun Bronzing Powder isn’t just pretty on the outside, though. This pressed powder delivers a glowy warmth and comes in two shades, codenamed 01 and 02; I’ve used 02, a warm brown matte with just the tiniest bit of sparkle.

I feel like my skin glows after applying Sun Bronzing Powder. It’s a very subtle glow that people may not even notice, but I can. I can really see the difference when I apply the powder shortly after putting on foundation.

Normally, when I apply foundation it evens out my skin color and tone. That’s a good thing, but sometimes foundation creates too much uniformity, aka mannequin skin. Bronzer helps spice up the canvas produced by foundation alone.
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MAC Cosmetics Face of the Day: Hot Pink and Silver

June 2nd, 2008 by Karen 59 Comments

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Happy Monday! Talk about unexpected. I woke up this morning feeling extra spunky — and that was even before my first cup of coffee. It’s standard operating procedure for me to wake up on Mondays feeling grouchy, so to celebrate this minor miracle I decided to go big and bold with a full face inspired by the hot pink lip I wore a few days ago in this cosmopolitan-inspired lip look.

These lips stand out from a mile away, so I went with a soft pink and silver eye to add some semblance of balance to the look.

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The first layer of eye makeup…

MAC Girl Friendly Paint Pot on the browbone and crease
MAC Shimma Paint on the lid and barely into the crease

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Wellness by Clean: Tranquility in a Bottle

June 1st, 2008 by Karen 10 Comments

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Between the blog, freelancing and my day job at the literary agency, I’ve been pretty busy lately. It’s nothing like how busy those of you with young children or full-time class schedules are, but it’s still been enough to stress me out. To say I’ve been on edge for the past few months is probably the understatement of the year, so when I heard about two new Wellness by Clean perfumes ($76 each), both created to help women relax and to feel rejuvenated, I had to try ’em out. They’re expensive, but so is therapy.

Clean claims that spritzing either eau de parfum, Harmony or Purity, on your pressure points induces a sense of tranquility, like a spray-on spa treatment.

Harmony:
Top notes — Italian lemon, eucalyptus, tea and dewberry
Middle notes — rose, jasmine, orange blossom
Base notes — cedar wood and musk

Purity:
Top notes — bergamot, mandarin, tea and dewberry
Middle notes — rose, jasmine, muguet (Lily of the Valley), germanium
Base notes — cedar wood, sandalwood, leather and musk

I am impatient with fragrances. If the top notes — that is, the initial burst of fragrance — don’t hook me, I usually look elsewhere, but that’s not how it played out with either of these perfumes. Both scents had powerful top notes that almost overwhelmed my sensitive nose, but the subsequent middle and base notes more than made up for the initial shock.

Initially, Harmony smelled like a huge basket of lemon rind strapped to my face, and Purity smelled like crushed mint leaves in my nostrils, but as soon as the dominant top notes mellowed out and transitioned into the milder middle and base notes, I began to feel some of the rejuvenating effect.

Harmony turned into a soft, powdery jasmine and rose floral fragrance; Purity morphed into a warmer floral with rose notes blending with musk and sandalwood.

I feel that Purity is the more invigorating, rejuvenating fragrance of the two, while Harmony is the more soothing scent.
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