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Archives for June 2009

Discounted Chanel Evergreen Palette, Two New Nail Polishes Coming Soon to Nordstrom

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Chanel Evergreen Palette without flash

Every summer a few of the big makeup lines release limited edition makeup kits and palettes exclusively for Nordstrom stores. They’re called Nordstrom Beauty Exclusives, and I just got wind of some new ones from Chanel.

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Chanel Evergreen Palette with flash

Here’s the Evergreen eye and lip palette ($45). It’s a six-pan palette with two eyeshadows (shimmery sea foam green and shimmery mint green) and four lip glosses (shimmery pink, shimmery bronze, shimmery rose and shimmery peach).

Buying the six items together like this means a huge savings, too, as most Chanel palettes cost at least $85.

Three cheers for Chanel! 🙂

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Chanel Muscat Glossimer

Also on the horizon: shimmery, peachy beige Muscat Glossimer ($27).

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Swatch of Muscat Glossimer

It was previously released overseas but wasn’t readily available in the US until now. You may be able to track down international products by contacting Nordstrom’s Chanel Makeup Studio on Oahu, which carries select products meant for sale overseas (click here to see a lip swatch of the shade).

I love the way Muscat Glossimer looks paired with smokey eyes…

And we may also see two new nail polishes.

I’m told that Rouge Noir ($23), a creamy blood red, resembles Chanel’s iconic Vamp shade but without the shimmer, and Rose Des Vents ($23) is a soft, rosy pearl.

Chanel’s Beauty Exclusives land July 17, but they’re available for pre-order right now.

Note: I heard a rumor that the Evergreen palette may not be around for long (*extremely* limited edition), so if you’re lusting after it, you should probably call or visit your Nordie’s Chanel counter soon.

Do any of these strike your fancy? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Smashbox Limitless Long Wearing Lip Gloss SPF 15 Lasts As Long As Its Name

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smashbox limitless long wear lip gloss spf 15 boundless endless nonstop

Like many makeup junkies, my lip gloss habit borders on “scary obsession.” It’s at the point where El Hub doesn’t even notice mention the tubes of stuff all over the house, in the car and sometimes in his jacket pockets, LOL!

Note: Ladies, when you find a dude who’ll carry lip gloss for you in his pockets without complaint, you should put a ring on that, fo’ reals!

smashbox limitless long wear lip gloss spf 15 boundless

But, I digress…

Lately I’ve been wearing a new lip gloss that just might be one of the coolest things since sliced queso — Smashbox Limitless Long Wear Lip Gloss SPF 15 ($21).

I swatched the six colors a while back but only recently took the new shades out for a spin.

So far I’ve worn…

  • Boundless: a shimmery golden coral with a hint of pink
  • Nonstop: a shimmery hot pink
  • Endless: a shimmery, sheer plum

I think they’re kinda awesome!

As far as durability, Limitless *almost* lives up to its name. Smashbox says they last six hours on the lips; I say that’s being a little generous, but still.

I was able to stretch wear time out to six hours when I sipped drinks through a straw, refrained from snacking (mmm… Oreo cookies and milk…) and avoided rubbing my lips together; otherwise, wear time was more like four hours.

No big deal, though. In my book the addition of SPF 15 makes up the difference.

smashbox limitless long wear lip gloss spf 15 nonstop
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, June 15

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  1. Mood:

    2. *Almost* awake, but not quite there yet.

  2. Something you may not know about me:

    3. I have a stash of letters I’ve received from friends over the years, some of the notes more than 20 years old! I’ll dig them out when I’m feeling blue. That always helps to cheer me up. 🙂

  3. Breakfast:

    4. Two slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

  4. Fragrance:

    5. MAC Creations Hue in Naked Honey.

  5. Eyes/lips/cheeks:

    6. My left eye is still red and watering from bad allergies yesterday, so I’m skipping the eye makeup this morning. I am, however, all over the Smashbox Limitless Long Wear Lip Gloss in Boundless on my lips and Benefit Posie Tint on my cheeks.

  6. Skin issue:

    7. The skin around my eyes looks extra puffy, boo!

  7. I’m lovin’ it (makeup related):

    8. Chanel Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Lotus (a shimmery pinkish beige) from the Les Naturels de Chanel collection.

  8. I’m lovin’ it (non-makeup related):

    9. Stretching, Numi Mate Lemon Green Organic Green Tea (YUM!), the chirping sounds Tabs makes first thing in the morning, the lyrics from Beth Orton’s song, Sweetest Decline.

