Product Reviews

Gloss + Liquid Lipstick + Stain = MAC Versicolour Varnish Cream Lip Stain

December 3rd, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

Not once, but twice over the past week have I wondered aloud, “What is this exactly?”

The first time I was out getting dinner with the family.

Actually, it was during dessert (I got spumoni ice cream, which, who’d a thunk that cherry, pistachio and chocolate would go so well together?).

The second time was the first time I was trying the new MAC Versicolour Cream Varnish Lip Stains.

mac versicolour varnish 2 — I wonder… What’s the plural of doe-foot??

These creamy, shiny glosses are kinda different and cool. They have a non-sticky formula, and they fade over time to a matte lip stain. They come in a whole bunch of colors, too, for $22.

I think one of the reasons I like them so much is because they feel like my favorite MAC glosses…which I can’t recall the name of right now.

Dangit! What are those called again? I’m having a brain fart… They’re the moisturizing ones that feel thinner than a Lipglass? Something-something glasses?

Not Lipglass. Not Dazzleglass…

Wait! — CREMESHEEN GLASS! Aaah!

The Versicolours feel just like them, only thinner.

“Captivate with a lip colour hybrid that’s glossier, higher coverage and harder impact than ever before. Its watery-light formula glides on creamy and comfortable to impart long-wearing, saturated full coverage and an always-fresh wet finish. Find entrancement in its 12-hour, intense staining power – promising to last far into the day and night.”

— maccosmetics.com

When they go on, they’re VERY pigmented and shiny. It’s like, BAM! — color and shine. And that goes for all of them.

Over the next 10 minutes or so they start to feel thicker — almost like a liquid lipstick — and fade into a stain.

Even though I’m more drawn to the dark pinks and reds in the collection, I think the best shade of the whole bunch is rosy nude Bitten Babe because it doesn’t stain my lips unevenly like the other colors do to where I get a dark or bright spot in the middle of my lips, which then fades into a lighter stain toward the edge of my lips.

I guess that’s a high fashion-y lip look, but I’m partial to evenly stained color, a la Bitten Babe, which I’ve been wearing a ton. It starts as a glossy, rosy pink but turns into a nude pink stain by midday, where it lasts for about four hours.

mac bitten babe before — Fresh coat of Bitten Babe

mac bitten babe after — After two hours…

More deets…

They aren’t particularly moisturizing or drying…so they’re somewhere in the middle in terms of moisture.
Unsurprisingly for MAC, they smell like vanilla, and I don’t detect a flavor.
They don’t settle into my lip lines (yay!).
The darker stains last longest — like 6-7 hours.
The reds all kinda look alike on me… Go figure.

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Have You Tried the $7 Trader Joe’s Facial Cleansing Oil With Argan & Coconut Oils?

November 29th, 2018 by Karen 8 Comments

The Trader Joe’s beauty section should have a big-@ss warning sign above the aisle — something akin to “BEWARE! YOU’RE ENTERING SPUR-OF-THE-MOMENT SPENDING TERRITORY!”

That would work, or better yet a huge LCD screen with winged dollar bills floating away, since we’re moving toward a world where we will soon be communicating solely through emojis. ? ? ? ? ?

I’ve always had trouble saying “no” to anything having to do with makeup removal, especially face oils, because what goes on, must come off, so grabbing this facial cleansing oil was a no-brainer. Somehow, TJ’s found a way to make it smell like the most heavenly mix of eucalyptus, lemon verbena and roses, although, from a quick scan of the ingredients, it doesn’t appear to have any of those things in it!

And speaking of the ingredient list, it contains different types of oils, too, not just argan and coconut. I also see sunflower, crambe abyssinica seed (which is new to me) and capyrylic/capric triglyceride.

It doesn’t look like this will replace my beloved DHC Deep Cleansing Oil anytime soon. I mean, it’s fine for removing mellower makeup — basically anything non-waterproof is fine — but it can’t handle heavy-duty, long-wearing stuff on its own. It’s $7 for a 4-oz. bottle, though, so the price is right, and it doesn’t break me out or make my combo skin feel dry, so I’m not too crabby about it not being all that effective on long-wearing makeup. But still…I’m not about to go into hoarder mode for it. I’ll save that for when the Rose Hand Cream comes back!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Skin Care Rave! Fresh Seaberry Moisturizing Face Oil

November 23rd, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

fresh seaberry moisurizing face oil — LOVE IT!

