Lips

MAC Unsung Heroes: Viva Glam V Lipglass

April 29th, 2012 by Karen 12 Comments

MAC viva glam v lipglass

Viva Glam V Lipglass ($14.50) is a great gateway gloss for makeup newcomers, and it’s probably the color I recommend the most to new/shy makeup wearers, especially teens and girls just getting into makeup for the first time.

I know that if I was a young girl looking for a mom-approved gloss, (my mom never liked me wearing crazy colors), neutral shimmery pink Viva Glam V definitely would have made the cut.

And I swear that it makes my lips look fuller, even though it’s technically not a plumping gloss.

mac viva glam V

MAC viva glam v lipglass swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Loud & Lovely Cremesheen Glass

April 28th, 2012 by Karen 7 Comments

MAC loud & lovely

Okay, so maybe you’re lovin’ MAC Right Image Cremesheen Glass, but you feel ready to level up in pink with something a little more intense. If you’re ready to step up your pink game, level up with creamy blue-based MAC Cremesheen Glass in Loud & Lovely ($19.50).

Say “Hello, spring!” What I love most about this shade is its flexibility. I can quickly swipe it on for a light hot pink flush, or layer it on a bit thicker for a more intense hit of pink.

mac loud lovely cremesheen glass

mac loud & lovely cremesheen swatch
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Viva Glam VI Lipglass

April 27th, 2012 by Karen 19 Comments

MAC viva glam VI lipglass

Hello, glitter! This way to Sparkle Central. Just a heads up, but Viva Glam VI Lipglass is all about glitter, so if you’re averse to getting glitter on the mattress, glitter on the highway, glitter on the front porch, glitter on the hallway, you probably won’t love (shack) this, baby!

Oh, and another thing — have I mentioned the glitter? Because this Viva Glam has loads of it. 🙂

As a member of the MAC Viva Glam family, 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of VI go to support the MAC AIDS Fund, which helps women, children and men living with HIV/AIDS.

In true Viva Glam fashion, warm, plummy VI gets along with with most everyone, but I think it looks particularly fetching on girls with skin tones from NC and NW 40 and up; something about it just werks on skin tones from medium to dark.

MAC viva glam VI lipglass

MAC viva glam VI lipglass
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Get Spirited Away This Summer With Tarte’s Latest LipSurgence

April 25th, 2012 by Karen 15 Comments

tarte spirited lipsurgence

Red’s not one of the first colors I picture when I think, “summer lip shades.”

Well, it didn’t used to be — but that was before I saw Tarte’s new LipSurgence in Spirited ($24), a shiny, bright poppy red that’s like a beach party in a tube, haaay!

tarte body bronzer spirited lipsurgence
From the left: LipSurgence Lip Tint in Spirited, Clean Slate 360 Creaseless 12-HR Smoothing Primer and Amazon Bronze Amazonian Clay and Annatto Body Bronze
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Wander Into the Garden of Long-Wearing Liquid Lipsticks With Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics and the Garden Collection Lip Tars

April 24th, 2012 by Karen 33 Comments

Wearing Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Belladonna

Gardening. I’m obsessed with gardening. But not the botanical kind, at least not today. Today, I’m obsessed with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, and the new Lip Tars from their Garden collection.

It’s easy to get lost in this garden because it’s filled with psychotropic plants, dude (like Kava Kava). And poisonous ones (like Belladonna).

obsessive compulsive cosmetics the garden lip tars
Lip Tars from the left: Pennyroyal, Kava Kava, Ophelia, Digitalis, Belladonna and Chlorophyll

For their spring and summer 2012 Garden collection/harvest, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) is growing six new Lip Tar shades for the company’s permanent line, and all of them are named after plants.

No, not roses and daisies. 🙂 Not this time. You won’t find any ruffles and bows here. This Garden is wicked! — as you can tell by the color names, but most of the shades themselves, which range from pinks, browns and corals to a smattering of edgier purples and greens, are actually pretty wearable.

