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

Archives for June 2011

Get in Touch with Your Inner Bride (or Shoe Addict) with the Zoya Touch Collection

by 38 Comments

zoya touch

My mum called the other day and asked what I wanted for my birthday. I said I wanted a pair of nude shoes, to which she replied, “Why would you wear shoes while you’re naked?”

[INSERT LONG PAUSE]

As much as I love her, the woman is not a fashionista. After I explained how I’d been looking for a perfect pair of pink, beige or nude ballet sandals for summer, the conversation resumed on a slightly less awkward path, LOL! 🙂


NOMS!

I blame my most recent bout of nude shoe lust on the new Zoya Touch Collection Sampler Trio ($24) and its three dainty pink, peach and beige polishes. The very sight of it sends my mind racing with pedi possibilities.

Although Zoya didn’t market this as a bridal collection, they probably could have. I think Touch’s Pandora (a pinkish mauve with silver pearl), Shay (a peachy pink with silver pearl) and Minka (a beige with silver pearl) would look right at home against a backdrop of Here Comes the Bride…or Huey Lewis and the News.


Do you believe in love?

Sheer pastel creams (remember Essie’s Wedding Collection?) get lavish love from brides, but ladies looking for similar, albeit less sheer, mani/pedi shades might also consider Touch. I think it delivers a similarly pretty, pastel bridal look, but with noticeably fuller coverage.

zoya touch swatches
From left: Pandora, Shay and Minka
[Continue reading…]

Dior Harmonie de Blush in Coral Riviera Is Ringing My Belle

by 51 Comments

“May I be excused?” Karen asked, trying to hide the fact that her coral blush fetish was spiraling out of control. Gingerly, she set her silverware and cotton napkin down and coyly tilted her head. “I won’t be but a minute.”

“Why, sure, dear,” said a woman in a tall chair at the head of the table. The words dripped from her tongue like honey, and the other girls grew silent as she spoke. She was older than the others but, like the younger girls, impeccably dressed. She wore a creamy, satin two-piece gown and a bolero jacket with 3/4 sleeves (rhinestone accents, of course) over an A-line skirt. Not a single hair fell out of place on her almost sculpted, dark strawberry blonde crown. She sat bolt upright with darn near perfect posture, much as someone accustomed to formal gatherings of this kind regularly would.

“You take your time,” the woman said, seeming to understand Karen’s reasons. It was as if the woman had read her blush-crazed mind.

Karen fluttered (as best she could) out into the hallway and pulled Dior’s Harmonie de Blush in Coral Riviera 002 from her clutch. At $44 it was pricey, but damn if it didn’t make her feel like her cheeks had been kissed by the sun.

Under the dim lights in the hall, Karen marveled, as she had many times before, at the different shades in the pan. “So pretty…” she whispered to the pan as much as to herself. Dior designed the colors to be worn separately to highlight different parts of the face, or swirled together and worn as a blush or bronzer.


[Continue reading…]

The NYX EyeBrow Kit Hopes You’ll Make Time to Stencil It In

by 41 Comments

While it won’t be breaking any speed records for brow filling, the NYX Eyebrow Kit With Stencil ($13.50) gets mad props from me for looking like it belongs in an art store.

The kit comes in three color families — For Blondes, For Brunettes and For Everyone — and each one packs four brow powders, an angled brush, a brow comb and three plastic stencils cut to fit different brow shapes. Just hold one of the stencils up to your brow, and fill it in using the powders and brushes that come with the kit.

Tada! 🙂

Well, that’s the idea.

I usually fill in my brows “freehand” using something like Benefit Instant Brow because, especially in Instant Brow’s case, it’s quick as a bunny. And when I’m not pressed for time, I might reach for a pan of MAC Concrete and a MAC 266 Small Angle Brush instead.

But what could be quicker than using a stencil, right? If they’re good enough for art class, they’re good enough for me.

NYX Eyebrow Kit with Stencil


[Continue reading…]

The Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tints Are Office AND Tabby Approved

by 45 Comments

Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint hope
Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint in Hope

If these Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tints ($24) had been around back when I spent my weekdays preparing pleadings as a legal secretary in the city, I would have kept a tube in my pocket for emotional support. It could have kept me company in the restroom stall where I frequently retreated to secretly cry away my frustrations at work (’twas NOT my all-time favorite job).

