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Archives for November 2010

If You Throw Me a Line, Make It Velvet Rope: New NYX 10 Color Eyeshadow Palette in Velvet Rope

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karen of makeup and beauty blog wearing the nyx velvet rope palette 2

Oh, my goodness! Look at all that purple. Is this a Prince video or a beauty blog? 🙂

Today I left the thugs to their gangsta’s paradise while I escaped yet again to my purple one. I could go on and on about how much I love purple eyeshadow, but the No. 1 reason why I think every girl (or makeup loving boy, for that matter) should play with purple is because of how great it goes with everything.

Alright, I admit I’m plum biased, but I think purple looks great on almost everyone. Whether brown, green, gray, blue or hazel eyes, the right purple on your lid or lash line can make those peepers

POP! Yeah, I use that word a lot…but you know what I mean.

Now, brace yourself for a plethora of purple, and behold the new NYX Velvet Rope 10 Color Eyeshadow Palette ($9.75)!

nyx velvet rope eyeshadow palette runway collection review swatches photos

It’s one of four newcomers to NYX’s permanent “The Runway Collection” family of slim, trim eye palettes, each of which hold 10 pans of powder eyeshadow in coordinating shades.

You may be thinking, “Did Barney explode in that palette?” Haha! I assure you, he did not.

As you can see, most of the shades are purples, but NYX incorporated a few other colors to spice things up.

For more mulberry mayhem…

Despite being a budget brand, NYX does some things very well, one of them being eyeshadows. I think they’re among the best!

Not knowing these were from NYX, I would have never guessed they were less than $10, not being as smooth as they are with this kind of pigment. I’m beginning to think of NYX as the Marshalls of the eye makeup world — proprietors of great value products.
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The Jouer Mini Tinted Lip Enhancer Collection and Glossy Holiday Weddings

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Jouer Tinted Lip Enhancer in Shiraz…and I have NO IDEA what’s going on with mah hair!

Jouer’s new Mini Tinted Lip Enhancer Collection ($25) is technically a holiday release, but doesn’t it look more bridal from here?


Jouer Mini Tinted Lip Enhancer Collection

Perhaps Jouer had a Christmas wedding in mind (FUN!)?

The company, a relatively new indie line launched back in 2008, sells a full line of makeup, a handful of brushes and bags, and a small (but lovely) collection of body products.

Their colors, packaging and non-fussy style remind me of a beauty Banana Republic, but they’re nowhere near as widespread. If you can’t find them locally, they are sold online and, while this will be out of the way for anyone outside the New York area, at the Henri Bendel store on Fifth Avenue.

The Mini Tinted Lip Enchancer set comes with three little 0.15-oz. tubes of their sheer gloss in Bellini (peach), Champagne (nude) and Shiraz (berry), as well as a very small gold pouch to store them (not shown).
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Clarins Is Going for Baroque with the Barocco Holiday 2010 Collection

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karen of makeup and beauty blog wearing the clarins barocco collection from holiday 2010

Ladies, I haven’t felt very glamorous this week… On a scale of 1 to 10, my glamorousness has been hovering around a -3. With scrunchies in my hair and my bum glued to the couch and wrapped in stretchy pants, I’ve watched just about every zombie movie and TV show released since 1969. Has it been educational? Sure, but it hasn’t been great for glamor.

The new Clarins Barocco Holiday Collection couldn’t have come at a better time.

Look at all that fancy… 🙂 It’s like a shot of fabulous straight to the heart!

clarins barocco collection holiday 2010 review swatches photos packaging al

clarins barocco collection holiday 2010 review swatches photos

The floral swirls/filigree designs both inside and out, and the rich berry, gold, black and peach shades seduced the sweat pants right off me (actually, they were raggedy yoga pants). These are products begging to be worn with a shimmery golden gown and dangerously high heels.

Clarins drew their inspiration for the collection from the Baroque style, characterized by dynamic movement, overt emotion and self-confident rhetoric, and prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe.

The collection itself is limited edition and very small, with just four pieces, but man, oh, man they’re striking!
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Plum Curious: How Does Romp Eyeshadow from the Cowboy Junkie Palette Compare to Other Purples from Urban Decay?

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urban decay cowboy junkie comparisonswatches of romp along with other urban decay purples including flash freakshow ecstasy acdc fridgid
Urban Decay eyeshadows clockwise from bottom left: Freakshow, Flash, Romp, Frigid, AC/DC and Ecstasy

Last night when MBB reader Steph B asked this about the Urban Decay Cowboy Junkie Palette ($38), I thought it was a perfect excuse to paint my arm purple. 🙂

“Romp is the only color in the set I really want. How does it compare to some of the other UD purples you can buy as singles? Is it close to Ecstasy or Purple Haze?”

-Steph B

Hmm… Good question. To get to the bottom of it, I busted out some of the similar Urban Decay purples in my stash to do a quick comparison.

I don’t have Purple Haze, but Flash, Freakshow, Ecstasy and Frigid are currently available as singles in UD’s permanent line; AC/DC is from last fall’s Book of Shadows Vol. II.
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Zombies Don’t Use The NYX Eyebrow Shaper (and It Shows)

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nyx eyebrow shaper review box

Some mornings I just CANNOT get it together, and even something as simple yet important as operating the coffee maker might as well be quantum physics.

I call those my makeup-for-dummies days, and when they strike I turn to instant coffee my arsenal of tools and tricks to fake a good night’s sleep.

Can’t have my neighbors mistaking me for the first wave in the coming zombie apocalypse, right?

The latest addition to my makeup-for-dummies kit, NYX’s new Eyebrow Shaper ($8.75), is one of several new eyebrow products from NYX this fall. It’s a colorless, waxy brow gel in pencil form — perfect for sculpting and taming unruly brows — and for me it takes the place of having to fill in my brows with a colored brow pencil, wax or eyeshadow, particularly when I’m tired and/or lazy (read: often).


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