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
Surf’s up, babe! Hola from from La Jolla. Haven’t gone surfing yet because when Cindy and I arrived yesterday afternoon we were pretty wiped out already from the flight and just wanted to relax.
The following pictures pretty much summarize the trip so far. As you can see, food plays a big part. 🙂
My friend Jen and I used to perform in a lot of musicals together back in the day (West Side Story, Damn Yankees and Chorus Line), and sometimes we also went to shows.
One of the shows we went to was a little something called Sunset Boulevard — just like this gloss.
(About the play, I don’t remember much from it other than being really hungry the entire time and almost falling asleep, LOL!)
Cargo’s Sunset Blvd. is a sheer peach similar to the other Cargo glosses I’ve tried. It’s non-sticky, feels like a Glossimer to me, is somewhat drying and lasts from 3-4 hours.
I do like it with smokey eyes…
It’s $14, and you can find it now at Ulta stores and online.
Do you have much experience with Cargo’s glosses? Which ones have you tried?
Funny thing is, I like shopping, but I don’t really do much shopping in stores anymore. Definitely not as much as I used to.
I mean, there was a time when I loved going shopping so much that I’d happily pick up extra shifts at the mall.
(SIDE NOTE: If you ever shopped at the Miller’s Outpost, The Limited or Emporium Capwell’s at the New Park Mall in Newark, CA back in the mid-’90s, I probably greeted you at the door and tried to sell you pocket tees.)
I just don’t have the patience to spend all day at the mall anymore. Now, a couple hours — that, I can do. 🙂
I still like to look around for clothes and things, but I usually start my research online before going to see something in person. Feels like I save a lot of time that way.
Oh, but some things — makeup and shoes, of course — I can still spend hours shopping for, and I do, which brings me to this: some of my favorite places to shop, in no particular order…
DSW: My shoe Mecca! I can easily spend half a day here (and have). First, the gargantuan selection, and I love the wide aisles and how neatly everything is organized. On top of that, you don’t have to wait for a sales associate to scour a back room to find your size. They’ve got everything just right out there on the floor! It’s great! I kind of like being able to waffle without feeling like someone is waiting on me. Sometimes I’ll spend…a while trying to decide between two different colors, and at DSW I can take as long as I need, LOL! The one at Vintage Oaks by my house has a great selection of purses, too. I’ve seen stuff from Nordstrom there at pretty good prices.
Nordstrom: Speaking of Nordie’s, it’s another favorite haunt of mine. There’s one about 15 miles south being renovated right now, so it’s a hot mess inside, but it’s still open. It’s like my idea of the perfect general store. They have almost everything I could ever ask for — makeup, clothing, shoes, accessories — and when I find something I like on sale, score! Their personal stylist services are also really handy, and I love their generous return policy.
Target: There’s one five minutes away from my house, and you’ll find me there often. Sometimes the customer service doesn’t knock it out of the park, but anyplace I can buy ice cream, drugstore makeup, cat litter, heart-shaped sunglasses and dishwashing liquid in one fell swoop is all right by me.
Anthropologie: Some of their stuff is a little hippy dippy for me, and sometimes I look at the prices of tops and think, “Hmm-mmm! Ain’t no way I’m paying $70 for a piece of gauze with sequins on it.” I have found some really cute things there, though, like this jungle romper, and when they have sales, they’re generally pretty good. Like Nordstrom, they also have a personal stylist service, although I haven’t tried it yet (I want to!).
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Honey Lust is my glitzy go-to glitter shadow when I want to shimmer like Tinker Bell but don’t want to deal with the drama of a pigment.
A glittery bronzed peach in MAC’s Lustre finish, it’s best described like this: glitter, glitter, glitter. 🙂
It delivers the glittery shimmer fix of a MAC loose Pigment without (necessarily) making a mess.
Now, because Honey Lust isn’t chintzy with the glitter, it does tend to be grittier than many of MAC’s other shadows, so fallout can be an issue, especially if you’re using it with a fluffy brush like the MAC 217. I try to always use it with a brush that has a flat, firm brush head like the MAC 239, with which I can really pack the powder on my lids, and keep it from flying all over the place.
