Daily Beauty

Ahh… My Lips Feel So Much Better Thanks to Clarins Instant Light Lip Comfort Oil

December 3rd, 2015 by Karen 34 Comments

clarins instant light lip comfort oil 890

Why isn’t this product permanent, already?! Because it seriously needs to be. Clarins Instant Light Lip Comfort Oil, a combination shiny lipgloss/moisturizing lip treatment oil, is back again after going into hibernation for part of the year.

This year, if you’re not quick enough, a particular dry-lipped pregnant lady, who shall remain nameless (she’ll be covered in cat hair), just might clear out the entire stock.

I’m just sayin’. If you have dry lips and like Clarins, you should act quickly. 🙂

My goodness, this has been a freaking godsend. It’s available in two shiny, lightly tinted $24 shades — the 01 Honey shown here and another shade called 02 Raspberry.

It’s a massively moisturizing, shiny lip treatment oil with a non-sticky formula. The oils are 100% plant-based, too, and include hazelnut and jojoba (among other oils) to plump, soften, smooth and nourish.

Ingredients
Hazelnut oil nourishes, plumps and softens lips.

Organic Jojoba oil nourishes and smoothes, without a sticky after feel. Leaves lips soft, comfortable and perfectly hydrated.

Mirabelle Plum oil (present in the honey shade) protects from dehydration—promoting soft, supple lips.

Raspberry Seed oil (present in the raspberry shade) nourishes and protects lips from future aging with anti-oxidant benefits.

After a few hours wearing this magical witch’s brew, my lips look and feel about as close to new as they ever get. They’re much softer, moisturized and feel better, and my lip lines and flakes look considerably less obvious. The finish, which starts out glossy, fades to a satin over the course of a few hours.

I usually wear this on its own or with a nude lip liner, but sometimes I’ll use it on top of a lipstick.

This one here, 01 Honey, tastes (and smells) a little like honey and apples to me, and it’s not one of those artificial flavors. It tastes real. And real good.

Even the applicator is a joy to use. It’s absolutely spa-caliber. It just feels soft and velvety on my lips and gets the product everywhere it needs to be.

I love, love, LOVE this to pieces, and I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it joins the Clarins permanent line. It’s sure to become a cult classic.

Honey and Raspberry are available now (for a limited time) at Clarins counters and online.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

With These Revamped Clarins Joli Rouge Lipsticks, Dry Lips Don’t Stand a Chance

December 1st, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

This is the time of year when matte lipsticks are snapping their gum and stomp-walking around the tetherball courts and jungle gyms of the makeup playground like queen bees of the makeup playground/world.

They run the show, and yeah, I’m cool with that, but sometimes my dry lips and I need a break. Please! Teleport me away to the land of supple, moisturized lips!

Incidentally, that’s where these $27 Clarins Joli Rouge Lipsticks live. 🙂

A long-term staple of the Clarins line, they’re shiny, sheer and — oh, I could kiss them — so moisturizing. Clarins revamped them this fall, making them over in gold packaging (remember they used to be silver?) and revitalizing the color palette with 16 new shades.

I love these, and they’ve been seeing a lot of action on my pout lately, particularly the pinkish nude shades, Lilac Pink and Pink Ginger, which go with everything. I pair them often with casual weekend makeup looks, like with tinted moisturizer, mascara and a little bit of blush.

clarins joli rouge swatches — Clarins Joli Rouge Lipstick swatches from the left in 701 Orange Fizz, 705 Soft Berry, 707 Petal Pink, 711 Papaya and 713 Hot Pink

Oh, and uh…did I mention how freakishly moisturizing they are? It’s cray-cray to the extreme, and when you have dry lips like I do, they’re a gift from ye makeup gods. Being lightweight and silky, they’re a welcome respite from all of the drying, heavy mattes that come out to play in fall in winter.

The formula lasts about two or three hours on my lips, so they aren’t incredibly long lasting, but they don’t have any annoying flavoring, for what that’s worth. I do, however, detect a very, very faint floral scent, but it’s not annoying at all (I can hardly tell it’s there).

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The Clinique Holiday 2015 Travel Exclusive Set: Chubby Sticks for Cheeks, Eyes and Lips

November 25th, 2015 by Karen 9 Comments

clinique travel exclusive chubby stick cheeks eyes lips

Where the heck are you!?

Um…I mean, are you traveling this weekend? Did you fly anywhere for Thanksgiving, or do you plan to go anywhere for Christmas? Because if you did or do, this new holiday 2015 travel exclusive kit from Clinique has not one, but TWO of my favorite Chubby Sticks for Eyes. It comes with Bountiful Beige and Fuller Fudge. So, to the creator of this fantabulous five-piece set, haaay! — you’re officially awesome. 🙂

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Have You Tried These PUR Cameo Contour Dual-Ended Contour Sticks?

