Eyes

Product Spotlight: Wander Beauty Wanderess Chill Eyeshadow Palette

January 2nd, 2019 by Karen 9 Comments

Ya know, with a new eyeshadow palette coming out every five seconds, you’d think that finding an awesome cool-toned palette would be easy, but noooooooo. It’s not, and not just because warm-toned orange-y browns have basically ruled the school for the last few years. I’m a warm-toned gal who just so happens to love wearing cool shades, but the cool-toned palettes I come across usually look too gray and weird on me, like I just smeared mud all over my eyes with no rhyme or reason.

Enter the endlessly wearable six-pan Wander Beauty Wanderess Chill Palette ($25 at Sephora), which is just cool enough to work on warm or cool undertones (yay!), and it’s loaded with lovely pink, taupe, purple and brown shades.

So mo weird gray tones in sight.

wander beauty wanderess chill swatches — When cool-toned palette dreams come true…

From Sephora.com:

What it is: An eye palette with six intensely pigmented cool-toned shadows in complementary shades and finishes.

Highlighted Ingredients:
– Mango Seed Butter: Rich in vitamins C and A to revitalize skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines.
– Rose Extract: Helps minimize redness.
– Vitamin E: Supports skin healing, protects skin against free radicals, and supports skin’s natural moisture barrier.

Ingredient Callouts: Free of sulfates SLS and SLES, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, and contains less than one percent synthetic fragrances. This product is also cruelty-free.

What Else You Need to Know: Get gorgeous on the go while keeping it chill. Wander Beauty’s intensely-saturated shadows are enriched with nourishing ingredients to give a buttery swipe of color that lasts all day. This cool mix of luxe metallic, silky satin, and velvety matte eyeshadows puts infinite looks in the palm of your hand. Each luxurious shade is enriched with mango seed butter and rose extract to hydrate and protect the delicate eye area. These shades are crease-proof, fade-proof, and deliver intense payoff.

This Palette Contains:
– 6 x 0.07 oz/ 2.2 g Eyeshadows in Snowbird (satin light pink), Flushed (foil pinky purple), Free Style (matte cool nude), Gondola (satin cool taupe), Après Ski (metallic deep plum), Cocoa (satin cool brown)

I wore it pretty much every time I wore makeup through the month of December because it’s one of those “just a few swipes of color” situations. I usually do the matte in the crease, then one of the mid-toned shimmers on my lids, and then a sheer smidgen of the lightest shade on my brow bone and in the inner corners.

The formula feels a lot like Urban Decay’s, so it’s soft and easy to blend, but the colors are generally a little less pigmented and/or shimmery.

Put another way, if UD is a punk rock princess who goes hawd, Wander Beauty just wants to chill.

FYI, like with Urban Decay shadows, wayward bits of powder will travel into adjacent pans, since the powder is on the fluffier side, but I don’t really mind because there’s almost zero fallout on my face. #priorities

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Fresh Friday: A Teen Runs This New Beauty Brand That Takes a Stand Against Bullying

December 21st, 2018 by Karen 9 Comments

MBB’s “Fresh Friday” series takes a look at new beauty brands (and venerable O.G. brands that are new to me). Let’s discover new makeup!

Guys, do you remember what you were doing at 15…? I’ll tell ya, I certainly wasn’t running my own makeup line, LOL! Say hi to Raazika Cosmetics, a new cruelty-free indie line founded by high school student Khadija Ikram, who started the brand fueled by her passion for makeup and her desire to help her community. The brand donates a portion of all proceeds to anti-bullying campaigns.

Yeah, at 15 years old, I was marching around a football field with a flute in a band uniform while simultaneously plotting ways to up my GPA… I wasn’t starting my own business (although I wish I had!).

In Arabic, Raazika means “one who provides for others,” and the line is cruelty-free, fragrance-free and Halal-certified, meaning that the ingredients are permitted within Islamic or sharia law (you can read more about it here if you’re curious), and they’re available now online. The brand is still quite small and very new.

Within the line, there are full-coverage foundations ($36 each), a couple of contour kits ($49 each), vegan brushes ($16-$30 each), a sprinkling of eye makeup (there’s a mascara and a liner), liquid lipsticks ($27 each) and lip pencils ($17 each), so it’s not Fenty big, but it’s not a teeny, tiny product range either.

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Product Spotlight: The $6 Maybelline Lasting Drama Matte Eyeliner in Jade Olive

December 20th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

maybelline jade olive — Your lashlines will thank ya (and so will your wallet)

You know what they say: “Woman cannot live off Chanel Mat Taupe alone!” (Someone must say that, right?)

