Archives for May 2014

Where’ve You Verbena All My Life, Laura Mercier Verbena Infusion Gel Body Moisture?

May 28th, 2014 by Karen 16 Comments

It’s hard to let go of your fears…

Like, for me, the fear of smelling like a cleaning spray, or the clinical term, scentofcleaningspray-a-phobia.

It started innocently enough. One day long ago I was wearing a scent — can’t remember which one it was now — but it had strong notes of verbena.

Doop-da-doo, someone leaned in for a hug but pulled away immediately, as if repelled, and said, “You smell exactly like Pledge.”

It left scars, man.

Scars.

Needless to say, I was a little skeptical at first about Laura Mercier’s new Verbena Infusion Gel Body Moisture, but I figured, it’s Laura, and I’ve pretty much loved all of her scented body products, so I banked on this one working out, too.

And it did! 🙂 No eau de scrubbing bubbles.

“Inspired by the countryside of Provence, Laura captures the crisp freshness of Verbena to invigorate the senses. A sparkling bouquet of green citrus and leafy spearmint infuse beautifully with petals of fresh blossoms and a touch of white amber and cedar wood. Leaving behind a refreshing sensation that rejuvenates the body.”

— lauramercier.com

With the mercury rising here in Northern Marin, I’ve been digging the creamy gel-like texture, which feels almost like a light mousse. It quickly absorbs into my skin and doesn’t leave the backs of my knees feeling sticky, which is a major moisturizer turnoff.

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6 Days of OCC: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Stained Gloss in Dune, Day 3

May 27th, 2014 by Karen 17 Comments

This is by far the raddest dune I’ve ever encountered (except for the 1984 movie and the Sci-Fi Channel original miniseries, but those were more watched than encountered).

All of the others — most of them sand dunes — pale in comparison. Those dunes usually involved me hauling a big-@ss longboard up them, and lots of panting (yo, those boards are heavy).

And since we’re on the subject of dunes, why do they always look so easy to climb from afar, but when you actually start climbing up them, you feel like you’re hiking up K2?

But I digress…

The first time I saw golden champagne Dune Stained Gloss, one of six shades in the new Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Dune summer collection, in its tube, I thought it would be milky and a chore to work with, but it turned out to be surprisingly wearable.

I feel like the golden champagne goes pretty well with my natural lip color, and instead of just getting a boring nude gloss when I wear it, I get a rosy, peachy gold that, thankfully, doesn’t settle into my fine lip lines, which gets another yay for that (yay!). 🙂

You can find it now, along with the rest of the Dune collection, at sephora.com and occmakeup.com (and coming to Sephora stores June 6).

The 6 Days of OCC series features a different Stained Gloss every day

Benefit’s New Tinted Lip Balms in Lollibalm, Chachabalm, Posiebalm and Benebalm Go Easy on the Tint, Heavy on the Moisture

May 27th, 2014 by Karen 25 Comments

Benefit Lollibalm Tinted Lip Balm — Lollibalm, one of four new Benefit Tinted Lip Balms available now

Granted, there’s not a dramatic, in-your-face difference among the four shades in Benefit’s new collection of Tinted Lip Balms ($18 each) when I wear them on my lips, but ooh! — they just look so darn cute chillin’ in my makeup bag.

Benefit Tinted Lip Balms — They each have their own personal outfit…

And every. Single. Time. I’ve taken out Chachabalm, Lollibalm, Posiebalm or Benebalm for a touch-up (which I have to do about every hour or so when I wear them) within sight of a gal, I’ve been asked something along the lines of, “Where did ya get that?! It’s adorable!”

So, yeah, fellow packaging suckers, that’s the sign of an eye-catching product. 🙂

Benefit introduced these hydrating lip balms earlier this spring in colors to match their liquid blushes in Cha Cha Tint, Lollitint, Posie Tint and Benetint.

They feel a lot like the Revlon Lip Butters and Dior’s Addict Lip Balms to me — smooth, non-sticky, and firmly on the thicker formula side, as far as lip balms go. My nose and taste buds also detect a mild violet hard candy flavor and scent.

Thumbs up for mega moisture, too, as these are loaded with the stuff, and my dry, flaky lips lap it up.

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Space NK, Future Home of the New NUDESTIX Makeup Line, Coming This June

May 27th, 2014 by Karen 19 Comments

All black errrrthing!

So, yeah. I mostly wanted to try the new NUDESTIX makeup line because of the black pencil packaging.