The line of six matte lip stains, basically matte-ish versions of Tarte’s LipSurgence Lip Stains, has been around for about a year. Like their shinier cousins they have a twist-top and utilize the same “High-Performance Natural LipSurgence Technology,” which, Tarte claims, is “clinically proven to increase moisture content by an astonishing 6,000% after 28 days.”

LOL! I feel like that sentence needed a bunch of exclamation marks at the end: “…6,000% after 28 days!!!”

I’m not sure how anyone would ever measure something like that, but I sure do love the work-friendly finish and barely-there, whispery sheen.

The barely perceptible shine loosens ’em up a little, giving them a slightly more casual vibe…but not casual like ripped jeans, tank tops and flip-flops. More like a white shirt over tan jodhpurs and knee-high riding boots.

They deposit a gentle nudge of color that encourages a quick glance, as opposed to shouting, “HEY, LOOK AT ME!” I think they’d be perfect for an office with a strict dress code.

Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint
[Continue reading…]

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, June 6

by 87 Comments

  • You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”
    Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past three years, which I guess makes this somewhere around Vol. 172. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
  1. Mood:

    2. Pretty great. I just finished a run (I’m trying to turn myself into a morning exerciser), and the endorphins are doing their thang.

  2. Do you ever apply your makeup on the train/bus/boat to work?

    3. Totally! For years I took the BART train to work (short for Bay Area Rapid Transit), so whenever I was pressed for time (read: always) I’d do my makeup — just whatever I could get done on the 45-minute ride.

  3. List three of your best attributes.

    4. Hmm… Well, my friends think I have a good sense of humor, and I think I’m quite creative and sensitive.

  4. Do you ever apply bright eyeliners?

    5. Not daily, but sometimes, yes I do! Usually along either my upper or lower lash lines.

  5. What’s your take on clogs?

    6. I totally see the allure. I mean, they sure are comfortable, and I do think some gals look great in them, but they’re not really my thing. They make me feel like I have Smurf feet…and I always feel like they’re about to slip off.

  6. If you could have lunch with any celebrity alive today, whom would it be and why?

    7. Johnny Depp, fo’ sho’! I’ve heard he’s great around fans. They filmed the latest Pirates of the Caribbean very close to where my family lives on the eastern side of Oahu, and he was very well regarded by folks there — friendly, generous and always willing to give an autograph. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes.

  7. Complete this sentence: Have you heard about _____?

    8. Game of Thrones? on HBO? I’m hooked! If Tony Soprano had teleported to Camelot, his life there might resemble Game of Thrones. I think it got off to a slow start with the first two episodes (lots of convoluted character building), but I think it really took off once the stage was set.

  8. If you were given one day this week to do anything you want, anywhere you want to do it, what would you do?

    9. Whoa, too many possibilities and too much pressure to think of something epic, LOL! I think I’d enjoy just spending the day surfing somewhere warm and tropical.

  9. What purse are you carrying today?

    10. The black quilted Kate Spade purse with chain straps I found on deep discount at the sample sale a couple of weeks ago.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. My birthday’s this Thursday, so I’d like to enjoy every last minute of being 35. I’d also like to help myself to as much birthday cake as I can possibly eat, finish re-reading For Whom the Bell Tolls (my gawd, it’s taking me FOREVER to re-read this book), and find the joy in everything (or at least look for it).

Question for ya, babe: have you ever been to Vancouver? I’m heading there later this week for a combination birthday trip/fifth wedding anniversary getaway with El Hub (only be gone a few days), but I know almost nothing about the city. If you have any suggestions or insights into the area, I would really appreciate them.

Okay, time to fire up the teapot and get this party started! 🙂 How are things on your side of the keyboard? Can you take a moment to check in with the Monday Poll?

  • To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.



1. Mood:
2. Do you ever apply your makeup on the train/bus/boat to work?
3. List three of your best attributes.
4. Do you do bright eyeliner?
5. How do you feel about clogs?
6. If you could have lunch with any celebrity alive today, whom would it be and why?
7. Complete this sentence: Have you heard about _____?
8. If you were magically given a free day, how would you spend it?
9. What purse are you carrying today?
10. Weekly goals:

T-minus 5 seconds to greatness in 5…4…3…2…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Copyright © 2025 Makeup and Beauty Blog. Get in touch.