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Archives for December 2011

3 Ways to Wear Red Lips for the Totally Terrified

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Earlier this week in the comments on the MAC Unsung Heroes Red Lipstick post I got to chatting with reader Dana Jae about a question a lot of us wrestle with — “What can I do to get over my fear of red lips?”

We may love the way red lips look on other gals, but for one reason or another, we just don’t feel they work as well for us.

“I have such a hard time with red lipsick. I have Ruby Woo, and it looks like my lips take over my whole face (and my lips aren’t that big). It just doesn’t blend well, sticks out too much.”

— Dana Jae

I feel like the holidays are a perfect time to rock dramatic, rich red lips, but I know they’re not for everyone. Red can be daunting, especially if a particular shade of red contrasts heavily with your skin color, or even if you’re just unaccustomed to seeing yourself in something bold and/or bright.

But here’s one of my favorite things about red lips: you can dress ’em up or down, and you don’t have to wear a red that’s fully opaque.

If you don’t feel quite red-y (haha!) for full-on red BAM! — here are a few less intense ways to wear one of the hottest colors around.

1. Using a lipstick as a light stain

Wearing a red lipstick as a stain is probably the quickest, easiest way I know of to dial down the intensity of a red lipstick while retaining much of its rich color. If you already own a red lippie that you like but don’t wear very often because of its rich red might! — this little trick might help you two get along even better. 🙂

To create a stain, lightly dab your lipstick directly from the tube to your lips, aiming for a very light wash of color. Then, pat and blend it out with a finger.


MAC Lipstick in Lady Danger ($14.50) worn as a lip stain

I usually don’t wear a lip liner when I do this because I find that the blending doesn’t leave me with a crisp line around the edges of my lips, but it’s still an option. Unless you’re trying to maintain the contrast between the liner and the lipstick, blend it out with a finger or brush until it looks nice and seamless.
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Today I Am…

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today i am

…giving myself a Post-It pep-talk.

Today I am…

…wearing Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs in Les Roses ($59) on my eyes and Rouge G in 72 Rose Innocent ($48) on my lips. Both are from the spring 2012 collection and coming this January to select Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Sephora, Bloomingdales and Bergdorf Goodman stores.

guerlain spring 2011 (2)


Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs in Les Roses on the left and Rouge G in 72 Rose Innocent on the right
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These New NYX Xtreme Lip Creams Have an Xtremely Interesting Flavor and Scent

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NYX Xtreme Lip Cream 01 Dolly Girl
NYX Xtreme Lip Cream in 01 Dolly Girl

Things that go well together…

  • Olive oil and balsamic vinegar
  • Macaroni and cheese
  • Chocolate and peanut butter
  • Music and workouts
  • Manis and pedis
  • Ryan Gosling and shirtless-ness (that’s not a word…)
  • Dirty Dancing and Clueless, watched back-to-back with a tub of ice cream (gawd, I’m turning into a Cathy comic)
  • Kittens and baskets 🙂

And things that don’t go well together…

  • The words “discount” and “plastic surgery”
  • Wet socks and jogging
  • Cosmopolitans and empty stomachs
  • Blind dates and Craigslist
  • The Twilight movies and Academy Awards
  • Shrunken pants and Harvard interviews
  • Lip products and the scents of plastic and butter…

Yes, plastic and butter.

Yeegh!

The thought of those together makes my tummy churn, and unfortunately, it’s the way I think the new NYX Xtreme Lip Creams taste and smell. Even so, the list of things I like about these liquid lipgloss/lipstick hybrids almost outweighs their flavor and scent.

nyx holiday 2011 (12)

nyx holiday 2011 (13)

nyx holiday 2011 (14)

They’re highly pigmented, smooth, non-sticky, come with an easy-to-use doe-foot applicator, are available in a wide variety of bright and nudes shades, and sell for a reasonable $6 each. They also last about five hours on my lips, which isn’t half bad for something as lightweight and glossy as these. Plus, on top of all that, I don’t find them drying at all.

With these, as long as I hold my nose, we’re good to go. 🙂

Lip swatches and pics

I tried something a little different for the eye look I’m wearing here, and I’m not 100 percent sure I like the way it turned out…

That’s the Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs quad in Les Roses ($59) on my eyes. It’s from the spring 2012 collection coming in January to select Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Sephora, Bloomingdales and Bergdorf Goodman stores.

I think the combination of hot pink in the crease and purple in the outer corners of my eyes looks okay in person, but here in these pics it kinda looks like I got into a fight.

Hmm… Well, if nothing else, it was fun to try something new.

NYX Xtreme Lip Cream swatches
Swatches from the left: 01 Dolly Girl, 02 Candy Land, 03 Spicy, 04 Buttery Nude, 05 Bonfire, 06 Pinky Nude, 07Absolute Red, 08 Skin Tone, 09 Strawberry Jam, 10 Natural and 11 Nude Peach Fuzz
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3 Makeup and Beauty Packing Tips to Prep for Holiday Travel

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3 Holiday Travel Makeup and Beauty Packing Tips (2)

This post is part of a content series sponsored by Clarisonic.

2011 will go down in my diary as the Year of the Suitcase. I took a total of five trips this year, which is nothing, I know, compared to hard-core travelers, but it was a lot for me.

And one fantastic side effect of those trips was that they forced me to upgrade my approach to packing. I went from starting the year as a contender for “Crappiest Packer Ever,” and ended it as a middleweight semi-pro packer with a handful of new tricks.

If you have plans to fly (or drive) over the next few weeks, here are three things you can do to eek out a few more cubic feet for makeup and beauty in your luggage.

1. The door is a jar

I’m a gal with a weakness for products, and there’s only so much room in those TSA-approved plastic baggies. By filling up little sample jars with your must-have skincare and other liquid products, you can fill your allowed plastic bag to the brim.

Sometimes you can find the little bottles at drugstores, places like Bed Bath & Beyond and even Target, but I like the free ones from Nordstrom. They hold less than an ounce, but for most things that’s usually enough product to last me a couple of weeks.

(I ask my favorite makeup artists if I can have a couple of them every so often when I visit a counter.)

Don’t forget 3-1-1

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) 3-1-1 program limits the size and number of liquid-filled products that can be brought aboard planes in carry-on bags. Travelers can bring aboard liquid-filled bottles no larger than 3.4 ounces (100ml) by volume and must store those bottles in a single quart-sized, clear plastic zip-top bag.

Oh, and ever since the time I accidentally used my face cleanser on my hair, I’ve taken to putting labels on the jars, small rectangular ones from Office Depot, and I write the name of each product with a waterproof Sharpie, just in case the outside of the jar gets wet.

For my next trip — and yes, I admit it sounds a little OCD — I plan to add numbers to the labels to indicate the order in which the products should be used.

I guess I just like the idea of seeing the jars all lined up on a shelf… 🙂

(TIP: Empty contact lens cases will also work in a pinch.)

3 Holiday Travel Makeup and Beauty Packing Tips (1)
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