Kits and Sets

The $39 Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick Set Comes With Nine Nubbly Novelties/Diminutive Darlings

December 4th, 2014 by Karen 18 Comments

The nine little lipsticks in the $39 Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick Set make me feel like Shrek, man! They’re just so precious and tiny in my paws.

Suddenly, it’s ogre time, which is like Hammer time, except without the backup dancers and shiny parachute pants.

OK, yeah, I’ve got that whole long-fingered E.T. hands thing happening, but really, my hands aren’t that big, and yet they seem like ginormous beast hands when I see myself holding one of these little lipsticks.

I’m starting to develop a complex. 🙂

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Oh, Hello, Cutie! The Hello Kitty “The Red Bow Beauty Diaries” Holiday Set Is a Hello Kitty Fangirl’s Dream

December 3rd, 2014 by Karen 19 Comments

Dear Diary,

I have a confession to make…

I don’t know if the limited edition $25 Hello Kitty “Red Bow Beauty Diaries” holiday kit was made for kids or grownups.

But, uh, I don’t really care.

Is that wrong…?

I love this damned thing! And I don’t give a crap if I’m wearing the same makeup that little Susie is rocking to Brianna’s ninth birthday sleepover because — and here’s the kicker — there’s a bonafide letter from Hello Kitty inside the set!

Yeah, the actual kitty HERSELF.

For real though, I get the feels every time I read it, and I actually think it was written directly to me — Karen from Union City, California.

Or not.

Diary, I think this set was made special for people who grew up loving Hello Kitty, because, truth be told, the makeup isn’t great. I’d say it’s just a step up from the pieces in a little girl’s toy makeup set.

While pigmented, the glitter liners rub off easily, and the lipsticks, gloss and cream eyeshadows are woefully sheer.

As for the pink hair mascara, it feels smooth when I put it on but turns crusty when it dries.

Weird.

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So Sweet, You’ll Want to Keep These Treats for Yourself: The Fresh Sugar Holiday Sets

December 1st, 2014 by Karen 31 Comments

“Sugar, above all else!”

If I were to leave my mark and carve my mantra above a doorway with a blunt object and my bare hands, that would be it, because as far as I’m concerned, sugar dominates — sugar kills it, bro! — over the salty, the sour and everything else.

Since I’m a girl who can devour a pecan pie all by herself in less that 48 hours (hey, at least when I ate those two slices for breakfast, I had the “restraint” to skip the whipped cream), I’m all about the sweet stuff, and that includes these sugar-themed holiday sets by Fresh, a brand I’ve been kind of obsessed with lately (I totally blame it all on their Black Tea Toner and Fresh Life fragrance, which will forever be my Fresh gateway items).

This year the brand has several sugar-themed holiday sets for the pecan pie-eating, doughnut-print-loving sweet tooth in yo’ life.

Fresh Sugar Legends set ($55, a $79 value)

The tints in this seven-piece set are sheer enough to quality as “easy to wear” but colorful enough to stand on their own, which should make them a good gift option for just about anyone with a pronounced sweet tooth…because they’re also sugary scented and flavored. One taste and you’ll be smackin’ your lips for more…MORE!

Fresh Sugar Legends Set — One for every day of the week

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Tag, You’re It, Girl! Go Cremesheen Crazy for Less With the $39.50 The It Girl Trio by It Cosmetics

November 25th, 2014 by Karen 11 Comments

It Cosmetics The It Girl Set Under the Mistletoe — Wearing Under the Mistletoe gloss from the new $39.50 The It Girl Set by It Cosmetics

And here I was, thinking that in order to be an “it girl,” I was going to have to travel to a parallel universe, one where it’s hip to have spinach stuck in your teeth (And it’s always the teeth on the upper left side… Why?!), wear clothes covered in three pounds of cat hair and have an overabundance of hair roots in desperate need of a dye job.

Not so. If the new $39.50 The It Girl Set by cruelty-free It Cosmetics has any say in the matter, all of us can be it girls (or boys!) together.

It Cosmetics The It Girl, $39.50 — The It Girl, by It Cosmetics ($39.50)

“Power to the it girls!” she shouted, before reading the names of the limited edition shades in the three-piece set aloud.

Her feline sidekick appeared disinterested.

“Listen, Tabs,” the girl continued. “There’s pale pink Snow Bunny, pinkish brown Joy to the World and berry Under the Mistletoe. Which of these my-lips-but-better colors do you like best on me?”

The cat sneezed, then spontaneously licked his paw.

“Anyone? Bueller?”

Tabs may not have an opinion on these three sheer, creamy glosses (he’s partial to bling, after all, and none of them are vibrant or sparkly), but I bet RyGos would. 🙂 Because he’s fabulous like that, obvs.

