Product Reviews

Bay Area Beauty Love: H2O+ Beauty

February 20th, 2019 by Karen 15 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

Why, yes, it amuses me to no end that whenever I need a tropical ?? scent fix, the brand I usually turn to (H2O Plus) isn’t located someplace tropical. Instead, it’s based in San Francisco.

I have no idea why this is so funny to me. ? I’m way too easily amused!

H2O+ Beauty has been a fave of mine for ages. I actually started using them back when I lived in SF in the early Aughts (back when I was all about the Milk lotion). Now I turn to them mainly for body products, like shower gels and lotions, but they also have a few really great skin care products too, like their $20 hydrating gel Elements Keep It Fresh Face Cleanser for normal to dry skin. I love using it after I work out because it totally takes care of the sedimentary layers of sweat without drying out my cheeks, which is no easy feat!

But my “go-to” items from the brand, by far, are the Coconut Verbena Body Wash ($18) and Body Butter ($22). I get them whenever I see them on BOGO at Ulta (which is often, and right now there’s a buy-one-get-one at 40% online). The scent is my favorite tropical scent whenever I’m going through Hawaii withdrawals like I am now.

It’s beachy without the standard sunscreen, piña colada or sweet pineapple notes. It has a strong bright lemon verbena tone that lifts it up and gives it a citrus-y vibe that’s very refreshing, but there’s also a plumeria note, so you aren’t walking around just smelling like lemons, LOL! The coconut is perfection, too, because it smells like freshly cracked coconut as opposed to that artificially sweet coconut candy.

Between the pair of them, my alligator limbs stand absolutely no chance. I am mois-tur-ized!

Chunky braid saves the day

I’m back from the party! I ended up going with a messy, chunky braid, and it turns out that it was the perfect thing for making the grays look purposeful. I did a deep side part to show off my silver highlights. ?
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Ravenous for Red Lipstick: BECCA Hot Tamale

February 14th, 2019 by Karen 10 Comments

becca hot tamale swatch — Hey, hot stuff!

Valentine’s Day ? is here, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

Happy Valentine’s Day, babe! I hope that you and Ryan Gosling are having a lovely celebration of your eternal commitment to each other.

Ya know, I’ve been told I have a spicy ?️ personality, but when it comes to hot and spicy food, my heat ? tolerance level is negative 10. The spice must flow…but not into my food, thanks.

I do love a a hot red lipstick, though, like BECCA Hot Tamale! It’s the same color as a ghost pepper (or, in my case, a sweet red bell pepper).

Just so you know, this lipstick does not taste like a hot tamale.

Who would like it? Anyone who can work reds with orange undertones and own that ish like they invented it, OK?
What’s it similar to? MAC Lady Danger, but with a semi-matte finish instead of a matte one — so, more like a MAC Amplified lipstick finish (I’d call them sorority sisters).
What else should you know? It’s $24 and available at the usual BECCA haunts, including Ulta and Sephora. It has a 4-hour wear time, too, and moves me to song (specifically D’Angelo) because it tastes and smells like brown sugar, babe.

I gets high off your love, I don’t know how to behave.

Are you doing anything for Valentine’s Day, by the way? I’ve got a cold (SURPRISE), so we’re gonna do a family Valentine’s Day with take-out tonight.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ravenous for Red Lipstick: Behold BECCA Brave!

February 13th, 2019 by Karen 10 Comments

becca brave swatch — BECCA Ultimate Lipstick Love in Brave ($24)

Valentine’s Day ? is right around the corner, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

OK, so…I think the eight-hour wear time claim is a stretch for the lipsticks in BECCA’s gnarly new Lipstick Love line, but dang! — for the four hours Brave lasts on my ? lips, I have absolutely NO complaints.

If you’re into pigment packed red lippies, this one’s for you, assuming you’re cool with brown sugar, because that’s how these taste and smell (but it’s not all up in your grill).

Expect some tugging when you run these across your lips because they have a moderately thick formula, and even though I don’t always like when lipsticks feel thick and heavy, I don’t mind this formula. It’s juuust shy of too thick, so it’s firmly in the lip product Goldilocks zone.

According to Sephora…

What it is: An eight-hour long-wearing, silky-satin lip color infused with the next generation of hyaluronic acid.

Ingredient Callouts: Free of parabens. This product is also cruelty-free.

What Else You Need to Know: This silky-satin lip color wears for up to eight hours, and is infused with next-generation hyaluronic acid to hydrate and smooth the look of lips. Ultra-creamy, pure pigments and light-reflecting oils deliver high-impact color in a single swipe. Infused with avocado oil, the ultra-comfortable formula nourishes lips.

Again, I haven’t been getting a full eight hours from these, but I still like ’em.

I think the formula’s heftiness (?) is also a good thing, particularly in cool red Brave’s case, because the formula isn’t super slick, so applying it is almost like drawing with a lip crayon. I can scribble those corner lip lines into place without having to do any major cleanup with a pencil liner, concealer or anything else.

I actually freehand applied the red lips in this pic.

