Just For Fun

Today it’s sunny everywhere but around my head. That is to say I believe I have a head cold, I think, or some other sinus affliction, because my node id sdubbed ub.

It won’t bring me down, though. No chance. Nope, I won’t let it, well, unless it does. 🙂

So what are you up to today? I hope you’ve got something fun lined up. I have to return a pair of shoes (they were an impulse purchase) and get a new book to read. Don’t tell anyone, but I hear there are these new places called libraries that actually — get this — loan out books to read, FOR FREE! Can you believe it?

I’m sitting here contemplating last week’s makeup and beauty stuff and trying to think of my favorite products. What would you say? Mine was probably the Bobbi Brown Beach collection, or maybe what I saw from NARS.

NARS PRO-PRIME
FACE PREP

I was fashion hunting at the mall yesterday afternoon, rutting around for a respectable pair of jeans (more on that later), when I bumped into a gal with skin that looked smoother than a porcelain doll.

My curiosity got the better of me; I politely asked for her secret, to which she replied, “I don’t really do anything.”

With the otherworldly size of the pores of my face, sometimes I forget that there really are (lucky) people out there who simply never have to worry about their skin — no big-@ss pores or annoying fine lines.

For the rest of us, there’s NARS Pro-Prime Skin Smoothing Face Prep ($30 for a .26-oz jar). Read more…

BOBBI BROWN BEACH
SHIMMER BRICK

Glistening like the stars of MTV’s Jersey Shore — wait, did I just write that?? For a post about a product from Bobbi Brown?

Sorry, let me try this again.

Glistening like glittery Waikiki Beach (that’s better), the Bobbi Brown Beach Club Shimmer Brick ($38) comes with a combo of five warm-toned highlighter bricks in shades from brown to beige to peach and gold.

Released earlier this month with the Long-Wearing Eyeshadows in Bobbi’s Beach Club collection, this brick is full of surprises.

Swirl ’em together for an easy shimmer pop, or apply each shade separately for five different looks.

I really like the color of the blend. I’ve been applying it to my upper cheekbones, down the bridge of my nose and at my temples. Read more…

A BLUE, TEAL AND
GOLDEN EYE

Hey, guys!

Lately I’ve been loving nautical themes, and I suspect it has to do with summer. My brain’s on a sunny beach somewhere far away, and its gentle waves have shooed away the stress of my exams.

Maybe that’s a dream that won’t be happening any time soon, but I can still pretend with makeup looks like this ocean-inspired eye of the day!

First, I primed my lids with Too Faced Shadow Insurance to prevent creasing and fading. Then, using a finger, I patted the light matte shade in Revlon’s Not Just Nudes quad over my lids to creates a base to amplify the vibrance of the colors to follow. Read more…

SMASHBOX LIMITLESS
LINER

When eyeliner disappears, where exactly does it go? Do mischievous makeup angels charm it away with magic erasers while I’m drooling over pics of Jake Gyllenhaal’s muscled bod and manscaping?

Seriously, I can’t be the only person plauged by the plight of the disappearing eyeliner.

Thank ye gods for long-wearing liner formulas like the new Smashbox Limitless Eyeliner ($19). Released for summer, these creamy, long-wearing liners apply with intense color and come with the promise of eight-hour wear time, which makes the hours I’ve whittled away watching people dancing solo to Ginuwine’s Pony a little easier to bear.

Ready to rock you in shades of Black, Dark Brown, Teal, Deep Navy and Deep Purple, their creamy, easy-to-apply formula also resists water (more on that in a few) and helps protect the skin around those precious peepers with jojoba oil and vitamin E. Read more…

NARS MULTIPLE
TINT

Last night I had a makeup dream, except that in this dream there was an ice cream truck, and instead of ice cream it sold the new NARS Multiple Tints ($38 each).

Okay, now here’s where it gets REALLY weird. Instead of applying the sheer, buildable tints to my cheeks and lips, I gobbled ’em up like they were sweet, creamy treats!

Available in three eye-popping shades — Beverly Hills (a bright red tint), Cadaques (a bright fuchsia tint) and Turks & Caicos (a bright orange tint) — these do look a lot like desserts, don’t they? Kinda like Push Up Pops, yum!

But don’t be fooled by their vibrant shades. Each adds just a whisper of highly wearable color.

