Neutrogena

The Neutrogena Kerry Washington Essential Eye Palette Is on the Cusp of Greatness

May 3rd, 2018 by Karen 9 Comments

neutrogena kerry washington essential eye palette k2 — Lids by Neutrogena and Kerry Washington. I’m wearing the new Essential Eye Palette, which is only $12.99!

It’s not exactly a scandal… Get it? Haha… But I’m definitely getting Olivia Pope vibes from the poised, polished browns in Kerry’s chic new Neutrogena eye palette.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve only seen a few episodes from the first season of Scandal (tried but didn’t really get into it), but I remember loving the clothes, like the all-white ensembles! The stiletto pumps! The bags!

Oh, THE BAGS. Olivia Pope’s character dresses like she eats nails for breakfast, and I LIKE IT. No matter what she wears, though, her makeup always looks sophisticated, so yeah, definitely see her wearing this palette.

It has five powder eyeshadows, all in surprisingly cool neutral tones, which is so refreshing betwixt all of the orange and reddish neutral palettes all over the place these days.

neutrogena kerry washington essential eye palette swatches — Swatches of the Neutrogena Kerry Washington Essential Eye Palette

I mean, I like fun warm tones, too, but when you have a slightly hooded lid situation like I do, cool-toned browns are just so handy. They’re perfect for contouring a crease that isn’t very deep, but that really only works with shadows that have a semi-matte or matte finish, because when you’re using them this way, you don’t want them to reflect a lot of light.

I thought Kerry’s palette would focus on semi-matte or satin finishes, but it does not. On my skin, the shadows are shiny… Actually, borderline frosty, even. And they seem to get progressively shinier as I blend.

All of them are moderately pigmented, which I like because I’m not apt to over-apply, and they’re relatively easy to blend (compared to intensely pigmented shadows), but once I get a brush up in the mix and start buffing away, the color diffuses pretty quickly, leaving behind a shiny opalescent finish that highlights every mother-lovin’ line on my lids…

The only one that doesn’t do this is the dark bronzed brown on the far right, and that one is EPIC.

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Neutrogena Essential Cheek Palette by Kerry Washington

April 30th, 2018 by Karen 6 Comments

neutrogena kerry washington essential cheek palette — Blush, bronzer and highlighter for the price of lunch!

As a font enthusiast/typography aficionado, I would like to point out that the “K” in Kerry Washington’s signature on the front of her new Neutrogena cheek palette merits my stamp of approval. I spent an inordinate amount of time — weeks, perhaps even years — perfecting the “K” in my signature, and IMHO, this is a good “K!”

neutrogena kerry washington essential cheek palette packaging — That’s a good K!

You probably know Kerry Washington from her role in Scandal, but did you also know that she was in one of my favorite movies from the ’90s, Save the Last Dance? And that she’s an ambassador for Neutrogena? And that her LE collection also has an eye palette? And a body wash?

I’ve watched this movie at least 50 times.

The cheek palette caught my eye because it looks a little like BECCA’s epic Chrissy palette (minus a highlighter), and in one way it’s similar — the pigmented peachy coral blush. It’s not nearly as shimmery as the BECCA blush, but the color’s almost a dead-on dupe.

Kerry’s blush is the most pigmented thing in the palette, by the way. It’s much more pigmented than both the bronzer and highlighter, so you’ll want to take it easy the first time you dab it on your sweet cherub cheeks.

neutrogena kerry washington essential cheek palette swatches — I wear Honey 85 in Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Skin Tint, for reference.

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Spring Sparkle With Gleaming, Glowing Skin for a Trip to Old Navy

April 25th, 2018 by Karen 27 Comments

mac show gold spring sparkle tutorial — There isn’t a rule that says you can’t shimmer and go to Old Navy in the middle of the week, and MAC Show Gold is perfect for that.

“Because Old Navy” is as good a reason as any to sport sparkly skin on a typical spring Tuesday. Or Wednesday. ?

I mean, I really just want to get out of my pajamas before noon and feel cute again on the regular, truth be told. If there’s a maximum number of days a person should spend in sleepwear per year, I’ve definitely exceeded that limit!

