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The Long-Lasting LORAC Pro Powder Cheek Stains Lay Down Loads of Color

August 23rd, 2012 by Karen 25 Comments

lorac pro powder cheek stain rosy glow
LORAC PRO Powder Cheek Stain in Rosy Glow

I call ’em “The One Swipers,” the five new, awesomely pigmented LORAC PRO Powder Cheek Stains I mentioned yesterday but didn’t really describe, because they rarely have to be swiped twice. One swipe with one of these on my blush brush delivers natural-looking, flushed cheeks.

The $20 powder blushes, which just landed on LORAC counters, are also surprisingly easy to blend, considering how much pigment they pack, and last a whopping eight hours on me.

The only thing I’d add? Dilute, dilute, dilute — since these blushes lay down so much color. Wipe or tap your brush to remove the excess powder before applying.

With these, if you feel like your cheeks still look a little too bright even after diluting, try applying them with a fan brush instead. Fan brushes aren’t afraid of high pigment products and excel at laying down sheer layers of color.

LORAC PRO Powder Cheek Stain open
All five of the new LORAC Pro Powder Cheek Stains clockwise from the lower left: Coral Crush, Petal Pink, Plum Passion, Rosy Glow and Ruby Rouge

lorac pro powder cheek stain petal pink
LORAC PRO Powder Cheek Stain in Petal Pink

lorac pro powder cheek stain plum passion
LORAC PRO Powder Cheek Stain in Plum Passion
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Songbirds Sing, Gypsies Dance and Moonstones Shimmer on Becca Counters This Fall

August 23rd, 2012 by Karen 32 Comments

becca songbird mineral blush
Wearing Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone and Blush in Songbird

Why? Because it was the early 90s.

That’s what I say now when I think about some of the things I did back in my late teens and early 20s.

Matte makeup was all the rage, and I’d slip on my plaid, button-down shirt over a floral print dress and black leggings, blast my worn out Nevermind tape in the car on the way to school, slick MAC Paramount on my lips and attack the day!

My little makeup bag was filled with matte goodies, like eyeliner, eyeshadow and face powder (I hadn’t yet discovered blush), and almost all of it was in shades of brown, oy vey!

When makeup shelves and counters started twinkling with shimmery makeup later in the decade, it was a revelation! — like the first time I had a salad with blueberries in it from Panera Bread (so tasty!). Suddenly, the makeup universe opened up before me, revealing new looks and ideas I never knew existed.

becca gypsy songbird shimmering skin perfector in moonstone
Clockwise from the bottle on the left: Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone ($41), Mineral Blush in Gypsy ($32) and Mineral Blush in Songbird ($32)

There’s just something about shimmery makeup that always puts a spring in my step. No doubt, I still lurves me my mattes, but sometimes I need the lift I get from shimmers, like when I feel like my skin looks a little blah, like when I have a cold or bad allergies, or when I’m just having a really rough day.

Sooner or later, though, there always comes a time when I have to get serious again, and out come the matte lipsticks.

This fall, Becca is introducing three new shimmery pieces built to add a little bounce to your step. 🙂

Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone ($41)

This water-based pearly golden beige behaves as both a sheer liquid highlighter and a moisturizer, illuminating while moisturizing and diffusing uneven skin tone.

Becca also incorporated antioxidants, and broad-spectrum SPF 20+ to protect against 96% of UVA/UBD rays. Plus and plus.

But the shimmer is my favorite thing about it. The mica particles are almost imperceptibly fine, so the product doesn’t spotlight my pores as much as many other highlighters can.

Kinda pricey, but I love the results. When I layer it under NARS tinted moisturizer, I feel like I look 10 years younger! And so far it hasn’t broken me out (knock on wood).
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A-

Mineral Blush in Gypsy ($32)

I’m a sucker for Becca’s baffling Mineral Blushes. How can they be so easy to blend and yet so pigmented at the same time?? Awesome!

And I love their approach to shimmer. It’s never too obvious. Just right.

Gypsy, a delicate neutral pink with golden pearl, gives a soft, natural glow to cheeks.

It may be a little too light for some darker damsels, but light-to-medium skin tones might just fall in love.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

Mineral Blush in Songbird ($32)

With a name like Songbird, it had to be great. 🙂 A new addition to Becca’s Mineral Blush line, Songbird is a warm, heavily pigmented peach pink with golden pearl, and seeing as how I love warm, peachy pink blushes, I was hoping Becca would hit this one out of the park…

They did!

