Product Reviews

Stila One Step Primer Preps, Primes, Conditions and Smooths Skin

September 25th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

Is there a more science-y looking primer than Stila One Step? Seriously, I don’t think so. It’s got that double helix-looking DNA thing swirling around in the bottle, which is kind of cool.

Stila’s moisturizing primer

So, Stila has a bunch of different face primers. I know there’s one for illuminating and one for color correcting, but One Step is their moisturizing, smoothing water-based primer.

The clear liquid surrounding the helix is a combination of water and other moisturizing ingredients. The primer contains a mix of vitamins and 15 botanicals, buuuuuut the plant extracts are mostly all down near the bottom of the ingredient list, which is just something to keep in mind.

I’m not completely sold on this primer’s hydrating power… I have combination skin, and I don’t really feel like this primer does much for my dry spots. (Side note: If you want straight-up hydration, check out MAC Natural Radiance.)

Stila One Step Primer: Ingredients
Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Octyldodecyl Neopentanoate, Glycerin, Phenoxyethanol, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Carbomer, Dimethicone, Aluminum Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Caprylyl Glycol, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Sodium Chloride, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Disodium EDTA, Phytantriol, Hexylene Glycol, Glyceryl Acrylate/Acrylic Acid Copolymer, Dextrin Palmitate, Palmitic Acid, Octyldodecanol, Stearic Acid, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Tocopherol, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Retinyl Palmitate, Zinc Oxide (CI 77947), Lysine, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Magnesium Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Zinc Chloride, Potassium Sorbate, Montmorillonite, Illite, Kaolin

In case you don’t know primers from pancakes

Primers are applied after your skin care but before your foundation, and a lot of brands carry a number of different primers designed to help address different skin issues.

Generally, though, they all smooth the skin by filling in your pores and fine lines to make the products that you apply on top of them appear smoother and last longer. Many primers, like this one from Stila, use silicones to fill the dips and valleys on the surface of the skin.

TECHNIQUE TIP: After I apply primer, I give it a couple minutes to completely dry before I layer anything else on top, because when there are wet spots, my foundation or concealer won’t adhere very well to those areas.

I don’t wear primer every day, because I don’t think I need it if I’m just going out to buy a loaf of bread, but when I’m going to be meeting someone for lunch, or taking certain kinds of pics for MBB, then yeah, I’ll make the effort, because primer makes a night-and-day difference in terms of smoothness and wear time, especially on my cheeks.

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R+Co Control Flexible Paste for Styles That Hold Tight But Never Feel Stiff

September 22nd, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

r and co control review — R+Co CONTROL Flexible Paste, taming unruly baby hairs one strand at a time

Why are those tiny little hairs along the edge of your hairline called baby hairs? Is it because they’re cute and cuddly and adorable? Naaaaaw, girl. I think they’re called baby hairs because they’re unruly. OK? You can’t control them, they’re unpredictable, and, at any given moment, riiight when you think you have the situation under control, BAM! — they go bananas. HAHA! At least my baby hairs (and my baby) do.

I have a mega crop of baby hairs where my bangs part in the front, and I don’t know about yours, but mine are all uneven and at weird lengths, and — yay, lucky me! — they stick up and out at jarring angles, so I walk around lookin’ like I’ve just been electrocuted.

Girl, if there’s no product in them, I look CRAY, but this new hair styling product by R+Co called Control ($27) really helps. I’ve been using it for a week, and now I’m like ROUGE BABY NO LONGER RUN SH*T HERE.

Control is a soft, waxy styling paste with a semi-matte finish, and it grabs, holds and keeps flyaway hairs in place. It’s strong, but it’s not ’80s-style hairbear stiff, so my bangs can still move and don’t look heavy and greasy.

These days, my numero uno #hairgoal is for my mop to look casual, like IDGAF. Sure, I might’ve fussed over this hair, but nobody needs to know, LOL! In other words, I want the antithesis of prom/beauty pageant hair. Nothing overly lacquered or styled.

r and control before — Baby hairs say WASSSSSUP

r and control after — What baby hairs? Um, please excuse the rand-o white hairs… I’m between coloring appointments and apparently couldn’t be bothered to use Rita Hazan Root Concealer.

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Bumble and Bumble Prêt-à-Powder Très Invisible Dry Shampoo: Another Great Dry Shampoo to Add to Your List

September 21st, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

bumble and bumble pret a powder tres invisible dry shampoo — I may or may not have just sprayed half a pound of this new dry shampoo on my roots…

Man, this stuff smells good! It’s all powdery and musky…and naughty, with just a hint of sweet jasmine.

Can a fragrance smell like you’re purposefully trying to get in trouble? Because that’s how this dry shampoo smells to me. 🙂

There are actually two versions, both of them new from Bumble and Bumble, and both of them with darned-near impossible-to-pronounce (for me) French names, seeing as how I butcher everything en français.

I think I’ll just call them “the new Bumble dry shampoos.” They’re available now in pretty blush pink packaging for $29 each, which gets you a 3.1-oz. bottle.