  9. Working out today?

    10. I’d like to go for a run with El Hub when he gets home from work tonight.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. Get to bed by 10 every night, try not to have a nervous breakdown, and find a new fiction book to read.

Hi, ladies. I’m slowly warming up my mental engines here… Things are off to a slow start, but I’ll get there eventually.

Touch base with me in the Monday Poll, and let me know how you’re doing. Just copy the empty list, and paste it with your answers in the comments. 🙂

Gotta love Mondays!

Le list

Mood:
Something you may not know about me:
Breakfast:
Fragrance:
Eyes/lips/cheeks:
Skin issue:
I’m lovin’ it (makeup related):
I’m lovin’ it (non-makeup related):
Working out today?
Weekly goals:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Beyonce Knowles: Her Best Hair (Part 1)

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Beyonce Knowles: Her Best Hair?

Not even 30 yet (!), Houston’s own Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) already has more than 118 million records sold to date (combined solo career and Destiny’s Child). Younger than all of them, that puts her within striking distance of iconic recording artists like The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Pink Floyd and Mariah Carey.
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All that, and her career’s burning hotter than ever. She has more top tens than any other female recording artist this decade and just came in fourth on Forbes’ list of the 100 Most Powerful Celebrities of 2009, behind Angelina Jolie, Oprah and Madonna!

Not bad, Sasha Fierce.

Her look is always changing, whether it’s a tall beehive for a film role, long with big curls, straight with highlights, medium-length with tight curls or even bright blonde, she never keeps the same hairstyle for long (I’ll take the top voted styles from this poll and pit them against a second set of Beyonce’s hairstyles in Part 2 of this poll).

Which of Beyonce's hairstyles do you like best?

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Do you have a favorite Beyonce song? Right now this one’s mine! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

21 Drugstore Beauty Tips

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21 Drugstore Beauty Tips

The cosmetics industry calls it “trading down,” but most women call it common sense. The economy is prompting women to look more closely at budget alternatives to many of their favorite department store products.

Here’s a quick look at 21 budget beauty resources to help us save some scratch without having to sacrifice too much on quality. 🙂

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like…

  1. Beauty on a Budget: Advice from a Stylist: From the Fashion & Style pages of The New York Times, makeup artist Ann Orcutt shows how to “trade down” from department store makeup and drugstore without sacrificing on quality.

    2. 09skin-600

  2. What’s Your Favorite Drugstore Skin Care Buy? Don’t miss the comments on this Glamour mag post with suggestions on top drugstore skin care buys.

    3. cetaphil

  3. 8 Eyeshadows Under $10: Glamour’s Beth Shapouri links to a gallery of 8 pretty eyeshadow palettes and quads worth checking out.

    4. rimmel

  4. Boots Amazon Forest Brazil Nut and Vanilla Selection: I love Brazil nuts. If you do, too, then check out the Boots aisle at your local Target.

    5. boots-amazon-forest-brazil-nut-group

  5. Kiss Manicure Salon Kit: Here’s a fantastic $10 kit with eight items for manicures on the go.

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  6. Sally Hansen Miracle Cure: Where the heck has Sally’s Miracle Cure been all my life? I have GOT to get myself a bottle of this stuff.

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Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, June 14

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Help Inspector Tabs find the MAC imposter

Our intrepid Inspector Tabs is trying to figure out which of the following items is NOT a past, present or upcoming MAC Cosmetics collection.

Can you lend him a helping paw?

Which of the following is not a past, present or upcoming MAC Collection?

View Results

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

10 Skin Care Tips from Dr. Rey

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Dr. Robert Rey, celebrity plastic surgeon and star of E! television’s Dr. 90210, was on hand at the Nordstrom Summer Trend Show in San Francisco this morning to talk about Sensual Solutions, his new line of 13 anti-aging skin care products for face and body (exclusive to Nordstrom).

I stole a few minutes of the handsome doctor’s time to talk about Sensual Solutions, plastic surgery and overall skin care and health.

1. Be religious about sun protection

“Aging today is a choice,” says Dr. Rey. By focussing on preventative measures, like wearing sunscreen, “You’ll age only if you want to…”

2. Support “the girls” at all times, even while you sleep

To keep breasts from sagging, the doctor suggests wearing a bra while you sleep. “At night… your breasts are falling into your armpit, which pulls at the ligaments and causes sagging.”

