Makeup

L’Occitane’s Petal Eye Quartet Paints a Pastel Picture of a Cool-Toned, Watercolor World

May 23rd, 2011 by Karen 35 Comments

loccitane pivoine petals eye quartet

I must admit, I giggled a little when I read the inspiration behind the new L’Occitane Pivoine Flora collection. They call it “a graceful peony which dances like a ballerina in the Mediterranean breeze.” 🙂 Okay, I’m a card-carrying queen of cheese, and I live for Hallmark movies, but that might even be too much queso for me.

Well, that’s what I thought…until I set my eyes on the limited edition release. The delicate pastels, watercolor imagery and nubby texture on the compacts all paint a picture in my mind that lines up fairly well with the one L’Occitane describes. It’s a dainty (albeit cheesy) world filled with floating flowers and other things that are soft, sweet and feminine — very Paul & Joe meets old-school Stila — and it’s a gaw-geous visual feast for any packaging lover’s eyes.

LOccitane Pivoine Flora makeup collection
A few pieces from the L’Occitane Pivoine Flora collection

The 16-piece L’Occitane Pivoine Flora makeup collection includes…

Duo Eyeshadow ($16; available in 2 combinations)

Petals Eye Quartet ($26)

Healthy Glow Face Powder ($28)

Lipstick ($15; available in four shades)

Lip Shine ($14; available in 4 shades)

Incredible Lip Shine ($12)

Facecolor Cream Duo ($16; available in 3 shades)

I spent some one-on-one time getting to know the Petals Eye Quartet ($26) last weekend. With its delicate, cool-toned mauves, purples and pinks, its a girly girl’s palette through and through.

Um, how sweet are those ballerinas on the front? Now look closely at the dresses; each one corresponds to a shadow inside.

This was my first liaison with L’Occitane makeup, but from what I’ve seen here, the eyeshadows bear a strong resemblance to Stila’s. I consider that a pretty good thing. They have a similarly soft, powdery texture and sheer-to-medium pigmentation. All four of the shades blend well, but I do notice some minor fallout beneath my eyes. Applied atop a layer of trusty NARS Pro-Prime, they last about six hours without any creasing, and with minimal fading, on me (I have combination skin).

loccitane pivoine petals eye quartet

loccitane pivoine petals eye quartet
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With the New Becca Automatic Eye Pencils, the Extras Make the World Goa Round

May 23rd, 2011 by Karen 34 Comments

Not gonna lie, after feasting my eyes on the delicious nail polishes and blushes from the Becca Halcyon Days collection, I didn’t have much of an appetite left for the Automatic Eye Pencils in Goa and Majorca ($23 each). The two twist-up makeup tools were way down at the bottom of my “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it!” list.

But then I noticed the value-added extras Becca thought to include, like the sponge-tip applicator, hidden pencil sharpener (sweet!), and effortless texture — so smooth that it would give any silk worm a complex. In this case, it was the extras that made me stop and take notice, and I figured, heck, with summer right around the corner, I can always use a couple of new long-wearing, waterproof eyeliner staples.

Becca kept both of these colors conservative, opting for basics to complement the coral, peach and pink shades from Halcyon Days. Goa, a shimmery golden brown, reminds me of a mellower MAC Teddy, and it sits in stark contrast to starless Majorca, a pitch black devoid of green or blue undertones.

I wore both of them a few times last week, and while I like them well enough, I’m not convinced they should be called long-wearing or waterproof.

