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
Be your own admirer.
That’s the message behind Illamasqua’s I’m the One collection, a small but eye-catching release with just one lip pencil, a lipstick, one gloss and a nail polish — but man, oh, man, are they bold! And red. Two things I can really get behind. 🙂
Here are pics and swatches of three of the four pieces from the collection…
“This palette is just darling, dahhhhling.”
Why, yes, I have been watching too much Bravo.
What gave it away? Was it the way I said “dahhhling” like Lisa Vanderpump from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? Because that’s how this new spring eyeshadow palette makes me feel.
With its cute crop of neutral browns, beiges and a dreamy pinkish peach, this palette has adorable written all over it.
No, really, it does. Right there on the front of the packaging. “Adorable.” Says it right there. 🙂
Anywho, don’t these six powder shadows look great together? I can see them working in a bunch of neutral looks.
Like this here pinkish brown smokey eye I’m sporting today…
No shower for me today (and possibly tomorrow) because of the sutures on my boo-boo arm. This makes me sad. 🙁
You don’t understand — it’s like Anakin Skywalker with the Force. The drive to clean is strong in this one…
Doesn’t matter how tired I am at the end of the day. I will always (well, 98% of the time) find the energy to take a shower. I just can’t sleep with sticky skin.
So imagine my shock yesterday when the surgeon told me that I shouldn’t shower for a while. He said that I should give the sutures a couple days to heal before getting them wet.
My first thought was, “No. Huh-uh. Not gonna happen,” which was quickly followed by a more reasonable, “Well, if I’m stuck taking sponge baths for a while, you better believe those sponge baths are going to be epic.”
I gotta get my beauty thrills wherever I can, and today I’m getting mine with Tocca’s $78 Love Yourself Luxury Spa Set.
The luxurious three-piece set will get you squeaky clean, and when you’re done, you’ll float out of your bathroom like an elven angel smelling lightly of gardenias… 🙂
This morning I lit the mini Florence candle that comes with the set and used my imagination to pretend I was at a spa. One sponge bath with the Bubble Bath and a few spritzes of Eau de Parfum later, and my day was off to a great start.
If you need to treat yourself to a little luxury, you can find the $78 (a $110 value) Love Yourself Luxury Spa Set now exclusively at Sephora stores and sephora.com.
The set includes…
Dude, side braids are the best thing ever!
I wanted to shower before leaving for the hospital yesterday (The procedure went fine, BTW. My arm is A-OK), because I didn’t know if I’d have to skip a couple days once I had a bandage on, but I didn’t have time to really futz with my hair, so I straightened my bangs with a hairdryer, and put the rest of my mop in a side braid.
I like side braids because 1) they don’t give me a headache like tight buns (Haha! I said tight buns…) and ponytails sometimes do, and 2) they’re fairly easy and have that casually messy look I like.
Mad props to The Hunger Games movies for re-introducing them into my life. 🙂
Before those movies came out, I think the last time I actually wore braids of any kind was back in middle school. In seventh and eighth grades I was all about french twists and fishtail braids.
I wore ’em all the time! — but as I got older, I guess I started looking at braids as more for kids and moved on to ponytails, buns and french twists instead.
Now, though (thanks, ironically, in part to a series of young-adult movies), I’m back in love with braids.
Seriously, if you haven’t worn them in a while, give ’em a whirl!
Today’s hump day hair question for you: when was the last time you braided your hair?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. In case you were wondering what it’s like to be doted on by a tabby cat nurse, the following image pretty much sums it up…
Tabs believes in the healing power of touch. And proper nutrition, obvs. Can’t you can tell by his “healthy” physique?
Last night he ordered El Hub to make me dinner (fish and rice) and then insisted that I eat a scoop of Three Twins’ salted caramel ice cream for dessert.
Whatever tabby wants, tabby gets. 🙂
It’s Wednesday (woo-hoo!), which means we’re halfway to the weekend! What’s shakin’ in your neck of the woods? What’s on your agenda today?
I get a big kick out of this palette. 🙂
It’s that name, Sex Bomb. I dunno…it just makes me laugh! I mean, I get that they were trying to channel inner seductiveness and sultriness, but of course I’m going to picture weird bombs of sexiness raining from the sky (of course).
Pouty lips, BOOM! Bedroom eyes, BAM!
Or I think of a bad roll in the hay, LOL! And then consequently sneaking out the door at an ungodly hour for that early morning walk of shame with smeared eye makeup and kitten breath.
Aw, what a disappointing sex bomb!
Oh, and then there’s the awkwardness of trying to explain the name to my mom…
Mom: “WHAT IS THIS SEX BOMB?”
Me: “Uh…well?”
Forgetting the name for a second, though, I think the colors are also cool. Very interesting, like that red on the far left. It looks rather frightening, doesn’t it? Well, it’s really not that scary at all. If you pop it on your lids very close to the lash line and do a black cat liner, I think it looks super cool.
And that black shadow on the far right does WERK! I like it smoked out along the lash lines with the taupe in the lid and the beige on the brow bone.
How very Angelina Jolie. Just add nude lips.
Anywho! It’s available now for $7.50 at NYX counters, Ulta and nyxcosmetics.com.
BOOM!
Back from the hospital! The surgery went well (I had a bump on my elbow that had to be removed). I was in and out of there in about an hour, and everything went smoothly…except for the part where I freaked out a little right before it started. 🙂 So what else is new?
Ah, it’s good to be home…
Now let’s talk awesome cheek combos while my sutures heal, shall we? Here’s one I wish I could take credit for because I love it so very much, but I owe it to someone else. I got it when I visited Hourglass Cosmetics headquarters in Venice Beach last summer.
One of the makeup artists I met while I was there grabbed the company’s Illume Creme-to-Powder Duo in Sunset ($40), defined my cheeks with the bronze shade and blended the rosy shade on the apples of my cheeks for color.
Then she dusted sheer lavender Ambient Lighting Powder in Mood ($45) on my upper cheekbones as a subtle highlighter.
I love this combo for “lit from within” cheeks. Here’s a shot of it in action last summer, and yes, I was super tan.
Gotta love Barneys for giving beauty lovers the hookup. I think they do some of the best gift-with-purchase promos around. They always seem to fill their beauty bags to the brim with products I’ll actually use from brands I actually love, like NARS, YSL, Givenchy and Deborah Lippmann.
If you planned to do any beauty shopping at all this week (or, even if you didn’t, LOL!), do you happen to live near a Barneys? If not, no prob. There’s always barneys.com. 🙂
They’re holding their big spring Love Yourself beauty event this week (Feb. 12-15), in which there will be samples, samples galore.
This Wednesday through Saturday, spend $250 or more (I know that’s a lot, but it comes with perks) on beauty and/or grooming products and get a gift bag bursting with goodies.
The stuff in the bags will vary, but here are some visual examples of the high-end treasures that should await inside…
We’re talking about a mix of full-sized products, deluxe travel-sized samples and teeny, tiny treats, like this tube of Givenchy Le Rouge Lipstick (so cute!).
Perhaps you’ll end up with one of these — the world’s smallest, most adorable tiny tube of NARS St. Mortiz Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturize (aww!).
It’s delicious and nutritious. Get it while it’s hot! 🙂
It comes in Large, Extra Large and Super-Sized (I recommend the Super-Sized). Nose taps, headbutts and chin rubs are extra.