I mean, come on. Black is sleek, chic and never goes out of style. Plus, what’s not to like about easy-to-use pencil packaging? Anything with the potential to free up my schedule for more REM sleep gets automatic cool points just for that.

Coming exclusively to Space NK stores and spacenk.com this June, the new NUDESTIX makeup brand of neutral-toned makeup for eyes, lips, cheeks and skin already has my makeup-loving heart’s attention.

The brainchild (I’ve always wanted to use that word in a sentence, “brainchild,” LOL!) of CoverFX co-creator and former MAC product developer Jenny Frankel, who left Cover FX in 2011 to start the new brand, NUDESTIX is debuting with a 30-piece collection…

The entire (as of now) NUDESTIX collection

Lash Lengthening Mascara, $24
Eye Pencils in Cream, Shimmer, Stardust, Golden, Bronze, Burnish, Pewter and Smoke, $24 each
Magnetic Eye Color Pencils in Night, Angel, Twilight and Moon, $24 each
Skin Concealer Pencils in Light 1, Light 2, Light 3, Medium 4, Medium 5, Medium 6, Deep 7 and Deep 8, $24 each
Lip & Cheek Pencils in Whisper, Love, Blush, Mystic, Ripe, Soul, Sin and Flesh, $24 each
Pencil Cap Sharpener, $5

Jenny worked with her two daughters, both aspiring models, to create the new line of natural-looking, easy-to-apply products — products designed to be easy enough to apply without separate brushes.

After giving all five product families a try over the long holiday weekend, here are some thoughts…

The Eye Pencil Crayons in Stardust and Burnish

Burnish and Stardust burnish some serious multitasking muscle. These Eye Pencil Crayons do werk!

What kind of work, you ask? Well, you can line your eyes with them, use them on your lids as eyeshadows, and/or use them as highlighters, applying them on the high points of the face, which, by the way, is my favorite way to use them.

I’ll swipe either one, shimmery golden peach Stardust or bronzy golden Burnish, on my upper cheekbones, down the bridge of my nose, and a little on my Cupid’s bow, and then blend.

Great for glow on the go without having to fuss with a brush.

As for using them in other ways, like as shadows and liners, I don’t do that as much. When I use them as liners, my super sensitive water lines freak out a little, and both colors crease (a lot) on my lids when I use them as shadows.

Like, a lot. Within 10-15 minutes of applying.

And I’ve tried them with and without primer at different levels of coverage.

Maybe they just don’t particularly like my combination oily/dry lids.

That said, though, the finish on these is absolutely gorgeous. When I wear them as shadow, my lids look totally rockstar chick — all glowing, shiny and distinct. If you like rebellious, undone eye looks, give these a try when you can.

Magnetic Eye Color Pencil in Night

Super dark and black as night, matte black Night Magnetic Eye Color Pencil works as a liner, an eyeshadow and/or an eyeshadow primer.

Supposedly designed for oily lids, I dunno…this one also tends to start creasing on my lids within 15 minutes of applying. My water lines do seem to prefer the Magnetic Eye Color formula over the Eye Pencil Crayons, though, where it last 4-5 hours.

The Lip & Cheek Pencil in Blush

This creamy peachy rose has a satin finish and doubles as a blush and lipstick.

As a lip pencil, this one’s got it goin’ on. I think it tastes a little waxy at first, but it subsides within about 10 minutes, and the semi-sheer, lip flake-friendly coverage looks gloriously natural.

Now, as a blush, we’re talking super sheer — barely there — and, you know, when I wear blush, I kind of like to see it on my cheeks, but if you’re a lighter lass looking for the ultimate no-makeup makeup look, check it out.

Skin Concealer Pencil in Deep 7

This shade is probably closer to my skin tone around the end of summer, after I’ve picked up a shade or two, but I’ve tried it both on my face and under my eyes.

Definitely easy to blend, it also starts scooting around after about an hour.

NUDESTIX Swatches from the left: Magnetic Eye Color Pencil in Night, Eye Pencil Crayon in Burnish, Eye Pencil Crayon in Stardust, Skin Concealer Pencil in Deep 7, and the Lip and Cheek Pencil in Blush — From the left: Magnetic Eye Color Pencil in Night, Eye Pencil Crayon in Burnish, Eye Pencil Crayon in Stardust, Skin Concealer Pencil in Deep 7 and Lip and Cheek Pencil in Blush

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The MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural Face Powders Also Get a New Wardrobe

May 27th, 2014 by Karen 27 Comments

The new outfits MAC recently gave the Mineralize Skinfinishes rankled quite a few of us (judging by the comments). Well, the Mineralize Skinfinish Natural face powders also got new threads.

