Makeup

10 Things You Should Know About the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

June 2nd, 2015 by Karen 54 Comments

10 Things You Should Know About the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

It’s smokier than the time my brother showed up late to a hip-hop dance show smelling like he spent the last 20 minutes hot-boxing in the car. Translation: it’s incredibly freaking smokey! — and you can do a lot of different things with it, like a smokey bronze eye, smokey gray, smokey brownish black, a smokey black panda eye, a smokey plum, a smokey taupe… Lots of smokey possibilities.
It’s completely clothing optional (It’s called Naked Smoky, after all, which reminds me… I spell it “smokey,” but UD spells it “smoky”), although I do recommend wearing clothes if you’re going out wearing this makeup.
On that note, I may or may not be wearing clothes in these pics. Take a guess! 🙂 And then say “CLOTHES: YES” or “CLOTHES: NO” in the comments. LOL!
The name may cause confusion if you discuss it with your Filipino mother.
MOM: What are you doing?
ME: Oh, checking out this thing called Naked Smoky.
MOM: What do you mean you’re naked!? I didn’t raise you to be naked on the Internet!
ME: No. Mom, no, I’m not naked…
MOM: And you’re smoking now too? Smoking is bad. Don’t smoke!
If you go to DSW wearing Naked Smoky on your lids, you’ll be the most glamorous person there. (True story! I just got back from looking at shoes… Didn’t buy anything, boo.)
It will not help you make friends with the neighborhood kitties…but it can be used to create smokey eyes like the eyes of your favorite smokey-eyed kitty.
Speaking of cats, if you happen to run into Tabs while wearing the grays and browns in this palette and he rubs his face all over your face (as he’s apt to do when he’s looking for love), you will not be able to see the cat hairs he leaves on you since most of these colors match his fur. Again, true story.
If you get it, you’ll have another brush to add to your “Emergency”/”Just in Case”/”Things I Probably Won’t Use Every Day” pile, because the dual-ended brush that comes with it is meh. I’ll give it props for not being scratchy, but I think the brush heads are too dense and stiff to do any real-deal hard-core smokey blending. They just end up pushing stuff all over the place, so I’d grab a fluffy tapered brush and a domed blending brush instead. Fluffy blending brushes all the way, son!
While playing with it, you may become so wrapped up that you forget to eat lunch. Yes…you guessed it. TRUE. STORY.
It hurts like a mo’ fo’ when it falls on your foot. So try to avoid dropping it on your foot. 🙂

The 411 on the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette

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Dior Summer 2015 Contraste Horizon (556) 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette: A Traditional Summer Eye Palette With a Twist

May 29th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

dior contraste horizon — Dior Summer 2015 Limited Edition 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette in 556 Contraste Horizon ($62)

I see torrents of teal, bunches of brown, gobs of gold and a deluge of Dior on the horizon!

The new $62 Dior Summer 2015 Limited Edition 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette in 556 Contraste Horizon, one of two limited edition powder eyeshadow palettes in the recently released Dior Summer 2015 Tie Dye Collection, is available now online and at Dior counters, where it patiently awaits makeup lovers hoping to take it home. 🙂

Dior Contraste Horizon contains a shimmery medium warm brown, a shimmery deep teal, a shimmery warm yellow gold, a shimmery mint and an iridescent pale violet, and yes, it’s $62.

YIKES!

Dior is a high-end brand, after all, and with their prices, it seems they aren’t afraid to show it.

This is what I’d call a traditional summer eye palette…with a twist. If you live for classic summer eye colors, you may freak out over the shimmery gold, brown and teal shades in this palette.

Granted, the whole brown/teal/gold combo idea isn’t exactly revolutionary — I mean, it’s no Ryan Gosling body pillow — but because Dior is freaking Dior, these shadows do everything they’re supposed to do, and they do it well.

Take the teal, brown and gold eyeshadows in this eye look I’m wearing. Seriously, it only took one layer with these to reach maximum color. The highly pigmented powders are downright indulgent, and yay! — no fallout. Plus, an eight-hour wear time.

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Smashbox Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Starblush: Mmm… Doesn’t a Baked Starblush Sound Delicious Right Now?

