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Becca

NARS Kalahari Love

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nars kalahari
Love ya, NARS Kalahari!

They say, if you love something, set it free, which I guess makes sense if you love butterflies or toucans, but in the case of makeup, if you love something, I say you should talk about it ALL THE TIME, which is why I’ve been raving about NARS Kalahari for years!

Kalahari eyeshadow duo is perfect for lightly defining your lids. One side is a shimmery rosy bronze, and the other side is a shimmery taupe — two colors, granted, that you can find in almost any line, but here’s the kicker: NARS found a way to avoid all of the typically problematic side effects that befall so many shimmery shadows.

For instance, Kalahari is reflective, but it isn’t frosty, so fine lines aren’t even a thing. When you sweep and swirl it on your skin, a sweet, bronzed glow remains. It’s very “J. Lo running errands in her velour track suit.” Casual, but still noticeable. (This is a good thing in my book.)

Here’s one of my favorite ways to wear it:
Mix the two shades together with a domed shadow brush, then apply from lash line to crease (or just above the crease if your eyes are hooded like mine). Build it up if you want more color intensity, but don’t worry — this is eyeshadow that won’t look heavy, since the powder is very delicate and fine.

Next, wet that same brush, and apply more of the mix on the mobile part of your lid, which is the part of your eye that “blinks.” Leave it a few minutes to dry, and work on the rest of your face. Once you’ve almost gotten to the end — I usually wait until I’m done with almost everything, including blush and lipstick — take a clean tapered blending brush, and gently rock it back and forth in your crease and along the outer corners to blend.

nars kalahari

If you want, you can also rim your lash or water lines with chocolate brown eyeliner, which I did for these pics. I also smudged a cooler taupe liner (Urban Decay’s Mushroom) on the bottom lash line ’cause I like the subtle contrast of tones.

Makeup worn in this look

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Ravenous for Red Lipstick: BECCA Hot Tamale

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becca hot tamale swatch
Hey, hot stuff!

Valentine’s Day ? is here, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

Happy Valentine’s Day, babe! I hope that you and Ryan Gosling are having a lovely celebration of your eternal commitment to each other.

Ya know, I’ve been told I have a spicy ?️ personality, but when it comes to hot and spicy food, my heat ? tolerance level is negative 10. The spice must flow…but not into my food, thanks.

I do love a a hot red lipstick, though, like BECCA Hot Tamale! It’s the same color as a ghost pepper (or, in my case, a sweet red bell pepper).

becca hot tamale swatch
BECCA Hot Tamale

Just so you know, this lipstick does not taste like a hot tamale.

  • Who would like it? Anyone who can work reds with orange undertones and own that ish like they invented it, OK?
  • What’s it similar to? MAC Lady Danger, but with a semi-matte finish instead of a matte one — so, more like a MAC Amplified lipstick finish (I’d call them sorority sisters).
  • What else should you know? It’s $24 and available at the usual BECCA haunts, including Ulta and Sephora. It has a 4-hour wear time, too, and moves me to song (specifically D’Angelo) because it tastes and smells like brown sugar, babe.


I gets high off your love, I don’t know how to behave.

Are you doing anything for Valentine’s Day, by the way? I’ve got a cold (SURPRISE), so we’re gonna do a family Valentine’s Day with take-out tonight.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ravenous for Red Lipstick: Behold BECCA Brave!

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becca brave swatch
BECCA Ultimate Lipstick Love in Brave ($24)

Valentine’s Day ? is right around the corner, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

OK, so…I think the eight-hour wear time claim is a stretch for the lipsticks in BECCA’s gnarly new Lipstick Love line, but dang! — for the four hours Brave lasts on my ? lips, I have absolutely NO complaints.

If you’re into pigment packed red lippies, this one’s for you, assuming you’re cool with brown sugar, because that’s how these taste and smell (but it’s not all up in your grill).

