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
Calling all nudists! Before you strip off your Gap baby T, please note that I’m talking about nudists, as in nude lips, not, um…actual nudists. 🙂
If you love a nude lip look, let Dolce & Gabbana’s new Caramel Ultra Shine Lipgloss ($30), released with the Sicilian Lace Collection for fall, whet your appetite. This creamy, medium-weight warm beige feels slightly sticky on my lips (but not as sticky as a MAC Lipglass) and has a light rose scent (it is unflavored, though).
Picture a beautiful woman with blackened teeth and shaved brows. Nope, I’m not talking about some crazy runway look at New York Fashion Week. In old school Japan, both were common makeup looks among women (and some men, too).
Ohaguro, the practice of dyeing teeth black, was a common beauty treatment in Japan through the late 1800s. To darken their smiles, men and women applied a savory blend of acetic acid (the compound that gives vinegar its sour taste and scent), iron and fushiko powder, a powder made from the sap of the urushi tree, also known as the lacquer or varnish tree.
Ohaguro also doubled as a dental treatment, protecting teeth from cavities and periodontitis, and its popularity began to wane in the 1870s after the Japanese government banned the practice among aristocrats.
Hikimayu, the practice of completely shaving or plucking eyebrows into oblivion, is still seen today. After removing the brows, Japanese women will sometimes draw them back in a little higher on the forehead using black ink (or mascara).
I’d always thought American flappers pioneered the look, but forms of it were popular in Japan well before the 1920s.
More vintage Japanese beauty bits from back in the day…
Interesting, isn’t it?
I’m thinking about doing a series of these posts on the changing face of beauty in different cultures over the centuries. Let me know if you like the idea, and please comment if you know of any other interesting Japanese beauty trends from days gone by.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. If you’re new here, thank you for visiting. Makeup and Beauty Blog is a makeup blog with daily product reviews, beauty tips, giveaways and the random shenanigans of a crazy cat lady/makeup enthusiast named Karen (that’s me!). 🙂
The universe is filled with things I do not understand, things like Justin Bieber fever, Crocs, and why NARS chose not to include a lip brush in the Beautiful Life Lip and Cheek Palette ($55).
At first blush, it looks like a traveler’s makeup dream come true — compact, cute, with a convenient zippered case. The included mirror works well for on-the-go touchups, and by leaving out powder products (it comes with four lipsticks and two cream blushes), NARS eliminated annoying product cross pollination (when your powders spill all over your cream products). So smart!
They thought of everything — almost. I know NARS doesn’t usually include brushes with their palettes, but I wish they would have found room in this one for a lip brush. Beautiful Life is just so obviously designed for travel; a brush would have been a great addition. Of course, I’m a stickler when it comes to packaging.
That aside, what’s a palette without pretty colors, right? These go great together. NARS included a versatile mix of business and party shades here, and the blushes even double as highlighters, too.
I’m a little bummed about one of the products in the palette — Honolulu Honey lipstick. Honolulu is one of my favorite cities, but this Honey looks kinda cakey on my lips. It seems to do a bit better, though, when I use very little and apply it with my fingers. I may also just mix it with other lip colors to help it along.
Wet n Wild’s been setting drugstore aisles on fire 
lately! If you liked their Icon Eyeshadow Singles (I thought they were the bee’s knees), take a look at these $3 Color Icon Eyeshadow Trios.
They’re available in six palettes of three matching shadows each — enough to use a different shade on the eyelid, in the crease and along your brow bone.
Because Wet n Wild did the color matching for us, these should help make tough mornings a little easier to bear.
I’ve been using two of the trios lately — Cool as a Cucumber and On Cloud Nine — and despite their diminutive size, I’m still finding a lot to love…
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Tabs chillin’ in his spa (notice the “Giant Pet Hair Roller” in the upper right corner, ha ha!)
Night, ladies. How was your Sunday? Since I was in that photography class most of the day, I didn’t think I’d have time for the open thread, but I did still want to check in and post a preview of some budget and luxury eyeshadows I plan to review this week.
Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Trios in Cool as a Cucumber (left) and On Cloud Nine (right), $3 each
Swatches of Cool as a Cucumber on NC35 skin
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Today I started the day with a long list of good intentions and tasks on my to-do list, but several other pressing matters needed attending to, like housework and these cute kittens 
at the Marin Humane Society.
The Society’s temporarily reduced their usual $100 adoption fee to $50. For a CCL (crazy cat lady) like me, that’s like a Feline Friends & Family Sale! 
Gee, I can get two for the price of one!?
If you can’t remember the last time you awoke to a fresh-faced flush (when was that again? 1998?), recapture those cherubic cheeks of yore with Jemma Kid Make Up School Blushwear Creme Cheek Colour ($23).
Swept and blended onto bare skin or layered atop foundation, this cream-to-powder blush delivers fast, flushed cheeks in a long-wearing formula. Available in three shades (Pomegranate, Guava and Paw Paw) and packed with vitamins A, C and E, the velvety powder finish hangs on for hours.
Makeup resolve weakening…
Stila resistance futile…
I went to bed last night thinking about Stila’s lovely hot pink Custom Color Blush ($20). I heard it calling to me from Sephora (I live just five minutes away).
“Karen,” it whispered in my ear.
“Karen, come play with me.”
Um, okay. 🙂
Like a mood ring for cheeks, Custom Color Blush reacts with skin pH (a measure of acidity or basicity), changing color based on the wearer’s body chemistry.
Part of the company’s fall collection, it’s one of the more sci-fi products I’ve seen in a while. With what Stila calls a “spherical silicone elastomer treated powder,” it supposedly also diffuses incoming light, resulting in a soft-focus effect that, according to Stila, softens the look of fine lines and wrinkles.
Hmm…
Swatch of Stila Custom Color on NC35 skin
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