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Archives for February 2011

MAC Jeanius in Action: How Cool Are These Jeans?

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mac jeanius pretty please
MAC Jeanius Lipstick in Pretty Please on lips

Hey, girlie. 🙂 Thought you might like to see a couple of pieces from the upcoming MAC Jeanius Collection in action (arrives March 3 in North America; internationally some time in March).

The denim-inspired collection consists of cool-toned makeup in shades of of blue, gray, silver, black, pink, burgundy and black. Across these pics here, I’m wearing nine of the 16 pieces.

mac jenius all
MAC Jeanius products clockwise from lower left: Eye Shadow in Diva in Distress, Eye Shadow in Stovepipe Black, Eye Shadow in Motorhead, Eye Shadow in White Jeanius, Lipglass in Docile, Lipstick in Acid Washed, Lipstick in Pretty Please, Lipstick in Riveting Rose and Blush in Pink Cult

mac jeanius eye closeup
Eye Shadow in Diva in Distress, Eye Shadow in Stovepipe Black, Eye Shadow in Motorhead and Penultimate Liner in Rapidblack

mac jeanius acid washed
Blush in Pink Cult on cheeks and Lipstick in Acid Washed on lips
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Ion Color Defense Shampoo and Conditioner: Team Ion Could Use Some Help with Their Hair Color Defense

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Sam

Written by Sam

Makeup artist and blogger Sam has been keeping an Ion his hair since trying this hair care duo. Find out if they’re the solution to your color-treated troubles in today’s guest post.

Why can’t beauty brands just be good or bad? Because being both just makes things more complicated. They do it all the time. A company will go and make something fantastic, and then turn around and make something god-awful (without telling me first). It must be how beauty company execs have their fun, by tricking unassuming beauty buyers into becoming faithful to their brand before throwing them for a loop and causing them to call into question their entire belief system… Not funny, guys. Rude.

Now, I’ve used Ion products before and have loved the ones I’ve tried. Their Clarifying Shampoo (Sally Beauty, $5.99 for a 12-oz. bottle) has its own spot on my shower shelf; I use it habitually every Friday, so it wasn’t so much a question of whether to buy their Color Defense shampoo and conditioner (Sally Beauty, $5.99 each for a 12-oz. bottle) as it was a question of which size bottles to buy (I settled on the 33.8-oz. ones for $7.99 each).

At the register, the salesgirl didn’t comment on the products as she manually entered them into the computer (for some reason, their product scanner always seems to be broken), and I found her silence unsettling. Not unsettling enough to change my mind, however, so I picked up the goodies and left the store with my heavy bag.

After having a quick snack at home (what…? Adults have snack time too), I hopped into the shower and popped open the giant shampoo bottle’s cap. First, I wish it had come with a pump, as holding a 33.8 oz. bottle of shampoo upside down in the shower with one hand is a rather risky endeavor (yes, I dropped it). What came out of the bottle was an extremely gelatinous, coral-colored goop. I’m not a naturally clumsy person, but this product just doesn’t seem to want to stay in my hands. First, dropping the bottle, and then the actual shampoo blob slipped out from between my palms twice as I worked to emulsify it. Even with rather wet hands, the stuff just didn’t seem to want to leave its singular form. After a third, careful attempt, I finally worked enough into a mild lather and massaged it through my hair.

It felt fine. Just… fine. I wasn’t expecting much texturally, as Ion tends to be a no-frills company, but I certainly would have enjoyed slightly more lather (even from a color-protecting shampoo), or a bit more slip, but I’m not one to complain if something does its job. After letting it sit for a minute or so, I rinsed it out, but my hair definitely didn’t feel quite clean.
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Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!

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  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Melody! Congratulations, Melody! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

Win a $50 Sephora eGift card from Makeup and Beauty Blog

Musical notes

Good mornin’
Good mornin’
We’ve talked the whole night through
Good mornin’
Good mornin’ to you


From Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Rise and shine, morning glory. 🙂 How did you sleep? Did visions of sugarplums dance in your head, or did obnoxious kittehs jump on the bed?

Tabs was surprisingly well behaved last night AND this morning despite the huge turkey vulture I just saw sitting on the railing of the deck. Normally, Tabs would have been all over that thing, glued to the sliding glass door, chirping and kacking at the bird from inside the house (cat ladies, you know what I’m talking about), but he didn’t seem to care at all.

