Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Urban Decay’s The Black Palette, $36.
I know there’s been a lot of smokey eyes on the site lately. Do you guys want more/less? I personally can’t get enough of ’em (plus, during the holidays the look is hella popular), but lemme know!
OOH! I like NYX brushes, and they just added 11 new ones to their already extensive 24-piece makeup brush line (for a total of 35!).
Some use bristles made from pony hair and others bristles made from synthetic fibers, and all are reasonably priced from $4 – $15 each.
I used four of the new eye brushes and one of the brushes for face to do my makeup yesterday, and I came away with a good impression. I’d say these are on par with Sonia Kashuk brushes, and you know that’s saying a lot.
All of the brush heads feel soft in all the right ways, meaning neither too soft nor too rigid, and I like how the mid-length, lightweight handles fit my smallish hands (and most makeup bags).
I think NYX also deserves extra credit for printing the numbers and names on the side of each brush. It’s a small thing but surprisingly helpful sometimes.
I plan to use the B30 Shadow/Point and B31 Shadow/Smokie-Small brushes often. The brush heads are tiny, making them great for intricate detail work on the lids, and/or if you have a small crease.
I opened up a box this morning and the second I turned around Tabs jumped in to stake his claim.
What is it with cats and cardboard boxes? He’s so weird.
As much as I love a good bargain, budget beauty doesn’t always deliver. With some drugstore beauty products, you just don’t know what caliber of quality you’re gonna get.
The HiP Eye Shadow duos we looked at last week from the new L’Oreal Midnight Muse collection showed a lot of promise, and you showed a lot of interest, so I took two of them (Enchantress and Darkwave) out for indoor test drives today.
Now I know why these HiP shadows have so many fans. 🙂
The matte and high-shine shimmer shadows in both duos are easy to blend and exhibit very little fallout. These are top-shelf drugstore beauty products. We’re talking glass case material here, like the kinds of products that deserve their own display at the very front of the beauty aisle.
Sante is an eco-friendly German makeup brand that recently launched in the US.
There’s makeup for eyes, lips and cheeks ranging from $7-16, and the products are cruelty-, fragrance- and preservative- free.
Pictured above: Eyeshadow Trio in Rose Wood 03 ($16).
I’m taking this shadow (along with some lip and face products) on a test run this weekend. Will holla if anything’s worth checking out. 🙂
LORAC Tie Dye For Lip Gloss in Shocking Twist
In college I had a classmate who wore tie-dye jam band concert tees to chemistry class EVERY SINGLE DAY. I’d sit there trying to take notes with my four-color clicky pen (mind you, these were the days when pagers were “cutting edge”), but the shirt would call to me from the across time/space. “Karen,” it would whisper, “look over here. Stare into my magic swirls…”
When I would finally give in and steal a glance, I’d get trapped! — unable to look away.
Like I was being sucked into the swirls!
All this without ever having taken a bite of shirt dude’s “special” brownies, which he kindly offered to me before class on many occasions.
It’s all very The Yellow Wallpaper, I know, and by the end of the year I wound up with a full-blown case of tie-dye trauma!
But you know what they say, right? Time heals all wounds. And, now, thanks to the LORAC Tie Dye For Lip Gloss Collection ($25 for a set of five tubes), I can finally appreciate multi-colored swirls again. 🙂
Wet N Wild Color Icon Kit in Sugar Plumb Fairy
I wonder how much it costs to mail a letter to the North Pole. I ask because I’d really like to thank Santa for releasing these Wet N Wild Color Icon Kits ($5) for the holidays.
Being just $5 each and coming with six coordinating shadows and a mini-eyeliner, the four kits give new meaning to the words, “travel friendly.”
Well, the liner’s nothing to write home about. I mean, it’s nicely pigmented, but it feels a little rigid against my skin. The shadows, on the other hand — oh, the shadows! Rich, bold and just as buildable as the the company’s fab Color Icon Singles.
Again, these are just $5, WOW!
Of the four kits — Sugar Plum Fairy, Golden Goddess, Snow Sprite and Night Elf — I’ve tested two of them so far.
Wet N Wild Color Icon Kit in Snow Sprite
Snow Sprite
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In a way I’m kinda glad my MAC 266 brush and pan of Concrete eyeshadow went missing, because now I’m trying different stuff for brows like the NYX Push Up Bra Eyebrow Pencil ($10). It’s a dual-ended eyebrow enhancer with a brow pencil on one end and a highlighter on the other.
I’m haven’t quite figured out why there’s glitter in the brow pencil side, but we’ll see what happens!
