Kits and Sets

Believe in the Magic of Unicorns, Makeup and a Cute-as-all-Heck Clutch Purse: The Paul & Joe Make Up Collection 2012 Holiday Kit

October 16th, 2012 by Karen 32 Comments

Deep thoughts on unicorns and the new Paul & Joe Make Up Collection 2012 Holiday Kit…

Question: why are unicorns called unicorns when they’re rarely seen around, or eating, corn? Wouldn’t “uni-horns” make more sense? Granted, it doesn’t sound as pretty, but it would be more accurate, don’t you think?

Question: if one were to spend a lot of time hanging out with unicorns, how often would accidental horn injuries occur? The phrase, “you could put an eye out,” seems particularly apt.

Question: what magic did Paul & Joe employ to make one of my favorite mythical beasts, one that I’ve loved since the age of 6 (You should’ve seen my unicorn sticker collection! It was epic!! The stuff of little girl dreams!), seem even cuter and cooler in their new limited edition $60 three-piece set?

As ~~an accessories ho~~ a purse enthusiast, I can’t decide what I like more about this set, one of three prancing onto shelves for the holidays — the sweet satin purse with its golden detailing and purple inner liner, the makeup that comes with it or the unicorn with purple flowers weaved into its mane.

It’s like a treasure you’d find on a dusty shelf in a vintage store behind a row of empty perfume bottles and silver combs (I love finding things like that). 🙂

The clutch also comes with a couple pieces of pretty great cosmetics, like a shimmery, peachy pink blush with tiny flecks of gold and silver glitter (NOTE: the snowflake pattern is just an overspray that disappears after the first use).

Healthy, glowing skin a la Charlize Theron can be found here.

Paul & Joe Creamy Cheek Powder in 002 on the left and Face Powder in 001 on the right

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Tarte Tempts Blush Enthusiasts With a Fantastic Foursome of Limited Edition Holiday Shades

October 15th, 2012 by Karen 34 Comments

Yes, grasshopper. You are ready…

Ready to take the leap!

You have trained well in the pursuit of flushed cheek perfection, swirling and bouncing your blush brush, and now it is time to take your level of blush love from hobbyist to full-blown enthusiast.

You can — no, you must lead your team of four Tarte powder blushes to new heights of flushed-faced fabulosity! I have complete faith in you.

True, the four new, limited edition shades in the $35 Fantastic Foursome holiday kit are all acolytes, yet each has demonstrated great fortitude and skill.

All of them hail from an elite fighting force, the League of Amazonian Clay Blushes, arguably among the best products in the entire Tarte tribe. Their soft formula, take-no-prisoners pigment and fearsome 10-hour wear time (although Tarte advertises 12) make for some seriously long-lasting blushing.

Meet the new members of the team…

Fantastic

A cool-toned matte fuchsia, Fantastic excels at not only face-to-face flirting, but also at quickly administering a bright, just-pinched flush to the apples of unassuming cheeks. Pair it with any number of pink, purple and/or plum lipsticks or glosses currently residing in your makeup bag.

Magic

You have to believe this shade is maaaaagic! Nothing can stand in its waaaaay!

Sorry…random Xanadu moment. 🙂

This neutral pinkish coral has been trained to treat cheeks lightly kissed by the sun, which is to say that I love the way it looks with a bit of a tan.

Stellar

The team’s triple threat! Wear this peachy brown, with its flecks of silver glitter, as a blush, as a contour shade along your cheekbones, in the crease of your eyes, or as a bronzer all over your face.

Angelic

This shimmery neutral gold specializes in rapid highlighting of upper cheekbones, down the bridges of noses and along brow bones and cupid’s bows.

tarte fantastic foursome fantastic — Fantastic

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This Year’s Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Fragrance Set Is Like Having Four Fragrant Friends Over for the Holidays

October 5th, 2012 by Karen 8 Comments

Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Set Holiday 2012 — The new Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Set for Holiday 2012

Over the holidays this year, love, and your favorite Benefit Eau de Toilettes, will be in the air.

Each of the four tiny 0.34-ounce bottles in the new $36 Benefit Crescent Row fragrance set is small enough to bring in a carry-on bag on your next flight (TSA rules limit liquids to 3.4 ounces or less).

Choose from Laugh With Me Lee Lee (a woody floral), My Place or Yours Gina (a woody oriental), Ring My Bella (a fruity floral) and See & Be Seen Sasha (a captivating floral).

I like my cats big and my perfumes tiny, so every year when Benefit rolls out their little fragrance kits I get really excited! — and then I pop open one of their caps…

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The $29 Ulta Exclusive Too Faced Color Confections Kit Is All Smiles About Eyes, Lips and Cheeks

October 4th, 2012 by Karen 8 Comments

I’ve stumbled on to what may be the only holiday palette this year (or ever?) that’s secretly a sci-fi nerd’s dream come true — the new Too Faced Color Confections kit ($29), a montage of warm and cool eye, cheek and lip makeup packaged in a girly pink case that opens up to reveal what kindasorta looks like a smiling robot.

The powder eyeshadows are its eyes, the three lip colors are its nose, and the two bronzers and blushes are like its teeth… Beep boop beep! 🙂

Not to worry, though. This limited edition Ulta exclusive won’t leave you looking like a robot. I feel like these matte and shimmer finishes give my mug a lot of texture and life.

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Like a Great Deal on Airfare, the Six Ultra Plush Lip Glosses Aboard Benefit’s High Flyin’ Glosses Kit Are Sheer a Good Price

October 4th, 2012 by Karen 10 Comments

Forget Red Bull. Benefit’s latest high-flying lip kit will give you wings! 🙂

Why risk losing that borderline big bottle of liquid foundation in your carry-on to the TSA when you can fly the friendly skies without ever stepping foot on a plane?

