Archives for July 2008

MAC Makeup Rewind: Some of My MAC Favorites

July 8th, 2008 by Karen 15 Comments

I’ve got MAC on my mind today. A quick check of the MAC site revealed that all three new collections are now available for purchase, woot! I guess they couldn’t wait for Thursday. To celebrate one of my all-time favorite makeup brands, here are a few posts from the archives.

Face of the Day: A Smokey Eye with MAC Club
“I had a lot of fun with MAC Club eyeshadow today. Its versatility makes it great for creating quick daytime smokey eyes. I had about three seconds to put on my makeup this morning, and I owe this look to MAC Club.”

MAC Makeup Tips: MAC Does Makeup for Music, Too
“For a long-wearing foundation that won’t melt under hot stage lights, choose a silicone-based foundation.”

MAC Cosmetics Face of the Day: Hot Pink and Silver
“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.”

MAC Cosmetics Naughty Nauticals Face of the Day: A Light Purple and Blue Eye
“Even though it’s a purple look, I don’t think it’s too obnoxious to wear to work. A fine line exists between pretty/soft purple looks and streetfight/Barney purple looks, and I think this more closely resembles the former.”

MAC Cosmetics Neo Sci Fi Review, Swatches: Beam Me Up, Scotty
“Just put a label on my forehead that says, ‘Easy Prey.’ First, there’s the bright orange packaging. Sure, it’s kinda highway-worker vest, but I think it’s fun and cheerful. Then there’s my weakness for warm shades of bronze, pink and plum, which headline the sunbaked, summertime collection.”

MAC Makeup Fafi Tutorial: A Black and Gold Smokey Eye
“New to semi-complicated makeup? Don’t despair. If you’ve ever worn at least two eyeshadow colors at a time, then you can certainly handle this. Yes! You! Can!”

MAC Cosmetics Mulch Eyeshadow Face of the Day
“I started this face of the day with one pan — ONE PAN! — of MAC Mulch Eyeshadow. From there, it quickly spiraled out of control into a look with seven different shades.”

Good morning! I had a nice anniversary dinner with El Hub last night and ate a ton of sushi. I feel like I should give the man a trophy or something for putting up with me, LOL. How’s Tuesday so far? Got anything exciting planned for today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

MAC Cosmetics New Collections: Ready, Set, Mineralize!

July 7th, 2008 by Karen 44 Comments

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Electroflash

Three new MAC Cosmetics releases (yes, girl, THREE!) arrive at MAC counters this Thursday, July 10. The Electroflash, New View and Sonic Chic collections feature Mineralize products — baked mineral eyeshadows, blushes and powders distinguished by the veins of shimmer running through the pans.

Detailed information about all three collections is available on the MAC website, but here’s a basic rundown of what we can expect to see later this week.

Electroflash – nine Mineralize eyeshadow duos; four lipsticks and lipglasses
Sonic Chic – nine Mineralize blushes in gold, pink and bronze shimmer shades
New View – five Mineralize powder duos, each with one matte and one shimmer shade

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Sonic Chic

I’m a raving fan of MAC’s Mineralize eyeshadow duos, so I’m really looking forward to Electroflash, especially the Fresh Green Mix and Love Connection duos. I’ve also been foaming at the mouth over the Sonic Chic blushes.

New View hasn’t piqued my interest like the other two pending collections have, but, hey, we’ll see if that changes once I see it in person.

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New View

If you’re new to MAC Mineralize products, you may find these posts helpful. They’re from last year’s Antiquitease collection.

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Be a Bronze Bombshell with Clarins Sun Blush

July 7th, 2008 by Karen 17 Comments

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The beauty world’s buzzing about new fall makeup collections, but we can’t forget about summer. Please pass the iced tea, and let’s see what Clarins has been up to.

The Clarins Summer Fever line continues to impress me. Sun Blush ($27.50), a shimmery loose powder, perfectly complements the vibrant teal, purple, pink and orange eye and lip product colors from their Waterproof Eye Pencils, Wonder Mint Mascara and Sun Lip Balms.

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Sun Blush is a warm, terra cotta brown with lots of bronzy shimmer. It has a fine, loose powder texture that reminds me of wonderful Shu Uemura blushes like M Brown 73 (a warm, peachy brown matte) and P Gold 93 D (a shimmery golden pearl).

Applying it to my cheeks for the first time was, um, interesting. The product comes packaged in a cute travel pot that includes a mirror and puff. The puff is great in theory but takes a little practice to use correctly. It tends to pick up and deposit too much product unless you tap away some of the loose powder onto a tissue or the back of your hand. I forgot to do that when I first went to use the puff and wound up looking like one of those crazy ladies who can’t lay off the rouge. As a matter of fact, I would probably skip the puff entirely and, whenever I have one handy, apply Sun Blush with a blush brush like the MAC 116.
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, July 7

July 7th, 2008 by Karen 105 Comments

Mood: Very much in love. Today is my second wedding anniversary. 🙂

Lips: Clarins Sun Sheer Lipstick in Paradise Papaya

Fragrance: Bath and Body Works Green Clover and Aloe Body Lotion and Body Splash (the Body Splash is currently on sale at Bath and Body Works for only $4)

Food craving: A plain butter croissant from the French bakery across the street

Makeup craving: A few eye duos: NARS Eyeshadow Duo in Rated R and Chanel Irreelle Duo in Emerald Coast

Song of the day: Ruler of My Heart, by Irma Thomas

Jewelry: White dangling earrings and a white beaded bracelet, both from H&M

Hair: A hot mess! I need to get my roots done because the ends are terribly unruly. I’m wearing it in a loose, messy bun today.