One of them, Très Invisible, is for normal-to-oily hair, and the other one, Très Invisible Nourishing, is the more moisturizing version for dry, damaged or coarse hair.

They’re called “invisible” because that’s how they’re supposed to look in your hair, even if your hair is dark.

The directions say to spray them from 10-12 inches away from your hair, and to concentrate on your roots, which is pretty is standard for dry shampoo. I can’t see the product at all unless I get carried away and use a ridiculous amount, and even then, I can’t see it anymore after I brush the powder through my hair, which is a step you’re supposed to follow with these.

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Product Shout-Out: NARS Saint-Raphael Precision Lip Liner

September 21st, 2017 by Karen 3 Comments

OK, this is one of those off-label uses of a makeup product, so if you’re a stickler about only using products in the way they’re intended, you might want to look away. For a second.

On the other paw, if you’re open to experimentation, I found a very effective color corrector completely by accident.

Well, technically, it isn’t a face product. It’s an opaque matte orange lip pencil, NARS Precision Lip Liner in Saint-Raphael. It’s one of the new NARS Precision Lip Liners.

I’ve been using it to color-correct a desiccated former pimple that’s now purple, and it totally works.

I wouldn’t use it on under-eye circles, though, because it is a lip pencil, and I don’t know if it’s approved for use along water lines or around eyes in general. But I’ll use it on my chin, my cheeks, forehead, nose and the sides of my mouth.

Here I’m using it as a color corrector on my chin to hide Julian the pimple, who is STILL plaguing me.

We (or I) could literally talk about color correcting for hours. I think it’s fascinating, but to briefly summarize (haha, good luck to me), orange color-correcting products appear to cancel out/neutralize purple and blue shades, because orange and purple sit across from each other on the color wheel, where they stare each other down 24/7, throw shade and give each other the evil eye…

Typically, you’d apply orange color correctors on purple areas, then layer concealer or foundation on top.

karen bare skin before with julian — The before shot: Julian the pimple is obsessed with me…

nars saint raphael as color corrector — It’s called makeup improv, and I’m into it.

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Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit – Volume 3

September 20th, 2017 by Karen 18 Comments

hourglass ambient lighting edit vol 3 top pic — Inspiring wannabe rappers everywhere: the new Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Vol. 3 ($80)

Hourglass, Hourglass,
Your makeup kicks @ss.
Hourglass, Hourglass,
Face powders lit with all the sass.
Hourglass, Hourglass,
Prepare to drop some major cash!

They say that you should never give up on your dreams…but I don’t think they were referring to me and my dream of becoming M.C. Makeup, because I’m a sh*tty rapper! I might know all the words to most of Lil’ Kim’s songs, but that doesn’t mean they come out in the right order, haha.

This palette, though? — the new Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit – Volume 3? It IS coming out in the right order, because this is the third year in a row that Hourglass has done a palm-sized travel kit o’ powders for the holidays, and it’s numero three.

I love the first one, Vol. 1, and still use it all the time. The second one, however, I bought but soon returned because, even though I thought it was beautiful, it wasn’t right for my skin tone. It was too light.

Like the first one, Vol. 3 has six pans of face powder that I think will suit more skin tones than ever. It also looks pretty chic in that gorgeous rose gold packaging, but it should…because it’s $80.

hourglass ambient lighting edit vol 3 overhead — Top row, from the left: Finishing Powder in Diffused Light, Strobe Powder in Hypnotic Strobe Light (NEW) and Finishing Powder in Dim Light; Bottom row from the left: Bronzer in Luminous Bronze Light, Blush in Surreal Halo (NEW) and Blush in Pure Effect (NEW)

Of the six pans, three are re-promotes — Dim Light, Diffused Light and Luminous Bronze Light — and three are NEW! — Surreal Halo and Surreal Halo (which are blushes), and Hypnotic Strobe (a highlighter).

Both Surreal Halo and Pure Effect are darker and more intense than the colors in last year’s palette, which is potentially fantastic news for marvelous medium-toned mavens and darker damsels.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit – Volume 3: the six shades

Dim Light — This subtly luminous peachy beige can set your makeup, and it doubles as a highlighter. It creates that trademark Hourglass Ambient Powder sheen.
I dig this one. I’ve been using it as an all-over face powder and to set concealer.
Diffused Light — This warm pale yellow can set, highlight and conceal redness, but I can’t really work it now because I still have a tan from summer. For now at least, it’s borderline chalky on me.
Lighter lovelies are in luck, and I suspect that it’ll also work better for me as we get closer to winter.
Luminous Bronze Light — This medium tan has golden undertones and creates a subtle golden sheen. I think it works better as a bronzer than a contouring powder, but watch out — if I apply too much of it over large areas on my face, it looks muddy and kinda dirty (especially on my cheeks).
I much prefer Hourglass Radiant Bronze Light, which is warmer and more golden, but this one’s also very pretty if you get the amount right.
Surreal Halo Blush (NEW, exclusive to this palette) — This bright berry is absolutely GORGEOUS and creates a very natural flush. I don’t have anything else quite like it in my Hourglass collection.
I like applying it by doing big sweeps with a large fluffy brush because, for some reason, it looks REALLY good when you cover a lot of skin with it.
Pure Effect Blush (NEW, exclusive to palette) — This bright petal pink is brighter and more intense than the other pink Hourglass blushes out there.
I like layering it on top of Surreal Halo, where I’ll do a small pop of color on the apples of my cheeks. 🙂
Hypnotic Strobe Highlighter (NEW, exclusive to palette) — This shimmering champagne gold is great for subtle highlights.

