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
I’ll take a Double Espresso, Chocolate Berries and some Candied Toffees, please.
Oh, silly rabbit! I’m not talking about afternoon snacks (although they sound pretty good, don’t they?). Those are just three of the nine new scrumptious shades of natural and brown lippies in Milani’s new deliciously pigmented Color Statement Lipstick line.
Take a peek and let me know what you’re craving. 🙂
Window shopping in person and online. Just point me toward a window, and I’m there. 🙂 Right now I’ve got my eye on a few things, like…
I don’t know when it happened, but I turned into one of those gals who paints her nails a different color every single day.
Maybe it’s a phase. 🙂
Who knows? But if you also like to change things up often on your claws, these new Endless Color Custom Nail Trios from Physicians Formula ($10.95 per trio of 0.45-ounce bottles; eight trios to choose from) make that quite fun and easy.
Each of the stackable bottles in these trios snaps together (like Lego) to form a sort of nail polish wand.
When you feel like wearing a different color, SNAP!
No, I mean the bottles snap together. 🙂 Just break apart the wand.
The colors in the trios can be worn alone or layered together to create your own nail art.
So far I’ve gotten my finger into four of the eight trios…
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*Beep!* Please allow me to interrupt the current parade of pastel polish with some bold brights from Milani’s High Speed Fast Dry Nail Lacquer line.
The drugstore beauty brand just added six new spring shades, including a handful of eye-catching colors.
Perhaps you’re a forward-thinking gal — one who likes being prepared for the next, next big thing. You’re not gearing up for summer makeup. No, you’re ready for fall!
You’ll hear the crunching autumn leaves beneath your feet while wearing one of seven plum and berry shades in Milani’s new Color Statement Lipstick line. Each tube’s just $5.49, bursting with pigment and perfect to pair with your rich fall makeup looks.
Of course, you could wear ’em now, too… No reason to wait six whole months for fall. 🙂
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Remember when you’d get that rush as a kid from opening a fresh box of crayons? (Um…or was that just me?)
That’s kind of how opening one of these new $8.49 Neutrogena MoistureSmooth Color Sticks feels. 🙂 Suddenly, I’m in art class again, daydreaming about where these colorful sticks will take me.
Don’t they seem a lot like Clinique’s line of Chubby Sticks (which cost almost twice as much, BTW)?
Sure, they might not be all that original (they also look and feel a lot like Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balms), but I gotta say — downright stellar for the price!
Smooth, light, moisturizing and non-sticky, they leave a soft wash of shiny color that lasts from 2-3 hours.
When my lips are dry, the MoistureSmooth Color Sticks moisturize ’em, and give them a nice, sheer-to-medium tint, without drawing any unwanted attention by highlighting flakes.
My nose and taste buds also like the faint peach gummy candy flavor and scent, which fades within a few minutes…
In every single picture I’ve taken today, I look like a grumpy piano teacher (see above).
Yes, I know this for a fact! When I was a kid, I took piano lessons (mostly against my will), and every week, my teacher, Mrs. L, would sit there with pursed, tight lips as I pounded away at the keys like a gorilla in a Hello Kitty T-shirt.
Sometimes I’d see Mrs. L frowning out of the corner of my eye, so I’d bang out all the wrong notes on purpose, look up at her, and smile ever-so-sweetly…
Hahaha! Sorry, Mrs. L. 🙂
I’d be cranky, too, if I had to teach a surly, disinterested student clearly counting down the seconds to freedom, but maybe I’d look a little less tense (perhaps cheerful, even) if I were wearing a few coats of COVERGIRL’s Clump Crusher Mascara ($6.99).
It landed on drugstore shelves a couple months ago in four “shades” (Black Brown, Brown, Very Black and Black).
The hook/special sauce? The curved brush. COVERGIRL says the little plastic stubs and the shape of the brush help it separate lashes while coating them from root to tip and dodging lumps and bumps.
And when it comes to length and separation, ala long, fanned-out lashes for interested, perky looks, I think Clump Crusher’s great. It doesn’t come with a bunch of bells or whistles, like lash conditioners and vibrating brush wands, but it lengthens, separates and holds curls like a champ. Plus, it’s only $6.99, which isn’t bad at all, especially beside an increasing number of drugstore mascaras in the $10-13 range.
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Imagine strolling into a Santa Fe art gallery one sunny afternoon and finding a makeup mosaic for $8.
Yup, Palladio’s Herbal Mosaic Powder in Desert Rose is a little like that.
The pan has a mosaic pattern with five complementing powders you can wear individually, or swirled together, as a bronzer, blush, eyeshadow or highlighter.
Since the individual strips of color aren’t all that wide (the entire pan fits in my palm), I usually mix all of the shades together, and apply them to my cheeks with a fluffy blush brush.
On my NC 42 skin, a single layer delivers a rosy, peachy flush with golden pearl. Pretty! — especially for weekends or for casual makeup looks… Which reminds me, worn as a blush on bare skin or atop tinted moisturizer, I think Desert Rose looks a heck of a lot more expensive than $8. Shoot, it looks downright high end.
[Ding-dong.]
[Knock, knock, knock.] Hello?
Oh, hai! 🙂 My name is Karen, and I’m here in your neighborhood today on behalf of the Inner Lazy Girls Coalition to spread the word about a Lazy Girls trick I discovered last night.
Do you have a second to chat about wayward leg hair?
You do? Great!
First, please tell me you’re not one of those lucky ladies like my mom who never, ever has to shave. Because if you are, I will pull your hair…
Totally kidding! There will be no hair pulling. This isn’t Jerry Springer circa 1995.
So, hairy legs. Last night while I was getting dressed for my Valentine’s Day dinner with El Hub, I slipped on my date night dress and realized — whoops! I hadn’t shaved my shins since last Sunday.
My hair and makeup were already done, so I wasn’t about to jump in the shower, and a sink shave with my usual EOS Shave Lotion was also out of the question because the bottle was empty (I think my husband has being using it on the down-low).
I looked around the bathroom and had a MacGyver moment when I saw this bottle of Suave Advanced Therapy Lotion ($5) sitting on the shelf.