So. Effing. Good.

Last month, while battling a nasty cold, I came to the conclusion that Fresh Seaberry Moisturizing Face Oil really does live up to the hype (4.5 stars with more than ONE THOUSAND reviews on sephora.com).

You know when you’re blowing your nose so often that the skin around your nostrils gets rubbed raw, and it’s dry, and it hurts? Mine gets so sensitive to the touch that even splashing water on my face hurts.

My usual heavyduty face moisturizers weren’t doing the job done, so, out of desperation (and perhaps loopy from the cold meds), I tracked this down, busted it open, and patted about a half a dropper of the oil on the skin around my nose, nostrils and mouth.

AHHHH! Instant relief. Seaberry Oil BRINGS IT big time in the moisture department.

“Seaberry Moisturizing Face Oil is a precious blend of pure oils—seaberry, cranberry seed, camellia seed, grapeseed, and sweet almond—packed with nourishing omegas to preserve a youthful appearance. The lightweight formula absorbs quickly for a boost of vital moisture.”

— sephora.com

Highlighted ingredients:

Seaberry Oil: A powerful antioxidant rich in moisturizing omegas 3, 6, 7, and 9 noted for protecting the skin from aging free radicals.

Cranberry Seed Oil: Maintains the skin’s elasticity and smoothness.

Camellia Seed Oil: Helps to retain moisture and promote smooth, supple skin.

Ingredients:
Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Hippophae Rhamnoides Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Vaccinium Macrocarpon (Cranberry) Seed Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Fragrance, Bht, Linalool, Limonene, Citral, Coumarin, Geraniol

It’s rich in antioxidants and omegas, and made for normal, dry and sensitive skin types, so peeps across the land can use it! — even if you have oily skin. I saw more than a few reviews from people with oily skin raving about it on the Sephora website.

Now it’s an everyday part of my routine. Every morning and night after I wash my face, I work about three big drops using the included dropper onto my skin while it’s damp. Sometimes I’ll also mix one or two drops into my trusty Clarins Hydra-Essentiel Silky Cream as well, which is another great combo IMO.

It’s $52 for a 1.6-oz. bottle, which is a pretty good size. I think it’s enough to last a long while.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Put a Cat on It!

November 13th, 2018 by Karen 16 Comments

chanel holiday 2018 eyeshadows top final — CHANEL

‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a cat on it.

If you liked it, then you shoulda put a cat in it.

Don’t be mad once you see the tabby’s paw on it.

‘Cause if you liked it, then you shoulda put a cat on it.

Oh, oh, oh (oh, oh, oh) oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh (oh, oh, oh) oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

When you and I finally discover the mythical doorway to the alternate universe ruled by cat ladies and cross the threshold together, you’ll see. There will be cats on everything. Every piece of makeup. EVERYTHING! Because cats on makeup is the key to life!

Well, maybe not the key to life…but it makes things better. ?

Paul and Joe does it, Chantecaille did it with big cats, and now Chanel went there with ? lions. They put leonine heads on their holiday eyeshadows and holiday highlighter.

I’ve been wanting to use these shadows, but I couldn’t bring myself to sully the kitty cat designs on them. I’ve been surgically removing tiny amounts of the shadows from the sides of the pan (right next to the lion’s bushy mane) with the diminutive NARS 45 smudge brush, so as to protect the meow-velous design.

chanel holiday 2018 — Wearing Chanel Cuivre Lamé and Noir Lamé eyeshadows on my lids

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#BECCAxChrissy Holiday 2018 Collection Glow Kitchen and Lip Icing Glow Gloss Kits

November 12th, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

becca chrissy holiday 2018 2 — New #BECCAxChrissy holiday makeup

Chrissy Teigan gets me, man. She really does — and not just because she made one of my favorite face/eye palettes of all time.

Um, have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how much I adore the BECCA X Chrissy palette? Yeah, you do not have to twist my arm to get me to wear bronze eyeshadow. LOL.

Well, Chrissy is back with another BECCA holiday collab, and it’s also gorgeous, especially if you have warm undertones and medium brown skin.

We’re talking bronze lids, rose gold highlighter, rosy nude lipstick and a whole lotta nude gloss, a.k.a Karen’s Makeup Dreams Come True, or K.M.D.C.T.

There’s two LE holiday kits, and both of them are available now at Sephora.

BECCA Glow Kitchen Kit ($44)

This kit contains three items, and errrrthang is new. These are never-seen-before formulas, which is very exciting to makeup weirdos ? like yours truly. There’s a loose rose gold highlighter, a matte nude rose liquid lipstick, and a pot called Glow Souffle Eye Shadow & Face Highlighter in Cinnamon Churro with a bronze eyeshadow in the flip-cap top and a creamy golden mousse highlighter in the jar. (Side note: The packaging looks a LOT like these old Tom Ford duos.)

I couldn’t wait to try Cinnamon Churro. The soft bronze eyeshadow feels almost creamy, so it’s crazy sexy blend-able, but the frosty finish and big flecks of glitter make it…problematic for 40-something lids. If I take it up too high into my crease — which is easy to do because of how gracefully the powder glides across the skin, and you know I like to go HAM on that @ss when it comes to blending — I look much older than I am because of mah fine lines.

Beautiful bronze color, though… Le sigh. If I were 22, I’d be on it like fried chicken on waffles.

Fun fact: The mousse highlighter in the duo smells like cinnamon buns, which are one of Chrissy’s favorite sweet treats… And now I’m craving cinnamon buns with extra icing, ha ha.

Um…where was I?

To put the formula in context, the mousse is denser than a Tom Ford cream shadow but less dense than a Chanel cream or a MAC Paint Pot.

So, basically, it feels like a makeup marshmallow (which is great), but, like the eyeshadow, the mousse is full of bling, so it gets a hard pass from me thanks to my experience lines.

becca chrissy holiday 2018 — BECCA Chrissy Holiday 2018

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Introducing Cake Beauty! (And Body Products That Smell Like Dessert)

November 8th, 2018 by Karen 9 Comments

Is there a sourdough-scented soap? A breadstick body butter? A rye loaf hand cream? To the best of my knowledge, most beauty products that smell like baked goods are of the sweet variety — cake, cookies, frosting.

YUM!

I like sweet scents as much as the next Nutella lover, but there’s a fine line between juuuuuust sweet enough and gag-inducing.

Remember Jessica Simpson’s Dessert beauty line of edible products that was at Sephora about a billion years ago? It had lipglosses and body glitters and lotions you could eat? Even though I am THAT PERSON who shamelessly orders two desserts at dinner, every time I caught a whiff of one of the products I wanted to toss my cookies. They were too sweet for me, but lots of people loved them. (Side note: Apparently there weren’t enough people who loved them, though, because they were hit with a few lawsuits and subsequently went out of business.)

Everyone has a different opinion when it comes to fragrances. One woman’s cloying is another woman’s perfection. Like, right now I’m into a kinda up-and-coming Canadian cruelty-free brand called Cake. They make dessert-scented body and hair products, and they’re coming soon to the U.S. in Rite Aid stores.

cake beauty — A few of my favorites from Cake Beauty, coming this month to Rite Aid.

I’ve been metaphorically devouring (because the products aren’t actually edible) the shampoo, conditioner (why do I love that it’s called a “creme rinse”?), body cream and the hand cream, and every time I sniff my hands or my hair I go YUM! — but I’m sure there’s someone out there who would totally barf instead. LOL!

Unsurprisingly, I like products that smell like things I’ll eat, so anything with caramel, vanilla and honey, but usually only if the products also have some bitter notes for balance, like coffee, dark chocolate or lemon…

Yes, I know I’m weird, ha ha.

Anything too artificially sugary, like strong buttercream, meringue or cotton candy, turns my stomach.

While we’re on the topic, how do feel about body products with a “milk” scent? Are you in the “love it” or “hate it” camp? I’m in the middle. I can take it in small doses, but my friend Cindy CANNOT stand anything that remotely smells like milk because she dated this dude once whose skin smelled like sour milk, and it ruined milk for her. But she’s all about green tea scents!