OK, well…technically, I could, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂 Who wants to wear the same taupe liner day in, day out? Bluh. I’m always open to new alternatives to black eyeliner for tightlining because I like the softer, less aggressive look, and the older I get, the more I prefer lining with colors other than basic black.

That, my friend, brings me to the topic of a treasure I recently discovered from Maybelline called Jade Olive, which is only (drumroll, please) six bucks! (officially, $5.99) It’s a twist-up, long-wearing waterproof matte khaki pencil.

I don’t know if it’s a gel liner, because it’s soft enough to be one… It almost feels like a gel because of the way it melts and glides across the skin, but it doesn’t look as harsh and flat as some matte gel liners do.

It also doesn’t make my skin feel dry or tight like some gels have in the past, so the jury’s still out on that… Either way, it’s a creamy, smudgy, long-wearing kohl that sets like *that*.

The rich, true khaki green color is brighter and more intense than something like Chanel Mat Taupe, but it’s not as dark as MAC Coffee. It’s a nice in-between tightlining shade, and I think my brown eyes look more chocolaty when I wear it.

maybelline jade olive 2 — Could I look any more like a judge-y piano teacher? Wearing Wander Beauty Nude Illusion Foundation in Tan and Honest Beauty Raspberry Lip Crayon, BTW.

I wore Jade Olive the other day when I took pics for the Wander Beauty foundation review, and MBB reader Roma (what’s up, Roma?) said in the comments that she immediately noticed the wide-eyed effect, which made me so, so happy because, well…that’s exactly what I was going for when I lined my lash and water lines with this bad gal.

Just goes to show how transformative a little liner can be!

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: NUDESTIX Eyebrow Stylus Pencil and Gel

December 18th, 2018 by Karen 6 Comments

nudestix eyebrow stylus pencil gel ash brown k flash — Yes, please! Gimme those quickie brows!

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

If some gorgeous genius beauty-loving inventor decides to design an entire line of makeup comprised of dual-ended pencils and other multipurpose products like this $24 NUDESTIX Eyebrow Stylus Pencil with something different on both ends, GIRL — I’m gonna be all over that! Having two things in the same stick makes my life so much easier.

It’s great, isn’t it? That’s how I feel about this brow pencil/clear brow gel combo, because I’m always a brow pencil/gel kinda gal, and this means I don’t have to go digging through my bag for two separate things. And both products attached to this little stick of greatness are really good, too!

These come in a bunch of colors, like Blonde, Dirty Blonde, Ash Brown, Brown and Brown/Black. I wear the one called Ash Brown, although I could probably also wear Brown or Brown/Black, but I like Ash Brown’s gray undertone. I also like how natural, lush and full (and not aggressively block-y) it makes my brows look.

nudestix eyebrow stylus pencil gel ash brown — I wear it in Ash Brown.

I use it by first brushing the brow gel through my brows when they’re naked, and I keep brushing it in the direction I want the hairs to go until the gel is completely dry. Then I fill in my brows with the pencil.

The reason I use the gel first is because I like to get all of the hairs where I want them, and I kind of maximize the fullness of my brows using just the gel first. The formula stiffens in about a minute, and in that time I comb my brows to fluff them up and make them as big as possible, which means that I can get away with using the least amount of the pencil as possible.

nudestix eyebrow stylus pencil gel ash brown natural light — Brows in the wild, a.k.a. outdoors.

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Fresh Friday: This K-Beauty Brand Is All About Bite-Sized Beauty

December 14th, 2018 by Karen 9 Comments

kaja makeup sephora — A few pieces from Kaja, a new K-beauty line made in partnership with Sephora

“Fresh Friday” is a new MBB series where we explore products from new beauty brand (and veteran brands that are new to me). Let’s discover new makeup!

Two pressing life-related conundrums:

So…when did 7:30 p.m. become late for me? Because I swear, 7:30 is the new midnight now. When the clock strikes 7:30, I turn into a pumpkin!
Am I the only person who assumed that because Kaja Beauty refers to their products as “bite sized,” they’d be teeny and tiny for travel?

From Sephora:

“We create bite-sized beauty packed with Korean innovation that once you experience, you’ll want to share. It’s packaging as beautiful on the outside as our product is on the inside – feel-good formulas made for everyone, all skin types and skin tones.”

