Drugstore Beauty Finds

JK Jemma Kidd Puts Neutrals and Brights In the Spotlight With This Spring Palette of Pieces for Eyes and Cheeks

March 8th, 2012 by Karen 20 Comments

If all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…that’s a hella big stage. Should be plenty room for everyone to share the spotlight.

Oh, but before I go on, can I get a couple minutes to check my makeup? Because I don’t want to go out there with lipstick on my teeth. 🙂

And another thing, before my moment in the spotlight, 1) I hope I’m not wearing clothes that make me look like a pint-sized linebacker (a reoccurring theme in my life), and 2) I hope I am wearing makeup that mixes sassy neutrals with something bright, like the new JK Jemma Kidd On Location Palette in In the Spotlight ($25).

My wish for you: I hope you get your time to shine, and when it comes, I hope it’s doing something you care deeply for.

Jemma sprinkles a couple of fun brights into this mostly neutral palette of pieces for eyes and cheeks, and it’s all about flexibility. You can keep the look casual by incorporating a nude lip, like I’m doing in the pic above, or go for something brighter like the face shot down below.

Swatches from the left: Cream eye primer, gray eyeshadow, purple eyeshadow, taupe eyeshadow, beige highlighter, teal eyeshadow, peach blush

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There’s a Pixi in My Lip Tint! $16 Pixi Tinted Brilliance Balm

March 8th, 2012 by Karen 33 Comments

Pixi Tinted Brilliance Balm Magnific in Mauve
Wearing Pixi Tinted Brilliance Balm in No. 2 Magnific Mauve

There’s a pixi in my lip tint!

Huzzah!

Did you ever try the Tarte Lip Surgence Lip Tints? I fell in love with those things and their shimmery, non-sticky, lip-tinty goodness…

If you did, too, check out Pixi’s new Tinted Brilliance Balms ($16 each). Smooth, and a little shiny, just like Tarte’s tints, they last about an hour on my lips.

That’s not long, granted, but I think it’s fine for what they are.

Here’s a quick look at four of the seven available shades. Have a look, and let me know what you think. 🙂

pixi brilliance balm
From the left: No. 2 Magnific Mauve, No. 5 Radiant Rose, No.7 Rosy Red and No. 8 Bitten Berry

pixi brilliance balm swatches
Swatches from the left: No. 2 Magnific Mauve, No. 5 Radiant Rose, No.7 Rosy Red and No. 8 Bitten Berry

pixi tinted brilliance balm rosy red
No.7 Rosy Red
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For Vampires, Glam Comes Naturally. Humans, On The Other Hand, Need Things Like the NP Set Glam Set

March 7th, 2012 by Karen 20 Comments

NP Set Glam Set

One day, back when Vampire Edward and I used to kick it (just friends, nothing more!), I asked him why humans find vampires so attractive.

I had a theory — something about predators — but I wanted to hear what the undead guy had to say.

We were at a Starbucks in Seattle, chatting over soy chai lattes and blood orange teas, and I remember telling him about this National Geographic special I saw on the hunting habits of big jungle cats.

The show described how cats are natural born killers, and when the conversation turned from the mechanics of a lion’s retractable claws and how their teeth are built for shearing to why vampires are able to glamour humans, Edward explained…

“It makes perfect sense,” he said, staring deeply into my eyes.

I felt lightheaded for a second, and then he continued. “When you’re turned, you become a more attractive version of yourself. And you need that, because it helps you feed. It makes humans easier prey.”

That’s it then. The shiny hair, soothing voice, porcelain skin and sparkling, seductive eyes that whisper, “I want you, Karen…for lunch.”

Long story short — hot looks help vamps reel in their next meal.

How unfair is that? Vamps get this natural, enchanting glamour and ageless beauty, while the rest of us have to work at it.

Ah, well… Maybe the new NP Set: Glam Set can help.

The subdued brown, peach and red shades aren’t the kind of full-tilt, red-carpet colors that jump to my mind when I think “glam,” but who knows? Maybe that’s by design.

The new NP Set Glam Set and Red Carpet Set palettes ($24 each) are new for spring 2012 and available now at Target stores and target.com.

Now, I don’t expect to wear these eye, lip and cheek colors to stalk man prey, but I do like looking polished and put together when I’m hanging out with the boys (El Hub and Tabs) or gallivanting with my gal pals.

np set glam set (3)
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Milani High Speed Fast Dry Nail Lacquer Turbocharges Drying Time With Eight Creamy Colors

March 6th, 2012 by Karen 36 Comments

milani high speed fast dry nail lacquer

Milani asks, would you rather wait an hour for your nails to dry, or just wait 60 seconds?

The drugstore brand’s new line of One Coat High Speed Fast Dry Nail Lacquers ($4.99 each) promises to save lacquer lovers time and money with eight rich, quick-drying colors and a creamy formula built to look beautiful after a single coat.

And that’s just I’m wearing in each of these swatches — one creamy coat.