Yeah, you know someone’s a good friend when you know their fragrance loves and hates and why, ha ha!

Your friendly neighborhood neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sephora VIB Sale Recommendations: IGK Bad & Bougie Amla Oil Deep Repair Shampoo and Deep Repair Conditioner

November 2nd, 2018 by Karen 13 Comments

More with the ideas! —-> If you haven’t heard, there’s a Sephora VIB sale in November, so I’m highlighting some of my favorite makeup that you can find at Sephora this week.

I’m hell-and-gone addicted to this deep-repair shampoo and conditioner (they’re $25 each) from IGK Bad & Bougie.

The first day I took my hair out into the world after using Bad & Bougie…which, I’m sorry. Every time I see that name I feel like I’m talking about a poodle that needs to be walked.

Anyway! I ran into my HIIT instructor while running errands, and she said the nicest thing you can say to someone obsessed with maintaining a shiny mane. “Wow! Your hair looks like a really expensive drag queen’s wig!”

At that point, guuuurl, I knew it was true love.

Botany moment! — a plant oil called “amla” powers this power couple. It’s normally made by soaking dried amla fruit (otherwise known as Indian gooseberry) in oils, and it’s commonly used as an Ayurvedic hair treatment.

From sephora.com:

Types of hair it’s good for

Straight

Wavy

Curly

Coiled

Tightly coiled

What it is
A deeply nourishing shampoo and conditioner to nourish, strengthen and protect — immediately and over time.

Key benefits

Repairs even the most damaged hair

Improves hair health and look

Lightweight/non-greasy conditioning

If you want to know more…
Bad & Bougie Amla Oil Deep Repair Shampoo makes hair stronger immediately and overtime, instantly hydrates, softens, and enhances shine. It’s formulated with amla oil for nourishment and shine, coconut oil for hydration, and conditioning and a patented vegetable protein complex that works from within the hair shaft to build stronger and healthier hair. The lightweight formula deeply repairs even the most dry, damaged, color- or chemical-treated hair—without leaving hair greasy or weighed down.

What it is formulated WITHOUT

Parabens

Sulfates

Phthalates

What else you need to know

This product is cruelty-free, color safe with UV protection, and formulated without mineral oil, petroleum and gluten.

Here’s the thing: If you’re already a fan of shampoos and conditioners where a plant oil is the star ingredient, and you’re looking for a set that tames and flattens hair that’s rambunctious and naturally kinda big and wild (which is a common thing with these types of hair products), you won’t get that effect from Bad & Bougie. This shampoo and conditioner will *not* weigh your mane down in any form or fashion.

This combo is all about the bounce-bounce-bounce, and even though it’s hella hydrating, your hair retains big-@ss volume. MASSIVE volume. I love it, obviously, since I subscribe to a “bigger the hair, the closer I can get to achieving magical unicorn status” philosophy.

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Sephora VIB Sale Recommendations: Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara

November 1st, 2018 by Karen 8 Comments

IMPORTANT (not really, but you know what I mean): There’s a Sephora VIB sale in November, so this week I’m highlighting some of my favorite makeup workhorses that I think are worthy of your wish list.

If you have stick-straight, skinny lashes like mine, you’ll totally understand the magic behind this product. Like the fabulous feline and the feisty toddler who boss me around, my lashes do not listen to me… Every morning, I go through the same routine. I crimp my lashes with my curler and say a prayer to the beauty goddesses. “Please, please hold this curl!”

Then, my lashes straighten out.

I spent decades looking for a mascara that would hold a curl while boosting my roots so my lashes could soar high up to the heavens above — and yes, I wanted these things without having to deal with a trail of flakes on my cheeks or blackened smears smudging my lower lash line.

Well, love, this is it. ?

I’ve mentioned Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara a few times before, but I haven’t given it the love it deserves.

It’s been around for-everrrrrr, and I always return to it because it hoists every last lash (even the ones on the outer corner, which are the droopiest of the droopy ones for me), and then stretches them out so the tips extend way beyond their natural length.

Plus, the volume? Dialed up! Like YSL Faux Cils, but a tinge less intense at the roots.

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