It Cosmetics The It Girl Set glosses from the left: Snow Bunny, Joy to the World and Under the Mistletoe — From the left: Snow Bunny, Joy to the World, and Under the Mistletoe

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Just Add a Festive Ribbon or Bow to These Topshop 2014 Holiday Kits, and You Have a Perfect Gift

November 19th, 2014 by Karen 8 Comments

Topshop Holiday 2014 — It’s a Topshop holiday party, *haaay!*

OK, so maybe orange and black aren’t the first two colors that pop into my mind when I think of the holidays (with the exception of that scary one with all the candy)…

But so what? These new Topshop holiday kits are bringin’ the cute! 🙂

Slap a Christmassy ribbon on one of these bad boys, and boom! — hello, stylish present.

Topshop is one of those makeup lines that flies under my radar a lot of the time, but they have some very cute things, and some of those are in these kits.

The Blush and Lip Duo in Innocent and Illicit ($24)

Topshop Blush Lip Duo Set with Lipstick in Innocent and Blush in Illicit — The Topshop Blush Lip Duo Set with Lipstick in Innocent, and Blush in Illicit

Topshop’s blushes are DOPE. They last like Italian marble and look totally natural on cheeks. They’re also why this set caught my eye.

It comes with Illicit, a nude, cool-toned rose cream blush with a dash of micro shimmer. Coincidentally, it was the shade I was wearing today when I went looking for an illicit encounter with my side-cat, Elsa (but I didn’t see her, boo!).

The set also comes with a creamy cool-toned pink lipstick called Innocent, which is super pretty and looks great with black smokey eyes. Sadly, it also seems to like hanging out in my lip lines…

The Mascara and Kohl Kit ($24)

Topshop Mascara and Kohl Kit, $24 — Mascara and Kohl Kit ($24)

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Step Right Up to the bareMinerals Kissing Booth 6-Piece Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss Collection: A Carnival of Glassy, Sheer Color

November 18th, 2014 by Karen 15 Comments

bareMinerals Kissing Booth marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Jezebel — bareMinerals Kissing Booth Collection Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Jezebel

Thanks, bareMinerals, for inspiring my latest list with your new $26 Kissing Booth Lipgloss Collection.

I’m calling it “Carnival Attractions That I Absolutely Never Want to Operate.”

At the top of the list, the kissing booth, which, yeah, probably isn’t a good fit for the girl who freaked-the-eff-out when she found out that her (now ex) boyfriend was using her toothbrush (EWWWWWWW!).

Can you imagine the germs exchanged during one afternoon at a kissing booth? Um…no thank you.

Carnival Attractions That I Absolutely Never Want to Operate

The kissing booth — Yuck! I don’t know where those lips have been!

The Ferris wheel — People freaking out in buckets a hundred feet off the ground? I can’t… I just can’t.

The milk bottle baseball game — Oh, hell to the no. How much do you want to bet someone would hit me with a ball?

The carousel/merry-go-round — Make it stop! The music is driving me nuts…

Now, if I could insist that there were only two customers at my kissing booth, El Hub and Tabs (who would get nose kisses, of course), then cool. 🙂 And I’d also want these Kissing Booth Collection glosses around, because their sheer pigments wouldn’t leave bright smooch marks behind.

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A Warning to All Crazy Cat Ladies Considering the New Laura Mercier Luxe Travel Brush Collection…

November 14th, 2014 by Karen 20 Comments

Take heed, crazy cat ladies. Rubbing the brushes in Laura Mercier’s $125 Luxe Travel Brush Collection across your face may induce irresistible urges to adopt additional cats.

WARNING: If you have already acquired a “gateway cat,” exercise extreme caution, especially around the Cheek Colour Brush, because it feels exactly like the softest, plushest, most downy delicious belly meat.

Makeup lovers have reported that it made them contemplate kitty crime. “I’m considering kidnapping an adorable tortie girl who lives down the street,” said one woman, “even though I know better…” 🙁

Gate-way cat
noun
Among members of the crazy cat lady community, the third cat is commonly referred to as “the gateway cat,” since it opens the door to adopting even more cats and posits the question, at this point, why stop at just three?

All eight of the brushes in this set feel kitten soft, from the fluffy Pony Tail Brush (fabulous for erasing hard edges, applying highlighter to those upper cheekbones, or for blending under-eye concealer), to the Angled Eye Liner Brush (great for thin lines and flicks, and it also doubles as a spot applicator for concealer). The set also comes with a travel case and a removable mesh cosmetic bag insert.

The $125 Laura Mercier Luxe Travel Brush Collection includes…

Cheek Color Brush

Secret Camouflage Brush

Pony Tail Brush

Creme Eye Colour Brush

Eye Crease Brush

Smudge Brush

Flat Eye Liner Brush

Angled Eye Liner Brush

Travel Case with removable mesh cosmetic bag

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The $26 bareMinerals Lipspectacular Set Brings All the Boys to the Yard

November 14th, 2014 by Karen 18 Comments

You know that moment after a looong day when you finally take off your false lashes and your Spanx? Yeah, the six glosses in the $26 bareMinerals Lipspectacular set feel even better than that.

They’re just so smooth and creamy and oh, my friggin’ goodness! — comfortable. And not sticky at all.

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