OCC has a full range of 100-percent vegan and cruelty-free makeup made without parabens and preservatives, but the Lip Tars are probably their most popular product.

Sticking with the botany metaphor, if you crossed a long-wearing, full-coverage liquid lipstick with a gloss, and then squeezed it into a tiny tube, you’d get a Lip Tar, tada! Opaque coverage and out-of-this-world wear time makes them special.

Just squeeze out a tiny bead, and spread it over your lips with a lip brush or finger (yea!). They start out glossy but dry down to a satin finish.

SO pretty!

Of this bunch, I think I like brown Pennyroyal and coral Kava Kava the most. I think they look the most natural/wearable, but some of the others also look fun.

obsessive compulsive cosmetics pennyroyal
Pennyroyal

obsessive compulsive cosmetics kava kava
Kava Kava

So how long do they really last?

We’re talkin’ hours and hours. They’re total long-wearing rock stars. On my lips, they start looking sketchy after about six hours, when a visible line of product begins to build up along the inner part of my lower lip. No biggie — I just scrape it off.

It’s only after about six hours when they start to fade, slowly and evenly, until they eventually disappear between hours 8-10.

They even last through meals, beverages and repeated kitty kisses (“Give mama a kiss, mwah!“) without migrating or fading at all.

More details…

Texture: So lightweight and comfortable! Sometimes I forget I’m wearing anything on my lips at all.
Packaging: On the one hand, the tubes are great. They make it easy to precisely control how much product I use, cutting down on waste, but they aren’t the most elegant products in terms of presentation… Still, I think it fits their personality.
Flavor and scent: It’s faint in both cases. A combination of peppermint…and wax. I don’t mind the peppermint part so much, but the wax? I could do without. Thankfully, both are very faint and fade in under a minute.
Hydration: I wouldn’t call them exceptionally moisturizing, but at least they don’t make my lips drier and worse, which is good for a such long-wearing product.

Now, if you’re looking for something funkier than Pennyroyal and Kava Kava and don’t mind a bit more work, Belladonna (a bright grape), Digitalis (a pinkish violet), Ophelia (a pink) and Chlorophyll (a bright green) might be more your speed. I find that I get better results when I use a brush to apply all four of these.

NOTE: The lighter pastel colors appear to slightly emphasize the vertical wrinkles in my lips, and the green shade, Chlorophyll, applies a little patchy.

obsessive compulsive cosmetics ophelia
Ophelia
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Oh, Pink, How I Mist Ya: The Burberry Beauty Lip Mist in Pink Heather for Summer 2012

April 21st, 2012 by Karen 14 Comments

burberry pink heather lip mist

Some days you just gotta wear pink, ya know? And luckily, in the world of makeup, pink is not a color in short supply.

This pretty pink lipstick here goes by the name of Pink Heather. It’s actually what Burberry Beauty likes to call a Lip Mist, and it’s part of the brand’s lip-tacular collection for Summer 2012 (not to be confused with their Spring/Summer 2012 release).

burberry pink heather lip mist

burberry pink heather lip mist closeup
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At NARS, Lips Play With Purple, Red and Rose for Summer 2012

April 17th, 2012 by Karen 20 Comments

NARS Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

Man, I’m so tired… (How tired am I?) I’m so tired that I could go to bed right now. In my work clothes. Without removing my makeup.

I actually tried to take a nap this afternoon — which I almost never do because it throws off my sleep schedule — but the phone rang right as I was dozing off.

Rinnng! Rinnng!

“Wha!? Hello? This is Karen.”

“Did I wake you?”

“Oh, hi Mom. No, I was just napping…” 🙂

My mom’s superpower is her ability to call right as I’m about to fall asleep (“Did I wake you?”), or at the exact moment I’m contemplating doing something potentially unwise (“What are you doing?”).

After the call, I considered just blowing off the rest of the afternoon, grabbing some fro-yo, and passing out on the couch, but then I wouldn’t have been able to share the revelations I had about the NARS Summer 2012 collection at the dentist earlier today.

