Archives for March 2010

I’m Sweet on Illamasqua Pastel Nails

March 24th, 2010 by Karen 31 Comments

I was SUCH an Easter morning candy kid. 🙂 My little brother and I always looked forward to Easter because our parents would fill our baskets to the brim with sweets!

Jelly beans, Peeps, chocolate bunnies, Cadbury Mini Eggs, yum…

Which reminds me — eff you Cadbury Mini Eggs for making your candies so hard to resist!

Every Easter morning, after tearing through the house on the hunt for hidden eggs, we’d gorge ourselves on candy until our tummies hurt.

Memories of Easter mornings flooded back today when I swatched two of the four colors from Illamasqua’s Pastel Nails collection for spring.

The colors have been available through illamasqua.com for a while, but they arrive at US Sephora stores this May ($14 each).

From left: Caress, Wink, Blow, Nudge

Nudge (the creamy greenish blue) and Blow (the creamy yellow) look good enough to eat! — which would not be a good idea BTW (don’t do it!!).

Nudge

Blow
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New in Beauty, Mar. 24: Chanel Reformulates Viatlumiere Foundation and Clinique Introduces a New Brandied Bronze

March 24th, 2010 by Karen 24 Comments

New in Beauty

Chanel’s updated their fantabulous Viatlumiere Foundation ($54) with new ingredients to target dry, dull, uneven skin
NORDSTROM ALERT: Clinique’s Brandied Bronze Eyeshadow Quad ($25) is available now
Smashbox’s Hyperlash Mascara ($21) supposedly lifts, lengthens, volumizes AND defines
Laura Mercier’s Eyelash Curler ($16) has an interesting design…
I’m dying to catch a whiff of Philosophy Apricots and Cream Perfumed Body Spritz ($22)
More from Smashbox: The Brow Tech To Go Pencil ($26)
Bath and Body Works has a new citrus scent called Orange Sapphire (pretty name!)
Urban Decay slashed \ the price of their Apocalyptic Nail Kit from $26 to $18
It takes 10 seconds to enter to win $2400 in Michael Stars clothing and Benefit Cosmetics
Origins claims their Brighter by Nature brightening peel pads ($38) make skin tone look more even

What’s shakin’, ladies? This is rather useless trivia, but I just realized that today is the third of five March hump days. 🙂 Hope you have a great one. I’m just chugging along.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sweet Cupcakes from San Francisco

March 24th, 2010 by Karen 19 Comments

Clockwise from left: key lime ginger, coconut, red velvet

Mini-cupcakes from a place called Sweet in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood… They looked pretty and were certainly sweet (almost *too* sugary, even), but they weren’t heavy in the flavor department.

Blue and White Hydrangeas

March 24th, 2010 by Karen 38 Comments

Question: How do you feel about hydrangeas?

I love ’em!

Branch Out This Spring With Sonia Kashuk’s Bamboo Brushes

March 23rd, 2010 by Karen 39 Comments

This is probably gonna sound weird, but all my life I’ve been bringing home random branches. If I like a stick’s shape or texture, I’ll find a way to haul it home, even if it involves jumping into hella cold SF Bay water (remind me to tell you the story of the giant driftwood someday).

Anywho, I guess that’s probably part of the reason why I like Sonia Kashuk’s new Straight From Nature Brushes. New for spring, Sonia crafted these limited-edition eye, face and cheek brushes from eco-friendly bamboo, cork and a mix of natural and synthetic fibers.

There’s something kind of branch-y and natural about them, like, if the Swiss Family Robinson wanted to make elegant makeup brushes, these are what they’d look like, ha!

If you’ve tried and liked Sonia’s seasonal brushes, then you might really dig these. The brush heads feel pretty darn soft for drugstore (the only one that’s a little scratchy is the Wooden Wonder Kabuki), and I like the sturdiness of the handles.

A few stand outs:

Straight From Nature Bamboo Powder Brush ($20): This brush’s narrow shape and slightly pointed tip should work great for powder application on specific parts of the face
Straight From Nature Bamboo Foundation Brush ($17): The brush head for this is also smaller and more narrow than foundation brushes I’ve used in the past; I bet it’ll get into the small spaces around my nose and chin really well
Out of the Woods 4-Piece Set ($13): This four-piece travel set for eyes and face comes with a mini version of the awesome Sonia’s Flat Top Blusher Brush; I’ve never seen a mini version of this brush, so I’m pretty stoked

The entire Sonia Kashuk Straight From Nature Brush Line includes…

Straight From Nature Bamboo Powder Brush, $20

Straight From Nature Bamboo Foundation Brush, $17
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I’m Tripping ‘Cause MAC Trip’s Now Available Online!

March 23rd, 2010 by Karen 26 Comments

Hey, MAC-aholics. Remember MAC Trip from last year, and how frickin’ hard it was to track down? MAC released the collection of palettes, lip sets and brush kits as travel exclusives, and you could only find them at various airports and travel hubs around the world, not at MAC counters or stores.

It was pretty hit-or-miss, too, and I’m guessing more than a handful of MAC fiends nearly missed flights trying to hunt these babies down!

If you’ve been wanting to get your paws on MAC Trip, grab your credit card and do a little happy dance because MAC just launched the collection online.

UPDATE 6-9-2010: To find ’em, search for “trip” (without the quotes) in the search bar on maccosmetics.com.

NOTE: Certain items, like the Cool Lips and Classic Eye/Cheek Palettes, are MIA. Thank goodness the MAC gods did us right by including the Cool Eyes Palette, aka one of bestest eyeshadow palettes, EVAH. If they had left it out, I would’ve pinched somebody good and hard with my monkey toes, ’cause Cool Eyes is all that and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. LOVE Springtime Skipper (a shimmery green) and Waternymph (a shimmery teal) on the lids!
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More Summery Colors and Shimmery Fun from Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess

March 23rd, 2010 by Karen 56 Comments

With highly saturated purples, bronzes, teals and gold, Estee Lauder’s Bronze Goddess summer collection salutes makeup mavens who love intense, rich color by thoroughly bringing on the bling (on counters now; check out some swatches here).

We took a look at Aqua Flash Liquid Eyeshadow and Orchid Lip Gloss earlier this month, and here are few more items from the collection.

Bronze Goddess Liquid Eyeshadows

If you wear warm shades well, the Molton Bronze, Violet and Sand Shimmer Liquid Eyeshadows ($17.50 each) might tickle your fancy.
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Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

March 23rd, 2010 by Karen 5 Comments

I spotted this in the window of a flower shop… It’s made entirely out of these dried stick thing-a-ma-bobbers (pretty sure that’s not the technical name).