Brighter and more intense than Gypsy, I think it still finds a way to look natural. Nothing clownish here, and if you crave even more color from Songbird, it’s also buildable.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A+

becca gypsy mineral blush
Gypsy

becca songbird mineral blush
Songbird
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Haute Hair for a Hot Price! The $9.99 Sonia Kashuk Studly Haute Hair Sets

August 16th, 2012 by Karen 15 Comments

sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 1
Sonia Kashuk studded headband

Like I needed another reason to absolutely adore Sonia Kashuk.

As if her cute travel bags, smarty pants makeup cases, luscious nail polishes and oh-so-affordable brushes (her Bent Eyeliner Brush changed my life!) weren’t reason enough, now she’s hitting Target shelves with a new line of stylin’ limited edition hair accessories.

Released for fall, her Studly Haute Hair Sets ($9.99 each) are totally tough girl approved.

The first set pairs a studded headband with a set of two silver studded bobby pins, and it’s available now at Target stores and online at target.com.

The second set, also available in Target stores but unfortunately not online, puts a studded barrette together with four studded elastics.

sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 2
Silver studded bobby pins

sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 3
Studded elastics
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More MAC Styleseeker! First Impressions and Face Pics

August 15th, 2012 by Karen 31 Comments

mac styleseeker marche aux puces eye shadow dark diversion fluidline hidden treasure blush ready to roam lipglass
Wearing Eye Shadow X 2 Marche Aux Puces, Fluidline in Dark Diversion, MAC Powder Blush in Hidden Treasure and Lipglass in Ready to Roam

Face pics of the new MAC Styleseeker collection in action. 🙂

mac styleseeker marche aux puces eye shadow dark diversion fluidline hidden treasure blush c thru lipglass
Wearing Eye Shadow X 2 Marche Aux Puces, Fluidline in Dark Diversion, MAC Powder Blush in Hidden Treasure and Lipglass in C-Thru

mac styleseeker marche aux puces eye shadow dark diversion fluidline hidden treasure blush restless lipglass
Wearing Eye Shadow X 2 Marche Aux Puces, Fluidline in Dark Diversion, MAC Powder Blush in Hidden Treasure and Lipglass in Restless
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Seeking Style With the MAC Styleseeker Collection: Swatches and Pics

August 15th, 2012 by Karen 16 Comments

mac styleseeker

Just some swatches and pics of bits from the new 24-piece MAC Styleseeker collection, which roams onto MAC counters, into stores and up on maccosmetics.com in North America August 23, and internationally next month.

mac supercontinental hidden treasure blush
Powder Blush in Supercontinental (left) and Hidden Treasure (right)

mac supercontinental blush
Powder Blush in Supercontinental

mac hidden treasure blush
Powder Blush in Hidden Treasure

mac marche aux puces culturalized eye shadow X 2
Eye Shadow X 2 Marche Aux Puces (left) and Culturalized (right)
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Metallics, Shimmer and Shine? I Heard That! Introducing the Givenchy Acoustic Colors Collection for Fall 2012

August 8th, 2012 by Karen 26 Comments

Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Quad in Acoustic Harmony

Now here’s something to hopefully brighten your Wednesday morning: Givenchy’s new Acoustic Colors collection for fall 2012, coming soon exclusively to Sephora.

Here’s a quick look-see at four of the six pieces in the limited edition release…

givenchy acoustic colors fall 2012
From the left: Gelee D’Interdit Smoothing Gloss Balm Crystal Shine in Acoustic Wild Rose #18 ($27.50), Le Gloss Revelateur De Liv Magic Lipgloss Lipcolor Revealer in LIVely Pink #34 ($27.50), Le Prisme Eye Quad Color & Shine for Metallic Eyes in Acoustic Harmony #80 ($58), Le Rose Revelateur De Liv Magic Lipstick Lipcolor Releaver in LIVely Pink #57 ($30)

givenchy gelee d interdit Smoothing Gloss Balm Crystal Shine in Acoustic Wild Rose and Le Prisme Eye Quad in Acoustic Harmony
Gelee D’Interdit Smoothing Gloss Balm Crystal Shine in Acoustic Wild Rose #18 (left) and Le Prisme Eye Quad Color & Shine for Metallic Eyes in Acoustic Harmony #80 (right)

givenchy acoustic colors fall 2012 swatches
Swatches from the left: Gelee D’Interdit Smoothing Gloss Balm Crystal Shine in Acoustic Wild Rose #18, Le Prisme Eye Quad Color & Shine for Metallic Eyes in Acoustic Harmony #80, Le Gloss Revelateur De Liv Magic Lipgloss Lipcolor Revealer in LIVely Pink #34 and Le Rose Revelateur De Liv Magic Lipstick Lipcolor Releaver in LIVely Pink #57
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It Takes You to Tango With the Make Up For Ever Black Tango Palette for Fall 2012

August 7th, 2012 by Karen 22 Comments

make up for ever black tango

I tangoed this afternoon for the first time in 20 years, and my partner was Make Up For Ever.