Expect some tugging when you run these across your lips because they have a moderately thick formula, and even though I don’t always like when lipsticks feel thick and heavy, I don’t mind this formula. It’s juuust shy of too thick, so it’s firmly in the lip product Goldilocks zone.

According to Sephora…

What it is: An eight-hour long-wearing, silky-satin lip color infused with the next generation of hyaluronic acid.

Ingredient Callouts: Free of parabens. This product is also cruelty-free.

What Else You Need to Know: This silky-satin lip color wears for up to eight hours, and is infused with next-generation hyaluronic acid to hydrate and smooth the look of lips. Ultra-creamy, pure pigments and light-reflecting oils deliver high-impact color in a single swipe. Infused with avocado oil, the ultra-comfortable formula nourishes lips.

Again, I haven’t been getting a full eight hours from these, but I still like ’em.

becca brave
Feeling Brave!

I think the formula’s heftiness (?) is also a good thing, particularly in cool red Brave’s case, because the formula isn’t super slick, so applying it is almost like drawing with a lip crayon. I can scribble those corner lip lines into place without having to do any major cleanup with a pencil liner, concealer or anything else.

I actually freehand applied the red lips in this pic.

Yup, no brush! — which is doubly impressive considering that I drank too much coffee and had the shakes when I applied it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The #BECCABFFS Collection

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beccabffs product shot
? a bronze glow? Here’s your new #BECCABFFs.

Whenever I see a Kardashian-related makeup product (which is, like, every five seconds, amiright?), I remember that krazy dream I had a few months ago where Kim and I got into a kat fight about jewelry. HA HA HA! Yes, it was nuts. I think of that dream every time I wear the #BECCABFFs collection.

The #BECCABFFs collection is new, LE and available now with two powder palettes, a loose highlighter and four lipsticks. It’s a collab between Khloe Kardashian and her bestie Malika Haqq, and even though I have feeeeeeeelings about the Kardashians…I guess if there were any of them I could remotely relate to, it would probably be Khloe, because she does have that biting sense of humor. And I know this because I marathoned the first two seasons of KUWTK while Connor was a newborn and I was up at all hours feeding her.

beccabffs swatches
I’m an NC42, BTW.
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Wearing the Made With Love by Khloe Palette on my cheeks and eyes, and Cupid’s Bow Lipstick on my lips.

BECCA’s vibe is generally beach-babe-meets-Victoria’s-Secret-runway-model, and they’re consistent about it. They shamelessly embrace warm, bronzed, highlighted skin and glowing lids and lips, and I like that type of makeup, so it doesn’t get tedious for me, but I can see how they could seem like a one-trick pony if it’s not your thing.

At first blush, #BECCABFF’s colors might seem very similar to the colors from previous collections like BECCA X Chrissy (THE BEST), but they really are different. The four warm shades in the Made With Love By Malika Palette ($44), for instance, are deeper and darker versions of BECCA’s usual classic bronze look, and the Made With Love By Khloe Palette (also $44), while still warm, has a surprisingly neutral matte bronzer in it that’s unusual for a BECCA launch.

So, yeah, the differences are subtle, but they’re there.

The packaging’s a little clunky…but the powders themselves perform like Olympic gymnasts. They’re typical BECCA multitaskers, too, so you can wear them on your cheeks, eyes or, heck, all over your face if you want to!

See the marbling? Kinda looks like the Hourglass Ambient blushes and bronzers, right? You get that same lighter-than-air quality with these powders, where you can’t even see the grains on your skin, but they differ in terms of shimmer. The Ambients are known for their subtlety, and subtle these are not. The #BECCABFFS turn up the pearl, so you gotta lean into the glow if you want to go there.

I’m cool with it because the pearl particles are fine, so my pores are like “Coo’, coo’… We can work with this.”

beccabffs packaging
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#BECCAxChrissy Holiday 2018 Collection Glow Kitchen and Lip Icing Glow Gloss Kits

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becca chrissy holiday 2018 2
New #BECCAxChrissy holiday makeup

Chrissy Teigan gets me, man. She really does — and not just because she made one of my favorite face/eye palettes of all time.

