It Cosmetics

5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately: Senita Athletics, Tarte Rose Gold Blush & Glow, It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under-Eye Concealer, The Good Place, and an Epic Egg Salad Sandwich

August 30th, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

1. Senita Athletics workout wear

I took this pic last night from “That ’70s Bathroom,” which is my nickname for our guest bathroom, because everything in it is straight outta the ’70s.

Note the adorable sports bra and shorts.

Well…at least I think they’re cute.

They’re from Senita Athletics, which I found out about from Abbey, who suggested that I look into them in the comments on a post where I mentioned that I was looking for a new pair of workout shorts for my HIIT class.

I’m wearing them here. They’re the Swift Shorts 2 in the Bahamas print. I’m also wearing the matching Sarah Sports Bra and the Boyfriend Muscle Tee.

I love, LOVE Senita’s clothes and their prices, which are way better than Lululemon and Zella.

I’ve washed these items a bunch of times (mind you, I’ve only had them about a month), put them in the dryer on low, and they haven’t faded, unraveled or stretched out. I think they’ll hold up well.

And, best thing ever, they have pockets everywhere. There’s a pocket on the back of the bra, hidden pockets in the shorts — seriously, there are SO MANY POCKETS. It’s glorious.

2. Tarte Blush and Glow Blush & Highlighter in Rose Gold

tarte rose gold blush glow — Tarte Blush and Glow in Rose Gold ($30)

One side of this split pan blush/highlighter combo from Tarte’s fall collection is a sheer matte rosy brown, and the other side is a rose gold shimmer. The powders aren’t as pigmented as the powders in the Amazonian Clay Blushes, but I’m totally fine with that, because there are days when I just want a little bit of cheek color.

Also, the highlighter is seductively subtle.

tarte rose gold blush glow swatches — Tarte Blush and Glow in Rose Gold: swatches

It goes with any and all nude pinkish brown lippies I’ve tried. Check it out with Hourglass Girl Lip Stylo in Believer.

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It Cosmetics Bye Bye Lines Foundation: Using It, Loving It, Living for It

August 30th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

Fun fact: a person can sing the chorus to NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye — and don’t even play like you don’t know it! — over and over to the name of this new foundation from It Cosmetics for an obnoxious amount of time, annoying both themselves and those around them to no end.

“Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye lines!”

I think that video also had some puppet-like dance moves in it. Oh, the ’90s and its boy bands…

Basically, I think I just found your, and by “your,” I mean my, new favorite foundation. 🙂

it cosmetics bye bye lines foundation swatches — From the top: Fair, Light, Medium, Medium Tan, Tan, Rich and Deep

It’s a flexible, full-coverage skin-smoothing liquid foundation with a luminous finish, and it just came out for fall. A 1-oz. plastic bottle is $38 and has a pump, which is a little touchy. I somehow always squeeze out a little more than I need when I put it on the back of my hand (I have to mix two shades to get a perfect match for me).

That’s kind of annoying, but other than that little design flaw, and the fact that none of the shades is a perfect match for me, I think the foundation itself is almost perfect.

it cosmetics bye bye lines foundation before and after — Bare skin on one side, and a mix of Tan and Rich on the other

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Golden Glitter Glistens in the New It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Blush in Sweet Cheeks

August 24th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

it cosmetics bye bye pores blush sweet cheeks — It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Blush in Sweet Cheeks ($24)

I love my pores. They’re a part of who I am and, ya know, they do all the hard work that pores do (like housing hair follicles).

That said, I really don’t need to be reminded of their existence all day long, so I’d much rather wear a line of blushes called “Bye Bye Pores” than “Hi Hi Pores!”

Sweet Cheeks is the newest shade in the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Blush fam, and it comes out this fall.

It Cosmetics has some fantastic permanent collection blush lines, including my faves, the Confidence In Your Glow Blushing Bronzers (a.k.a the Neapolitan ice cream ones) and the CC+ Radiance Ombre Blushes, which are SO GREAT. They’re easy to blend, long lasting and look incredibly natural.

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Neat and New to Me: The IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette

May 15th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

it cosmetics naturally pretty palette — IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette ($42 and available meow)

I feel the same way about matte palettes as a I feel about mascara.

Both are flat-out necessities, and any makeup lover worth her weight in cotton balls should have at least one or two in her (or his) bag.

Well…I don’t know how you feel about that, but that’s my take on it.

There are so many great ones out there, too, and I’m always finding new ones to love, like my latest, the $42 IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette, which has been available for a while, but it’s new to me, and I’m totally into it. I wore it a bunch of times last week.

Do you like matte shadows? Because I sure do. I mean, mattes are your friends. They really are. They’re just so useful. I wear at least one matte shadow a day, usually in the crease to sort of contour my eyes to make my sockets look deeper (mine are slightly hooded and seem to be getting more hooded as I get up there in years).

Sometimes I do a single sweep of matte shadow all over the lid (often a matte brown or taupe) for a little definition, and, contrary to the vast majority of YouTube makeup tutorials, you *can* use just one or two shadows if you want. You don’t need to use 12. You will be OK!

And if I’m still feeling extra sassafras after that, I’ll add a colorful liner — maybe a purple, green or teal — along my lash lines.

Yup, I love shimmer and glitter, for sure, but mattes are always there for me, ya know?

The Naturally Pretty Palette has 14 useful, wearable matte powder shadows and an extra pan of “transforming pearl,” which you can tap on top of the matte shades to give them a pearly shimmer.

The mattes are a mix of warm and cool shades that I know I can wear over and over in lots of different looks — like matte beiges, matte browns and matte taupes. There are also some deeper shades in the palette, too, like a couple of dark purples, a navy and an off-black, that you can use as liners or in smoky looks.

Basically, this is a workhorse palette (also cruelty free) for elegant, easy everyday looks, and you won’t have to fight fallout or blend until your wrist falls off.

it cosmetics naturally pretty palette k — Wearing Sunset from the palette on my lids and lower lash lines along with the BECCA Sunchaser Palette, and Hourglass Creator Girl Lip Stylo on my lips

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It Cosmetics Confidence In Your Glow Blushing Bronzer, or Neapolitan Ice Cream? You Be the Judge

April 25th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

it cosmetics confidence in your glow 1 — The new It Cosmetics Confidence in Your Glow Blushing Bronzers counterclockwise from the top in Instant Natural Glow, Instant Nude Glow and Instant Warm Glow, $32 each and available now

Clearly, the universe doesn’t want me to go low-carb because it put these blush pans in front of my eyes.

Don’t they look like Neapolitan ice cream? Seriously, I’m starving over here.

OK, it could just be me and my tum making that jump, LOL!

At any rate, these are the new It Cosmetics Confidence In Your Glow Blushing Bronzers, and each pan has a separate bronzer, blush and highlighter.

Now available in the It Cosmetics permanent line

These are new this month and available in three combo shades. There’s Instant Nude Glow, Instant Warm Glow and Instant Natural Glow.

Peachy Nude Glow is the lightest, Warm Glow is smack dab in the middle, and Natural Glow has the deepest shades. All of them lean warm with satiny, glowing finishes similar to the MAC Extra Dimension blushes, and they’re $32 each.

Basically, It Cosmetics squished a powder bronzer, blush and highlighter together in a single pan, which isn’t exactly a brand new concept in the world of makeup (peeps have been doing it for years), but I do think these are cuter than usual.

You can use the three products in each of the pans separately, but with combo powder pan products like these, I almost never do. Most of the time I mix them together with my brush and apply the combo to my cheeks.

it cosmetics confidence in your glow swatches — From the top: Instant Warm Glow, Instant Nude Glow and Instant Natural Glow

Smooth, and not patchy

Whenever I’m mixing multiple cheek products together, I’m always hoping that the products will blend well, but a lot of the time they end up patchy.

With these I was afraid I’d see a blob of bronzer on one part of my cheek and a spot of blush on another, but the soft, silky powders melt into each other. When you swirl your brush in the pan and sweep the combined color on your cheeks, it goes on evenly.

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The It Cosmetics Holiday 2016 Collection

October 25th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

it cosmetics holiday 2016 city chic top — The It Cosmetics Holiday 2016 Collection

I’m wearing the It Cosmetics Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette this afternoon, and when I opened the palette earlier today, I thought, “Ooh! Look at all the warm tones…”

I got super excited. Then I got even MORE excited when I saw that one of the pans, the warm-looking bronzer, is called Sunshine in a Compact.

Ah… I was all mentally prepared for a warm-toned experience, like the makeup equivalent of a week on Kauai — you know, coconut in one hand, camera in the other, because, seriously, who goes to the beach lugging around a massive camera?

This girl. 🙂

Anywho, when I actually put on the bronzer, I quickly realized that it isn’t as warm as I thought. It’s actually pretty cool-toned and sheer, so I think that lighter lasses who are cool-toned will appreciate it more.

I mean, I know that I talk about wearing cool-toned colors all the time, like the other day, when I was talking about cool-toned red lipsticks and how I like to wear them even though I’m warm-toned. I do like the contrast of a cool-toned lip on warm skin, and sometimes I like wearing cool-toned eyeshadows for the same reason. I think that because of the contrast, my lips look more…structured, and the colors don’t get lost as easily on my skin.

But I feel like some cool-toned blushes and highlighters look jarring on my skin tone, especially on large patches of skin, like my cheeks and upper cheekbones.

Something about it doesn’t look quite right to my eye.

There are some other things in the collection as well, like a couple of ornaments and two cute brush kits.

(Side note: How cool would that be? A Christmas tree covered in makeup ornaments?)

One of the brush sets has elegant rosy gold handles, while the other one’s handles are sparkly silver. All of the brushes in both sets are full size.

If I were a Mariah Carey drag queen, I would totally want the sparkly brushes on my makeup vanité.

Yes, I just said “vanité.”

By the way, the glitter on the handles doesn’t come off, which is nice to know, because if it did that would be a bummer.

City Chic 5-Piece Ultra Luxe Skin-Loving Brush Set + Exclusive Case ($68) — New, limited edition

All That Glitters 5-Piece Brush Set + Exclusive Shimmering Case ($58) — New, limited edition (Ulta exclusive)

Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette ($42) — New, permanent

Confidence in a Cream Transforming Moisturizing Super Cream Ornament ($16) — New, limited edition

Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara Ornament ($12) — New, limited edition

it cosmetics holiday 2016 je ne sais quoi complexion perfection — Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette

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The It Cosmetics Superhero Palette Has a Smoooooth Superpower

July 21st, 2016 by Karen 21 Comments

The new $42 It Cosmetics Superhero Palette should just put on a cape and soar across the sky already.

Like the next summer superhero movie…it’s coming soon! — to the It Cosmetics website (August) and Ulta (September), and its superhero power is allegedly that it has the ability to help lids look as though they’ve turned back time.

it cosmetics superhero palette 1 — What’s your superhero power?

In addition to the nine incredibly smooth powder eyeshadows in the main row, which are divided among Nudes, Neutrals and Liners, the palette also has three larger Eye Foundation shades, which are good base colors for your entire eyelid.

I think my lids look really smooth with these shadows, and the formula is also supposed to help lids long term, thanks to anti-aging collagen, silk, peptides and antioxidants.

it cosmetics superhero palette k2 — Wearing Pow! all over my lid, Superstar from my lash line into the crease, and Superhero along the lash line

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Say “Bye Bye Pores” With It Cosmetics Bye Bye Breakthroughs

May 27th, 2016 by Nicole Fraser-Herron 16 Comments

Sometimes I just want to be a poreless alien babe… A couple weeks ago I was at a drag show, and a queen named Kylie Minono was passing shots of vodka to the people seated behind me. She apologized for reaching over me and told me that vodka can sink into your pores. “But wait, do you even have any? Girl, what do you use and where can I get it?”

Well, you can get it at Ulta! It’s a $29 pressed translucent powder aptly named Bye Bye Pores (which you’ve probably heard of by now) from It Cosmetics.

_MG_2527_web — See? Exactly. You can’t because there’s nothing there. I’m wearing NARS Tinted Moisturizer in Terre Nueve as my base.

Let’s backtrack for a second.

I don’t have large pores, but they can get clogged pretty easily, so I try to let my skin breathe as much as I can. Luckily, I’m a workaholic who barely has time for breakfast, let alone fierce wings before work. I wish I did, but I also like sleep.

When I have dry patches, healing spots, or just want the smoothest finish possible, I reach for a silicone-based primer. If I’m getting ready during the day, I reach for Murad’s Invisiblur Perfecting Shield. It stands out to me because it’s a primer with SPF 30. Since I can’t step outside without sun protection, it’s a godsend. While I wear it on light makeup days too, I usually wear it all on its own. I like that it offers protection without making me look shiny. I also love products that let you know exactly how much you have left, because running out of a staple without even knowing it was close to empty is not a great way to start the day.

_MG_3164_web — Murad Invisiblur Perfecting Shield Broad Spectrum SPF 30 / PA+++ (1oz) $65

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