This Honey brings the bling! — and I think it looks particularly fetching on warm skin tones and tans, especially paired with looks featuring summery bronzes, warm browns, golds and teals.
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Oh, hello, Venus!
Pale, shimmery pink Venus is one of 24 shades in the recently revamped Dior Addict Gloss line, which debuted last spring.
I like how sheer, sparkly and easy it is to wear.
And, oh — that shine? Off the hook!
It’s pretty pricy at $29.50, but I do feel fancy when I bust the tube outta my purse. 🙂
It’s available now online and at Dior counters and Sephora.
I’ve never thought of having a “power neutral” blush before, but I suppose if one can have a power song that pumps them up (what’s yours?), a blush that you can count on to pump you up seems just as logical. 🙂
Or maybe that’s makeup logic, also known as the same sort of reasoning I use to justify getting another coral lipstick/nude gloss/blue nail polish…
READY Color Boost The Adrenaline Rush by bareMinerals ($29) promises to give a rush of rosy color to your cheeks. It’s new and part of their Power Neutrals collection, a flexible family o’ neutral products designed to accompany you from the boardroom to the bedroom, ooh la la!
A pan of face/cheek powder with a luminous beige, a matte rosy pink and a matte mauve, the shades can be worn individually or mixed together.
I like to mix ’em all together for a light rosy blush with a quiet sheen that leans slightly cool on my cheeks. On my NC42 skin tone, it’s a pretty subtle effect, but I think it still lifts my look a little.
bareMinerals READY® Color Boost is an innovative concept in solid mineral technology. Created through a unique cold-pressed method, this formula combines a proprietary SeaNutritive MineralTM Complex composed of positively-charged, antioxidant-rich sea minerals with cold-pressed camellia oil. Color Boost delivers skin-nourishing benefits for softer, smoother skin while enhancing the complexion with a subtle hint of fresh, radiant color.
— bareminerals.com
Unlike a real adrenaline rush, this one is less fleeting. Actually, it lasts a really, really long time. I wore it last Saturday to Pier 39, and it lasted something like 12 hours, looking fresh the entire time.
Back when my skin was super oily in my teens and 20s, I would’ve loved something like this. Blushes were always pulling disappearing acts on my cheeks back then.
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If you and I were cubicle buddies on break and only had five minutes to catch up, grab Starbucks (soy chai latte for me, no foam, please) AND talk makeup shop, I would probably 1) ask you what you were wearing on your lips, because I’m always looking for cool new combos to try, and 2) mention how much I’m digging the new $24 Make Up For Ever Smokey Extravagant Mascara, because whenever I wear it, my lashes enter a room before I do.
Two coats of this volume-growing, curl-maximizing mascara make my naturally uninspiring lashes so glossy, full and pitch black that I can see them in a mirror from across the room.
Yeah, me and Smoky Extravagant? We coo’.
All about performance and precision, it launched earlier this month with a lofty gaol at Sephora stores and Make Up For Ever Boutiques.
According to MUFE, Make Up For Ever Creator and Artistic Director Dany Sanz was trying to create the darkest, most dramatic black mascara she could for stage, backstage and real life.
I’m filing this bottle under “second cutest thing sitting on my dresser” (right after Tabs). 🙂
It’s easy to be sweet on Marc Jacob’s new Honey Perfume. The polka dots, the stripes, the black-and-yellow bee-autiful packaging… There’s so much cuteness here that it stings (badum-bum!).
The official notes: pear, mandarin, orange blossom, peach nectar, apricot, honeysuckle, honey, golden vanilla and smooth woods (as opposed to rough woods? hmm…). It’s by far the sweetest Marc Jacob’s perfume recipe I’ve ever tried. Adorably innocent.
I really notice the honeysuckle and pear, and a single spritz lingers all day long.
Worth a spritz if you’re fond of fruity florals.
Catch a whiff now at department stores, Sephora and sephora.com.