Like the subtle spring sparkle look I did for last weekend’s luncheon, this one also took about 10 minutes. The spring sparkle comes courtesy of glossy coral lips, khaki lids and lash lines with subtle shimmer, and glowing skin.

All of the primary face products I used — the tint, powder, bronzer, highlighter and even the setting spray — have subtle shimmer and create a dewy, glowing look that’s perfect for a sunny spring day.

spring sparkle 2 car — Ubiquitous car selfie!

I hadn’t been to Old Navy in a while, and guuurl, sometimes when I go in there the store looks like the ninth wrinkled polyester circle of hell, but yesterday, not so much.

Ugh, SO MUCH CUTENESS! They’ve got this retro tropical vibe happening, and it speaks to my soul. Hibiscus, parrots, palm trees left and right. Good thing I had Connor with me and she was getting antsy for lunch because I would’ve been tempted to stay a lot longer and try everything on.

old navy tropical leggings — If these leggings had side pockets for a phone, I’d be all over them. SO CUTE!

old navy tropical print romper — Love this print!

old navy tropical print shorts — It comes in shorts, too.

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14 Days of Ravishing Red! — Day 3: Glossy, Cool-Toned Lips With Neutrogena Deep Cherry Gloss and NUDESTIX Mystic Lip Pencil

February 3rd, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

neutrogena deep cherry nudestix mystic k peace — Anyone else get THIS excited about HomeGoods? Anyone?

Are you ready for 14 Days of Ravishing Red? Stay tuned as we explore ravishing red ? lipsticks, lip liners and glosses every day on our way to ? Valentine’s.

It was good hunting today, and by “hunt,” I’m referring to my trip to HomeGoods, where I went hunting for farmhouse decor for my office…even though I didn’t really find anything farmhouse-related that I liked.

It was still a productive hunt, though! — and I mean “hunt” in the truest sense of the word, because let’s get real, HomeGoods is like The Hunger Games of home decorating stores. If you see something you want, you better chase that down like a lioness chases down her prey.

But ya know, it was Caturday, and even though I was wearing sweats and a messy bun, I still wanted to wear red lips for #14DaysofRavishingRed.

An opaque lipstick seemed like a little too much for today, so I went with one of my favorite casual ways to wear red instead — by layering a red gloss on top of a nude lipstick.

The deep, cool-toned cherry red gloss I’m wearing borders on magenta. It’s Neutrogena Hydro Boost Lip Shine in Deep Cherry, and when it’s layered on top of a creamy nude brown (NUDESTIX Mystic), the brown tones down the intensity of the red, so that you end up with a casual glossy brown lip with a hint of red.

Of course, you can do this with any red gloss — doesn’t have to be a cool-toned cherry red like this.

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Fast and Flirty Valentine’s Day Makeup Tutorial: A Romantic Monochromatic Soft Peach Look for All Skill Levels

January 24th, 2018 by Karen 29 Comments

In the interest of fairness, seeing as how we have Valentine’s Day to celebrate lurve, and Galentine’s Day for your gal pals, shouldn’t there also be a holiday to commemorate V-Day for cat lovers and our cats? Like Feline-en-tine’s Day? Or Cat-en-tine’s Day?

Ooh! — I’ve got it. Meow-entine’s Day! ? ? Happy Meow-entine’s Day, fellow cat ladies, LOL!

Valentine’s Day is a few weeks away, a fact that occurred to me at 7:55 p.m. the other night at See’s Candy (5 minutes before closing), where I went on an emergency last-minute chocolate run.

They had their heart-shaped candy boxes on full display, and it was like a sudden cocoa-infused wake-up call that this is a perfect time for romantic, soft makeup looks. I think this monochromatic peach one would be great for a daytime date, or an evening date, or a date that goes from day to night, ooh-la-la!

Why I ? monochromatic makeup

Because it takes the aspect of color coordinating, and figuring out if this purple goes with that bronze, or if this pink goes with that teal, out of the picture and makes it easy to use multiple (but related) colors together (i.e., so you don’t have to think too hard).

But I really ? monochromatic makeup with a twist!

Instead of just being a peach-on-peach-on-peach party on the eyes, cheeks and lips, this look also relies on subtle transitions and different cream and powder textures, matte and satin finishes, and varying levels of coverage and intensity.