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3. Consider plastic surgery as a last resort

Dr. Rey calls his Sensual Solutions line “plastic surgery in a bottle.” He designed it for women looking for a non-surgical approach to anti-aging. All 13 products contain an anti-aging complex called AActive6-Exotics, a combination of compounds from the jungles of Brazil (Dr. Rey is Brazilian) and anti-aging ingredients from Western medicine.

A few of his favorites from the line?

  • Eye Promise ($85): With a hectic schedule — long hours in the operating room and frequent cross-country flights — Dr. Rey depends on his Eye Promise cream to decrease puffiness on the skin around his eyes and reduce the appearance of dark circles.
  • From Your Lips ($40): A plumping gloss to firm, to increase volume and to smooth creases and lines on lips while simultaneously delivering a glossy, natural tint.

    When we first sat down to talk, Dr. Rey reached across the space between us and applied From Your Lips on my pucker. Within about 10 minutes my lips looked and felt noticeably bigger, with a color a few shades darker than usual (but still my natural tone).

  • Inhibitox ($150): The doc developed Inhibitox — what he calls “Botox in a bottle” — after growing tired of administering Botox (!) on himself before television appearances. The penetrating cream gets deep into the skin to relax the underlying muscles.

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4. Do your research if you decide plastic surgery is right for you

Not all doctors who perform cosmetic procedures are plastic surgeons. Follow these tips to find a good one, and avoid someone who’s merely taken a weekend course:

  • Look for a doctor trained as a general plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
  • Make sure the doctor is licensed and in good standing with your state medical board (click here for a list of links to state boards).
  • Listen to the buzz in your community, and chat with other women to find out which doctors they’re talking about.
  • Listen to your gut. You shouldn’t have a bad feeling about your doctor. If you walk into an office and the doctor makes you feel uncomfortable or creepy, move on.
  • Plastic surgeons often have books filled with before and after pictures of their work. The more documentation and pictures they can show you, the better, so look for thick books and stacks of pictures at the office.

5. Stop (or don’t start) smoking

Smoking destroys the skin, and Dr. Rey sees the evidence all the time in his medical practice. When two sisters or twins visit and one of them smokes, it only takes a second to guess which one’s the smoker.

6. Drink lots of water

Drinking water plumps the cells and flushes toxins from the body.

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7. Give up caffeine

According to Dr. Rey, “It’s the number one cause of cellulite.”

8. Exercise!

It promotes mental and physical well being, and for those reasons and more, it’s a great anti-aging tool.

9. Cut back on stress

Stress is a major ager. Dr. Rey suggests daily meditation and regular exercise to keep stress under control.

10. Nourish your inner beauty

“Your spirit matters. Go to church, go to temple, whatever you do — you’ve got to do something spiritual. Or, simply help out in your community. This builds inner beauty, and beauty really starts there.”

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What Lipstick Index?

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The makeup unicorn

I’m not sure who coined the phrase, but an economic indicator known as the Lipstick Index has long held that purchases of color cosmetics were inversely correlated to economic health, and that in bad economic times, women skipped big-ticket luxuries in favor of little treats like lipsticks and gloss.

Well, chalk this up as another example of just how bad the global recession is, but the Lipstick Index no longer applies.

In both 2007 and 2008, sales of premium color cosmetics were down in all major markets worldwide, with the exception of Latin America, where overall makeup and beauty sales have done all right. Moreover, the global rate of decline doubled between 2007 and 2008 (from 2-4%).
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What’s it mean?

Probably that this particular recession, now in its 19th month, is worse than the average downturn, something most people already knew. Since 1854, the US has gone through 32 cycles of economic expansion and contraction, with each period of contraction lasting an average of 17 months. And that’s including the 10-12 years of the Great Depression, which kinda throws the whole curve out of whack.
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It may also mean more unemployment (and the anxiety that comes with uncertainty in the job market), as businesses continue cutting costs by laying off more workers; more consolidation among companies in the beauty industry; and, hopefully, lower prices.

Do you think makeup and beauty prices are falling? I tried to think of some big lines that have dropped their prices lately and couldn’t come up with a single one.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Just a reminder, but MAC is holding a much-needed Friends & Family Sale June 16-18. It’s online only, and the coupon code is SUMO, which is good for 25% off purchases made through maccosmetics.com (valid in the US and Canada).

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