Eyes

What Are Your Biggest Challenges When It Comes to Eye Makeup?

June 19th, 2013 by Karen 54 Comments

Wearing products from the new MAC Smokeluxe Veluxe Pearlfusion Palette ($40)

Is it drawing the perfect cat liner flick, blending beautiful gradients, or figuring out ways to make your eye makeup last through work?

My biggest eye makeup challenge is getting things properly lined up and even, particularly when it comes to shadow. I’m right-handed, and when I apply products on my left side, I push a little harder with the brush, and reach a little further, which can make the end result uneven.

I have to remind myself all the time to use a lighter touch on my left eye. “Use a lighter touch on your left eye, Karen.”

Lately my brows have also been a challenge. I’m trying to grow them out, and my left brow is just being a pain in the you-know-what. My brow bald spot (whom I call “Raul”) simply refuses to go away.

Dangit! Grow brows, grow!

Last thing is probably just remembering to try new looks and be adventurous! It’s easy to fall back on my safe colors and routines because I know they’re easy and work for me, but where’s the fun in that? It’s makeup, right? If it ends up looking wackadoo, just wash it off. 🙂

Do you have any eye liner/shadow/mascara/etc. issues? What are your biggest challenges when it comes to eye makeup?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Dolce & Gabbana Contrasts Eyeshadow Quad

June 18th, 2013 by Karen 45 Comments

contrast n. |kon-trast|
noun
1 The state of being strikingly different from something else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association : tabs has been unusually nice to me today, in startling contrast to his behavior yesterday.

contrast v. |kon-trast|
verb
2 Differ strikingly : contrast my hair today with my hair of the 1990s, and be like whoa!

Do you ever think about how you got your name, or do you know the actual story?

Dolce & Gabbana’s Contrasts Eyeshadow quad has me thinking about names…

I was named after the actress Karen Black, but my mom almost named me Stephanie, which I can’t even begin to imagine… Not that I don’t like the name. I do. It’s just that when I look in the mirror, I don’t see a Stephanie, Steph or Steffie. Nope. Does not compute.

Funny, though, that last weekend I met a gal at the Bliss Spa who said that she didn’t think I looked like a Karen. She thought maybe a Leah, Leilani or a Lorelei. Something with an L, and I can kinda see that. Definitely more than Stephanie.

Anywho, I think whoever named Dolce & Gabbana’s Constrasts quad knocked it out of the park, since it really is strikingly different from the other everyday quads in my stash of staples.

If I could, I’d give that gal/guy a banana split with extra scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and cherries, because they nailed it!

And then, if he/she wanted, I’d go running with them, so we could burn off the calories and talk more about Constrasts. 🙂

The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorite permanent collection products from a variety of bodacious beauty brands.

This quad is a total workhorse, one I could easily see myself wearing daily, and yet it’s unlike the usual brown/beige/taupe/gray neutral suspects we see a lot.

Starting with the colors, ohmigosh! Inside the golden compact hides four potently pigmented powder shadows that you can easily take from day to night — a golden pinkish peach (a favorite for dusting all over my lids when I’m in a hurry because it brightens everything up), a pinkish beige, a warm purple and a plummy dark chocolate.

Versatile and flattering on many different skin tones, and just hella pretty.

Dolce Gabbana Contrasts Quad Swatches — From the left: shimmery golden pink, shimmery pinkish beige, shimmery plum and shimmery plummy brown (looks like a MAC Teddy in eye shadow form)

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Pearl Particles Collide (BAM!) to Create a Whole Mess o’ Glitter in the MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadows, Coming June 20 to the Permanent Line

June 17th, 2013 by Karen 25 Comments

What do you get when you put pearls in a particle accelerator?

I’ll tell you what you get — undersea oysters solving nuclear fusion equations, Ford Fusions with strands of pearls dripping from their rear-view mirrors, fusion cuisine that combines Asian flavors, and knitting (and purling!).

In other words, awesomeness. You get a whole lot of awesomeness. 🙂

You may also get MAC, as in the six new MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow palettes ($40 each) in MAC’s newest eye shadow formulation to join the permanent line. Powder shadows that feel like creams, they can be worn dry for a soft, sparkling finish, or wet for something shiny and metallic.

All six of the MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadows

Lawd, I think I may have accidentally inhaled a little too much stray glitter playing with these palettes… The stuff was flying all over the place!

It was kind of weird, truth be told.

I expected these, with their soft, creamy texture, to glide effortlessly across my skin and blend together with a few swift swipes, and most of them did just that. With the palettes comprised primarily of satins and metallics, like Smokeluxe, Brownluxe and Greenluxe, I didn’t have any trubs at all. They were coo’.

When I applied Brownluxe, my heart skipped as I watched the shadow skate across my skin. My 217 barely had to do any work to smooth away every last line.

I actually had to stop myself from over-blending, as the colors melted together like good fondue.

Mmm, cheese…

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Voted Most Likely To Steal Your Heart This Summer: The Gold, Chocolate Brown and Plum Shades in the Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet & Eye Liner Palette

June 10th, 2013 by Karen 21 Comments

WARNING: Do not wear the new Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet & Eye Liner Palette ($42) unless you plan to kick all other gold summer eye palettes to the curb.

Put another way, if this were makeup high school, it’s the palette that would have been voted “Most Likely To Be Mistaken for Cookies” in the yearbook.

And we all know how awesome cookies are.

Remember those things?

Wait — no, not cookies. I mean those yearbook things where the seniors cast a bunch of votes for “Most Likely To…”

I wasn’t really one of those kids, but I was voted “Too Sexy for This Band” by my compatriots in the musical arts (BAND GEEKS!). 🙂 And to this day I have no idea whether they were being serious or sarcastic…

Still, I’m surprised it wasn’t “Most Likely to Become a Cat Lady.” You feel me?

Yep, hindsight’s 20/20.

Like one of those popular girls who got nominated for everything (Best Hair, Most Likely to Succeed, Biggest Flirt, Best Pronunciation in Spanish Class), the categories in which this palette would dominate are…

Most Likely To Flatter Warm-Toned Tans
Most Likely To Dance From Dawn Till Dusk With a Minimum of Creasing and Fading
Most Likely To Be Mistaken for a Dior Quint
Most Likely To Mix It Up (as in mixing colors to create your own custom shades, which I’ve been doing a lot with this palette and really liking my results)
Most Likely To Be the Palette That Melts Your Makeup-Loving Heart This Summer

Inside are four shimmery powder shadows — three golden shades (a rose gold, copper gold and a pale gold) and a plummy chocolate brown — and a creamy plum liner, all of which work together as well as root beer and vanilla ice cream.

Clarins Splendours Colour Quartet Eye liner Palette Swatches — Swatches from the left: the powder eyeshadows in pale gold, pinkish gold, coppery gold and chocolate brown; and the cream liner in plum

For day, go casual with a single wash of color over your lids (or mix two of the shadows together), and line your lash lines with the soft, smudgy liner.

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A Bit o’ Bobbi and Gray Makes for a MAC Rainy Season: The $40 MAC Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 Quad

June 5th, 2013 by Karen 20 Comments

Like a freak summer thunderstorm, MAC’s $40 Rainy Season Eye Shadow X4 quad might seem a little out of place this time of year, but it sure is practical. I’ll give it that.

Maybe it’s the combination of conservative cool and warm-toned grays, but there’s something very Bobbi Brown about it, I think.

And what the Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 quad might actually look like in the rain…

It’s hard to go wrong with shades like these. They’re useful — especially for soft cat eyes, mrrrow! — but useful doesn’t always set my world on fire, if you know what I mean.

Will I look back in five years, sigh wistfully with a tear in my eye and say something like, “Remember the Rainy Season quad from the MAC All About Orange collection? Gosh, that one sure rocked my world.”

Um…probably not.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do.

Like it, that is.

MAC Rainy Season Eye Shadow X 4 Swatches — Swatches from the left: Rainy Season (a light warm gray frost with a Satin finish), Arctic Grey (a mid-toned gray with a Frost finish), Courtly Grey (a cool gray with a Matte finish) and Typographic (an asphalt black with a Matte 2 finish)

I get why it was included with the orange lip and cheek products in All About Orange, but…ya know. Fine.

