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Product Reviews

With the MAC Daphne Guinness Interior Life Quad, There’s a Storm Brewing, But It’s Cool

December 16th, 2011 by Karen 35 Comments

MAC interior life quad

I love it when life imitates art, or seems to, like it did yesterday when a storm passed overhead while I was contemplating the Eyeshadow X4 quad in Interior Life ($38).

The gray clouds came out of nowhere — clear skies one minute, a downpour the next — and when a blast of thunder roared, I was clutching the quad and its four cool-toned shades.


Remember this scene from the end of the first Terminator movie?

Looking up at the sky and then down at the quad, I realized that both of them were cut from the same cloth, a shawl of moody grays, purples, blues and pinks…

Now, I like these colors. I do. They’re just not the easiest shades for me to wear, and if you’re a damsel with a darker skin tone like mine, you might find that these shadows appear quite sheer when applied.

Who is Daphne Guinness?

The Honorable Daphne Suzanne Diana Joan Guinness, the Irish heiress to the Guinness brewery fortune, is a style icon and world-renowned fashion journalist. Tom Ford once called her “one of — if not the — most stylish women living.” She was also the inspiration behind last year’s holiday collection from NARS.

This year, MAC joined forces with Daphne to develop a 21-piece collection for eyes, lips, cheeks and nails in a mostly cool-toned palette of gray, pink, brown, taupe, charcoal, blue, green and lavender.

I’ve played with nine of the pieces so far, and from what I’ve seen, this release looks stunning for lighter lasses who wear cool-toned grays, pinks and purples well.

With Interior Life, MAC continues to play with sheer pigments. In comparison to Miss Piggy Pink, I think these shades offer a touch more coverage, and while I can appreciate MAC wanting a change of pace, I can see why it might ruffle the feathers of MAC fans addicted to pigment.

mac interior life


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There are 35 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: MAC Makeup, Product Reviews Keywords: mac

Prep, Cover and Finish: 3-Step Flawless Skin with the New Make Up For Ever Professional HD Complexion Starter Kit

December 15th, 2011 by Karen 19 Comments

make up for ever hd complexion starter kit

Over the course of many merry Christmases and happy New Years, I’ve been guilty of myriad makeup faux pas, a few of which were regrettably caught on film (the horror!). And never mind the oversized twinkling reindeer horn hats or Bedazzled sweaters I was probably wearing at the time. In some of those pics I’m sure I was showcasing blotchy red patches and an oily forehead.

Eek!

In an effort to keep history from repeating itself, this year I’m enlisting the help of Make Up For Ever’s new Professional HD Complexion Starter Kit ($79).

It’s either that, or run the risk of being caught in another holiday pic looking like I’ve had too many cups of eggnog…

Yeah, no thanks! 🙂

The new four-piece set is designed to deliver flawless skin in three simple steps — 1. Prep, 2. Cover and 3. Finish. Available now at Sephora stores and also online, it comes with one full-size HD High Definition Foundation, travel sizes of Make Up For Ever’s HD High Definition Primer in #0 and HD High Definition Powder, and an HD Microfinish Kabuki Brush.

make up for ever hd complexion starter kit
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There are 19 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Makeup, Product Reviews Keywords: make up for ever

My Lips Are Tingling Over These New Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Creams

December 14th, 2011 by Karen 20 Comments

buxom big & healthy lip cream berry blast
Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Cream in Berry Blast

Applying one of Buxom’s new line of lip creams feels like kissing a peppermint candy cane…

Refreshing!

The seven super shiny plumping glosses in the new Big & Healthy Lip Cream line ($18 each) don’t arrive until February, well after the peak of candy cane season, but if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought they were a Christmas release.

Smelling like coconut buttercream and tasting like mint, they offer sheer-to-medium coverage that lasts about four hours on me. If MAC made a slightly thicker Cremesheen Glass that tingled, it would probably feel a lot like one of these creams, with a similarly smooth, non-sticky texture that feels great on my lips.

Buxom bestowed upon them a host of hydrating helpers like vitamins A and E, and something they call “hyaluronic filling spheres,” which the company claims can moisturize lips from the inside out, but they skipped the preservatives and parabens.