Yup, no brush! — which is doubly impressive considering that I drank too much coffee and had the shakes when I applied it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The New NARS Exposed Collection: Swatches, Quick Look

February 12th, 2019 by Karen 19 Comments

Exposed! — a new collection from NARS — is NOT (I hope) named after flashers, because I was flashed several times when I lived in San Francisco, and let me tell ya…it ain’t pretty, folks.

This collection, on the other hand, is gorge. ? There’s a new $59 six-pan blush palette (a.k.a. the Explicit Cheek Palette) with an allegedly new NARS formula and three mini lip kits (called the Explicit Lip Duos), with a matte pencil and a shiny gloss and $22 each, all coming to the Ulta website, and very likely other places on/after, February 17.

nars exposed collection swatches — Swatches of the Cheek Palette and the Lip Duos

nars exposed cheek palette — Exposed Cheek Palette

nars exposed collection 2 — Clockwise from the lower left: Explicit Color Lip Duo in Intimate, Explicit Color Lip Duo in Sex Machine, Exposed Cheek Palette and Explicit Color Lip Duo in Dragon Girl

In other news…

Chapter 27 in the never-ending saga that is my teeth…

Yay! I have to go to the dentist again! ?

My bite has been funky since my last filling, and it hurts when I chomp down on my right side, which is not at all amusing when you’re mildly addicted to ? eating carrots (especially baby carrots).

Speaking of carrots, what’s up, doc? ? How are you doing today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The New Urban Decay Naked Reloaded Palette

February 11th, 2019 by Karen 15 Comments

Dude, can you believe UD’s O.G. Naked Palette is almost 10 years old?

Wait — should that be in the past tense? Because UD phased out the O.G. Naked (RIP). They replaced it with Naked Reloaded, which’ll be out in less than week!

Overview

What is it? Naked Reloaded replaces the now-defunct Naked Palette. It has 12 powder eyeshadows, and four of the pans — satiny beige Bribe, shimmery golden Barely Baked, matte orange-brown Boundaries and matte peachy beige Blur — contain more product than the others. Those are the shades UD thinks you’ll use the most.
How much is it? ~~I haven’t confirmed this yet, but I’m guessing it’ll be $54, which is how much UD charges for the other Naked Palettes in the permanent collection.~~ It’s $44.
Who’s it for? According to UD, errrrrbody, because the colors and textures are supposed to work for every age, gender and skin tone.
When can you get it? February 18th on the UD website and at Urban Decay stores, March 4th on the Sephora and Ulta websites, and March 7th at Sephora and Ulta stores.
How is it different than the original Naked? Reloaded has more mid-toned warm browns and fewer cooler, darker shades like grays and taupes. It also doesn’t have a dual-ended liner or a brush, and then there are the four larger pans.
Is it like any of the other Naked palettes? Yup, I think so. Naked Reloaded is like a warmer, powered-up Naked on the Run (without the cheek and lip products), with lots of mid-toned colors to make it versatile. The color temps are warm like Naked Heat, but nowhere near as red.
What about the eyeshadow formula? It’s what I’ve come to expect from UD eyeshadows. They’re soft and silky with fluffy powder particles that like to fly when I touch one of the pans with a brush. Based on a prelim arm swatch, most of them feel smooth, except for Angel Fire, which has huskier glitter than the other shimmers, so it’s on the chunky side.
What about that orange? MAN, I’m so over UD’s obsession with orange in their eye palettes… I like orange eyeshadow well enough, but it keeps popping up everywhere, and I’d just assume see something else in place of it.

urban decay naked reloaded swatches tan skin — I’m an NC42 in MAC.

urban decay naked reloaded swatches — Please note the Taylor Swift-ian references…

urban decay naked reloaded — In paw for scale…

Oh, and pardon me for going all X-Files for a moment, but IT’S CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME! Here’s why I think Reputation and End Game, two of the colors, sound like Taylor Swift song references to me: Because I think someone at UD is secretly weighing in on the Taylor Swift vs. Kim/Kanye feud that hit a couple years ago… Or maybe I’m writing too much into it, LOL!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit They’re Real! Red On! Matte Lip Color

February 8th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

This new matte cream lipstick from Benefit (a brand headquartered in the SF Bay Area) is the real deal. I would say “Get red-y for it” if I were a fan of puns (ha ha!), but instead, I’ll just do my best to describe it. It’s a red-olent, red-onkulously easy-to-wear matte red lipstick called They’re Real! Red On! Matte Lip Color, and it’s $20 and comes with its own little lip brush, which sits in that divot that goes across the pan.

Super fun and perhaps borderline gimmicky? Check and check. But it’s actually really good, and reds are hard, man. Especially opaque matte reds lipsticks like this. Most fall into the trap of being so bold and pigmented that they leave you no room for error, and the moment your lip edge goes wonky, there’s no turning back. I know that, at least for me, this is a turnoff, and it keeps me from wearing red very often.

Because — hello! — LAZINESS.

benefit theyre real red on swatch — R U red-y for it?

But Red On makes matte red lips easy, and not simply because of the little lip brush it comes with. You can actually apply this matte cream with a lip brush OR your fingers, and either way, it looks on point.

Believe it or not, I just applied it with a finger in this picture here. I just kinda smooshed it around, and it turned out perfectly.

The formula feels almost like a cream-to-powder formula, and the powder-i-ness (?) enables you to fudge the edges a little if you need to. So, even if your lip lines aren’t super precise, they won’t look that way (the whole world doesn’t have to know it, amirite?).

Red On also feels light and nice on my lips, and it doesn’t dry out my kisser or creep beyond the edges.

What a delightful surprise, really. 🙂 I think it’s a hidden gem in the Benefit permanent line.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!!!!

Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit Gogo Tint

February 7th, 2019 by Karen 8 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

Question of the day: Is the “gogo” in Benefit Gogo Tint a shout-out to the Wham song or a shout-out to gogo dancers?

Neither? Both?

Seeing as how the very first Benefit stain was a nipple tint made for exotic dancers…I’m gonna go-go with option B, ha ha!

It’s been a minute since I’ve worn one of these. They’re $30 liquid lip and cheek stains, and this newest member is a vibrant matte cherry red that looks like an intensified version of the original Benetint I loved like heck in my early 20s.

benefit gogo tint 2 — Wake me up before you Gogo!

Gogo Tint isn’t as watery as the O.G. one. The liquid formula is milkier and creamier (similar to the ChaCha and Lolli tints). The thicker consistency makes Gogo user-friendlier because, unlike the original, it doesn’t immediately drip or roll down your cheeks. It’s also smoother and easier to blend.

I also feel like the slightly creamy consistency makes it less patchy than the more viscous original and easier to blend, which I usually do with my fingers.

Like all of the Benefit Tints, you can wear Gogo on your lips, too. It’s a bright matte red that looks like just-kissed lips, and it’s beautiful if you can get it to apply evenly. Although I appreciate its multitasking prowess, I’m not fond of wearing it on my lips because the tint grabs on to the center areas more than the outer edges, so I end up with an unintentional edgy gradient effect.

I mean, it would be cooler if I were a high-fashion gal, but when I’m out and about in a sweatshirt, stretchy pants and messy bun, as I am 99% of the time…it just looks like I forgot to touch up after lunch.

More deets…

Wear time is about 5-6 hours.
Doesn’t taste or smell like anything.
A little drying on the lips, but not drying on my cheeks, though.
Best on bare skin or skin prepped with BB or CC cream, or tinted moisturizer , can be streaky on a full-coverage base).
Always make sure that the cap is sealed shut; otherwise, it could spill all over your makeup bag.

benefit gogo tint swatch — Gogo Tint, blended (top) and unblended (bottom)

I see this as a great blush for low-maintenance gals and a good option for first-time blush wearers, or anyone who likes makeup that doesn’t look powdery or obvious. A large 0.33-oz. bottle is $30, and a travel-sized 0.13-oz. mini is $12. You can find Gogo at Benefit stores, Ulta and Sephora.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Geez, why are these chairs so comfortable? Is it the chair, the shave ice, the hibiscus flowers around them, the fancy swimming pool? Or all of the above?

Aloha again! This has been a very low-key trip so far with a definite lack of adventure sports and water activities. Yup. Connor, El Hub and I all came down with viruses, so we haven’t been pushing the envelope in terms of activities, but it’s still been wonderful to just hang out, rest and take in the atmosphere (and consume large quantities of shave ice, fresh papaya and pineapple).

I’m gonna go get another shave ice now. What can I get you? You can mix ‘n match any flavors you want…

Banana, Vanilla, Bubble Gum, Cherry Coconut Cotton Candy, Watermelon, Grape, (Sour) Green Apple, Green Tea, Guava, Yuzu, Lemon, Lemonade, Li Hing Mui, White Cake, Lilikoi (Passionfruit), Lime, Mango, Lychee, Melon, Mizore, Orange, Papaya, Pickled Mango, Piña Colada, Pineapple, Raspberry, Root Beer, Strawberry, Peach, Ume, Banana Cream, Coconut Cream, Strawberry Cream

(*Cream flavors have condensed milk pre-mixed into the syrup.)

Sugar-Free Banana, Sugar-Free Strawberry, Sugar-Free Vanilla

Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit Punch Pop!

February 5th, 2019 by Karen 5 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

My idea of the perfect party punch involves strawberries, and if they aren’t in there in copious amounts (mashed or sliced, doesn’t matter to me), I’m out. There’s a Strawberry version in the new-ish Benefit Punch Pops, so YAY for me and my red berry addiction, which I blame on a childhood spent obsessing over Strawberry Shortcake (the doll, not the dessert…although I do love both).

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the boxes say “Liquid Lip Color,” when really, this new-ish line, which came out last fall, is made up of straight-up lipglosses.

*shrugs*

Slightly confusing marketing aside, the glosses are fun, functional and best of all, cute, which is what Benefit, a beauty brand based outta SF (my old stomping grounds!), does best.

This line of non-sticky, full-pigment glosses is supposed to be cheeky and fun and not meant to be taken too seriously. You stick one in your purse, wear it everyday for two weeks straight, and then after that, occasionally take it out whenever you do a deep dive into your bag (“Oh, so THAT’S where it went!”) and touch up with it before moving onto the next thing.

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