He must be plotting something…

Tabs, not the bird.

Speaking of birds, have you heard of a Hitchcockian iPhone game called Angry Birds? El Hub has really been into it lately.

I’m more of a Bejeweled and Tetris girl myself.

Have a great day today. Before you bolt it’s…

A Makeup and Beauty Blog Giveaway!

Win a $50 eGift card from Sephora

  • One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (or $50 sent by PayPal instead).

  • There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, what’s your favorite board or tabletop game? Do you still play dress-up? Have you ever acted in a play? — you get the idea (and it doesn’t have to be about playing, ha!).
  • Second, you can enter by following me on twitter Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
    • Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/gEW9Sj

  • The deadline to enter is Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
  • Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
  • A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
  • Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
  • Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. The winner may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal.
  • Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
  • The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
  • Void where prohibited by law.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Melody! Congratulations, Melody! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick: Pretty and Parched

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MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Bare Again
MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Bare Again on lips

The MAC Sheen Supreme Lipsticks

OH! I wanted to show you what the new MAC Sheen Supreme Lipsticks look like on my lips. But before that, I should start by saying that I’m on the fence about these lovely new lippies. Yep, I love how they look, but (there’s always a but!) I think they may have a makeup Achilles’ heel…

They suck every molecule of moisture from my lips! 🙁

And I don’t understand why. I typically find lipsticks with this kind of creamy, slick texture very hydrating, but these are like my kryptonite — beautiful, creamy kryptonite.

They’re medium coverage with a light vanilla flavor and scent, and I get about two hours of wear time out of them. I’ve used six of the 14 shades ($14.50 each) so far, and by gosh they feel great when they’re applied — smooth, slick and non-sticky. Plus I think they look pretty great with that blinding shiny finish.

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MAC Sheen Supreme Lipsticks from left: Bare Again, Behave Yourself, Full Speed, Look at Her!, New Temptation and Supremely Confident

But there’s something going on… After a while with them on, my lips start to feel dry. It’s weird; maybe my lips are still getting used to ’em.

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Behave Yourself
Behave Yourself

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Full Speed
Full Speed
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Will Benefit’s New Skin Care Line B. Right for You?

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Benefit B Right

The first time I laid eyes on the new Benefit B. Right skin care line, I did little grabby claws with my fingers in the air like a hungry baby and said “WANT!”

I gotta hand it to the Benefit babes working in the company’s Art/Marketing Department, because I think they have the pretty packaging part of this whole beauty thing down pat.

With B. Right, Benefit was careful not to mess with a good thing. They’re known and loved for making easy, accessible makeup, and that’s the philosophy they followed here. This isn’t their first foray into skin care, but it’s their first new skin care line in a while.

B. Right, which launches in April at Benefit stores and counters, doesn’t appear to be about billions of skin types and complicated multi-step routines. Here I see basic skin care at its best — cleansing, toning and moisturizing — with a focus on hydration and brightening. In fact, the fanciest thing about B. Right is probably something Benefit calls “Tri-Radiance Complex.”

(That’s secret beauty code for “a batch of ingredients that supposedly help the skin retain moisture.”)

benefit b right boxes

This week, my breakout-prone combination skin and I have been trying five of the line’s eight products on for size. So far the two of us can definitely say we both like the creamy, luxurious textures and refreshing cucumber scent.
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These $7 Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balms Are The Bee’s Knees

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Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Pink Blossom on lips

Burt sure keeps his bees busy! Their latest creation, a concoction of 100% natural ingredients, gives a soothing sheer tint to lips.

Available in six sheer shades ranging from pink to red to neutral, these Tinted Lip Balms ($7 each) moisturize and nourish lips with soft flower waxes, shea butter and added vitamin E.

What the Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balms DON’T contain: phthalates, parabens and sodium lauryl sulfate

The ones I’ve been wearing lately are peachy Tiger Lily and Pink Blossom. Both feel smooth, light and non-sticky on my lips, and I dig their light, sweet raspberry flavor and scent.

Burts Bees Tinted Lip Balms packaging

Burts Bees Tinted Lip Balms tiger lily pink blossom
Pink Blossom (left) and Tiger Lily (right)
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