May 28th, 2015 by Karen 3 Comments

smashbox fusion soft lights baked starblush — Smashbox Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Starblush ($32)

Smashbox Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Starblush

“Uh, yes, I’ll take a Baked Starblush and a tall Caramel Macchiato, please…”

I really like this product’s name: Baked Starblush. It sounds both astronomical and tasty. 🙂 This here is the Smashbox Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Starblush, one of two new $32 shimmery baked highlighters (the other one is called Starburst) containing five individual shades (there are two of each color) — in this one’s case a soft white, a soft pink, a rosy pink, a dusty rose and a bright rose. Both are available now online and at Smashbox counters, Nordstrom, Ulta and Sephora.

Starblush, which you can wear on your cheeks, eyes, face and body, creates a subtle veil of light pink shimmer, and it’s one of those considerate subtle veils that doesn’t emphasize pores. With a finish about halfway between a super shiny BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector and a less intense Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder, it’s probably better for lasses with light and medium skin tones, because it might look ashy on deeper damsels.

As for wear time, on my combination oily/dry skin, it lasts between six and seven hours.

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Dior Summer 2015: The Dior Addict Lipsticks in 001 Red Bliss and 005 Fuchsia Utopia Are Perfect in Every Way But Price

May 28th, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

dior summer 2015 fuschia utopia top — From Dior Summer 2015, Dior Addict Lipstick in 005 Fuchsia Utopia ($33)

The Dior Summer 2015 Collection Dior Addict Lipsticks ($33 each, available in four shades) are aptly named.

Because they are deliciously addictive. 🙂

I usually like to swap out the lip products I keep in my purse every few days (’cause I crave variety), but the two Dior Addicts I’m wearing here are the only two lipsticks I’ve carried around consistently this past month.

Two of four Dior Addict Lipsticks in the Dior Summer 2015 Tie Dye Collection, they’re available now at Dior counters and online. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between 001 Red Bliss and 005 Fuchsia Utopia (the others are 002 Coral Trip and 006 Nude Fever).

dior summer 2015 red bliss — From Dior Summer 2015, Dior Addict Lipstick in 001 Red Bliss ($33)

“Dior Addict is back this summer with a brand new two-tone version: four fresh and bright shades featuring the emblematic Dior logo in a contrasting colour at the center. In a single sweep, shades and textures intertwine to recreate a subtle tie dye effect on the lips.”

— dior.com

Like Tootsie Pops, each of these lipsticks has a surprise inside. There are two colors within each bullet, and they mix together as you slick one across your lips.

Why am I addicted to Dior Addict? Let me count the ways…

The fantastic formula… It’s remarkable just how moisturizing these are considering the lightweight formula. Within a couple hours of applying either of these shades my normally dry lips feel less like cheese graters. Like the Zella sweatpants of sheer lipsticks, they feel fantastic! The smooth, virtually weightless formula feels almost like a silky lip balm or a luxurious lip butter.
Extremely user-friendly… I usually apply them directly from the tube without a mirror. You have a lot of leeway with these because they’re sheer, and if you take one a little beyond the edge of your lips, no big deal. I usually reapply after meals, or every two hours, and I actually look forward to the feel of these gliding across my lips. The light vanilla flavor and scent is yummy, too.
Sheer, but not too sheer… Sometimes with sheer lipsticks, if you have pigmented lips like I do, your natural lip color overpowers the pigment, and it can look like you aren’t wearing anything at all. That’s totally not the case with these Dior Addict Lipsticks. They contain a healthy serving of pigment, and the colors apply evenly and smoothly. I’d call them medium coverage.

For me, these are right up there with the top performers in the medium-coverage lipstick category alongside the fantastic $20 MAC Huggable Lip Colours, which look similar but have a slightly thicker formula, and the fabulous $50 Tom Ford Lip Color Sheers, which are a smidgen more pigmented but waaay more expensive.

dior summer 2015 001 red bliss — From Dior Summer 2015, Dior Addict Lipstick in 001 Red Bliss ($33)

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MAC The Matte Lip Collection: A Quick Reminder…

May 27th, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

mac matte royal lipstick — MAC Matte Lipstick in Matte Royal ($16)

Heads up, buttercup. If you’ve been counting down the weeks/days/seconds until the MAC The Matte Lip collection drops, the wait is almost over.

Some of the shades in the release are re-promotes from the permanent line, but most of them are brand-spankin’ new.

And they’ll be available bright and early starting tomorrow on the MAC website (and then a little later at MAC stores and counters June 11). Whoop-whoop!

More details, swatches and pictures here, but here’s the quick and dirty…

22 shades, most of them new (but a few are current permanent collection re-promotes)
Some of them have MAC’s Matte formula, and others have MAC’s Retro Matte formula
All of the shades are being added to the MAC permanent line, so none of that limited edition funny business…
They’re all $16 each
Available on the MAC website starting May 28, 2015 and at MAC stores and counters June 11

The colors I’m wearing here are some of the brighter — I guess you could call ’em “edgier shades” (and by edgier, I mean that the first thing El Hub said when he saw me wearing the dark blue in the top pic was, “Your lipstick looks scary…”), but there are also a lot of wearable colors coming, like Whirl, Men Love Mystery and Runway Hit (which you can see in the top picture in this post).

mac pink pigeon — MAC Matte Lipstick in Pink Pigeon ($16)

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Costa Riche Eye Kohl

May 27th, 2015 by Karen 28 Comments

mac costa riche — Wearing $16 MAC Costa Riche Eye Kohl on my lower lash lines

I’ll be paying a visit to the MAC Pro Store this week as part of a super-secret spy girl mission tomorrow (stay tuned!), which means that poor El Hub will be left to play outside on his phone while I clear out the store’s inventory of MAC Costa Riche.

How many times have I talked about this Eye Kohl…? Five? Six? Two dozen?

It is well past time for me to give it the Unsung Heroes treatment. 🙂

A warm golden brown Eye Kohl in the MAC permanent line, Costa Riche has been my brown eyeliner bae since late 2013.

Seeing as how I fall in love with new products every other week (sorry, it’s true), you might think that my obsession with it would have waned, but nooo. I still reach for Costa Riche at least three or four times a week because 1) it goes well with so many different eyeshadows, and 2) it feels good on my lash and water lines (when my eyes are irritated and/or watering due to allergies or something else, Costa Riche is one of the few things I can still wear that won’t make things worse).

And it does so much for different eye colors. Brown eyes look more chocolatey, and blue, green, hazel and gray eyes rock it, too. I think it brings out more beauty in all of them and makes your natural eye color stand out.

I’ve never met a person who hates how they look in Costa Riche. It’s the people’s liner!
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Unsung Makeup Heroes: BECCA Damselfly Mineral Blush

May 26th, 2015 by Karen 31 Comments

becca damselfly blush — Wearing BECCA Mineral Blush in Damselfly ($32)

2011.

Ah, my Halcyon Days…

No, really. Those were my Halcyon days. That’s when I started wearing BECCA Mineral Blush in Damselfly ($32), with the BECCA Halcyon Days Collection.

And I still get the same thrill from it whenever I see it on my cheeks, which is really something else when you think about it. I mean, if after four years, you’re still excited by a shimmery golden coral powder blush — one among countless other shimmery golden coral blushes on the market — you know it has to be a gem.

Damselfly’s lovely luminous finish still looks natural, and it takes it from casual Facebook friend to “in a relationship” status. Before the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes, there was Damselfly, and its appearance was a straight-up revelation.

Its understated sheen makes cheeks glow without glistening, and it’s unmistakeable in pics and in person. I don’t know how Damselfly does what it does, but it usually steals the show whenever I wear it. Even in posts about — oh, I dunno — bright coral glosses or matte reds or out-of-this world nude lipsticks (all of which look amazing with Damselfly, by the way), I get different versions of the same question: “What are you wearing on your cheeks?”

It’s BECCA Damselfly, my friend. BECCA Damselfly. 🙂
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Ulta Adventures: Smashbox Photo Angle Pure Pigment Gel Liner

May 22nd, 2015 by Karen 19 Comments

smashbox photo angle gel — Smashbox Photo Angle Pure Pigment Gel Liner ($24 each)

Totes getting a Benefit vibe from these new Smashbox Photo Angle Pure Pigment Gel Liners ($24). They’re a new line of gel liners in twisty pens. The gel comes out of the flexible angled tip, just like Benefit’s They’re Real Push-Up Liner.

I was stoked to play with these when I spotted them at Ulta, but I got a little freaked out by the display… All of the liners had crusty bits of gel at the tips, which I cleaned off before taking these pics because they looked like a hot mess, and I couldn’t take it.

I dunno about the 36-hour wear time…. I don’t actually need my liner to last that long, LOL! Have you tried these yet? If so what do you think?

I’ve used Benefit’s gel liner before, and it looks a lot like these. With those there’s definitely a learning curve. They aren’t the easiest product to work with because it’s hard to get the gel to go where you want it to. Stuff has a mind of its own, but once you get it down, you can do some neat things with it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen