Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
I think from now on I’m going to refer to my lips as “textured…” It’ll be code for “So dang flaky that it looks like I made out with a cheese grater.” Then I won’t have to say “I’ve got dry lips” about every 15 minutes of every single day.
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What up, queen bee? Haaay! What’s the buzz on The Body Shop’s new Honey Bronze Highlighting Domes? Are they sweet?
Honey, I’ll tell ya.
LOL! OK, that’s enough with the bee puns. 🙂 I’ll stop.
Uh…what they heck are these things?
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Unless, as a child, your ears were fed a steady diet of cheesy ’80s pop music, you probably won’t think of Huey Lewis and the News when you open the new Pacifica Power of Love Eyeshadow Palette ($19.99).
But since I was THAT KID, that song creeps into my mind when I think about this palette.
“Try to think of other things, Karen,” I tell myself, “like how these mineral eyeshadows are cruelty-free, or how they’re infused with coconut water.”
But nooooo, all I can do is think about Back the Future…
So, Pacifica. Remember when they were just about bath products? Over the past few years they’ve moved further into the makeup space with color products for eyes, faces, lips and cheeks. Their focus is natural makeup — products made with vegan ingredients that are also cruelty free.
New for summer, the Power of Love Eyeshadow Palette is available exclusively at Target stores for $19.99. Inside the cardboard packaging, which is recyclable and printed with soy ink, in case you were wondering, are 10 powder eyeshadows, eight of them shimmers of varying levels of shine, and a couple of mattes. The shades are mostly neutrals, but there are a handful of accent colors as well. Most of the shadows are moderately pigmented, but a few are quite sheer.
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With the new Tarte LipSurgence Lip Crèmes on my lips today, I’m feeling Empowered…
And Serene…
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Current cravings:
Is there an unwritten rule I don’t know about against drinking two of the same kind of smoothies in one day?! #deepthoughts.
He usually “supervises” me in my office during the mornings because he likes the sun in here, but I think he’s afraid of the new pink shelves, so he’s hiding.
May brings us two new Artist Palettes from MUFE — Vol. 1, Nudes You Need, which I played with yesterday, and this brighter one here, Vol. 2, called Colors You Crave.
Now, if my stomach rumbles through these next few paragraphs in this post, I apologize. You see, I am currently craving lunch, in addition to these colors. 🙂
The palette houses nine pans, which are arranged into color-coordinating columns of three (or rows, if you turn it sideways), of Make Up For Ever eyeshadow in their incredibly soft, crazy creamy gel-[dash]-powder formula (they reformulated their eyeshadows last year).
So, how soft are they? Well, this morning El Hub stopped by my desk to loiter as he sometimes does and asked what I was doing. Before I could answer, he reached out and touched the palette.
Of course, he gouged a big divot into one of the pans just by brushing his Tarzan hand against it, so you have to be a little careful with these… All of that is just to say that they’re very soft. They almost feel like a cream, but they’re not. They aren’t wet at all. They’re still powders, but they’re squishy powders.
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You’ve got to “C” MAC’s new de-Lightful tinted moisturizer.
Get it…? C? As in “see”?
OK, that pun was bad. 🙂 Sorry, but the product’s called Lightful C! Come on, you know I had to go there.
Yes, MAC has a new tinted cream/moisturizer. Officially, it’s called Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF 30 With Radiance Booster and, um…could that name be any longer and more awkward? Maybe? Probably not.
Essentially, it’s a sheer coverage tinted moisturizer with skin care benefits. It’s designed to even out your skin tone without completely covering your natural skin color, which I think is really cool, and it does so while also blurring pores, controlling oil, protecting you from sun damage, and cranking up your natural radiance factor with a barely-there, subtle sheen.
It’s also supposed to reduce the appearance of dark spots over time. So, basically, it’s everything and the kitchen sink squeezed into a 1.3-oz. tube. Available in nine shades, including Extra light (a pale alabaster), Light (a pale ivory), Light Plus (a light beige), Medium (a warm beige), Medium Plus (a tan beige), Medium Deep (a caramel beige), Dark (a deep caramel), Dark Plus (a neutral tan beige) and Dark Deep (a rich golden bronze).
Lightful C Tinted Cream is the latest addition to MAC’s Lightful C product line, their skin care category dedicated to subtle brightening with the antioxidant power of “C,” as in vitamin C. It contains ascorbyl glucoside, a modified version of vitamin C that combines C with glucose, which supposedly makes it more stable in skin care formulas and cosmetic products, and it’s listed up high among the ingredients.
It’s always a bummer to me when the star compound is listed down at the bottom of the ingredients, so at least in this case, there’s presumably a significant amount of it in Lightful C Tinted Cream.
About vitamin C’s skin care benefits in general…
“It has been shown to increase collagen production (including dermal collagen, which is significant for wrinkle reduction), reduce the appearance of skin discolorations, strengthen skin’s barrier response, enhance skin’s repair process, reduce inflammation, and help skin better withstand exposure to sunlight, whether protected by sunscreen or not.”
I’m still madly in love my full-coverage foundations (see: Dior), but as summer approaches, I unconsciously transition to wearing sheerer coverage more, and Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF hits that spot. I like how it evens out my skin tone without covering everything up, so my skin still looks like mine, and not like someone/something else.
Also much appreciated…
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MIND BLOWN.
That’s all I have to say about Oribe’s new Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray. That, and “wallet on five-alarm fire, holy sh*t!”
Honestly, and I know that I say versions of this all the time, but the last thing I needed was to get addicted to a $29 root touch-up spray in a tiny 0.7-oz. bottle, but it is what it is!
When your hair reaches that point when you really, really, REALLY should’ve gotten your roots done a week ago (or…a month ago), but your next salon appointment is still two weeks away, and then you spray this on your roots, and essentially see your hair revert back to its pre-rooty-root glory days in less than 30 seconds right before your eyes, it’s magical.
And dangerously addictive.
Because of the price.
I’m keepin’ it quick this time with a brief breakdown of both Powder Blushes in the soon-to-arrive MAC Wash and Dry collection (May 14 online, May 21 in stores and counters).
First, let’s say “Hi!” to Hipness (then we’ll look at Crisp Whites).
The succinct two-sentence summary? Hipness is a warm, peachy coral-ish powder blush with a barely-there satin finish that could almost pass for matte. In fact, it fooled me at first glance, but then I took a closer look at it and saw petite pearlescent particles.
The tech specs? I’m fine with one layer of this highly pigmented powder, which lasts seven or eight hours on my sometimes/places dry, sometimes/places oily combination cheeks. Great on its own, it’s hot dayum! — phenomenal blended with a bronzer (and more on that in a sec).
Have we met before? Why, yes, we have. 🙂 Double-check your MAC collection, because Hipness has performed at this venue before. You may recall it from (2008’s Fafi or 2010’s MAC to the Beach.
For whom would it work well? Bronzed beauties (and barons) are in extra luck. Hipness looks bright, but not excessively bold, on my NC42 skin. If you’re a lighter lass, however, you can still have fun with Hipness. Try mixing a little with bronzer, and then applying that powder potion to your cheeks. The bronzer will tone down the brightness a bit and, bonus! — could save you a little time, because then you wouldn’t have to apply blush and bronzer separately (assuming you would).
This is one of my all-time favorite gotta-get-out-the-door-now tricks, and I actually think that it takes this particular blush to the next level of effortless-ness, no matter what your skin tone.
How do I feel about Hipness? I feel good. I feel good about Hipness. 🙂 I think it’s very flattering and natural-looking, especially when layered or mixed with bronzer. I’m happy to see it making an encore performance in MAC Wash and Dry.
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