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Archives for March 2011

Finding Mr. Bright Is Easy with Benefit’s New Kit

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benefit finding mr bright

It took me 26 years and many, many bad dates to find my Mr. Right (what up, El Hub?!), but Finding Mr. Bright shouldn’t take anywhere near that long.

Believe it or not, it’s actually easy — even easier than scarfing down a red velvet cupcake. Just roll on up to your nearby Benefit counter, and you should find him there.

Finding Mr. Bright ($36) is Benefit’s new kid on the block, and he proves, with his snazzy neon pink and orange packaging, that real men like him aren’t afraid to wear pink.

benefit finding mr bright

And homeboy’s got a lot more going on than outer good looks. The kit contains four travel-size products to add color and shimmer to cheeks, eyes, face and lips.

  • Erase Paste in No. 2 Medium brightens your under-eye area while it covers dark circles.
  • Girl Meets Pearl, a pearly golden pink liquid primer, gives a subtle sheen to the skin; I like layering it beneath my foundation or tinted moisturizer.
  • Posie Tint, a liquid blush, doubles as a lip tint, dressing up cheeks and lips with a sweet, baby pink.
  • High Beam gives a light pink shimmer to the skin, and you can also mix it with your favorite moisturizer to give a subtle glow to shoulders and legs.

benefit finding mr bright

benefit finding mr bright
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NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush Makes Me Want to Twist and Shout

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NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush
NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush in English Rose

Ah, to be a bored teen without wheels in the Easy Bay suburbs circa 1992 again… When you live in a town where the most exciting thing to do is get an ice cream cone at Thrifty’s, you figure out ways to amuse yourself.

On Friday nights my friends and I loved to watch The Grind on MTV. Remember that dance show? We’d crank up the volume and electric slide around the living room as the show’s host, Eric Nies, who was almost always shirtless for some reason, introduced the hits.

It wasn’t the most exciting way to start the weekend, but it was either that or ice cream at Thrifty’s…

We sure could have used something like these new NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blushes ($16.50 each; available in eight shades) back then. Dang if these things wouldn’t have kept us busy.

New for spring, they have a cheese grater-like contraption similar to the one Smashbox uses with their Halo powders. By turning the rim of the jar, the grater shaves off a small amount of blush into the pan.

NYX sangria in madrid
Sangria in Madrid
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Smashbox Softbox Collection for Summer 2011: Diffuse Me, Please

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smashbox softbox ambient

Heads up, fellow Smashbox fans! The line’s just made their new Softbox Collection for Summer 2011 available online, and from the look of things, it’s right up my alley (and maybe yours).

Photographers use softboxes and specialized bulb umbrellas to diffuse bright light sources and eliminate harsh shadows, making the light that falls on their model appear softer and more natural.

It’s the same premise Smashbox applied to the products in their Softbox Studio collection. The three makeup sets for eyes, lips and cheeks mimic the qualities of natural light and embody the idea of effortless beauty.

smashbox softbox

Speaking as a practical person, I love these shades because I know I’ll be able to wear them. 🙂 Expect to see lots of neutral browns, beiges, pinks and taupes — colors equipped to take you straight from the office to dinner and drinks.
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Estee Lauder Says DayWear Does It All, Yet This Moisturizing Sheer Tint with SPF 15 Comes in Just a Single Shade

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Estee Lauder DayWear Sheer Tint Release

Okay, here’s a product name I may not be able to remember: Estee Lauder DayWear Sheer Tint Release Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Moisturizer.

Wow, 12 words? It could be a sentence if we squeezed in a verb.

Let’s try it!

Estee Lauder Likes DayWear Sheer Tint Release Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Moisturizer…

Tada! 🙂 Let’s call it DayWear for short.

DayWear is a product I’d like to remember, because I think it has a few good things to offer fans of the barely-there makeup look. In a nutshell (I’ve always loved that phrase; I picture things in little nutshells), it’s a lightweight, super sheer tinted moisturizer that comes in just a single shade, and it’s designed to work on most skin tones, giving them a healthy, even-toned glow.

The product goes on as a grayish beige, but it slowly darkens as I massage it into my skin, which is kinda cool. The shade I end up with appears to be a pretty good match for my tan, and I like that its quiet, glowy finish doesn’t look flat or severe.

Estee Lauder DayWear Sheer Tint Release
For scale…

Estee Lauder DayWear Sheer Tint Release

“The all-day Super Anti-Oxidant Complex is so powerful,” Estee Lauder says about their proprietary blend, “no anti-oxidant we’ve researched comes close.” It’s a mix of compounds like Vitamins C and E, Eukarion (a synthetic anti-oxidant) and EGT (Ergothioneine, an amino acid with anti-oxidant properties).

Both of the active ingredients in the product, which is rated SPF 15, are sunscreens, octisalate (a UVB sunscreen) and avobenzone (a UVA sunscreen), so the general idea appears to be that it’s a tinted moisturizer that prevents sun damage.
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The Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Quad in Candide Garden: Thanksgiving in March

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Givenchy Candide Garden Le Prisme Quad

Today an eye quad made me nervous. And hungry. For turkey?

The Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Quad in Candide Garden($56), the lone quad in the new Givenchy Naivement Couture Collection for Spring/Summer, made me a little nervous because of how sheer the colors looked swatched on the back of my hand. I tried not to write too much into it before getting them on my lids, but before I could talk myself down, a word popped into my head that worried me even more: Thanksgiving! That’s what the orange, yellow and brown shades reminded me of, and I contemplated putting the quad down right there…

Don’t get me wrong — I love the holiday. In fact I’ve always been a fan. I’m down with the colors of the harvest and falling leaves and those cute cartoon turkeys, too, but was I ready to wear those shades on my lids? In March?

Apparently, I was. 🙂 And I’m so glad. This wee little quad with its four powder shadows is actually pretty darn good (if not great, except for the price).

Yes, it takes three or four layers for the colors to really come into their own, but once I got them on my eyes, the shimmery brown, orange, gold and matte peach shades didn’t make me feel like Thanksgiving at all. I was too taken with them to think of turkey anymore.

I was surprised that despite my applying multiple layers, the shadows didn’t exhibit fallout beneath my eyes, and they also blended like a dream along the way (I used my MAC 217).

In these pics I’m wearing the darker orange shade on my outer lids, the gold on my inner lids, the peach along my brow bone and the brown shade along my lash and waterlines. All told, the eye portion of the look only took about 10-15 minutes to do.

Givenchy Naivement Couture Prisme Eyes in Candide Garden

Givenchy Naivement Couture Le Prisme Eyes in Candide Garden
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