I’ve been playing with Beverly Hills, the red shade, on my cheeks (NOTE: I also tried it on my lips but didn’t like the flavor…like an odd mix of concentrated Hawaiian Punch and Sour Patch Kids) this week, and, impressively, it lasts for a good 6-8 hours! — even without a primer. Read more…

PERFUME PAIRINGS
FOR MAKEUP LOOKS

Well, look at you, Miss Thang. Whether you’re working a smoky eye or rocking a red lip, your fine self is looking flawless (thanks to Karen’s incredible makeup tips). All that remains is a few spritzes of a fabulous perfume. Now, this perfume must do more than simply smell good. A great perfume should be the finishing touch to your look, creating an aura that matches your makeup. It should add to your sex appeal when you’re looking slinkier than Halle Berry, or create a sense of romance when you’re having an ultra-feminine, Keira-Knightley-in-her-latest-period-piece moment. Here are a few suggestions for perfumes that lend themselves to a particular makeup style; please feel free to mix and match.

Smoky eyes: Your kohl-rimmed eyes already whisper, “Come hither”. Now take your game to the next level with a sexy scent that says, “Hey, Angelina Jolie, this isn’t amateur hour.” Read more…

NYX JUMBO
EYE PENCILS

The weekend is just around the corner, huzzah! I’m so looking forward to just vegging out on the couch, re-watching season two of True Blood and playing with makeup. Do you have any plans yet? Whatever you end up doing, I hope it also involves a fun look or two.

Speaking o’ beauty bits, what do ya think of the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils ($4)? Have you seen them before?

These four particular colors are new for summer, but the pencils themselves have been around for a while. Drugstore makeup line Nyx designed them to double as eyeliners or eyeshadows. The chubby pencils have quite a cult following these days, thanks to their smooth formula and technicolor pigmentation; with the addition of these four new shades — Pure Gold, Electric Blue, Purple Velvet and Rocky Mountain Green — they come in 28 total colors. Read more…

BOBBI BROWN BEACH CLUB
LONG-WEARING EYESHADOWS

There’s one Bobby Brown for recipes that call for cheese (as in cheesy ’90s R&B), and another Bobbi Brown for recipes that call for long lasting cream shadows.

Fellow fans of the later’s Long-Wear and Metallic Long-Wear shadows depend on their smooth, non-creasing formula when quick, elegant eye looks are on the menu. For this summer’s Beach collection, Chef Bobbi’s cooked up five new Long-Wear shadows, these with an ocean theme ($22 each).

They washed up on shore a few weeks ago, spotted at Bobbi Brown counters and BobbiBrownCosmetics.com. I’ve been wearing a few of the colors lately, and like a sunny day at the beach, these don’t disappoint. Each delivers a quick wash of durable color that lasts from that first gulp of coffee to that last sip of Sleepytime tea. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Okay, so, I think I know why I was tossing and turning in bed last night. Apparently, I saw a movie yesterday that my subconscious wishes I could un-see. Has that ever happened to you? I feel like I could have lived the rest of my life, happy and mentally balanced, having never seen the things I saw in that theater. It’s not that I think Splice is a terrible movie, because I like certain things about it, but some of the scenes are just…wrong on so many levels. If you decide to see it, prepare to lose your innocence forever!

Let me put it this way: the last time I was this disturbed by a movie was Deliverance, and I’m still afraid of the woods.

Back to lighter, less stressful topics like makeup and beauty, ahh… 🙂 Did you learn any new tricks or come across any drugstore gems this week? I’m thinking about swinging by Rite-Aid this afternoon for some post-movie trauma TLC.

If you’re new to the blog, the weekly roundup does two things: 1) it highlights some of my favorite products of the week and 2) lets my imagination run wild with a few minutes of photoshop fun.

Have a good one today, and I’ll catch you in a few. Time to get my second cuppa joe…

BENEFIT THE POREFESSIONAL
OIL-FREE PRIMER

My 30s came with a few cool perks — wisdom, Tabs and El Hub — that have helped offset the drawbacks of getting older, but there’s one area of aging I’m still trying to offset: my pores. Compared to how they looked in my 20s, THEY’RE HUGE! They’re like Olympic swimming pools within which people could host a swim meet, and to some sad degree, it just comes with the territory. Over time, pores enlarge. Accumulated sun damage, other environmental factors and the natural aging process itself all weaken the support structures around them.

But Benefit says there’s hope! The new Benefit The Porefessional ($28, available now at Ulta.com, and Benefit counters and stores beginning next month).

The lightweight, oil-free primer is designed to minimize the appearance of those behemoth pores when it’s either worn as a primer beneath makeup, where it creates a smooth canvas for foundation and powder, and/or applied on top of your face paint throughout the day, where it softens the skin with a matte finish. Read more…

URBAN DECAY
SEPHORA EXCLUSIVE SHADOWS

So I’m kinda lovin’ on Urban Decay’s new eyeshadow colors, but WOW! — they sure are frosty.

Freelove, Woodstock, Psychedelic Sister, Haight, Dashiki and Aquarius launched exclusively at Sephora and Sephora.com last month ($17 each), and they have everything UD lovers (like moi) adore about the line — smooth textures, playful pigments and insane color payoff — along with a whole lotta frost.

While I love a good frosty shadow, they aren’t always the easiest products to wear. Go even a tad overboard with them (been there, done that), and they can look heavy on the skin and highlight fine lines and wrinkles. Read more…

CHEAP AND EASY
MAKEUP STORAGE

Back before BIC lighters and matches, primitive men went on quests for fire! And today, not unlike ancient man, I embarked upon my own special quest, but this one was for neatness and better makeup organization.

It took weeks of preparation! — okay, maybe not weeks. The idea stemmed from a comment left by MBB reader Marisa (thanks, girl!) and the eyeliners and cream shadows I dealt with a couple of weeks ago.

Before that, I’d resigned to let my lip products live lives of disarray, tossing them all into a clear plastic box.

But that just wasn’t working. I was stressing out every time I had to pull it out to find something, like yesterday, when I spent an obnoxious amount of time looking for my tube of Lychee Luxe (I knew it was in there!).

There had to be a better way.

This is why I love craft stores: cheap and easy storage solutions. For this project I needed scissors, Scotch tape, one big box and a bunch of smaller empty boxes from lipsticks and gloss. Read more…

T3 TWIRL
CURLING IRON

Big, bouncy curls aren’t Victoria’s Secret anymore. Word got out, and now it’s easy to get runway ready hair at home with the T3 Twirl 1.25-Inch Curling Iron ($119).

Those V.S. chicks get help from a dedicated team of stylists who tease their locks into perfectly tousled submission; the T3 Twirl gets help from its 1.25-inch diameter barrel.

The unit joined T3’s stable of styling tools earlier this year. To improve upon the design of old school curling irons that delivered inconsistent heat, the company implemented some very scientific-sounding technology. Straight up, they make it sound like the Kublai Khan of curling irons! T3’s Single Pass digital heating insures that the iron gets hot f a s t. It also helps it maintain consistent heat through the length of the barrel. Read more…

5 TOP DARK CIRCLE
CONCEALERS

So I’m kinda lovin’ on Urban Decay’s new eyeshadow colors, but WOW! — they sure are frosty.

Freelove, Woodstock, Psychedelic Sister, Haight, Dashiki and Aquarius launched exclusively at Sephora and Sephora.com last month ($17 each), and they have everything UD lovers (like moi) adore about the line — smooth textures, playful pigments and insane color payoff — along with a whole lotta frost.

While I love a good frosty shadow, they aren’t always the easiest products to wear. Go even a tad overboard with them (been there, done that), and they can look heavy on the skin and highlight fine lines and wrinkles. Read more…

TOO FACED
LIP INSURANCE

The Problem: Your favorite pigmented lip products disappear faster than Coolio’s rap career (OMG, Gangsta’s Paradise!). Is there anything you can do about it?

Too Faced says sí, se puede! Worn beneath other lip products, their new Lip Insurance lip primer ($19, available at Sephora stores and online) is designed to prevent color fading, bleeding and creasing while simultaneously ramping up the richness of lipsticks and glosses. It’s also jam packed with ceramides and peptides to plump lips and help restore natural collagen.

Too Faced took out all the guesswork from choosing colors, too, because it’s only available in one, which they call Nude. Nude goes on clear with a matte finish and has a light, non-sticky texture that feels smooth like butter. Being a huge fan of Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I couldn’t wait to give Lip Insurance a try. Read more…

ESSIE SUMMER 2010
NAIL POLISHES

Not all summer nail polishes inspire spontaneous boogie down sessions, but the moment I peeped the creamy colors in the Essie Summer 2010 collection, my booty wanted to hit the dance floor!

Essie founder and head honcho (honchette?) Essie Weingarten said she based the six-piece collection — bright with splashes of summery greens, pinks, corals and reds — on the floral prints she’d seen on the runways at New York Fashion Week. If you like what she came up with, you can find the six shades for $48 at beauty stores, salons and also online. I used two coats for these swatches, and every color applied smoothly, with the exception of Miss Matched, which was a tad streaky. All of them exhibit that classic Essie texture (very creamy) and shine. Read more…

MAC DAZZLE LASH
MASCARA

I awoke this morning to a dazzling development! No, not my birthday; I saw that coming from miles/weeks away. This dazzling development was a tube of MAC Dazzle Lash resting on my nightstand. I set it there before bed last night so I’d see it first thing this morning. Why? To remind myself to tell you about it first thing this morning.

MAC Dazzle Lash isn’t new, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before. It’s one of the many MAC mascaras in the company’s permanent collection. With a velvety, non-clumping formula that adds subtle thickness and lash length, it’s designed to deliver a seemingly natural lash look with extreme curl hold. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen