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
A delicious ice cream-like banana frosty from Banana Joe’s Fruit Stand on the North Shore. To make ’em, they put frozen bananas through a Champion Juicer, and the result’s a fluffy treat that tastes just like ice cream, except that it’s made from 100 percent bananas. YUM!
The boat day.
Kauai’s majestic NÄ Pali Coast beckoned El Hub and I, so we embarked upon a 4-hour tour!
Since I knew the trip called for high winds, I didn’t bring along my new hat (by the way, I found it at Target for $12!), but I still wanted something to protect my new highlights.
Enter the new Bumble and Bumble Color Minded Line. All three pieces here are TSA friendly (2 ounces apiece). You get a shampoo, conditioner and a UV Protective Styling Balm for $28. The products have a light floral scent that I like, and the shampoo and conditioner keep my knotty hair under control.
But most importantly, they’re keeping my highlights from getting brassy.
I’ve been bringing the UV Protective Styling Balm with me everywhere, including on the boat yesterday, and reapplying after each dip in the water.
Also picked up a bottle of Ocean Potion Aloe Gel to help soothe El Hub’s sunburned skin (NOTE: He’s not crazy about the Neutrogena spray sunscreen I mentioned the other day).
Ocean Potion is one of the few topical drugstore aloe gels I’ve found that doesn’t list alcohol, which can be quite drying, high up on the list of ingredients. Aloe is the third ingredient on the list; the first two are water and glycerin.
I discovered it a few trips back and just love the stuff.
Our trusty ocean steed: the Sea Breeze.
Just look at those cliffs… Some are more than a thousand feet high, straight down to the ocean.
During the winter months, huge swells buffet the Hawaiian islands, and waves as high as 70 feet crash against those cliffs.
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LORAC Wild For Tantalizer Collection Eye Shadow Palette from the new Wild For Tantalizer Collection, $39. Available now at Sephora and online.
Okay, so maybe you’re lovin’ MAC Right Image Cremesheen Glass, but you feel ready to level up in pink with something a little more intense. If you’re ready to step up your pink game, level up with creamy blue-based MAC Cremesheen Glass in Loud & Lovely ($19.50).
Say “Hello, spring!” What I love most about this shade is its flexibility. I can quickly swipe it on for a light hot pink flush, or layer it on a bit thicker for a more intense hit of pink.
About the Author
This guest post was written by Jenn of Hello Brio. You can also find Jenn on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.
I’ve been working on switching over to all natural beauty and makeup products for several months now. It’s not an easy transition, and it can be quite expensive.
Growing up, my mom created beauty and health concoctions with plants from her herb garden combined with common pantry items like olive oil, and I thought it was a bit odd. But as a lot of mother-daughter things go, I’ve learned that her practices aren’t so strange: her natural beauty routine is quite admirable – and now I’m following suit! After all, she is in her 60’s and still has fantastic, clear, glowing skin.
So, when life gives you lemons, make all-natural at-home beauty treatments!
Lemons are fruit; they’re natural. They’re inexpensive. Lemon juice has antiseptic, healing and lightening properties, and can also help with acne.
See where I’m going here?
Combined with the right ingredients, lemons can be a staple in many natural DIY skincare treatments. Here are four easy lemon-based beauty recipes: two for face, and two for feet.
And if you’re like me and don’t cook fancy things very often, I picked recipes that call for a small number of common ingredients. I hope you’ll love these inexpensive, surprisingly luxurious beauty treatments as much as I do!
For this super-gentle exfoliating mask, you’ll need 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best), 1/4 cup of plain yogurt (I use Greek yogurt), and about 1 tablespoon of honey. Yogurt combined with honey makes a great gentle antibacterial cleanser.
Mix the ingredients together until the mixture is uniform, and apply to clean skin. Leave it on for 10 minutes, and rinse with warm water.
Oh, yeah. And feel free to eat some yogurt and honey if you’re so inclined (it’s one of my favorite treats!).
Combine 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and the fresh squeezed juice from a quarter of a lemon. Honey’s natural antibacterial quality gives this nourishing and moisturizing scrub acne fighting properties, and my skin glows after doing this treatment.