November 24th, 2015 by Karen 24 Comments

I’m not cuckoo for contouring. On myself. I feel like it looks a little harsh on me, and whenever I do it, my cheeks and my nose end up looking sharper and more chiseled than I’d like, which makes me look more, I dunno…villainous?

Call me crazy, but I’d rather have chubby cherub cheeks any day of the week.

Still, every once in a while (it’s a rare occasion), I will “go there” and do some contouring, and when I do, I like creams more than powders, just because I think it’s a softer, less obvious look, which is the effect I get with these $39.50 Cameo Contour Dual-Ended Contour Sticks by PUR Cosmetics.

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Rimmel Keep Calm and Lip Balm Is More Than a $2.50 Makeup Meme

November 23rd, 2015 by Karen 32 Comments

Tabs and I both agree that the whole “Keep Calm and Carry On” meme/slogan thing feels pretty played out, but he has a suggestion to revitalize it…

Ha! I don’t even care if it’s overdone. I’m a sucker for colorful packaging and sans-serif fonts, so I’m all about these almost unbelievably affordable $2.50 (!) Rimmel Keep Calm Balms.

All ahead, cute factor 12. 🙂

When Baby Girl is in elementary school, if she asks for a lipstick to call her own and keep in her My Little Pony backpack, I’d get her one of these…and then I’d borrow it all the time, LOL!

They cost less than a Starbucks latte — just $2.50 each — which makes them prime targets for drugstore stress shopping, so when an obnoxious stranger at Target offers you unsolicited, highly personal advice (FYI, it happens a lot when you’re pregnant), and you desperately need something to calm your nerves, you can add one of these to your basket without throwing your monthly makeup allowance out of whack.

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Behold! A Wall of Water-Full Color

November 11th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

When you see an entire wall of bright, colorful bkr water bottles, you have to stop and take a picture.

It’s just the right thing to do. 🙂

I walked past these in the beauty department of the Neiman Marcus in San Francisco last week.

Have you heard of these? They’re basically fancy glass water bottles with colorful, grippy silicone sleeve covers (I have one and use it all day, errrday), and they feel hefty and durable.

They’re glass, but they don’t feel fragile because the glass is thick and heavy, as are the bouncy sleeves, which protect them well. They are expensive for a water bottle…but everything about them feels well made, like it’ll last forever (hopefully).

And there are so many colors! The wide selection appeals to my inner color lover. So many blues, pinks, greens, reds and grays… Makes me think of eyeshadow.

One of these days, I’m gonna break down and get one of the smaller ones with the hearts, like this 500 mL cutie called Rose Heart. It’s $35 and available now at Neiman Marcus stores and online.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Aveda Shampure Dry Shampoo

November 6th, 2015 by Karen 19 Comments

For me, Aveda is one of those stores that’s like Jupiter’s gravity. It draws me in! There’s one at the Corte Madera mall by my house, and my nose compels me to walk in whenever I’m there, just to smell the shampoos and conditioners.

The ladies who work there are always so nice, too. “Can I get you a cup of tea or help you find a product?” And I’m like, “Nope! I’m just here to sniff the shampoos…”

LOL! They must get that a lot. 🙂 I don’t see how someone could not walk into an Aveda store, though. They’re so herbal and earthy and refreshing and just so, so good to my nose. My favorite of their fragrances is Shampure, which just so happens to be the scent behind their new Shampure Dry Shampoo.

Shampure is their signature calming scent, and it’s filled with 25 flower and plant essences, like lemon verbena and lavender (the bottle says that the ingredients are “99.8% naturally derived”). Ahh… It’s like a relaxing Sunday afternoon at the spa.

So because of the scent, of course I had to try the new dry shampoo. A 2-oz. bottle costs $30, and it’s on shelves at Aveda salons, spas and stores (it’s also available online). Also, hello! — dry shampoo junkie right here. I use them four or five times a week.

First things first, the packaging.

Hmm… It works like a squishy bottle of baby powder, and the product is a non-aerosol powder, so you tip the bottle upside down, then bring it right side up, then squeeze, and the powder puffs out in a mist.
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Nails Inc. New Globe Walk SNOW GLOBE Nail Polish

November 3rd, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

Shake it like a Polaroid picture! Inside a snow globe! Because that’s what this is like.

How cute is this?! It’s a little snow globe inside a nail polish bottle, except the snowflakes are golden.

This is new $15 Nails Inc. Globe Walk SNOW GLOBE Nail Polish, and it’s available now on the Nails Inc. website.

The weather calls for a blizzard of hexagonal glitter flecks in a clear polish base. The flecks rest on the bottom of the bottle until you shake it up. Just shake, then paint, either on top of bare nails or another polish. Here I’m wearing Snow Globe on top of two Nails Inc. NailKale polishes, deep cherry Victoria and nude Montpelier Walk ($14 each, available now on the Nails Inc. website and Sephora).

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