Product Reviews

Aveda Texture Tonic to Define and Enhance Texture for Hair That Looks Effortlessly Undone

October 31st, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

I cannot stop smelling my hair today! It smells exactly like that yummy tea they serve at Aveda stores.

You know the one. It’s herbal, a little sweet, a little bit like fresh crushed sage sprinkled on top of a bucket of ginger candy and cinnamon. It smells fresh and delicious, and it’s all up in my strands right now because I just sprayed the new Aveda Texture Tonic ($25) into my mane. The aroma is super strong.

Texture Tonic is a new texturizing and styling spray in Aveda’s hair styling line, and unlike most salt-only beach wave hairsprays, like Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray, it’s a sugar AND salt spray.

I’m not exactly sure what the sugar brings to the table, but it’s bringing something. I’ll say that much.

One thing I love about this spray is that it doesn’t make my hair feel hard or crunchy, and you know I don’t do crunch.

It does add grit and texture, and it capably coaxes out waves, but it isn’t nearly as gritty as Bumble’s Surf Spray. It’s, like, mid-level grit, so you don’t feel that salt spray stiffness or stickiness, and your mane remains touchable (although not as soft as it is when I use R+Co Sail, which is the love of my life right now).

Aveda Texture Tonic is similar to…

Bumble and Bumble Surf Infusion Oil and Salt-Infused Spray

R+Co Sail Soft Wave Spray

Bumble and Bumble Surf Foam Spray Blow Dry

AG Hair Cosmetics Texture Spray

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Amorous Alloy Eyeshadow

October 31st, 2017 by Karen 3 Comments

mac amorous alloy — So moody… That’s Amorous Alloy on my lids, MAC Texture in the crease, and MAC Velvet Matte Lipstick in Beatrix on my lips.

It’s fall, and zillions of lips in our hemisphere are currently delighting in deliciously dark fall lip shades — like wines, berries, plums and deep chocolaty browns…

YUM.

But what are you gonna rock on your eyes, my love? You need something that won’t overshadow those bold, rich lips.

May I offer a suggestion please? Because that’s what I do? 🙂 Try MAC Amorous Alloy Eye Shadow, also known as “Sexy Metal,” which is my nickname for her.

Amorous Alloy is one of the MAC Extra Dimension Eye Shadows, a sub-genre, so to speak, in the MAC permanent eyeshadow fam.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

The Extra Dimensions are powder shadows, but they feel crazy soft like creams. They’re also very easy to blend and long lasting. This particular color, Amorous Alloy, is a shimmery, highly pigmented reddish copper with a hint of brown.

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Texture Eyeshadow

October 27th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

mac texture — Get into thy crease, stat.

Today, on the MAC Greatest Brown Crease Color Hits Tour (Geez, that would be a very specific tour, wouldn’t it?! Hahaha! Never mind me as I crack myself up in the corner.), we visit MAC Texture Eye Shadow.

Ooh, Texture! We’ve talked about/drooled over several of my all-time favorite MAC brown crease colors over the last couple weeks, like Swiss Chocolate and Saddle.

Yum!

And I couldn’t forget about Texture. 🙂

It’s also a peachy brown, but it’s lighter and less orange than Saddle and darker than Soft Brown, and if you really, really wanted to get technical, you could do Soft Brown as your first crease color, then Texture as your second color, and then Saddle as your third.

But that’s only if you’re in the mood to complicate things and carefully do all of the steps in your gradients.

mac texture swatch — An essential MAC brown

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

Texture isn’t only for peeps who want to spend two hours on their eye makeup, though. In fact, if you can’t blend for sh*t and just want something easy, you need Texture in your life as a crease color/transition shade, because although it usually looks matte, it’s technically a shimmer and has these tiny flecks of micro-glitter in the pan. Most of the time, those flecks are imperceptible, but they help to make Texture very easy to blend.

mac texture crease — Texture doing it’s thing in my crease

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Mwah! Kisses From the MAC Snow Ball Collection Lipsticks

October 26th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

mac snow ball lipsticks — MAC Snow Ball Lipsticks from the left: Warm Ice, I’m Glistening, Holiday Crush, Shimmer & Spice, Rouge En Snow and Elle Belle ($17.50)

Oh, ’90s vibes. I’m sitting here feeling them wash over me — wave after crashing wave! — and I’m this close to grabbing the darkest plum lip liner I can find and outlining the edges of my lips, and then filling them in with one of the frosty lipsticks from the new MAC Snow Ball collection, because there is frost galore.