MAC gave them a mirror, making them look more like regular powder compacts, and an opaque black cover with their trademark logo.

This one here is Medium Tan ($32), one of the new shades recently added to the line, available now at MAC counters, stores and maccosmetics.com.

I wore it both days last weekend with MAC Face & Body Foundation, and so far, so good!

No oxidizing, and I think it looks super natural on my combination dry/oily skin. I apply it once in the morning, and it lasts all day.

I’m a little tempted to pop out the powder to see if the “Made Since 1982” is stamped on the back, but I think I’ll wait a while for that.

If you’d like to see swatches of Medium Tan or the other shades, let me know. I can always use another excuse to go to the mall, haha!

You know how it is. 🙂

Unsung Makeup Heroes: The $4 Ardell 120 Demi Natural Lashes

May 27th, 2014 by Karen 26 Comments

Much like his bulging biceps (OH, HAI), Jeremey Renner’s makeup advice is a gift that keeps on giving.

J. Renn, do you know how many times your “Brows, lashes, lips. Frame the face,” (3:36 in the video!) wisdom has saved my @ss? More times than Tabs has greedily gobbled down his gravy in 30 seconds or less, I’ll tell you that much.

Whenever I’m running late — like, so late that I don’t even have time to check if I’m putting on my underwear inside-out and literally don’t realize it until halfway through the day (#truth) — I always go back to J. Renn’s philosophy on brows, lashes and lips.

It’s particularly useful when I have to look somewhat respectable, and not like I just fell out of a slow-moving recycling truck, also known as “my usual state of disarray.”

In those cases, I grab a few time-tested faves — an angled brush and MAC Brun to fill in my brows, a bright NARS Satin Lip Pencil (like Lodhi, Jardin des Plants or Yu) and a pair of Ardell 120 Demi false lashes.

Whenever I see those Ardells on sale, I try to grab a few pairs. Like earlier this month, I saw they were marked down to $2.99 from $3.99 at Ulta (they still are!). I picked up three pairs and squirreled them away in a drawer for future lateness.

With these, I really like how the lashes are bundled together.

See how they’re all in little bunches along the band?

I don’t know why, but I like the way that design works. With these and other false lashes that look that way, when they’re bundled up in little bunches, they seem to thicken my natural fringe without looking too crazy — still glam, but more on the natural side.

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Pretty Petaluma on a Perfect Memorial Day

May 26th, 2014 by Karen 16 Comments

El Hub and I ventured north again today, this time up to Petaluma, which is the town right next door, only about 10 miles away.

But we’d never been there before! What’s up with that? It was time to rectify that situation.

It’s a beautiful area, very rural, with lots of farms and rolling hills and breathtaking views. Antique stores are everywhere! And they have a lovely downtown waterfront with lots of little shops and places to eat.

A great place to walk around (or bring a bike) if you ever make it out to this area. It’s in Sonoma County, which is part of the whole Wine Country area, so you could do a little wine tasting in nearby Napa, or at one of the many wineries in Sonoma itself, and then stop in Petaluma for lunch.

The coolest seed store I’ve ever seen! Literally thousands of things I’d never even heard of before.

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 324

May 26th, 2014 by Karen 20 Comments

The Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll for May 26, 2014

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 seven years. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

We’re starting an ’80s cover band. What instrument would you like to play?
Maracas! And I’ll do backup vocals.

Oh, you want me to sing lead? OK, twist my arm. 🙂

Do you have any family members in the service?
Not right now that I can think of, but my dad was in the Navy.

What was the biggest mess/trouble you ever got into as a kid?
I was such a goody two-shoes, so I didn’t really do anything that bad on the scale of big trouble, but looking back I kind of wish that I had.

One time in elementary school a friend and I found this huge spare tire in her backyard, and there was no landscaping back there. Just all mud. So we each took turns rolling each other around in the tire through the mud and got really, really muddy.

I remember her dad coming out and flipping his lid! Then he hosed us down like two hogs.

How do you like your French fries?
I like how McDonald’s does ’em. Hot and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with lots of ketchup on the side (I don’t like them covered with ketchup because it makes them soggy).

Pastel or neon nails?
Neons on my fingertips and pastels on my toes. 🙂

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. We’re starting an ’80s cover band. What instrument would you like to play?
2. Do you have any family members in the service?
3. What was the biggest mess/trouble you ever got into as a kid?
4. How do you like your French fries?
5. Pastel or neon nails?