hourglass ambient lighting edit vol 3 swatches — Swatch out! From the top: Finishing Powder in Diffused Light, Strobe Powder in Hypnotic Strobe Light (NEW), Finishing Powder in Dim Light, Bronzer in Luminous Bronze Light, Blush in Surreal Halo (NEW) and Blush in Pure Effect (NEW)

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Shiseido Facial Cotton

September 19th, 2017 by Karen 20 Comments

The Unsung Heroes series highlights some of my ALL-TIME favorite permanent collection products from all sorts of brands.

Dang, I had my heart set on being crabby about these Shiseido Facial Cotton pads, because girl, they’re $10, and you only get 165 of them, which is craziness to me because you could roll up to Target right now and get a massive pack of 300 up & up brand cotton pads for $5.

But ugh, these Shiseido ones are so good!

I didn’t expect to be bougie about cotton pads, but I’m there, man. The Shiseido ones are the softest, most velvety facial pads I’ve ever used, and once you’ve felt their caress (it was unmistakable when they touched my delicate water lines), other cotton pads will feel like rough metal scouring pads. NO JOKE. Even Q-tips.

OK, that was a joke…but you know hear I mean’. The Shiseido Facial Cotton pads feel SOFT. Q-tips used to feel like tabby tum fur to me before I got spoiled by these.

I mostly use them to remove eye makeup, but you can use them like any other cotton ball or cotton pad. They’ll apply toners or liquid essences after cleansing, remove face makeup, and they’ll soften the edges of your blush, eyeshadow or your bronzer perfectly well.

I guess you could also use them to remove nail polish, but I won’t be using them for that. My fingers and toes just wouldn’t appreciate how soft (or pricey) they are.

A single pad can remove all of my eye makeup and face makeup, then STILL have enough oomph left to apply toner.

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I’m Crazy About Cocofloss: This Dental Floss Is Life-Changing (No, Really)

September 15th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

cocofloss coconut — This week’s new favorite thing

Strawberry-flavored dental floss.

YES, GIRL! It’s a thing. As are coconut-flavored and orange-flavored floss.

“OH, thank gosh, Karen!” I can hear you saying in your head. “Because I was worried I’d be doomed to a tragic life of hella boring mint floss.”

Duuuuude, if there were ever a time to actually get excited about dental floss, it would be now, because Cocofloss — and I can’t believe I’m saying this about something as completely mundane as floss — will make you quit your job and pursue your lifelong dream of founding a nonprofit stray cat sanctuary.

Once you see how much crap this floss removes from between your pretty, pearly chompers, you’ll wonder where the hell in life you went wrong.

This floss removes the gunk between your teeth that you didn’t even know was there, and when you realize how much your #basicb*tch floss has been missing, you’ll be really grossed out. But supremely satisfied. I know was.

Like a rope, a string of Cocofloss is comprised of hundreds of soft interwoven fibers, and when you take one to your teeth, those fabulous filaments remove plaque and grime, and don’t worry. Your gums won’t feel like they’re being punished, bruh! This floss feels softer than your favorite high-waisted stretchy pants.

Flossing with Cocofloss is truly a pleasure. 🙂

Uh…that may be the nerdiest thing I’ve said this week, but I get VERY hyped about dental hygiene.

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Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter

September 14th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

fenty beauty killawatt highlighter review — Just the highlights, please.

Is the spelling of Fenty Beauty’s Killawatt (with an “a” instead of an “o”) Freestyle Highlighter giving you lyfe? Yes, that’s lyfe with a “y,” as in Yacht Lyfe, one of the cream ~~hylighters~~ highlighters in the line.

I’m an absolutely terrible speller, but I love all the creative spelling liberties being taken.

Side note: imagine a Fenty Beauty spelling bee. Iytte whud bhee krai!

The Killawatt Highlighters are $34 each and available now in six shades at Sephora, along with the rest of the cruelty-free Fenty Beauty by Rihanna line, and if you have semi-functional eyes, you can probably tell that they’re gorgeous. They’re shiny, glittery and va-va-va-voom! — reflect light to the max, which is trés trendy at the moment, so if you want highlights so bold that you could send an SOS across the universe, you’ll probably be into them.

I think they’re a lot like the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfectors, except flashier, more pigmented and generally more OTT.

They’re a little too frosty for me, though, so I’ve decided to skip them.

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