This recipe yields about four uses for me. Apply about one quarter of the mixture by gently rubbing it on clean skin, and then leaving it in place for about 5 minutes before rinsing.
You can store the rest of the mixture for later use — just not more often than once every 3 or 4 days.
Oh, and if you happen to accidentally taste the mix, I won’t tell. 🙂
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About the Author
This guest post was written by Nadège of Atomic Beauté. You can also find Nadège on Twitter and Facebook.
Wearing Victoria’s Secret Lipstick in Cabana
The whole world’s obsessed with orange these days! — and by “world,” I mean the fashion and beauty industries. Since Pantone named Tangerine Tango the “Color of the Year,” I haven’t gone two seconds without seeing orange strut down a red carpet somewhere, or grace the pages of a magazine, or pose on a store shelf. Orange is an underrated, bold color, and many people don’t believe they can pull it off.
But they can! Here are five (non-limited edition) wearable orange lipsticks under $13 that are sure to work on any skin tone.
(In all of these pics, I’m wearing Sephora + Pantone Universe’s Apricot Brandy blush.)
Cabana is a sheer, coral-orange lipstick with gorgeous specks of gold and staying power of about two hours. It just gives lips a subtle pop of color.
Wearing Milani Lipstick in Bonfire
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Greetings, fellow beauty lover. Happy Saturday! I hope your weekend got off to a good start. I just wanted to say a quick hi before I try to burn off some of yesterday’s indulgences (and my, have I indulged). It was a day filled with food, fun and Friskies (more on that later)!
To take care of my beauty business yesterday, I used the mighty MAC 266 brush to fill in my brows with MAC Concrete Eye Shadow.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone, because this probably sounds a little makeup obsessive, but I preloaded it with Concrete and brought it along for the day to touch up after getting out of the water. Ya know, just in case we decided to do something else. 🙂
Next to the 266, we have Hourglass Superficial Mirage Waterproof Bronzer.
I can’t really remember how waterproof it actually was/is…but I used it en lieu of actual powder. I still wanted to wear something with a bit of a matting effect, and I love the little brush that comes with it. It’s wide, with dense bristles, and the shape fits the contours of my face just right.
As a lip/cheek option, I brought Becca Beach Tint in Watermelon, because I like the color, it’s water resistant, and you can use it as a blush and/or lip tint (versatility win!).
MAC Zoom Waterfast Lash took care of my mascara needs. It’s a basic black waterproof mascara, good for lengthening, and it gets the job done (helped along by my beloved Shu Uemura Lash Curler).
The sunshine, humidity, chlorine, salty air and water are all tough on my skin, and so I also brought three MAC Studiofinish Concealers with SPF35 as well. Three because I use the one in NW25 to slightly brighten my under-eye area, the NC42 one on blemishes (it’s my color match) and the darker NC45 one for when I tan. I like these because I can apply and blend them with my fingers and only have to use a dab to even out my skin.
On my lips, I went with the same Neutrogena MoistureShine Lip Soother Cooling Hydragel SPF20, except I chose shade Sheen 50.
And then to clean up after the beach — a necessity because I look to’ up when I get out of the water — I used Olay’s Wet Cleansing Cloths in Sensitive.
With the car gassed and ready for the day’s adventures, El Hub and I fueled up with breakfast at Tutu’s Soup Hale on the makai side (ocean side) of Kuhio Highway, just past the Wailua River as you drive north from the Lihue airport.
It’s cute, quaint, clean and a great breakfast spot. Lots of parking, friendly staff, a creative menu, all-day breakfast and yummy food? What more could you ask for?
Oh, yeah. They serve more than just soup. 🙂
El Hub had (and finished!) The Kahuna — with scrambled eggs, tomatoes and avocado on multigrain bread; served with a papaya slice on the side, YUM!
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Deborah Lippmann Love is a Battlefield. One of two shades in the Steal My Kisses Magnetic Wave Design Set, $36. Available now at Nordstrom and online.
