Makeup

Tantalizing Trios Await! With the Transformative bareMinerals Ready Convertible Eyeshadow Palette, You Can Take It With You

November 25th, 2014 by Karen 10 Comments

This new $39 Ready Convertible Eyeshadow Palette by bareminerals is a lot like the last Transformers movie…except without the fast-twitch camera cuts, ear-splitting explosions and, ya know, robots.

OK, so now that I’ve thought about it more…it’s actually nothing at all like the last Transformers movie.

But it is like the slogan. 🙂 “More than meets the eye.”

With 12 full-size shimmery eyeshadows that you can pop in and out, this holiday set is something of a quick-change artist. The idea is to place three colors into the smaller mini-palette in the middle of the bigger palette, which you can then slide out and take along with you — you know, for touchups, booty calls, impromptu acts of makeup artistry in airport bathrooms, etc.

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Shorty Schwing My Way: theBalm’s Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner Loves Ladies Who Pine for Precise Lines

November 21st, 2014 by Karen 15 Comments

theBalm Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner (4) — Wearing theBalm Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner ($17) on my upper lash lines

Winged eyeliner: making my life harder since the dawn of time.

Seriously, though, why does winged liner, particularly winged liquid liner, make me want to scream into a pillow?

The worst is that moment when the teeny wing you wanted — just a small kitten flick — suddenly morphs into a huge, oversized bat wing that reaches all the way up to your temples, and you have no control over the situation whatsoever.

It’s as if the universe invented winged liner primarily to mock us.

Well, universe, screw you and your plans for makeup mayhem, ’cause I just started using theBalm’s Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner ($17), and I am no longer clutching my chair and rocking back and forth. 🙂

theBalm Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner (3) — LOL, the box! This is kind of what it’s like to hang out with my friends Jen and Cindy.

You might think that a look with thin liquid liner and a tiny kitten flick would be easy, seeing as how you’re not using a ton of product, but oh! — those skinny lines and tiny wings are like the makeup equivalent of open heart surgery. They’re just hard, man.

But Schwing is all about control. The felt tip draws skinny matte black lines with the precision of a fine-tipped calligraphy pen. Hugging lash lines is easy.

theBalm Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner (2) — theBalm Schwing Black Liquid Eyeliner ($17)

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Chanel Illusion D’Ombre Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow in Fantasme

November 20th, 2014 by Karen 18 Comments

Fantasme…

Why did I just picture Penelope Cruz saying that, like from one of those Nespresso commercials?

“Nespresso!”

Are we really almost at the end of November? I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a week away, but it reminds me that now is the time for holiday makeup.

There’s Thanksgiving next week, and then a couple get-togethers around Christmas, so I’m trying to think of ways to look dressed up that don’t require a lot of effort, like by using products I can layer on top of whatever other makeup I may have started the day wearing.

Say “happy holidays!” to Chanel Illusion D’Ombre Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow in Fantasme. This sheer, glittery white cream wunderkind ($36) makes getting party-ready looks as easy as three pats of a finger.

Well…three or four.

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Fantasme — Chanel Illusion D’Ombre Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow in Fantasme ($36)

Wait — don’t walk away just because I said glitter! This is Chanel glitter, so it’s classy and refined (think: expensive chandelier), and it’s precisely the kind of glitter I imagine Choupette the cat leaves in her wake when she prances around her mansion. 🙂

Fantasme is one of those deceptively fantastic pieces… It pretends to be boring and nondescript in swatches, but it turns into a concert violinist on lids.

The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorite permanent collection products from a variety of bodacious beauty brands.

What I like to do is pat Fantasme in the inner corners of my lids with a finger.

Sure, you could use a brush, but I like using my fingers because it seems to cut down on the fallout…not that there’s very much of it anyway.

I just pat on top of whatever eye makeup I happen to be wearing. Doesn’t matter what colors or kind of look it is, either. Fantasme cranks it up.

Here I’m wearing it on top of teals and blues from the Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette…

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Just Add a Festive Ribbon or Bow to These Topshop 2014 Holiday Kits, and You Have a Perfect Gift

November 19th, 2014 by Karen 8 Comments

Topshop Holiday 2014 — It’s a Topshop holiday party, *haaay!*

OK, so maybe orange and black aren’t the first two colors that pop into my mind when I think of the holidays (with the exception of that scary one with all the candy)…

But so what? These new Topshop holiday kits are bringin’ the cute! 🙂

Slap a Christmassy ribbon on one of these bad boys, and boom! — hello, stylish present.

Topshop is one of those makeup lines that flies under my radar a lot of the time, but they have some very cute things, and some of those are in these kits.

