Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Note to self: next time you hit a late afternoon slump, skip the snack drawer, and grab a flamingo instead.
Flamingo — one of the Tom Ford Beauty Lip Colors ($48). 🙂
More pigmented than popcorn or potato chips, Tom’s Beauty Lip Colors are also a lot lower in calories (as in, they haven’t any).
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Most gilded liner groupies would be content to have MAC Powersurge tucked away in their makeup bags… Not this gal. I dream of a day I fling my drawers open and nearly drown under a deluge of shimmery bronze and gold liners!!
Greeting me like a friendly face on this path to gold and bronze liner glory is Laura Mercier’s Kohl Eye Pencil in Black Gold, $20 and available now in Laura’s permanent collection.
Darker than Powersurge and more gold than bronze, from its name, I thought this shimmery kohl would be darker, like a black liner lightly brushed with golden pearl, but it looks like more of a 50/50 split between black and gold to me. When I hold the swatch up to the light and wiggle my wrist, I see flashes of both beautiful shades.
Cool.
Makeup mavens may growl at its tendency to migrate. Although Black Gold clings to water lines fairly well (as long as I apply two layers, I don’t even need touch-ups), the smudgy, soft texture gets happy feet on oily lids, which is a little ironic considering its name. I’d say it behaves better than buttery MAC Feline (which I still love), but if your lids are oily at all, starting with a primer, and then setting Black Gold with a shadow on top, should discourage it from transferring into your crease when you blink.
Maybe the cray amounts of overtime Tabs has had me working lately and the 20+ hours of Friday Night Lights I’ve watched since last Friday are slowly but surely frying my brain, because choosing which eyeshadow colors I want to wear when I do my makeup has been way tougher than usual.
It’s like, I see the pans sitting in front of me as one big, nebulous blob. Does this green go with that one? Should I wear bronze or brown?
Honestly, right now, I have no idea…
Coming to the rescue, ironically with 20 more shades? — the new Urban Decay Vice Palette ($59 and available now online at urbandecay.com).
I can’t remember the last time Urban Decay released a palette with so many new colors! All 20 of them have never before seen the light of day (although a few of them do resemble existing colors).
And that’s not even my favorite part.
Somehow, the shades in the Vice palette, which is packed with neutrals and sprinkled with brights, all go together. Seriously, I feel like I can pair any two of them on my lids, pop a third shade along my lower lash line and KAPOW! — instant eye game that requires very little brain power.
Not that I’m in my right mind right now…but nothing here seems out of place.
You could start with one of the lighter colors all over your lids, add one of the darker shades in the outer corners of your eyes, and define your lower lash lines by lining with one of the bright or neutral shades.
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Vices. I’ve got a few. Shoes, sweets, stockpiling limited edition Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes… 🙂
The new Urban Decay Vice Palette ($59) sashays onto beauty counters and urbandecay.com this fall. Inside you’ll find 20 brand-spankin’ new shades, which Urban Decay whipped up special for the kit.
Check out the swatches and pics below, and let me know what you think.
Sure, you’ve got your beauty bases covered for life’s big events — cocktail parties, baby showers, weddings, the zombie apocalypse — but what about those once-in-a-while mornings when you wake up feeling “meh”?
Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Maybe you woke up with hella greasy hair that smelled like Ritz Crackers. Maybe you just wanted — no, needed a jolt of color to summon your inner foxiness forward.
It’s mornings like those that were made for 413BLKR. 🙂
NARS recently released 413BLKR Duo Eyeshadow ($34) and 413BLKR Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($24), the two newest numerically-named members of Team 413BLKR (a collection named after the company’s flagship NY store), to celebrate Fashion’s Night Out, a big New York Fashion Week festivity.
You know…I never would have thought to pair these two products together, and that’s one of the reasons why I love NARS. They have a knack for introducing unexpected pairings that just plain work.
Wearing these pieces, I feel like shouting “halleluja!” up to the heavens. “Mama’s still got it!” They make me want to blast Bad Girls by Donna Summer and twirl around in my living room with my arms raised up!
TABS: Woman. Woooo-man. WOMAN!
KAREN: Um, yes, Tabs?
TABS: I need you to stop whatever you’re doing because I have an urgent task for you.