Milani Fast Fuchsia
Fast Fuchsia

Milani Jiffy Orange
Jiffy Orange

Milani Violet Dash
Violet Dash
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Milani’s New Spring 2012 Runway Eyes Eyeshadows for Spring 2012 Have Something Big in Common With Tabs

March 5th, 2012 by Karen 33 Comments

I like my kitty supermodels chunky…

E! True Hollywood Story: Tabs the Cat, from Stray to Supermodel

…and my eyeshadows smooove, like Ryan Gosling. 🙂

Last weekend I gave Milani’s three new spring 2012 Runway Eyes eyeshadows a try, but instead of marveling at their sparkly abundance and bodacious $6.99 price tag, I kept getting distracted by something in the mirror…

Chunks, and not the kind I like.

When I apply these dry, I can see the grains chillin’ on top of my eyelids. No, they aren’t the smoothest shadows at the rodeo, if you catch my drift.

Applied wet, using a brush moistened with MAC Fix+, seems to smooth out the texture. It also intensifies the shimmery colors of these shadows, in particular Golden Touch (the golden beige) and Peaches & Cream (the silvery peach), but I still see stray grains on my lids that I feel the urge to buff.

Golden khaki Antigua, on the other hand, gets closer to great. I think it looks and feels smoother than the other two shades, and at least for me, with its hint of gray, has the most star power among these three.

From the left, Antigua, Golden Touch and Peaches & Cream applied dry (the three shades on the left) and wet (the three shades on the right)
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L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Glosses Make One Heck of a Claim

February 26th, 2012 by Karen 13 Comments

L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Gloss in Glistening Berry

Now, when a gloss makes a Herculean claim and says that it lasts eight hours, that’s gonna attract some attention, and the first question many people are probably going to have is, “Does it actually last eight hours?”

Let’s find out. 🙂 The new L’Oreal Infallible 8 HR Le Glosses (about $10 each) are so confident in their stamina that they advertise it right on the tube.

Overlooking the possibility for a moment, however remote, that L’Oreal had something other than wear time in mind when they emblazoned these tubes (like eight home runs, eight happy remoras, or eight hungry rabbits), I tried two of the 20 shades available now at drugstores.

The first thing I noticed about Glistening Berry and Pink Topaz was how the texture changed on my lips over time. Both glosses started out feeling thin and smooth but thickened within the first few minutes into a thick, sticky film.

I took that as a positive sign, since sticky glosses tend to last longer for me than glosses with thin textures and consistencies.

And texture wasn’t the only change I noticed. These glosses also start out with a lot of pigment and high shine, but they settle down to a soft, sheer sheen over the first 15 minutes. Long term, I think it makes them more wearable and less intimidating, which I like.

As for the way I think they taste and smell, it’s a little strange… Like minty grape juice — or a magic, wear-time enhancing potion, perhaps? — but it dissipates after about 10 minutes.

Then there’s the million-dollar question: how long do these actually last on lips?

Glistening Berry on the left and Pink Topaz on the right
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When You’re as Slick and Slippery as a MAC Cremesheen, You Should Work It and Flaunt: The New JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Glosses for Spring 2012

February 24th, 2012 by Karen 13 Comments

jk jemma kidd work it
Wearing JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Gloss in Work It on my lips

ME: OHMIGOD, sweetie! I’m freaking out.

EL HUB: Why?

ME: I’m having a Cremesheen emergency!

EL HUB: A what…?

ME: A Cremesheen emergency! I can’t find my favorite tube of MAC Cremesheen. I’m freakin’ out!

EL HUB: Why don’t you just use one of the 20 other tubes of lipstick in your purse?

TABS: Oh, boy. Here we go again…

ME: Hahaha. So not funny! It’s a gloss.

EL HUB: Okay.

ME: Can you take me to Target?

EL HUB: What? Really? It’s the middle of the night, babe. And they don’t even sell MAC at Target.

Wait — how do I know that? I know way too much about makeup…

ME: And that’s why I heart you. I HEART YOU! I heart you so much that you’re going to drive me to Target to look at the JK Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Glosses.

EL HUB: I am?

ME: You are. 🙂 They have two new colors for spring, a coral called Work It and a sheer pink called Flaunt, $16 each, and they’re slippery and slick like the MAC Cremesheens.

jk jemma kidd work it flaunt
Work It on the left and Flaunt on the right

jk jemma kidd gloss swatches
Swatches of Flaunt (left) and Work It (right)
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Milani Brightens Up With Three New Marbelized Baked Eyeshadows for Spring

February 24th, 2012 by Karen 31 Comments

milani marbelized baked eyeshadows

What started as a marbelous gray, black, gold and dark blue dalliance last spring is now a much brighter affair. Milani is moving winter aside and making way for spring with three playful new Marbelized Baked Eyeshadows ($7.49 each).

First of all, I love their names! 🙂 Must Have Fuchsia, Copper Excess and Green Fortune just seem so perfectly apt. A minor thing, but sometimes for me it’s the minor things that make the biggest impressions.

milani marbelized baked eyeshadows

milani marbelized baked eyeshadows
From the left: Copper Excess, Green Fortune and Must Have Fuchsia
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