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These Pacifica Radiant Shimmer Coconut Multiples Were Designed for Desert Islands Where You Can Only Bring One Thing to Wear on Your Eyes, Cheeks and Lips

May 31st, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

“Mo’ coco, mo’ coco, mo’ coco!”

Those are either the lyrics to Ice-T’s comeback song/ode to his voluptuous wife (is that woman’s butt for real!?), or what goes through my head when I open the new $12 Pacifica Radiant Shimmer Coconut Multiples. 🙂

Pacifica infused this palette’s multitasking bronze, pink and beige shimmers with coconut extract, and if you put a little on the back of your hand and sniff, they even smell like it.

The colors feel kinda wet and creamy in their pans but dry down to a powdery finish as you work them into your skin.

Neato.

Wear ’em on your cheeks, eyes, lips — heck, your entire body — for sheer color and a soft glow.

And if you want more pigment, you can always layer.

Pacifica Radiant Shimmer Coconut Multiples Swatches — From the left: Bronze, Island Rose and Moonlit

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The Pacifica Enlighten Eye Brightening Palette Spreads Enlightenment One Shadow at a Time

May 29th, 2013 by Karen 27 Comments

Wearing the new $12 Pacifica Enlighten Eye Brightening Shadow on my eyes

“Brighten up, buttercup!”

Sometimes when I think of Tabs taking that long walk across the rainbow bridge one day in the hopefully distant, distant future and my lower lip starts trembling, that’s what I say to myself.

“Brighten up, buttercup!”

It’s also what I said the first time I wore Pacifica’s Enlighten Eye Brightening Shadow Palette.

It sucked me in ever before I tried it, with a $12 price tag and promises to brighten my eyes (oh, hellz yeah!).

The fun and summery coral, gold, beige and purple shades come in a mix of satin and iridescent finishes. All of them seem pretty neutral to me, with the exception of the golden child, which warms my NC 42 skin.

What else?

The coverage varies from sheer-to-medium when applied dry, to fully opaque when applied wet
The mineral-based formula is infused with coconut water for a cream-like finish
Made without sulfates, petroleum products, parabens, SLS or phthalates
Vegan and cruelty-free

So, MEGA points for wear time. I’ve worn these shadows both wet and dry, on top of bare, and also atop primed lids, and they just barely crease and fade over the course of an eight-hour day.

That’s good.

Pacifica Enlighten Eye Brightening Shadow Palette 3 — Skinnydip (left) and Coral Sand (right)

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The Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen in No. 6 True Teal Must Have Been Made With a Magic Potion of Smoothness

May 28th, 2013 by Karen 20 Comments

Could nixies, fairies and sprites be responsible for Pixi True Teal’s enchantingly smooth formula, which flitters across skin like butterfly wings?

Are nymphs gathered around a tiny table somewhere behind a magical dimension door in the back of a nondescript Chinese restaurant somewhere, plotting ways to lure more beauty lovers into falling in love with True Teal’s supernatural pigments?

Or have I simply endured one too many conversations with El Hub about Dungeons & Dragons?

Either way, I’ve been looking for a new teal liner to wear this summer, and Pixi’s $15 Endless Silky Eye Pen in No. 6 True Teal is the frontrunner.

Just look at that color! And it’s so smooth and pigmented…

It has some of the same fairy magic that Chanel Azure does in the way it appears to change color from teal to a dark ocean blue in the light.

More magic…

It’s waterproof, and therefore mermaid approved
Wasn’t tested on animals
It doesn’t contain any parabens or mineral oils
It’s one of 10 shades in Pixi’s Endless Silky Eye Pencil line
Dries in about a minute, so you better work quickly if you want to smudge

One swish along my lash lines, and I’m set for the day. The formula doesn’t even find its way into my creases, which I really appreciate. 🙂

It performs fantastically on lash lines, but I don’t think it likes the water as much as Bobbi Brown Jet. I like the job Jet does better along my water lines.

True Teal along my lower lash lines; for a full breakdown of this look, check out Brighten Up: 3 Bold Summer Makeup Looks, Step-By-Step

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