How cute is this line? I think their bite-sized hook is a little confusing though, since all of it looks pretty full-sized in person.

kaja beauty bento bouncy shimmer eyeshadow trio — Beauty Bento Bouncy Shimmer Eyeshadow Trio in Toasted Caramel

Kaja is a new Korean beauty line that launched last (this?) fall exclusively at Sephora, and here’s a fun fact for ya: Apparently, Kaja means “Let’s Go” in Korean!

kaja beauty mochi pop bouncy blush — Mochi Pop Bouncy Blush in Atmosphere

The brand has a Milk-meets-Glossier vibe, with a pinch of Too Faced cuteness, and while there’s a decent helping of eye, cheek and lip products, the line’s relatively minimalist when it comes to foundation… In other words, you aren’t going to find 20 million foundation shades a la Fenty here. For face makeup, they have one primer, one color corrector and a handful of concealers.

Yup, that’s it! No powder or anything else.

The concept is a fresh-faced, dewy complexion with a kiss of color and glitter on lids, cheeks and lips.

I definitely feel like it’s a line that skews to a younger makeup crowd, like teens and early 20-somethings, but even if that’s way beyond your age group (HELLO, ME), it can be fun, fast and fabulous for quickie looks…which is every day of my life lately, ha!

kaja beauty cheeky stamp blendable blush — Cheeky Stamp Blendable Blush in Bossy

Standout: The Cushy Vibe High-Pigment Lip Stains

I’ve tested a few of the products so far, and I dig the Lip Stains ($18). They’re REALLY good. They come five bold colors (blue-red, wine, mauve, plum and purple) and have a light whipped texture that glides right over your lips.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that they feel light as feathers, either, because they last a long time. I put Chiffon (the raspberry shade) on my lips in the morning a few days ago thinking I’d need to reapply after lunch, but after two cups of coffee, three glasses (OK, more like jugs) of water, snacks AND lunch, it stayed on my lips and continued to last for practically the whole day.

kaja swatches — Swatches from the top: Cat Nap Brightener, Don’t Settle Concealers, Bossy Blush, Atmosphere Blush, Toasted Caramel eyeshadow; Cushy Vibe High Pigment Lip Stains in Silk Robe, Chiffon and Velvet and 2’s Company Nude Lipstick & Liner Duo in Desert Rose

Also worth your time: Mochi Pop Bouncy Blush

The cream-to-powder blushes ($19 each) are also standouts because they’re like more affordable Chanel Joues Contraste blushes. I’ve been wearing Atmosphere, a rosy shade similar to Chanel Pink Explosion, and it has that gorgeous tell-tale semi-transparency that you’ll find over at Chanel.

Now, let me say for the millionth time that sheer blush ain’t a bad thing, especially if you don’t want to spend hella days blending out the edges, and/or your ultimate makeup fear in life is walking around with clown cheeks.

Take-home message: These look very natural on the skin, don’t appear obviously powdery, and they’re long-lasting as well.

But how about those cream blush stamps?

Kaja’s cushion blushes are very cute; I’ll give them that. Each blush has a ❤️ heart-shaped stamp in the cap, which you dip into the cushion, stamp on your cheeks, and blend.

Fun! I like it on bare skin because, like the Mochi blushes, it’s sheer and allows my skin to peek through. But when I wear it on top of foundation or concealer, it breaks up my face makeup… I don’t wear it often, although you’d think I would because it feels very silicone-y and slippery to the touch. Plus, it blurs pores like a mofo.

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Revlon Colorstay Crème Eyeshadow in 715 Chocolate

December 13th, 2018 by Karen 11 Comments

revlon colorstay creme shadow 715 espresso — Crazy for Chocolate

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

What’s that Christmas carol that goes, “‘Tis the season for creams, fa la la la laaaa, la la la laaaa!”? Creams are a “go-to” for gaggles of makeup lovers when it’s cold outside, but Revlon Chocolate is an “all-year” obsession for me.

Formally known as Colorstay 175 Crème Eyeshadow in Chocolate, it’s a drugstore secret treasure at just $6.99, and if you don’t have excess time to spend on your makeup but still like to wear a little somethin’, it will be your ? jam.

I’ve been wearing it a lot since I started growing out my grays, because the way my grays are growing out now, they don’t look purposeful yet because they don’t go from root to tip. It just looks like I missed my last two coloring appointments and can’t get my life together, so if I don’t wear at least a little eye makeup, I look disheveled. So Chocolate has been coming to my rescue.

Chocolate’s from Revlon’s long-wearing Crème Eyeshadow line, and if you haven’t tried these potted shadows before, you gotta get on that. They’re like the MAC Paint Pots, but cheaper, and slightly creamier.

Granted, they’re less pigmented than the Paint Pots, but I think that’s one of their selling points because that sheerness makes it easier to blend out the edges.