Yes, girl, I thought about makeup at the dentist’s office. It was the only thing I could do to keep from losing my sh*z!

nars summer 2012 never say never calabria buenos aires
Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($24), Calabria Soft Touch Shadow Pencil ($24) and Buenos Aires Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil ($24)

A little back story…

When I was a kid, I had a really mean dentist who seemed to derive great joy from making me cry (I’m pretty sure he was a masochist). To this day, I bawl like a baby during cleanings.

But my current dentist, who looks like Steve Martin, he’s an angel. He’s so nice and patient, and he’s great about walking me through the process, which I really like. He even reminds me to relax my shoulders and unclench my fists while I’m sitting in the chair.

But yeah, he looks like Steve Martin, and whenever he’s hovering over me with that little silver hook, I start playing tunes from Little Shop of Horrors in my head…

nars moscow
Moscow Pure Matte Lipstick, $25

Luckily, today’s cleaning went great (no cavities, yay!), but the anxiety of wondering things like, “What if an earthquake strikes while he’s scraping at my molars and he crochets my gums with that hook?” left me physically and mentally drained.

nars vendanges
Vendanges Lipstick, $24

Between swishing, spitting and trying not to cry, my mind wandered to the new NARS 2012 collection. I thought about FranÃ§ois and how the team at NARS must have had lips on their minds when they created it, since four of the nine pieces in the release are lip products.

nars summer 2012 swatches
Vendanges Lipstick, Moscow Pure Matte Lipstick, Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil and Buenos Aires Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil
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Luscious Lips and Wide Eyes Characterize the EstÃ¨e Lauder Pure Color Gloss Sequins Finish Collection and Two Tone Collection for Eyes

April 12th, 2012 by Karen 34 Comments

estee lauder fuchsia vibes
Wearing EstÃ¨e Lauder Pure Color Gloss Sequins Finish in Fuchsia Vibes on my lips

It looks like I got home just in time because a storm’s a brewin’! I had to make a quick trip into the city, which is why I’ve been MIA, but I’m back in Novato now, much to Tabs’ chagrin.

The air is thick and humid … like it’s about to downpour.

First thing I did when I got home — well, the second thing I did, after giving Tabs some treats (he was all, “Woman! Where were you?! I’ve been STARVING!”) — was check out two new collections coming to EstÃ¨e Lauder counters next month, the limited edition Pure Color Gloss Sequins Finish Collection and Two Tone Collection for eyes.

One can never have too many sequins, I always say (well…). 🙂 Incidentally, that’s the release I’m looking forward to the most. It features six powerfully pigmented, shimmery glosses in berry, coral, red, plum and nude ($22.50 each).

Oh, fig! — which is how the glosses taste and smell. They also have the thin, smooth consistency of a lip cream yet the shine of a gloss. They remind me of MAC Kissable Lipcolours with a side order of shimmer.

As for the 10-piece Two Tone Collection for eyes, it includes the basics for creating a wide-eyed look — not necessarily flashy, but pretty and practical nevertheless.

It features three new Sumptuous Two Tone Eye-Opening Mascaras ($28 each) — each one has a black shade on one side for top lashes and a colorful shade on the other for bottoms — three Double Wear Stay-in-Place Dual-Ended Eye Pencil Duos ($25 each), and four Pure Colour Eyeshadow singles ($20 each).

Here’s a close look at four of the glosses, two of the pencils and one of the mascaras…

estee lauder pure color sequins
From bottom to top: Double Wear Stay-In-Place Eye Pencil Duo in Onyx/Coffee, Double Wear Stay-In-Place Eye Pencil Duo in Onyx/Garnet, Sumptuous Two Tone Eye-Opening Mascara in Bold Black and Rich Plum, Pure Color Gloss Sequins Finish in Purple Passion, Fuchsia Vibes, Cosmic Pink and Violet Rain