The Blush and Lip Duo in Innocent and Illicit ($24)

Topshop Blush Lip Duo Set with Lipstick in Innocent and Blush in Illicit — The Topshop Blush Lip Duo Set with Lipstick in Innocent, and Blush in Illicit

Topshop’s blushes are DOPE. They last like Italian marble and look totally natural on cheeks. They’re also why this set caught my eye.

It comes with Illicit, a nude, cool-toned rose cream blush with a dash of micro shimmer. Coincidentally, it was the shade I was wearing today when I went looking for an illicit encounter with my side-cat, Elsa (but I didn’t see her, boo!).

The set also comes with a creamy cool-toned pink lipstick called Innocent, which is super pretty and looks great with black smokey eyes. Sadly, it also seems to like hanging out in my lip lines…

The Mascara and Kohl Kit ($24)

Topshop Mascara and Kohl Kit, $24 — Mascara and Kohl Kit ($24)

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The Sonia Kashuk Holiday 2014 Collection Proves It’s the Golden Age of Luxurious, Affordable Makeup

November 19th, 2014 by Karen 16 Comments

Sonia Kashuk’s Art Deco-inspired holiday 2014 collection might give you ideas…

…ideas like, “Whee! Look at me! I’m a flapper in The Great Gatsby, and I’m doing the Charleston!” Then you start dancing around your office, but you pull an inner thigh muscle when you kick a little higher than you should have, and from that day forward, you rue the day you danced the Charleston in your office without properly stretching beforehand.

The Sonia Kashuk Eye Palette in Deco Starlet ($19.99)

Just an FYI! 🙂

Sonia’s latest limited edition collection does make me want to kick up my heels, it’s true. The seven pieces look totally expensive, but all but one of them are less than $20 each.

Sonia Kashuk Nude Lip Palette in Jazzed Up Nudes — The Nude Lip Palette in Jazzed Up Nudes ($19.99)

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Is Kat Von D’s Star Studded Eyeshadow Book a Beauty Bestseller?

November 18th, 2014 by Karen 21 Comments

Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book — Wearing colors from Kat Von D’s new limited edition Star Studded Eyeshadow Book ($55) on my eyes

The first time I saw Kat Von D’s new $55 Star Studded Eyeshadow Book, all cloaked in black with that star pattern on the outside, I thought, “Ooh! It looks like something Slash would wear on his wedding day.”

Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found 24 uber-organized eyeshadows grouped into efficient color-coordinated quads.

I dunno… Chaos just strikes me as more rock ‘n’ roll, ya know?

Each of the four-color subsections includes a base, lid, crease and accent shade, like something you might find over at a more formal, buttoned-up line like Trish McEvoy, but don’t let that fool you — these shadows still have major rawr.

There’s also a helluva lot more glitter. 🙂

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Step Right Up to the bareMinerals Kissing Booth 6-Piece Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss Collection: A Carnival of Glassy, Sheer Color

November 18th, 2014 by Karen 15 Comments

bareMinerals Kissing Booth marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Jezebel — bareMinerals Kissing Booth Collection Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Jezebel

Thanks, bareMinerals, for inspiring my latest list with your new $26 Kissing Booth Lipgloss Collection.

I’m calling it “Carnival Attractions That I Absolutely Never Want to Operate.”

At the top of the list, the kissing booth, which, yeah, probably isn’t a good fit for the girl who freaked-the-eff-out when she found out that her (now ex) boyfriend was using her toothbrush (EWWWWWWW!).

Can you imagine the germs exchanged during one afternoon at a kissing booth? Um…no thank you.

Carnival Attractions That I Absolutely Never Want to Operate

The kissing booth — Yuck! I don’t know where those lips have been!

The Ferris wheel — People freaking out in buckets a hundred feet off the ground? I can’t… I just can’t.

The milk bottle baseball game — Oh, hell to the no. How much do you want to bet someone would hit me with a ball?

The carousel/merry-go-round — Make it stop! The music is driving me nuts…

Now, if I could insist that there were only two customers at my kissing booth, El Hub and Tabs (who would get nose kisses, of course), then cool. 🙂 And I’d also want these Kissing Booth Collection glosses around, because their sheer pigments wouldn’t leave bright smooch marks behind.

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The $26 bareMinerals Lipspectacular Set Brings All the Boys to the Yard

November 14th, 2014 by Karen 18 Comments

You know that moment after a looong day when you finally take off your false lashes and your Spanx? Yeah, the six glosses in the $26 bareMinerals Lipspectacular set feel even better than that.

They’re just so smooth and creamy and oh, my friggin’ goodness! — comfortable. And not sticky at all.

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