Makeup

The Trish McEvoy Resort Collection for Spring 2011 Is Taking Reservations

February 12th, 2011 by Karen 12 Comments

trish mcevoy resort collection display

I wish Trish McEvoy’s new Resort Collection (available now) and I could run away together on vacation. It’s a small spring release with just nine pieces, so maybe we could even share a room. 🙂

Truthfully, I probably wouldn’t be in the room all that much — not with this bronze, pink and plum wanting to play. Most of the time I’d be on the veranda, or chilling poolside with a drink.

The collection includes…

Eye Base Essentials in Rested — A creamy pink eyeshadow base for evening out skin tone, and brightening and priming the eyelids. It dries to a matte finish ($25).
(2) Eye Shadows — Two shimmery powder shadows to illuminate lids in pink and plum ($16 each).
(2) Classic Lip Color — Buildable, semi-matte colors in peachy pink Natural and Vibrant, a rose ($23 each).
Flawless Lip Color in Perfection — “CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!” This glassy pink and I are really clicking. It has the coverage of a lipstick with the shine and texture of a gloss ($28.50).
Matte Bronzer — A warm brown for contouring and shaping the face ($28).
Weekend All Over Face Color — A shimmery golden bronze all-purpose face powder that should be perfect for medium and dark skin tones ($28).
High Volume Mascara in Jet Black — The brush that accompanies this water-resistant, volumizing mascara has the teeniest, tiniest little bristles ($30)!

trish mcevoy resort collection display

trish mcevoy resort collection swatches of lipsticks and eye base
Swatches from left to right: Classic Lip Color in Natural, Classic Lip Color in Vibrant, Flawless Lip Color in Perfection and Eye Base Essentials in Rested
[Continue reading…]

Chanel Le Fleurs D’Ete de Chanel Summer 2011 Makeup Collection: A Friday First Look

February 11th, 2011 by Karen 28 Comments

chanel le fleurs d'ete de chanel makeup collection for summer 2011

Can I just say my coral-lurvin’ heart nearly burst into a million tiny pieces when I laid eyes on this promo pic for the upcoming Le Fleurs D’ete De Chanel Makeup Collection for Summer 2011?

That’s how easy I am when it comes to Chanel… I can even feel my ~~loins~~ wallet throbbing.

Coco and company say they drew inspiration from fresh flowers and summer gardens — picture shimmery pink lips, bronzed skin, and eyes and nails the colors of verdant green gardens and the bright summer sun.

We can expect…

Face — Do you recall the Soleil Tan de Chanel Bronzing Powder from Cote D’Azur? Well, the Bronze Corail compact, the beauty with the four stripes of color in the middle of the pic, is the same idea with different shades. All four of the stripes are designed to be mixed together before being applied. For Le Fleurs D’ete De Chanel, Coco plans to release two limited edition Soleil Tan de Chanel Bronzer compacts ($50 each). Light-skinned lovelies can look forward to the one called Bronze Rose, and darker-toned babes to Bronze Corail (the one shown here).
Lips — Lips will glow in two new Glossimers shades, one a coral and the other a rosy pink ($28.50 each; I don’t have the names yet).
Nails — Last, but not least, our fingers and toes will sap up the bright summer sun in a shimmery yellow Le Vernis Nail Polish for $25.

[Continue reading…]

Urban Decay UD The Fun Palette, and One Valuable Lesson Learned from My Cat

February 11th, 2011 by Karen 45 Comments

karen of makeup and beauty blog wearing the urban decay fun palette

It’s useless to try to out-pose an international kitty supermodel, especially one with as much experience as Tabs.

But that didn’t stop me from trying today with the new Urban Decay The Fun Palette ($34).

First, me…

karen of makeup and beauty blog wearing the urban decay fun palette

Now, Tabs…

tabs pimpin'

See! I tried to “sell” the colors I’m wearing from the palette, one of three new ones from Urban Decay for spring, but I’m just not kitty supermodel material.
[Continue reading…]

Dolce & Gabbana Perfect Finish Concealer Draws Dark Circles Away

February 11th, 2011 by Karen 37 Comments

dolce gabbana perfect finish concealer review
Dolce & Gabbana Perfect Finish Concealer in shades 3 (the lighter shade) and 4 (the darker shade)

I’ve been looking forward to trying the new Dolce & Gabbana Perfect Finish Concealer ($35) since last fall, when I heard makeup artist Pat McGrath gush about how well it handles dark circles.

Available in four shades, the new line of liquid concealers features a twist-up pen kinda like the one from YSL’s Touche Eclat. Billed as three products in one, Perfect Finish is supposed to conceal imperfections on the skin while brightening and conditioning the skin with vitamin E.

So how does it do?

Not too shabby, tabby. I mainly use concealer to cover my purplish dark circles (damn you, insomnia!). In Perfect Finish, I’ve been using shade 3, applying the product with the attached brush under my eyes and blending out the edges with a finger.