Of course I’d leave the lip liner unblended…

I know! I’M A MONSTER. But that’s what ya did back in the day. Makeup trends are crazy, dudes!

Four of the six MAC Snow Ball lipsticks, which are $17.50 each, are frosty, and they go all out. And no, you absolutely don’t have to do the dark liner/no blending thing, but if you wanna do legit late ’90s lips, that’s the way to go. Don’t shoot the messenger.

mac snow ball lip swatches — Warm Ice, I’m Glistening, Holiday Crush, Shimmer & Spice, Rouge En Snow, Elle Belle

Depending on the level of pigmentation of your lips, the four frosts will either look very distinctive, or very similar. My lips are pigmented, and I can’t see that much of a difference between the three light pink frosts (Warm Ice, I’m Glistening and Holiday Crush). I think the most distinctive of the frosts is Shimmer & Spice, which is a glittery bronzed rose and the deepest color of the bunch.

I wore Shimmer & Spice the other day and loved seeing the multicolored glitter bits sparkle in the light (don’t worry, the glitter’s dainty, so it looks expensive). I also liked how the frost finish didn’t seem to emphasize my lip lines, although my lips did feel pretty thirsty by the end of the day. They didn’t quite hit flake status, which was good, but I definitely felt the need to smear a thick layer of Urban Decay Lip Love all over them after I removed all of my makeup.

OK! There are also two non-frosty lipstick shades in Snow Ball, and they’re both reds. Rouge En Snow is a bright, festive matte apple red, which seems pretty neutral because it doesn’t skew overly warm or cool. It’s like right smack dab in the middle between warm orange-red MAC Dangerous and cool blue red Ruby Woo. It’s smooth and doesn’t catch on my flakes, and the pigment isn’t playing around.

Warm Ice, I’m Glistening, Holiday Crush, Shimmer & Spice, Rouge En Snow, Elle Belle

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Ellis Brooklyn Sci Fi Eau de Parfum Breaks the Laws of Fragrance Physics in a Great Way

October 26th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

I feel like Bee Shapiro gets me, man. She’s a beauty writer for the New York Times and the creator of a cruelty-free New York indie beauty line Ellis Brooklyn. They primarily do fragrances, body creams and candles for now, and their stuff is also paraben-free and vegan.

Bee recently launched a new fragrance called Sci Fi, which — hello, I named my daughter after Sarah Connor, one of the greatest sci-fi heroines of all time, so of course the name totally speaks to me!

This Sci Fi crosses the event horizon between the familiar and the unknown. The central note is vanilla, which is something your nose KNOWS, but it’s combined with other notes that are rarely paired with it to create a different and, in some ways, futuristic experience.

The whole same-but-different thing is one of the hallmarks of the best sci-fi to me. It doesn’t always have to be about aliens or zombies, man! (Although El Hub would beg to differ.) I think the best sci-fi stories are about everyday people in extraordinary circumstances, and Sci Fi is one of those extraordinary fragrances.

My Top 5 Sci Fi Essentials!

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (don’t bother with the movie)

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (one of those rare instances where the movie is almost as good as the book)

Black Mirror Season 3’s “San Junipero” episode (all of the Black Mirror eps are brilliant, but this one won a bunch of Emmy’s for a reason)

Terminator and Terminator 2 (I like to pretend that the other movies in the franchise were never made)

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BEHOLD! The MAC Snow Ball Collection Extra Dimension Eye Shadows and Face Powders

October 25th, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

mac snow ball holiday collection — I’ll meet you at the Snow Ball at midnight

Excuse me, miss, I’ve got an RSQ (Really Serious Question) for you: are you ready to party like it’s 1997? If you are, grab your glow sticks and look out! — because it’s MAC Snow Ball time. You have just been teleported straight into a Christmas rave circa 1997.

mac snow ball holiday collection all — Party time, excellent!