Majorca

Of the two, Majorca’s my fave. It kicks it all day long on lash and water lines, but unlike Urban Decay’s long-wearing 24/7s, it never fully sets after it dries, so it stays creamy and, I guess you could say, a little too light on its feet (it tends to move around). The consistency makes it fabulous for soft and smudgy eyeliner looks, but I think it also holds it back from being completely waterproof. I suspect it wouldn’t handle 30 minutes on the treadmill or a day at the pool, but it’s a brilliantly black liner for running errands, even considering that it costs some coin. MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+/A-

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The Becca Halcyon Days Mineral Bronzer/Illuminator Duo in Serrana Serenades Skin with Warmth or Helps You Highlight Your Best Features

May 22nd, 2011 by Karen 10 Comments

Like the Becca Halcyon Days Mineral Blushes, the powders in the new Mineral Bronzer/Illuminator Duo in Serrana ($43) look and feel flawless on the skin.

On one side, a warm matte bronze that should sing on light and medium skin tones (and add a whisper of warmth to darker ones); on the other side, a warm peach with a sheen finish. Both showcase finely milled powders that practically blend themselves, making contouring and highlighting with them a breeze. I know it’s a little late in the year to be thinking about winter, but I have a feeling Serrana would have been a fantastic bronzer to wear in the middle of winter, not that it isn’t still a great one now.

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I Think I’ll Take a Sunbath with Lancome Star Bronzer Natural Matte in 03

May 21st, 2011 by Karen 28 Comments

I guess Lancome really wanted to cover all of their bronzing bases this summer because they released a whopping six Star Bronzers ($35 each) — three with their Natural Matte finish, and three with a finish called Natural Glow.

Gotta love having a wide range of options, right? Especially when it comes with a cool design on the pan.

One option, however, that Lancome did not include with these is a less expensive one, as $35 seems like a lot (the MAC Bronzing Powders cost $23; Urban Decay Baked Bronzers, $26).

For these, Lancome used a blend of mineral pigments and something they call “absorbent micro-spheres,” which is fancy talk for something that’s supposed to keep them looking and feeling smooth for a long time. I gotta say, the shade I tried, Natural Matte in 03 Sunbath, does look and feel pretty great — silky, and not heavy or chalky at all. It’s a warm orangey brown with red undertones, and I’m a little surprised by how much I like it, considering the finish is matte (I usually prefer bronzers with a little shimmer because I think it makes them easier to use).

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The New Buxom Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains Want to Wow You in 4 Different Ways

May 20th, 2011 by Karen 31 Comments

buxom lip tarnish review

I don’t remember much from my brief stint in community theater as Misc. Shark Girl #3 in West Side Story, but I do remember how during auditions people would whisper about the “triple threats,” and how it was, like, a big deal to be one.

Sounds thuggish, right? — a triple threat! In theater parlance, it’s what they call someone who can sing, dance and act. Of course, I was barely able to do one of the three (I could dance a little)…but I also had long black hair that from far away helped me pass for Puerto Rican. Score! 🙂

Like multi-talented stage stars, Buxom’s new Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains ($18) want to do it all. Blackmail (a blackberry truffle), Busted (a cherry red), Caught on Tape (a hot pink) and Wardrobe Malfunction (a candy pink) go on sale exclusively at Sephora this August, and they hope to lavish lips in not three but FOUR different ways, tinting like a lip stain, shining like a gloss, hydrating like a lip balm and plumping like…something that plumps.

buxom lip tarnish review closeup
From the left: Caught on Tape, Blackmail, Wardrobe Malfunction and Busted

buxom lip tarnish review swatches
Swatches from the left: Wardrobe Malfunction, Caught on Tape, Busted and Blackmail
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Lancome Kissed By Gold: Should You Have Designs on this Summer Shadow & Liner Palette?

May 20th, 2011 by Karen 15 Comments

I wonder how peacocks feel about Lancome’s shimmery Color Design Shadow & Liner Palette in Kissed By Gold ($48). Perhaps I should ask the one that cruises the walkways where my in-laws live near verdant Haiku Gardens. He’s such a show-off, that bird, always flaunting his glossy feathers for all the world to see (sometimes from the back of pickup trucks!). I guess I can’t blame him, really. I’d probably do the same thing if my feathers shined like that. 🙂

I bet he’d still be a little jealous, though, of Kissed By Gold’s approach to these classic, summery shades because something tells me these shimmery bronzes, golds, pinks and browns would look lovely on tail feathers (and tanned skin).