Um, have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how much I adore the BECCA X Chrissy palette? Yeah, you do not have to twist my arm to get me to wear bronze eyeshadow. LOL.

Well, Chrissy is back with another BECCA holiday collab, and it’s also gorgeous, especially if you have warm undertones and medium brown skin.

We’re talking bronze lids, rose gold highlighter, rosy nude lipstick and a whole lotta nude gloss, a.k.a Karen’s Makeup Dreams Come True, or K.M.D.C.T.

There’s two LE holiday kits, and both of them are available now at Sephora.

BECCA Glow Kitchen Kit ($44)

This kit contains three items, and errrrthang is new. These are never-seen-before formulas, which is very exciting to makeup weirdos ? like yours truly. There’s a loose rose gold highlighter, a matte nude rose liquid lipstick, and a pot called Glow Souffle Eye Shadow & Face Highlighter in Cinnamon Churro with a bronze eyeshadow in the flip-cap top and a creamy golden mousse highlighter in the jar. (Side note: The packaging looks a LOT like these old Tom Ford duos.)

becca chrissy holiday 2018

I couldn’t wait to try Cinnamon Churro. The soft bronze eyeshadow feels almost creamy, so it’s crazy sexy blend-able, but the frosty finish and big flecks of glitter make it…problematic for 40-something lids. If I take it up too high into my crease — which is easy to do because of how gracefully the powder glides across the skin, and you know I like to go HAM on that @ss when it comes to blending — I look much older than I am because of mah fine lines.

Beautiful bronze color, though… Le sigh. If I were 22, I’d be on it like fried chicken on waffles.

becca chrissy holiday 2018 swatches

Fun fact: The mousse highlighter in the duo smells like cinnamon buns, which are one of Chrissy’s favorite sweet treats… And now I’m craving cinnamon buns with extra icing, ha ha.

Um…where was I?

To put the formula in context, the mousse is denser than a Tom Ford cream shadow but less dense than a Chanel cream or a MAC Paint Pot.

So, basically, it feels like a makeup marshmallow (which is great), but, like the eyeshadow, the mousse is full of bling, so it gets a hard pass from me thanks to my experience lines.

becca chrissy holiday 2018
BECCA Chrissy Holiday 2018

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The BECCA Be a Light Face Palettes in Light to Medium, and Medium to Dark

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The BECCA Be a light Face Palette in “Medium to Dark” (there’s also one called “Light to Medium”) on my face and cheeks

If we’re talking about a palette from BECCA, invariably I’m gonna compare it to Chrissy Teigan’s, because it’s the best one BECCA’s ever made. Even after a year, I still go “HOT DAMN, THAT’S GOOD!” every time I bust it out.

So the question I faced (haha) today is, “Do the new BECCA BE a Light palettes kick Chrissy’s palette to the curb?”

Hey, phones can make you look like a cat now, so stranger things have happened. ?

The BECCA Be A Light Face Palette ($46, two versions — Light to Medium, and Medium to Dark)

With the two Be a Light palettes, BECCA is introducing a new powder formula to their line. Allegedly, the powders bounce light and blur pores like the Hourglass Ambients…and they do!

That’s great, right?

They aren’t exactly dupes, though. The Ambient powders are finer, and I think they do a better job overall, but that’s not to take anything away from these.

“Introducing the next generation of glow. This palette features Sheer Glow Filter Powder, a brand new, skin-smoothing powder, in four different finishes designed to blur, brighten, contour, and add a radiant flush of color. Microfine, luminescent pigments diffuse light to soften the look of skin and blurring pigments even skin’s texture so light bounces off it more effortlessly. The light-as-air, buildable shades brighten, blur, and softly define the complexion to create a sheer, natural glow—effortlessly. Unlike heavier powders, the oil-absorbing formula retouches and sets without disrupting makeup, making it your perfect 3pm-pick-me-up in a palette.”