Unfortunately, those hydrating helpers haven’t really worked for me. After my first day with these, my lips began to feel a little tight and dry…

buxom big & healthy lip cream

buxom big & healthy lip cream swatches
Swatches from the left: White Russian, Mudslide, Creamsicle, Pink Lady, Berry Blast, Purple Haze and Cherry Flip
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There are 20 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Makeup, Product Reviews Keywords: buxom

Sonia Kashuk Went All Out Glam on Her Latest 6-Piece Brush Set

December 14th, 2011 by Karen 30 Comments

Sonia Kashuk Holiday 2011

Neat! Now here’s a brush kit that caught my eye. Of course, it’s hard to miss something with so many sparkles. 🙂

What an interesting selection of brushes in Sonia’s new All Out Glam 6-Piece Brush Set ($24.99) for faces, cheeks and eyes! I see a few brushes here that I can’t recall ever seeing before in a holiday brush kit, like the synthetic-fiber domed face brush, which I like for applying under-eye concealer, and the synthetic-fiber eye/concealer brush, which looks to me like a skinnier, stretched out version of the MAC 219.
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There are 30 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Drugstore Beauty Finds, Makeup Tools, Product Reviews Keywords: sonia kashuk

With the Essie Luxeffects Collection, Glitter Is a Shine of the Times

December 13th, 2011 by Karen 44 Comments

Essie Luxeffects

The other day at the grocery store, I got to chatting with the cashier who was helping me. She was sporting one of the cutest sparkly manicures I’d seen in a while, and when I told her how much I liked it, she replied, “Aw, thanks! Since I have to wear a uniform every day, I like to do something to spice it up.”

Amen to that! Working for Tabs, I also have to wear a uniform of sorts — you know, sensible shoes and clothes that show I’m responsible enough to handle midnight gravy runs, and other crucial cat-assigned tasks. To spice things up this week, I plan to wear something from Essie Luxeffects.

The new collection of nail polishes launched earlier this month with five glittery shades ($8 each), and WOW! — what a surprise. I think of Essie as a pretty conservative line, so it’s neat to see them take a detour down a sparkly path.

The glitter flecks they used for these polishes, which are designed to be worn alone or layered with other lacquers, come in different shapes and sizes, from larger hexagonal flecks to tiny round ones smaller than a grain of sand, and the variety creates the illusion of depth and dimension.

The collection includes…

essie luxeffects (6)
Essie Luxeffects from the left: As Gold as it Gets, Shine of the Times, A Cut Above, Pure Pearlfection and Set in Stones

essie luxeffects (2)
Set in Stones
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There are 44 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Nails, Product Reviews Keywords: essie

Lemony Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo Is No Desert Rose, But It Should Buy Your Hair Some Time Between Washes

December 12th, 2011 by Karen 17 Comments

Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo (4)

When I caught my first whiff of Lush’s citrusy new No Drought Dry Shampoo ($12.95), I wondered if it could handle the scent of eau de greasy roots — that scent somewhere between musk and the fragrant toe funk that manifests after one too many days without shampoo.

To erase my doubts about No Drought, I went four days sans shampoo, at the end of which my mop had reached greasy critical mass, complete with limp roots, a gummy scalp and a scent akin to El Hub’s sock drawer. With my hair at new heights of jankiness, I reached for Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo.

I followed the directions on the bottle, or tried to at least, but the bottle doesn’t make this loose powder easy to dispense.

Correction — it makes it too easy. The cap has a regular lotion topper that dumps out a ton of product when it’s tipped, and I wound up with more powder on the sink and bathroom floor than I successfully got in my hair.

Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo (1)

Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo (2)
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There are 17 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Hair, Product Reviews Keywords: lush

NYX’s New Pin-Up Tease and Le Frou Frou Holiday Mascaras Tantalized Me With Type

December 11th, 2011 by Karen 15 Comments

Font freak time!

I couldn’t wait to try NYX’s new Le Frou Frou and Pin-Up Tease Mascaras (about $9 each) mainly because of the typography on the tubes. The letter styling reminds me of the phase I went through in fifth grade when I was obsessed with fonts from the 1930s…

Yes, I was/am a nerd.

These are so brand-spankin’ new that they aren’t available for sale yet on the NYX website, but they are a holiday release and should be arriving on shelves soon.


Top pic: naked lashes; bottom pic: wearing two layers of Le Frou Frou on the left and two layers of Pin-Up Tease on the right
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There are 15 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Drugstore Beauty Finds, Makeup, Product Reviews Keywords: nyx

$6 NYX Liquid Black Liner Doesn’t Skip a Beat

December 10th, 2011 by Karen 21 Comments

NYX liquid black liner (3)

Over the course of playing with testing the new NYX Liquid Black Liner ($6), I discovered a few interesting things, like how the slender brush lays down rich, pitch perfect lines, or how the formula never skips a beat.

The thin brush is firm enough to draw precise lines with, but not so inflexible that it doesn’t feel smooth as it glides along soft skin.

NYX liquid black liner (2)

NYX liquid black liner (1)
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There are 21 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Drugstore Beauty Finds, Makeup, Product Reviews Keywords: nyx

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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