Product Reviews

If Your Time Is Worth More Than $1, Don’t Miss These E.L.F. Eyes Lips Face Nail Polish Remover Pads

November 18th, 2011 by Karen 19 Comments

elf nail polish remover pads (1)

Nail lacquers better look out! There’s a new sheriff in town, and he brought a case of these of amazing E.L.F. Eyes Lips Face Nail Polish Remover Pads.

A dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, but someone forgot to tell that to E.L.F. With the exception of that travel pouch of emergency Nutella in my purse (no judgement), these are the best $1 products I’ve seen in a while.

A beauty obsessed pal of mine recently raved about pre-soaked nail polish remover pads, saying that they saved her a ton of time and kept her nails and cuticles in good condition, and WOW! — she was not kidding.

For removing non-glittery nail polishes, these are the shiz! One pad takes care of the whole kit and caboodle for me — base coat, top coat and multiple layers — for all 10 fingers.

Glitters, on the other hand (no pun intended) are a different story. I tried to see how these would handle my recent glitter ombre mani, and although the pads put up a good fight and cut through most of the sparkly stuff, I still had to use four of them to finish the job (there are 18 of them in a pack).

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elf nail polish remover pads (3)
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Feast Your Eyes on the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection

November 17th, 2011 by Karen 25 Comments

china glaze eye candy

Oops! I just misspelled my Google search term. I meant to type “YouTube kittens,” but I accidentally typed “Ryan Gosling abs.”

Don’t you hate it when that happens? 🙂

The Internet can be so distracting. It’s easy to get so busy Googling important things like Ryan’s abs that you miss the really important stuff, like all of the glittery nail polishes appearing this season.

The stuff’s been showing up everywhere! — but after a certain point, it all starts to blend together, like house music at a three-day rave (duh-chuh-duh-chuh-duh-chuh!).

No worries. Eye Candy, the latest collection from China Glaze, can simplify the process of finding a glitter polish that’s both flashy and classy. The six-piece collection was inspired by Marilyn Monroe and utilizes a special variety of glitter called GLITTER (in all caps).

GLITTER is basically exactly like glitter, only sparklier, and because of it these polishes sport so much sparkle that they look like they’re about to explode! But at the same time, they’re bright, light, and to me don’t seem garish.

NOTE: There’s really no such thing as GLITTER. I just made it up.

China Glaze says that the “innovative glitter technology” they cooked up for these creates a “3-D effect.”

That’s marketing-speak for “these polishes are flashy and all up in your grill!” With that said, they might not appeal to ladies on a strict mani/pedi diet of Essie Ballet Slippers.

All six Eye Candy shades showcase glitter in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors in a clear formula. My favorite? — flashy Marry a Millionaire, which sets thin, confetti-like strips in green and teal against a backdrop of purple micro-glitter.

Hot, hot, hot!

I swatched Millionaire and its siblings this afternoon using two layers, and without a base or top coat.

china glaze eye candy

china glaze eye candy
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With the Bobbi Brown Dual Ended Eye Liners, Eyes Have Options, One Neutral and One Fun

November 16th, 2011 by Karen 16 Comments

QUESTION: When are two widgets better than one?

ANSWER: Always, when you’re a gal who likes options, and the widgets are the liners at both ends of each new limited edition Bobbi Brown Dual Ended Eye Liner.

I’m one of those gals. I keep multiple pairs of shoes in the back seat of my car for emergencies — emergencies like when I change my mind about my footwear on the way to wherever I’m going — and I’m the same way with makeup, because you never know when the need to wear gold eyeliner will strike!

“With Bobbi’s Dual Ended Eye Liner, one side brightens, while the other side defines for long-wearing that doesn’t fade. A unique combination of soft waxes and oils, plus a high concentration of pigments, provides silky-smooth application and dense, even color.”

— bobbibrowncosmetics.com

This season, thanks to these three new $24 pencil duos, which are available now on Bobbi Brown counters and also online, I’ll be all set. Available in three combinations — Chocolate & Bronze, Jet & Chrome and Caviar & Gold — one side has a neutral shade to help you play it safe at the office, and the other side has a shimmery shade for parties after work…

…or for running away from zombies!