Air Benefit’s latest route flies aboard the brand-new $26 High Flyin’ Glosses kit, and it makes the trip from WHEREVER YOU ARE to THE LAND WHERE MINI-LIP GLOSS RULES in however long it takes you to get to your closest Benefit counter.

This adorable limited edition kit contains tiny versions of six of Benefit’s Ultra Plush Glosses — sheer coral Coralista, dusty rose Dallas, bright watermelon Bella Bamba, shimmering nude Hoola, pinkish nude Sugarbomb and soft, pearly pink Dandelion.

The sheer colors should flatter a wide range of skin tones, and considering the regular price of Benefit’s full-size 0.5-ounce Ultra Plushes ($16), $26 for a set of six of them (even though they’re smaller at 0.22 ounces each) seems like a pretty good deal.

benefit high flyin glosses — With a full-size Dandelion gloss for comparison

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Some Distractions Are Too Cute, Like the Too Faced Love Sweet Love Holiday Set

October 3rd, 2012 by Karen 14 Comments

I sure had a hard time concentrating this afternoon… You know how it goes sometimes. You’ve got your to-do list scribbled on a Post-It note, but your mind keeps wandering.

You check your e-mail, Twitter, open a new browser tab to anthropologie.com, spend a few minutes looking at pretty dresses, check your e-mail again, open another tab to Google News, see an article about jogging and wonder, “Hmm…do I still have that baby blue velour tracksuit?”

Then you glance down at your to-do list again, check the clock and vow to tackle your next task at the top of the hour. While you wait, of course, you pull up Glamour’s website in your browser and read an article on relationships titled, Who REALLY wrote the book of love?

That was pretty much me this afternoon, and to make matters worse, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the new Too Faced Love Sweet Love Set ($46).

The seven-piece limited edition kit includes a Book of Love Palette with six powder eyeshadows, two separate powder blushes, two lip glosses, a full-size tube of Lashgasm Mascara, a sample sized Shadow Insurance, a sample sized Perfect Eyes Eye Liner in Perfect Black, a half-ounce tube of Primed & Poreless Face Primer, a multipurpose face brush and a gold embroidered makeup bag.

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Now Boarding Rows Light, Medium and Dark: Jet-Setters of All Skin Tones Might Like Benefit’s New She’s So Jetset Holiday Makeup Kit

October 3rd, 2012 by Karen 12 Comments

Paris, London, New York, Novato…

Oh, that last one? Yeah, Novato, population 49,000, give or take. It’s quickly becoming one of the top destinations for beauty jet-setters.

No kidding, it’s a HUGE draw. Some people still don’t know this about Novato, but it has a Target, a Costco, a Bath & Body Works and even a Sephora, all in the same strip mall.

It’s really quite impressive to behold. 🙂

All kidding aside, even if your home base is out in the sticks like mine, you can still live the life of a jet-setter with the new $36 Benefit She’s So Jetset holiday kit.

Up here in my office, surrounded by 200-year-old oak trees and roving gangs of big-@ss turkeys, I feel like a first-class passenger on my way to a stylish beauty destination when I put on the pieces in this limited edition, travel-friendly kit.

Benefit filled it with neutral colors to suit a wide range of skin tones. It comes with four shimmery shadows, a satiny peach First-Class Face powder, a sample-sized tube of They’re Real mascara (a pretty good lash thickener) and a creamy nude-ish pink Life on the A List gloss.

In more detail…

The Eyeshadow Palette: I like all four of these shimmery, shiny shades, although they’re on the borderline between just right and a little too frosty for me (just something to think about if you’re worried about fine lines). I like that Benefit included colors here that could work well for skin tones from light to medium and dark, and even though I detect a small amount of fallout with these, it’s not enough to get on my nerves.
First-Class Face Powder and Brush: Okay, so the brush is kinda silly; it hardly picks up any product at all, but I like the powder, which gives my skin a soft, peachy glow…that smells really good! Like roses!
They’re Real Mascara: As long as I only apply one layer, I’m a big fan of They’re Real. If I apply any more than that, my lashes start getting clumpy and crunchy.
Life on the A-List Gloss: This super sheer, non-sticky milky pink looks kinda light on my pigmented lips, but I still think it’s great. You can’t go wrong with a lightly tinted, easy-to-wear nude gloss.

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I’ll Take Two Tickets to Valueville: Jet-Setters Will Love the Travel-Friendly Benefit Holiday 2012 Sets and Kits

September 26th, 2012 by Karen 20 Comments

Hello, this is your captain speaking. Thank you for flying with us today on MBB Air. Please remain seated during takeoff, make sure your seat back and tray table are in the upright positions, buckle your safety belt, and keep your makeup handy.

Our destination on this beauty joyride? — Benefit holiday 2012!

Here on MBB Air, as we fly the glossy skies to Beauty Valueville, enjoy our first-class treatment with a touch-up before touch down with one of Benefit’s three new affordable limited edition kits and sets. 🙂

When we reach our cruising altitude, feel free to spritz, swipe, pat and blend your way about the cabin with the High Flyin’ Glosses kit ($26), and the She’s So Jetset ($36) and Crescent Row Limited Edition ($36) sets.

The She’s So…Jetset! Set ($36)

Travel to neutral territory (as in neutral colors) with this nine-piece set for eyes, cheeks and lips. The brightly colored orange, pink and yellow box (so cute!) houses a mini POREfessional primer, four powder eyeshadows, a First-Class Face Powder, a miniature Life on the A List lipgloss, a tiny tube of They’re Real Mascara, a dual-ended applicator and a small cheek brush.

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