On the eyes, matte and satin powder eyeshadows are layered on top of a cream shadow, and the cheeks and lips are both sporting the same peach color and cream finish, except that the cheeks are sheer, and the lips are opaque. And the creaminess of the blush and lipstick also plays off the matte areas of the skin.

Sheer skin for balance

My foundation is purposefully sheer in this look because, with all of the drama happening on my eyes and the opaque lip, I feel like the face, cheeks and lips need to dial it back a bit to keep everything looking balanced.

A 15-minute look from start to finish

The choice to do sheer skin is also a timing thing, because I’m still really into makeup looks that I can finish in 15 minutes or less, and doing sheer skin saves lots of time and lets me spend most of it on my eyes.

What you’ll need

Here are the products I used…

FACE PRODUCTS

Face primer (Urban Decay Urban Defense Complexion Primer)
Sheer face tint, or a CC or BB cream (Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hydrating Tint in Honey)
Makeup setting spray (MAC Fix+)
Powder foundation (Sweat Cosmetics Mineral Foundation in 200)
Concealer for your under eye area, if you want (MAC Matchmaster Concealer in 4)
Cream peach lipstick (MAC Lunar New Year Lipstick in Good Health, an LE shade available now online and at select MAC counters)

EYE MAKEUP

Brow gel, either clear or a color that matches your brows (Hourglass Arch Brow Volumizing Gel in Warm Brown)
Cream stick shadow similar to your skin tone (MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Colour Stick in Sand Bar)
Three powder eyeshadows: a matte peach eyeshadow, a matte taupe and satiny bronzy brown (MAC Lunar New Year Eye Shadow X9 in Luck and Fortune, an LE palette available now at select MAC counters)
Two pencil eyeliners: a black and a bronzy brown (Chanel 88 Noir Intense and MAC Costa Riche)
Mascara (Tarte Lights Camera Lashes)

Let’s get started

First, you’ll be bouncing back and forth between working on your face and working on your eyes, because when every minute/second counts, you gotta multitask. But it won’t be stressful or scary, I promise. 🙂

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10-Minute Work or Weekend Makeup With Red Blush, Red Lipstick and Smudgy Bronze-Black Cat Eyeliner

January 13th, 2018 by Karen 24 Comments

10 minute makeup — Today’s 10-minute makeup

A few things:

It’s Saturday morning, and I’m wearing the same pajamas I put on Thursday night.
My head feels like it’s being squished in a vice (yes, I’m still a walking germ factory).
I haven’t washed my hair in three (four?) days.

But thanks to the healing power of makeup, I can pretend I briefly look like I’m a somewhat functioning adult, LOL!

This 10-minute makeup look was 1) to help myself feel better, and 2) for Sheena (yay for the Bay, girl, woo-hoo!), who liked the NUDESTIX Intense Lip + Cheek Pencil in Purity post earlier this week but wanted to see me use a darker color from the line.

This time I used warm red Stiletto, and I used it as both a blush and a sheer lip color. And then I also did a smudgy, bronze-y black cat eye.

Everything I used is listed below, and if you have any questions, you know where to find me (hints: it involves Netflix, a laptop and my couch).

nudestix stiletto — When you’re trying to not look like you’re a walking germ factory…

One note about the skin. I used a very sheer liquid skin tint to even everything out just a touch, then boosted the coverage on my cheeks with a loose foundation. This is a very cool shortcut I like to do when I’m pressed for time/have very little patience.

Also, because I went into this look planning to only spend 10 minutes on it, and because the pencil was an opaque bright red, I opted for the sheer lip stain because I figured I’d be able to fudge the edge of the lip line (which I did).

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Unsung Heroes: Dandruff-Defeating Neutrogena T/Gel Shampoo Original Formula

October 10th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

I’m gonna put this out there and say that I think dandruff shampoo is easily top three least sexy beauty products. I mean, shiny patent-leather lipgloss or dandruff shampoo: which is a sexier conversation starter?

Dandruff happens, though, and I get it every once in a while, usually around this time of year and during winter. With the cooler weather, my scalp’s been going nuts. It’s flake city.

Enter today’s unsung hero, my old standby, Neutrogena T/Gel Shampoo Original Formula (there are a few different versions).

It’s the only dandruff shampoo that really works for me, and I know this because I ran out last month and decided to try some other dandruff shampoos, and nothing — NOTHING! — worked as well as T/Gel did for me.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

This caramel-colored shampoo smells like Ricola Cough Drops. The scent is sort of clinical and medicinal, which some people might even call stinky, but I’ve grown to appreciate the scent over the 10+ years I’ve used it.

The active ingredient is coal tar, which is a byproduct of coal processing, and it stops dandruff by slowing the rate at which the skin cells on your scalp die and flake (you can read more about it here).

Active ingredients
Coal Tar 0.5% (2% Neutar® Solubilized Coal Tar Extract) (Anti-dandruff, Anti-seborrheic dermatitis, Anti-psoriasis)

Inactive ingredients
Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamide MEA, Laureth-4, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Polysorbate 20, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, DMDM Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA

Trying those other dandruff shampoos made me realize that there’s a lot out there that just doesn’t work for me. T/Gel works immediately — like, right after the first shampoo. My scalp feels clean, doesn’t itch, and the flakiness — which I was seeing mostly around my hairline right near my bangs — is completely gone. My roots don’t feel greasy or coated with product, either, which happened after I used the other anti-dandruff shampoos. After T/Gel, my scalp and hair feel really, really clean. AHHHHH!

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Neutrogena HydroBoost Exfoliating Cleanser and Hydrating Serum

September 27th, 2017 by Karen 12 Comments

Nobody ever sat me down and told me this — I wish they had, because it was hard-learned knowledge: one day, your skin will probably change.

Mine did. I used to have very oily skin. When I was teenager, I was oil slick city, and my skin stayed that way throughout my 20s. Now, though, it’s mostly dry, except for my oily forehead and nose.

If I still had that same skin I had back in the day, I’d probably love new Neutrogena Hydro Boost Exfoliating Cleanser ($8.99) and Hydrating Serum ($19.99).

I think that both of these additions to the Neutrogena Hydro Boost line are mid-level moisturizers. If you have oily or normal skin that still likes/needs some extra moisturizing, but never quite gets so dry that it hurts to smile, then either of these might be a good fit for your face.

Buuut, before we go any further, can we just talk about the packaging for a second?

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Bright, blue and cheerful? But, like, if you look at both of the bottles, they say “HYALURONIC ACID” right there on the front with a little squiggly symbol to get your attention.

Hyaluronid acid shows up in many highly rated moisturizing skin care products (here’s an excellent post on The Beauty Brains about it), but it’s listed down at the bottom of the ingredients for the Exfoliating Cleanser…

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Exfoliating Cleanser: Ingredients
Water, Sodium C14-16, Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Glycerin, Sodium Hydrolyzed Potato Starch Dodecenylsuccinate, Acrylates Crosspolymer-4, Cellulose, Polysorbate 20, Citric Acid Sodium Benzoate, Glycolic Acid, Fragrance, Lactic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Disodium EDTA, Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, —-> Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid

And it’s also halfway down the list for the Hydro Boost Serum…

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Serum: Ingredients
Water, Glycerin, Dimethicone, Butylene Glycol, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Isododecane, Dimethiconol, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, Ethylhexylglycerin, Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Lactate, Cetearyl Olivate, Bisabolol, Chlorphenesin, Sorbitan Olivate, Sodium PCA, Fragrance, —-> Sodium Hyaluronate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Sorbitol, Chondrus Crispus Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Proline, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Propylene Glycol, Citric Acid, Magnesium Aspartate, Zinc Gluconate, Copper Gluconate

So it sure doesn’t look like one of the main ingredients in either of these… I’m just sayin’.

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Exfoliating Cleanser

This face wash , which feels like a jelly, exfoliates in two ways — one physical, and one chemical. The physical way seems to be via little beads, but the back of the bottle says that this doesn’t contain plastic microbeads.

I’ve been trying to figure out which ingredient actual does the physical exfoliating, but I haven’t figured it out yet. If you can tell from the list what’s doing the deed, let me know.

Whatever it is, the particles feel small, soft and mildly gritty, and they aren’t painful. This feels like an expensive exfoliating product from a high-end brand.

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