Reading for the week: Rick Steve’s Paris travel guidebook

Goals for the day: Make a long-overdue appointment to get my hair done, to have a good day at work and to do some push-ups

Girlfriend, you know what to do! Just copy the list, insert your answers and leave ’em for me in the comments. 🙂

Le list

Mood:
Lips:
Fragrance:
Food craving:
Makeup craving:
Song of the day:
Jewelry:
Hair:
Reading for the week:
Goal of the day:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sunday Face of the Day: Pink and Gold with a Dash of Green

July 6th, 2008 by Karen 23 Comments

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Yesterday afternoon I zipped into the city to help my friend Jen shop for bridesmaid dresses. She’s getting married this November, and we’re getting down to the wire. Most of the dresses we looked at were solid pinks or golds, accessorized with sashes of contrasting colors. The sashes created pretty focal points, and that’s the idea I had in mind today when I did my makeup.

Gold dress with pink sash by Simple Silhouettes

I blended together a pink and gold for the color I used on my eyes, cheeks and lips and then added a pop of green to the eyes (a sash) for contrast.

There aren’t a lot products or much blending involved in this look, and the colors are muted and subtle, so it didn’t take a long time to do — about 10-15 minutes. All told, I used products from Chanel, MAC Cosmetics, Lancome and Laura Mercier.

First, since I wanted the green on my eyes to really stand out, I applied MAC Cream Color Base in Pearl on the eyelid and just into the crease. Applying it beneath eyeshadow colors is a quick and easy way to ramp up their intensity.
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Lippmann Collection Lady Marmalade Is Like Barbie Pink Goodness

July 6th, 2008 by Karen 16 Comments

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Watching old black and white movies on TV the other night, I felt compelled to add some color to my life. I applied three coats of Lippmann Collection’s Lady Marmalade nail polish ($15), a shimmery coral pink.

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I think it’s a playful, youthful shade, even though the name is also the very grownup hook of a song that goes “Voulez-vouz coucher avec moi, ces soir.”

Maybe the Lippmann folks chose the name based upon how the shade looks in the bottle — like a scandalous red — but on my nails it’s a warm-toned strawberry pink, something Elle Woods would have worn before she left for Harvard.

Despite having the trademark Lippmann polish durability and thickness, Lady Marmalade is a bit sheer in comparison to Lippmann’s matte polishes. It took me three layers to really make the color pop.

Once applied, nail polish shades can look completely different depending on your skin tone and the opacity of your fingernails, so even though Lady Marmalade looks more strawberry pink than coral on my nails, you may see more of its coral and gold tones.
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Beauty Snacks: Sites of the Day, July 5

July 5th, 2008 by Karen 12 Comments

All Lacquered Up
How many times have you left the house late for school or work and not wearing any makeup? But when you caught a glimpse of your pretty, painted nails, didn’t you let out a sigh of relief? Sometimes, all it takes to feel put together is a little color on your fingertips. If you love nail polish as much as I do, check out All Lacquered Up.

kuler
Graphic designers and web developers use Adobe kuler to help them identify color palettes to use in projects for work, but I think it’s a great tool for makeup lovers, too. One nifty feature suggests color schemes based on images you upload yourself (Create>From an Image). Say you have a picture of a lovely pink and yellow flower. Upload the photo to kuler, and it’ll return a list of colors — like swatches — based upon the predominant colors in the picture. COOL!

POPSUGAR – Celebrity Gossip & News
PopSugar is one of the ways I get my celebrity gossip fix. I like to go there when my brain needs a break. It’s part of the Sugar Inc. network of women’s blogs (ala BellaSugar, FitSugar and geeksugar). Interesting… I just learned Luke Perry may sign on for the new 90210 TV series. He better not be playing a high school student because he’s *hella* old.

iVillage: Beauty
iVillage is kinda like one-stop shopping for beauty and fashion news. It’s another good way to start your research if you’re unfamiliar with a topic. Try the Makeover-O-Matic. With it you can test virtual makeup, hairstyles and celebrity looks.

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Lip Look: Chanel Papeete and Gold Light

July 5th, 2008 by Karen 29 Comments

So how are you doing on this fine summer morning? Do you have plans for today?

I’m rushing out the door right now to meet my friend Jen in San Francisco. She’s getting hitched this November, and I’m her matron of honor. One of my matronly duties is to help her find cute bridesmaid dresses.

Here’s the lip look I’m wearing this morning, done with Chanel Papeete Aqualumiere lipstick and Gold Light Glossimer from the Fall 2008 collection. What do you think — fun and sparkly?

Please send me good luck dress vibes… I really hope we find dresses the bridesmaids can wear again after the wedding. Everyone says that, but you never know. Do you have any tips or advice for me? I’ll have my CrackBerry in hand, checking comments while we’re up to our ears in taffeta and ruffles. 🙂

Have a great day, and let me know what you’ve been lemming lately.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Speaking of luck, let’s see how yours is today.
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