It behaves like my go-to concealer of the moment, MAC Pro Longwear. Like Pro Longwear, it’s highly pigmented, offers full coverage and has a satin finish that doesn’t appear heavy on cakey on the skin, even applied in multiple layers. I also like the subtle brightening effect.

dolce gabbana perfect finish concealer review boxes

dolce gabbana perfect finish concealer ingredients

dolce gabbana perfect finish concealer packaging
[Continue reading…]

Urban Decay UD The Feminine Palette and Pre-Friday Fun

February 10th, 2011 by Karen 86 Comments

urban decay ud the feminine palette

Tonight is all about the ladies, y’all, at Club Urban Decay (aka MBB Headquarters), and girls and gatos get in free — that’s cruelty-free — with the new Urban Decay UD The Feminine Palette ($34). 🙂

From the stylish clothes it wears, to the shimmery shades it bears (browns, pinks, purples and teal), this palette’s guaranteed to turn heads and put all eyes on you. The colors feel so lighthearted, girlie and fun that I believe it’s my favorite of the latest batch of spring palettes from Urban Decay.

karen of makeup and beauty blog wearing the urban decay ud the feminine palette

As you might be able to tell from these snapshots, I was feelin’ mighty Feminine today. For my eye look, I started with a thin layer of Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden applied with my fingers from my lash line to the brow bone, which I followed up by sweeping Midnight Cowboy Eyeshadow directly on top with a flat eyeshadow brush. Since Midnight Cowboy has gargantuan gobs o’ glitter, I used a makeup wipe to clean the fallout.

Then, with the very same eyeshadow brush, I patted Dark Horse Eyeshadow on my inner lid, and Ecstacy Eyeshadow on the outer, to give the eyes extra depth and color. After that, I blended the edges of both shades with a domed blending brush, drawing both slightly into the crease.

Next, to draw even MORE attention to my eyes, I lined my waterlines using the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero that comes with the set, following up with Aquarius Eyeshadow, applied with an angled eye brush, for a light dash of color along my lower lash line.
[Continue reading…]

The L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional Eye Shadow Palettes: One Sweep to Rule Them All?

February 10th, 2011 by Karen 56 Comments

Now here’s something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before: kidney bean-based beauty. Each of the eight new L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eye Shadow Palettes (say that five times fast!) comes with a kidney bean-shaped brush designed to grab its three coordinating shadows in one fell swoop.

Team L’Oreal says that a single swipe of the contoured brush picks up the perfect amount of each color for your lid, crease and brow bone. Just slide the loaded brush horizontally across the area from the inner to the outer lid to distribute all three shades evenly, one atop the other, from lash line to brow bone.

Natural for All Eyes Palette on the left; Playful For Blue Eyes Palette on the right
[Continue reading…]

Urban Decay Feminine, Dangerous and Fun Eyeshadow Palettes: Swatches and Pictures

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 94 Comments

urban decay ud feminine dangerous and fun palettes

What up, buttercup? Here are swatches and photos of the three new Urban Decay Feminine, Dangerous and Fun Eyeshadow Palettes ($34 each). I’ll have face and eye shots in a few, but for now, check out the colors and holla at me in the comments if you see anything you like. 🙂

urban decay ud fun dangerous feminine closed

urban decay ud fun palette box

urban decay ud fun dangerous feminine open
Clockwise from the lower left: The Dangerous, The Feminine and The Fun Palettes

urban decay ud feminine palette
The Feminine Palette
[Continue reading…]

Smashbox Photo Set Finishing Powder with SPF 15 Promises to Blur the Lines

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

smashbox photo set finishing powder spf 15

Doesn’t it seem like more and more makeup brands are getting onto the airbrushed bandwagon? — the one filled with colorless loose powders designed to deliver an “airbrushed” look?

There’s MAC Prep+Prime, Make Up Forever HD Powder and Tarte Amazonian Clay Smooth Operator, to name but a few, and despite their different names and packaging, they promise a lot of the same things.

“[PRODUCT NAME] absorbs oil to create a matte finish, sets foundation and concealer, blurs fine lines and reduces the appearance of pores for a soft focus (read: airbrushed) look.”

The latest airbrushing beauty bit to cross my path calls itself Smashbox Photo Set Finishing Powder with SPF 15 ($28), and it airbrushes with the power of — wait for it — zinc oxide!

Zinc oxide?

Rather than being absorbed into the skin, zinc oxide, an inorganic white powder, acts as a physical sunblock, sitting atop the skin where it reflects rays of UVA and UVB light. Generally considered noncomedogenic (meaning it doesn’t block pores), zinc oxide is also a mild antimicrobial believed to accelerate wound healing. Unfortunately, products containing enough of it can look chalky on darker skin tones.

After wearing Photo Set a few times over the past week, there are some things about the product I think Smashbox really did well. First, the packaging — LOVE the wide jar, which accommodates my big powder brush without making a mess.

Second, it handles oil pretty well. With it on, even after a full day, my forehead, chin and nose (the oiliest parts of my face) are only just beginning to shine.

As for the whole soft focus effect thing, well, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I haven’t noticed anything when I’ve been out and about, but I think I do detect slightly smoother skin in pictures. The effect isn’t as dramatic as it is with MAC Prep+Prime (which, by the way, is frickin’ fantastic), but I think it’s still there.

Smashbox Photo Set FInishing Powder SPF 15 box
[Continue reading…]