The palette is one of the latest additions to Lancome’s line of Color Design Shadow & Liner Palettes, a family of color-coordinated eye palettes released earlier this year, and it’s one of the shiniest high-pigment palettes this particular bird has seen in a while.

Even though there’s also a matte here, it’s the shimmery shadows that steal the show. On skin they glow like peacock feathers (in a more neutral palette) and polished chrome, and I’m reminded of the mirror finish of an Urban Decay shadow sprinkled with a dash of elegant Dior.

The moment my brush met the first highly pigmented pan I called “DAY-UM!” out loud. Not only do they look great, but they also blend in the blink of an eye! Seriously, if basic eyeshadow colors are like day-old coffee, then these are like espresso brewed by gold medal baristas — intense, rich and opaque.

After playing with the Kissed By Gold yesterday morning, I decided to collect EVERY SINGLE PALETTE from the line…

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Go Drag or Go Home: A Mascara Combo for Dramatically Longer, Thicker Lashes

May 20th, 2011 by Karen 55 Comments

Well look at you, eagle eye cutie pie. 🙂 You discovered my latest lash secret. I’ve been asked a few times over the past couple of days about what I’m wearing on my lashes, and yes, I’ve been trying something new.

When it comes to lashes, for me it’s GO DRAG OR GO HOME! I’m flat-out wild about that dramatic false lash look, ya know? — the longer and more voluminous, the better. That’s why I’m so stoked about my current combo, which adds mad crazy length and lots of thickness at the base. And the best part? I discovered it by accident!

One day last week I had on two layers of Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara ($20) on my top lashes, and one on the bottom. Even though Cannonball smudges a tad, it stretches my lashes to their lengthening limits and cures the curl from my lash curler (Shu know the one), so I readily accepted the tradeoff.
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Flowerchild, You’ll Look Like a Fly Damsel in the New Becca Halcyon Days Mineral Blush

May 19th, 2011 by Karen 33 Comments

The more time I spend with the Becca Halcyon Days collection, the more I fall in love. It’s fast becoming one of my favorite summer releases so far and OOH! — do you hear that? It sings sonnets — no, more like an epic volumes! — to my peach/coral/pink/gold-lovin’ heart.

If your skin turns a toasty brown over summer, or you’re just fond of the way you look in warm pinks, peaches and corals, don’t be surprised if you catch yourself making grabby motions in the air the first time you see the Halcyon Days Mineral Blushes ($32 each) up close, or when you open the sturdy compacts, with, what is that on the outside? A rubberized texture? How cool is that!? It keeps them from slipping out of my grubby little hands.

Flowerchild (a golden peachy pink) and Damselfly (a golden coral) deliver serious, hard-to-ignore pigmentation. One swirl around the pan from my powder blush brush grabs just enough color for one cheek — no layering necessary, unless I want a brighter look.

And talk about flawless application! The powder grains are so tiny that they even make grains of sand seem huge. They might even be finer than the powders at T. LeClerc, an uber-luxury line that some consider one of the best in the beauty biz.

The finely milled powder might be the reason why it spreads like sunlight with nary a streak. And blending? Forget about it. I barely have to flick a wrist to smooth out the edges, which are hardly even there.

The resulting luminous, flushed cheek look is pure Becca all the way — fresh-faced, beachy, feminine, effortless and true to the line.

I’m thinking it would also make a fantastic starter blush for beginners, too, because of how easy it is to use and how natural it looks. If you’re curious about blush but worried about looking like a circus clown, I think either of these would be a great place to start.

becca halcyon days damselfly
Damselfly

Becca Halcyon Days Collection Flowerchild Mineral Blush
Flowerchild

Swatches of Damselfly (left) and Flowerchild (right)
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