Because you never know, right?

Yep, I’m hooked on The Walking Dead

The two duos I’ve been wearing this week, Jet & Chrome and Chocolate & Bronze, feel like butter and look like ink. They’re super smooth and pigmented, gliding on like Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils, while depositing pigments so intense that they remind me of Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Eyes Liners.

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EcoTools Extends a Helping Hand to the Planet and Gets You Squeaky Clean with Their $3 Bath & Shower Gloves

November 16th, 2011 by Karen 38 Comments

5 Things That Give Me a Strange Sense of Satisfaction

Taking off my bra after a really long day
Flossing the HECK out of my teeth
Cleaning my belly button with a Q-tip
Clipping my toe nails (it’s even better if they’re really long)
Vigorously exfoliating with these shower gloves

I just picked up this cute new pair by EcoTools ($3). It’s made from 65% recycled materials, which I thought was pretty cool. Probably puts a lot of old plastic soda bottles, yogurt cups and tubs of margarine to good use.

The gloves feel soft and pliable, yet they’re still coarse and dense enough to give my bod a good scrubbing.

I got them in green because they matched my bath towels (nerd!), but they also come in brown and blue. 🙂

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Chanel’s Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lip Colours Feel So Light That They Defy Gravity!

November 15th, 2011 by Karen 56 Comments

Wearing Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lip Colour in 36 La Caline

I’ve only been snowboarding once, and it was a very long time ago. I don’t remember much about that day anymore, but I do recall the cold. I remember that much — the part about freezing my @ass off — and I also remember flying down the mountain and feeling lighter than air, with the wind whipping through my ponytail and my heart pounding in my chest.

I’d do it again if it wasn’t so cold, but what can I say? I was made in the tropics. 🙂

Snow wasn’t part of my original programming, but I think I was configured to appreciate featherweight lip products like the new Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lip Colours ($32 each, available in eight shades).

They feel so light on my lips that I’d swear I wasn’t wearing anything at all. Light, just like I felt flying down that mountain all those years ago.

Chanel describes the finish of these Luminous Matte Lip Colours as “velvet matte,” which does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I think they’re mostly matte, with a slight shine to keep lips from looking flat and fake, like the lips on a mannequin.

chanel rouge allure velvet luminous matte lip colour (3)
From the left: 41 L’Exquise, 39 La Somptueuse, 36 La Caline (with a smooshed tip!) and another tube of 36 La Caline (with an unsmooshed tip)

Swatches from the left: 36 La Caline, 39 La Somptueuse and 41 L’Exquise

Wearing 36 La Caline
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It Takes One or Two to Tango with Bobbi Brown’s New Chocolate & Gold Eye Palette

November 15th, 2011 by Karen 38 Comments

bobbi brown chocolate & gold eye paint palette (5)

Y’all want this party started, right?
Y’all want this party started quickly, right?

— C+C Music Factory

Bobbi Brown sure knows how to throw a holiday party. Her latest soirÃ©e features four entertaining colors and two of my favorite things: chocolate and gold.

Today the limited edition $45 Chocolate & Gold Eye Paint Palette, one of two quads in Bobbi’s new Party Collection, took me on a stroll down memory lane that started with this classic house hit…

WARNING: It’s always a good idea to stretch before dancing to this song

Chocolate & Gold happens to be a great dance partner! The shadows, while fabulous on their own, get along great with others and flat-out love to be layered.

Which reminds me — do you remember the moment you realized that you could wear more than one eyeshadow on your lids at a time? Better yet, when you figured out that you could even layer those shades together?

GASP! That’s a moment that changed my makeup world forever. 🙂

Flash forward to today. I was just fooling around this morning when I applied the bronzy gold from the Chocolate & Gold Palette (at the top in the pic below) on top of the darker black and gold shadow on the right.

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This Year for the Holidays, Clarins Got Passionate (and It’s a Slow Burn)

November 14th, 2011 by Karen 45 Comments

clarins passion holiday makeup collection (4)

Packaging ho that I am, I always ~~salivate thinking about~~ look forward to seeing what Clarins cooks up for their holiday collections.

Remember the floral flourishes swirling across 2010’s Barocco release and the plaster and pebbled textures from 2009’s Palazzo d’Oro?