KAREN: Well, I’m in the middle of alphabetizing your cans of gravy right now, which earlier today you called the “highest priority” in the office, and if I stop now to do something else, I’ll be here all night long.
TABS: And…?
KAREN: [Sigh] What is it?
TABS: Listen, I’m gonna need you to try on these two new pieces from the MAC Carine Roitfeld collection — the Full Face Kit in Jungle Camouflage and the Lipstick in Tropical Mist.
KAREN: Sure, but does it have to be now? Can’t it wait ’til tomorrow?
TABS: Oh, I’m sorry. Did the terms of your employment suddenly change? — because I don’t remember paying you to ask questions.
KAREN: It’s funny you should mention that, because I don’t remember you paying me at all.
TABS: Well excuuuuuse me, miss thing! If you don’t want the job, I can get someone else. I know at least 50 girls who would jump at the chance to assist me.
KAREN: Okay, okay. Don’t get your tail in a knot. Is there a particular look you want me to try?
TABS: That’s better. Yes, how about something smokey? You know I lurves me some smokey eyes.
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Um…like I really needed another excuse to randomly bust out in song today.
Sun’s up? That’s a good reason. Cup of coffee? That’s a good reason. Tabs hasn’t scratched my ankles yet? That’s a good reason. Waiting in line at Trader Joe’s, taking Tabs for a walk, indoor plumbing, having ice cream for dinner, sitting in front of the computer like I am right now? All good enough reasons.
But lately, I’ve been singing aloud with even more gusto than usual, like I’m stuck in an a very special episode of Glee (guest starring Tabs the Cat and Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog), and I MUST EMOTE! 🙂
I wonder if it has something to do with Anastasia…
I’ve been wearing the new glosses in her latest set a lot this week, and not just because they shine like my tubby tabby’s eyes.
Most of the glosses in the limited edition $30 holiday Kisses on My List Volume 2 Hydrafull Gloss Set of six full-size tubes are named after a different old-school jam.
There’s Lola, a shimmery, cool pink that changes to a deeper hue after a few minutes on the lips (Anastasia calls these Hypercolor glosses); Maggie May, a sheer and creamy nude; Jolene, a shimmery rose (another one of the Hypercolors); Roxanne, a shimmery gold (also a Hypercolor); and Sharona, a sheer and shimmery peach.
The only one I don’t recognize from a song is Moi, a sheer and creamy pink (got any ideas about the name?).
The other day I took out Roxanne and applied a single layer.
No, it did not sting. 🙂 Nor did the police arrive (ba-dum bum!).
But I did feel inspired to pretend the tube was a microphone and belted out, “Rrrrrox-anne! You don’t have to put on the red light!” in the middle of my living room.
You might be thinking, “K, you so crazy! I love good glosses too, but there’s no way one would make me sing in public or my living room.”
You never know, my friend. Even if you’re the silent type, this set is one heck of a deal. In the set, the glosses work out to just $5 per tube, versus the $18 they usually sell for individually.
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I have an urgent and important question for you, friend!
Are you ready…?
Brace yourself. Here goes: what’s your karaoke song?
LOL!
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t important in the Merriam-Webster sense of the word, but I’m curious.
Me? I have a couple of musical standbys honed by the fires of fifty Filipino family gatherings! Seriously, you can always count on two things at a Filipino party — 1) a redonkulous amount of food and 2) karaoke! 🙂
Myself, I like to warm up with a little Phil Collins…
“She’s an easy lover! She’ll take your heart but you won’t feel it!”
And then really get the crowd going with Cheap Trick…
“I waaaant yoooo to want meeee!”
The later meets the three crucial criteria of a top karaoke song. It’s upbeat, almost everyone knows the words to it (so they can sing along), and it doesn’t require any complex vocal gymnastics, which is good because I reserve that kind of thing for my car or shower.
Next time I hit the mic (hopefully soon — karaoke, anyone?), I’m wearing Anastasia’s new holiday 2012 eye makeup kit, because not only does it pay homage to my go-to karaoke tune, but the colors are just plain pretty!
The $34 limited edition Want You to Want Me kit’s lush velvet case houses enough eye makeup to keep your eyes glowing softly while you rock all night long.