— sephora.com

becca be a light face palettes
Medium to Dark (top) and Light to Medium (bottom)

In fact, if it weren’t for one thing, I’d be proclaiming my undying love for them. I even love the way they look from the outside (the rose gold is pretty!), but dang the shade selection, though!

The girls in the middle like me are getting the short end of the stick. The “Light to Medium” palette is too light for me (I’m an NC42 in MAC), while the “Medium to Dark” is a smidgen too dark.

To the powers that be, why didn’t you make a dedicated Medium version?! That said, I can get Medium to Dark to work for me, but only if I use the sheerest application and do an annoying amount of buffing.

becca be a light face palette swatches

If the shades work for you and you have combo or straight-up dry skin, you’re in luck, and the powders will do what they’re supposed to. Your skin will look effortlessly satiny and beachy with a touch of glow. Very, very BECCA.

On the other hand, if you have oily skin and want to completely matte everything down, well…you’ll be more shiny than dewy after a few hours (which is what happens to me on the oiliest spots on my face, like my forehead). The lack of oil control is another weakness, but, on the flip side, the powders layer really well, so even if you have to touch-up often, these powders won’t look heavy, which is always a plus.

As for the blush, it’s not my fave… It’s awfully shimmery, but at least the pearl particles are fine, so your pores shouldn’t look crazy big.

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A Glamorously Grungy Makeup Tutorial: Smoky Reddish Brown Eyes and Vampy Matte Lips

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reddish brown smoky eye tutorial top pic 1

I’m warning you now — ONLY wear this makeup when you want to feel like a total bad-@ss capable of capturing, and then breaking, all of the hearts in a room within the span of 5 minutes.

This beauty buddy movie pairs two bold focal points together — a messy reddish brown smoky eye and a crisp blackened red matte lip — to create a jammin’ juxtaposition of grungy and glam, and you know I’m all about the contrasts in makeup.

To keep the overall look approachable and well out of Insta-glam territory, I paired the eyes and lips with moderately matte skin (there’s a semblance of a sheen), casual, messy brows and a warm bronzed mauve cheek.

red brown smoky eye tutorial top pic 2

red brown smoky eye tutorial top pic 3

Are you ready to rock?

What you’ll need

FACE PRODUCTS

EYE MAKEUP

TOOLS

  • Smudge brush (MAC 219S)
  • Fluffy angled eyeshadow brush (MAC 275S)
  • Blush brush (MAC 127S)
  • Flat eyeshadow brush (or, you can just use a finger)
  • Something to blend your foundation (BeautyBlender)

red brown smoky eye tutorial products

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The BECCA Light Waves Highlighter Palette

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becca light waves
That pop of pink in the middle is a new shade of BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed

BECCA’s been surfing this — what feels like a long, continuous wave of limited edition highlighter palettes — for what, months? Years? It seems like there’s a new one every couple months.

Surprise! The latest one is called Light Waves ($34, available now), and it has three shades of their iconic Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Powder. Two are shades you might already be familiar with — good ol’ golden Moonstone, which has been around for years, and shimmering light purple Prismatic Amethyst, which is newer.

becca light waves
Sturdy plastic packaging with a mirror

Side note: I shied away from purple highlighter for years thinking that it was only for lighter lasses, and that, as a tan-skinned babe, I couldn’t wear it… Boy, was I wrong! It’s actually really flattering on darker skin tones, too.

BECCA Light Waves
From the top: Moonstone, Pink Sapphire and Prismatic Amethyst

The new, new shade is smack dab in the middle of the palette. It’s called Pink Sapphire, and it’s a really pretty duo chrome golden pink that flashes to peach.

I’m wearing it on my cheeks here, although, ya know, I had to build it up, because it isn’t as pigmented as Moonstone and Prismatic Amethyst.

Not a big deal, though, because it’s not like I had to put on tons of it. I did two layers for these glowing, opalescent cheeks.

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Wearing Pink Sapphire on my cheeks

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