Mmm… luxuries limited edition designs. And seriously good stuff.

Since the brand usually displays dramatic flair with the packaging of their holiday collections, I was a little surprised by this year’s release. Passion, available now on Clarins counters and also online, has at least one opulent episode via the curvy red pattern decorating the Passion Face Palette ($55), but the other items in the four-piece collection look uncharacteristically streamlined and restrained.

Here, the simple compacts merely hint at the fire that burns within them. “Hello, lovah,” they whisper, with sophisticated gray, rose, taupe, peach and silver shades that feel more to me like a controlled burn than a sudden burst of vibrant, intense color.

Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in Smokey Passion ($40)

When I started to explore Passion (LOL!), I began with this quartet. Its sleek gold compact houses two powder eyeshadows (in taupe and rose), a powder liner (in a glittery grayish black) and a creamy, glittery highlighter; I really like how the colors make my eyes smolder and shimmer, and while the creamy highlighter applies a little patchy on me, the powders slide like smooth skin on satin sheets.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+

Passion Face Palette ($55)

When I sweep the Passion Face Palette on my cheeks, the golden shimmer works like stage lights to illuminate my face. The downy soft texture feels like cashmere, but alas, the shimmer is just an overspray. The pale peachy pink matte powder beneath it doesn’t really show up on my tan skin. I have a feeling this piece would fare better on lighter lasses than it does on me.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B

Rouge Prodige Lipstick in Passion Rose ($24)

A single layer of shimmery, rosy brown Rouge Prodige Lipstick in Passion Rose (unscented and unflavored) delivers rich color that lasts for hours, even through a few cups of tea.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

Instant Definition Mascara in 01 Intense Black ($24)

The boldest part of this look? — the lashes! 🙂 Glossy jet black Instant Definition Mascara in 01 Intense Black ($24) will not be denied, and I fully appreciate that. The snazzy brush, with its short, stubby tip, defines and separates like a champ.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

clarins passion holiday makeup collection (2)

clarins passion holiday makeup collection (3)

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Passion Face Palette
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$28 Works Out to Half Off Pacifica’s Magic Carpet Ride

November 14th, 2011 by Karen 39 Comments

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There’s no doubt about it: I’m slowly turning into my mother, and there are moments when it hits me, like after I’ve clipped a great coupon (score!) or cleaned the oven and felt an overwhelming sense of joy.

Magic carpet ride? I had one of those moments the other day when I spotted the new Pacifica Magic Carpet Ride body butter set ($28).

Limited edition for the holidays, it comes with three of my favorite Pacifica scents. The first one, Island Vanilla, has a hint of tea and a grown-up twist. The second one, Indian Coconut Nectar, makes me hungry for warm vanilla cake with coconut frosting and dulce de leche drizzled on top (OH, GAWD!). And sniffing the third one, Tuscan Blood Orange, with its fresh, sparkling notes of blood orange, mandarin, strawberry and raspberry, causes my taste buds to tingle.

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I’ve been a fan of Pacifica’s Body Butters for years! Not just the three scents that come in this set, but also others in the line; I’ve lost track of how many of the tubes I’ve gone through in that time.

At their regular price, which is $18 each these days, they’re kind of pricey, but I’m such a big fan that I’ll usually overlook the price. They contain a long list of great botanical ingredients that serve to keep the skin on my shins (and elsewhere) from reverting to a scaly reptilian state.

And it’s not just the ol’ marketing trick where the company squirts in a few drops of honeydew so they can call it “natural.” I also like these for what they lack, like parabens, phthalates and propylene glycol, to name just a few of the undesirable frequent fliers we see a lot in products like these.

Tabs would love to see Pacifica release one of these in a seafood scent, but I told him not to hold his breath for that. 🙂 He is happy, though, that the current lineup doesn’t contain any animal ingredients and wasn’t tested on animals.

Considering that this set contains three of Pacifica’s full-size 8-oz. tubes, $28 is a pretty great deal (that is, if you like the scents). They work out to $9.30 each, for a savings of just about 50%. When I did the math in the body care section, I actually pumped my fist Jersey Shore-style, “UH!”

Take that and rewind it back.

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