Perfect for “I’m already late! Gotta get this makeup on LIKE NOW!” looks.

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Going for the Glitter? Get Thee a Fluffy Brush, ASAP!

December 12th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

nars ignited palette k — Glitter during the daytime hours? WHY NOT!

Friends, please raise your coffee mugs and join me in congratulating my dayum self!

Now, you might be asking, “Um…Karen, what the heck are we toasting to?” And if so, fair enough. ? See, I’ve come to the life-changing conclusion that using a fluffy brush to apply glitter changes lives.

Why a fluffy brush?

Correction: It has to be a specific type of fluffy brush. What you want is a fluffy flat or angled eyeshadow brush — something like the MAC 275S or my fave, the Sephora Pro Angled Shadow Brush #13, which, sadly, is discontinued.

Basically, though, a fluffy flat (or angled) brush deposits the perfect amount of glitter onto lids while simultaneously minimizing fallout.

I’ve only just started doing this because I normally just use a finger to press the glitter on my lids to pack that ish in place, but the thing is, when I wanna wear glitter during the daytime, BECAUSE WHY NOT, this approach can be a little too disco.

nars ignited palette k2 — Pretty subtle as far as glitter goes. I’m wearing the NARS Ignited Palette, by the way. It has lots of pink and purple and warm reddish browns, and methinks it looks ***good*** with rose-colored tops and dresses.

Sheer, but precise

Fluffy brush, though? Yes, life-changing! The key is the low density of the brush head. The fluffiness sheers out the glitter just enough to leave you with a dusting of elegant sparkle on your eyes, as opposed to full-on rave glitter (err, do people still call those parties raves? #datingmyself). The shape of the brush head is also a may-jah player. Since flat or angled eye brushes are precise, and much more precise than, say, domed or tapered eye blending brushes like the MAC 217 or 224, so you can put your glitter exactly where you want it.

I mean, of course you’ll have to tap off your brush first, and then pat, rather than sweep, the glitter on your lids to reduce as much fallout as you can (obvi), but using a fluffy brush results in a sheerer, more elegant and subtle application that *totally* works for daytime makeup.

Fix that fallout

And if you do end up with fallout, no worries. Just use a little Scotch tape or the sticky part on the back of a Post-it, and gently press it onto any wayward glitter flecks to lift them away!

What I’m wearing in these pics

I used the Sephora #13 brush to apply some glitter from the new NARS Ignited palette ($59, limited edition, available at Sephora) that I wore last week, and it was a look I also happened to be wearing when I picked up Connor Claire at preschool.

nars ignited palette packaging — I like the packaging, too.

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Clinique Pretty Easy Liquid Eyeliner Pen

December 7th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

clinique pretty easy liquid eyeliner pen 2 — I love this so much that I rubbed off the writing on the package!

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

OK…I don’t know how you feel about liquid eyeliner in general, but this is THE best black liquid eyeliner in the known universe, IMO, and yes, I think it’s just as good as the Tom Ford pen.

(Yup, *that* $58 Tom Ford Liner.)

It’s the Clinique Pretty Easy Liquid Eyeliner Pen, and it’s a comparatively bargain $22. It does so many of the things that the Tom Ford liner does, and does them just as well. It’s a deep, dark black; it draws super skinny lines; dries quickly; it’s really, REALLY easy to use.

It’s got one of those long, flexible felt tips, so if you want to draw an ultra-fine line on your upper lash line or a precise cat flick in the outer corner, you can easily do it, even if you’re all thumbs, half-asleep or in a hurry.

Normally, I’d never dream of applying liquid liner when I’m in a rush, but it’s totally doable with this one. There’s something kinda magical about it and very user-friendly…which is probably why they call it the Pretty Easy Liquid Eyeliner Pen, ha!

clinique pretty easy liquid eyeliner pen 1 — When you try to make kissy faces and look awkward but decide to just go with it anyway. (That’s the liner on my upper lash lines, by the way.)

One of my favorite things about it is the ~20-second drying time, which doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but it’s just enough to either 1) let the line dry on its own, or, 2) and this is what I like to do, I grab a smudge brush and feather out the edge of the line to make it look blended and smooth.

And after that 20 seconds, you can blink, roll your eyes or whatever, and your liner won’t transfer up onto your lids! Once this stuff is dry, it’s smudge-proof and budge-proof.

But that’s not all! You can also find it pretty much anywhere. I love that I can just pop into the Novato Sephora and grab one if I “need to,” or that I can stop by a Clinique counter at Macy’s or Nordstrom.

I should probably get a new one soon because mine is looking very…well-loved, ha ha ha!

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