The forgotten era of mid-’90s frost

I’d be right there with you, hanging out in all my skinny-brow’d and Adidas-shell-toed glory, as would Gwen Stefani, because what’s a late-’90s festive fantasy rave without Gwen?

It would have to be Gwen from the early No Doubt days, of course, with space bun hair and jewels glued all over her face… We’d all be wearing frosty shadows from our lash lines to our brow bones, and shimmer and glitter for days.

See, I think that sometimes people forget that ’90s makeup wasn’t just about the mattes, because in the late ’90s, frost had a major moment. Lids and lips were fabulously frosty, and MAC Snow Ball grabs that vibe, but have no fear — MAC updated it, so it’s fun, festive and current — not dated at all.

mac snow ball holiday collection shadows lipstick powder — Fancy

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Farsali Jelly Beam Illuminator Applies Like Jelly and Sets Like a Powder

October 25th, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

You can go from mere mortal to full-on unicorn in about 2.5 seconds — or maybe even one second! — with Farsali’s Jelly Beam Illuminator ($40). Farsali is an indie brand best known for their shimmery skin serums and elixirs, and Jelly Beam (it’s a highlighter), which launches November 1st online, is their first official foray into the world of makeup.

farsali jelly beam closeup — I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly…

Jelly Beam is galloping atop (!) the trend of bold, shiny metallic highlights, with the key difference between this one and every other shimmery gold out there is the jelly texture, which feels like silky whipped cream (so it’s not runny). It’s so cool! It kinda looks like cake batter or jiggly scrambled eggs just before they set.

Remember the MAC Big Bounce shadows a few years ago? Jelly has the same texture.

farsali jelly beam swatch — You’re so golden.

Pat and/or blend the golden jelly on your skin, give it about 30 seconds to dry to a powder, and Honey, that wet-satin highlight won’t budge for nothing.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

NARS Fall 2017 Audacious Lipsticks: Vibeke, Linda, Dayle, Louise, Aya and Kirat

October 24th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

nars audacious lipsticks fall 2017 2 — Falling for fall lips

Oh, François! You know…even though I’ve dropped so many hardcore hints that you need to add a “Karen” to your Audacious Lipstick line, and even though you keep ignoring said hints, you’re still my number one makeup guy. I’m not mad atcha’ for not including K-Money among the new fall shades of your Audacious Lipsticks.

Yes, I just referred to myself in third person. With my street name. KAY. MON. EEE.

NARS has six new limited edition fall lippies, and there’s a lot of brown! It’s very autumn leaves. Some of the colors look similar to existing Audacious shades at first glance. I mean, I thought they’d be easy to dupe, so at first I was like, “Eh, show me something I haven’t seen before,” but they’re actually tweaked a li’l bit.

Like Dayle, which is the light purple, looks like it could dupe Dominique in the tube, but it’s quite a bit paler on the lips, and it’s the same with most of the other new colors — they look similar to existing shades but really aren’t.

The only shade that really does seem to be super similar to an existing shade is reddish brown Louise, which could be a stand-in for Sandra, one of the permanent shades.

The Audacious Lipsticks are a separate line from the original NARS lippie collection, with its classic colors like Honolulu Honey, Schiap and Jungle Red.

The Audacious lippies are the ones with the magnetic cap that automatically twists and clicks into place, and they’re all, across the board, intensely pigmented. I think of them as the solidified version of the NARS Powermatte Liquid Lipsticks.

If the idea of sheer lipstick makes you wanna toss your head back and go “HAHAHAHA, NO SON!” they’re for you. They’re intense, long-lasting, and they don’t settle into fine lines. They’re a lot like the Urban Decay Vice Lipsticks like that.

Big surprise, the one I’ve been wearing most of this new batch is nude warm beige Vibeke. It looks so good with warm golden brown eyeshadows and peach blushes.

nars audacious lipstick fall 2017 — Vibeke, Linda, Dayle, Louise, Aya, Kirat

nars audacious lipstick fall 2017 swatches comparison — Lipsticks from the current line that look similar to the new shades: Kirat (new) and Liv, Vibeke (new) and Catherine, Linda (new) and Jane, Louise (new) and Sandra, Dayle (new) and Domnique, Aya (new) and Deborah

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