No, not tango in the ballroom style (“slow, slow, quick-quick, slow!”), although that always looks like so much fun. This was more just me dancing away the late afternoon with some pieces from MUFE’s new fall 2012 collection.

make up for ever black tango fall 2012

Ironically…my metaphorical dancing today was much more fun than the first time I tried the real tango.

It was the spring of my senior year in high school… My friend Alex and I had taken a ballroom dance class together after seeing the movie Swing Kids (5-second synopsis: a group of teenagers in Nazi Germany band together to dance to forbidden swing music from the United States).

Yup, that’s young Christian Bale in the middle

We started out hell bent on getting good enough to do the cool aerial tricks, tosses and lifts, so every Thursday after dinner Alex would pick me up in his rickety Dodge Dart, and I’d spend the 10-minute drive to the dance studio joshing him and his ride (“Dude, if this thing breaks down, you’re gonna have to flash your hairy leg on the side of the road and pray someone pulls over to help us, ’cause there’s no way I’m pushing this boat in these heels!”).

Then we’d shuffle across the dance floor for 45 minutes, with both of us spending most of the time looking down at our feet, to learn the basics of ballroom dancing with some of Union City’s sassiest seniors.

I don’t know what we were thinking, to be honest, because we were really, really terrible. Like the worst couple in class. Alex was over six-feet tall, and I barely cleared 5 feet, even when I was stepping on his toes, LOL! Seriously, if the class had given an award for crashing into other couples and stepping on feet, that’s the only award we would have won.

As bad as we were, though, the tango was sort of our specialty, and I still remember sailing across the dance floor, repeating “slow, slow, quick-quick, slow” over and over to myself.

“Slow, slow, quick-quick, slow!” I tried to get Tabs to dance with me this afternoon, but he wasn’t in the mood… Thankfully, the new Aqua Rouge Lip Colors ($24 each), Aqua Brow ($20) and new Black Tango Palette ($45) were. 🙂

make up for ever black tango palette closed
Black Tango Palette

make up for ever black tango fall 2012 open
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Like the Sun Rising in the East, Your Lips Will Shimmer Wearing One of the 15 Moisturizing Cremesheen Lipsticks and Glosses in the New MAC Cremesheen + Pearl Collection

August 7th, 2012 by Karen 22 Comments

MAC Coral Bliss Cremesheen
Wearing MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Coral Bliss

MAC went east — faaar east — for the 15 modern pinks, nudes and corals in their new Cremesheen + Pearl collection of Cremesheen Glasses and Lipsticks with a light-reflecting finish.

Each of the eight new Cremesheen Lipsticks ($15 each) and seven Cremesheen Glasses ($19.50 each) in the Asian-inspired collection contain crushed pearl for shiny, glossy lips with a luminous glow. They arrive on North American shores August 9 (and coming to international locales this September), but if you can’t/don’t want to wait that long, they’re actually available now online.

Looking for the right light-reflecting lips to go with your favorite bold eye look? MAC’s got ya covered. 🙂

Here’s a quick look at six of the new shades. I can’t wait to wear some of these with smokey eyes!

MAC Cremesheen Lipstick Coral Bliss Pure Zen Shanghai Spice
Cremesheen Lipsticks in Coral Bliss, Pure Zen and Shanghai Spice

MAC Cremesheen Glass Double Happiness Rising Sun Pagoda
Cremesheen Glass in Double Happiness, Rising Sun and Pagoda

I LOVE the product names and the overall vibe. It reminds me of the last time I went to the cherry blossom festival in SF’s Japan Town. My favorites here are probably the comfortable Cremesheen Glasses because of how moisturizing they are. Thinner than the Lipglasses and non-sticky, too, they just feel really, really great on my lips. Whenever I travel by plane, I always bring a moisturizing Cremesheen along to help my lips cope with the dry, recycled air.

mac cremesheen pearl swatches
Swatches from the left: Cremesheen Lipsticks in Coral Bliss, Pure Zen and Shanghai Spice; Cremesheen Glass in Double Happiness, Pagoda and Rising Sun
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