The Body Shop

3 Proper New-ish Neutral Palettes for Cozy Winter Cuddles

December 16th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

thebalm appetit body shop down to earth mineral fusion enchanted — Let the cuddling commence in 3, 2, 1…

Sure, you could snuggle up on your couch with your cat/s, your S.O. or your favorite cuddle baby/buddy and do it without wearing a stitch of makeup on your lids. I mean, you’d be fine. Your hot cocoa will still taste hot cocoa-y, your Christmas tree lights will still sparkle, and your holiday candles will still smell holiday candle-y.

That said, if you do perform said snuggling while also wearing eyeshadow on your lids, you’ll be selfie ready, and you never know when you might want to take a selfie. 🙂

Here are three new-ish neutral eyeshadow palettes that are perfect for a Christmas cuddle session on the couch. Sure, you could rock a glittery smoky eye with a pair of double-stacked false lashes on the couch, but when I think of cuddling under warm blankets and sipping hot cocoa while watching holiday movies with strings of twinkling lights in the background, I think of cozy neutrals like the ones in these palettes.

thebalm appetit eyeshadow palette — theBalm Appetit Eyeshadow Palette, $39.50

The first one is theBalm Appetit, and it’s $39.50. It comes with nine neutrals, some of them cool-toned and some of them warm.

There’s a lot of shimmery foiled goodness happening in this palette, so if you like your neutrals on the shiny side, this one will be fun.

theBalm’s super soft eyeshadow powders are on finer side (comparable to Bobbi Brown’s), so it’s easy to get the colors to merge into each other without getting muddy. They’re great for detailed looks with well-defined sections of color in the crease, in the outer v and on the lid.

the body shop down to earth eyeshadow palette — The Body Shop Down to Earth Palette, $36

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Getting Personal With The Body Shop

November 21st, 2016 by Karen 7 Comments

body shop personalized body butter vanilla chai — When your Body Shop Body Butter has your name on it and you think that’s kind of awesome…

I wish I could take a spin back to 1999 in Doc Brown’s DeLorean because my late-1990s self would have lost her/my sh*t over this personalized Body Shop Body Butter.

OMG! It’s a Christmas panda!!!

I remember back in the late ‘90s/early aughts, The Body Shop was HUGE, right? All of my friends and I were totally into them. I wore their Shimmer Cube eyeshadow constantly for a while, and I had this, like — I talk about it all the time — Mary J. Blidge-inspired lip combo with a Body Shop dark purple lip liner that I wore with a frosty silver lipstick.

Grapefruit Body was was my jam for two solid years, and do you remember their Avocado Body Butter? I used that one for a long time.

And then there was the Olive one, which was also lovely. It had a light, fresh, grassy scent that was totally unusual at the time.

Do you happen to remember White Musk?? At one point in time, I swear, every early 20-something woman on Muni in SF was wearing that perfume. Some mornings I’d step onto the train into a fog of Body Shop White Musk…

If you live in or near New York City, lucky you, because that’s where you can get your own personalized Body Butter. Some of the stores in the New York area are offering it as a service (here’s a list of them) when you buy one of the regular $21 jars or the $36 super-sized ones, and it doesn’t cost anything extra. They make the label in the store, and you can pick it up the same day.

I wish they did this at the rest of their stores (hint-hint!). I asked a Body Shop rep if the stores in New York could ship them out, but no luck there either. This year at least, it’s a local thing.

Do you have any Body Shop faves (now or back in the day)? Let me know in the comments. I’m curious.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Red Lips and Reverse Liner With the Too Faced Funfetti Set and Sydney Amaryllis Matte Lip Liquid From The Body Shop

November 10th, 2016 by Karen 9 Comments

Reverse liner.

Sounds kinda funny, right? Like, if there’s a reverse liner…shouldn’t there also be a forward or a sideways liner too?

No? OK, maybe not. 🙂

But there is such a thing as reverse liner. It’s actually legit. It’s when your lids are darker than your liner, which is the opposite of the normal style of wearing a darker color along your lash lines than your lids.

I did it today to do something different and exercise my makeup skills.

Oh, gosh. I’m still so out of practice after having Connor Claire. Honestly, makeup is a perishable skill. If you don’t use it, you freaking lose it.

So this look is a little different for me because of the reverse liner, but I still did smoky lids…because what else am I gonna wear? You know how much I like smoky lids.

I used the new Too Faced Funfetti set, which goes on sale tomorrow (Nov. 11) on HSN.

I also tried something different with my lids. I mixed a few of the Funfetti eyeshadows together, and by “mixed” I mean that I took a dark matte purple, a shimmery bronze and a shimmery olive from the palette, swooshed them all together with a brush on the back of my hand, and used that to make my own custom color. Then I patted that on my lids.

I just felt like creating my own color today. I don’t know… I’ve been into that lately.

too faced funfetti palette fotd shades — The shades marked with the heart are the ones I used

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Mission Control to The Body Shop Down to Earth Eye Palettes, Come In Down to Earth Palettes…

November 9th, 2016 by Karen 22 Comments

body shop down to earth eye palette 05 — All five of The Body Shop Down to Earth Eye Palettes ($24 each)

When I hear the phrase, “down to earth,” like the name of these $24 quads from The Body Shop, I think of a day in the not-too-distant future when Captain Connor Claire is hurtling toward Mars in her spaceship, and I’m counting down the seconds till she comes back…down to earth.

OK, no big expectations, Connor. If you don’t want to be on the first manned mission to Mars, that’s OK. The second one would also be fine. 🙂

Seriously, though, I don’t think these have anything to do with astronomy, astrophysics or celestial bodies…. I don’t think they’re that deep. The colors are earthy, as in earth tones, so they’re figuratively down to earth, just like the plants, soil and stones in my front yard. These are shades I love to wear.

These new quads, which are completely new additions to the permanent line, are $24 each, and the way they feel and swatch totally reminds me of pricey Tom Ford. They’re soft, like Tom’s shadows, and have a good amount of pigment, but Tom’s eyeshadows are definitely much more intense.

These blend exceptionally well, but, ironically, because of that…I’m not completely sure what to make of them. They sheer out so much when I buff them down.

Superb blending is sometimes a catch 22, you know? And I think these blend even more easily than LORAC and Urban Decay, which is a double-edged sword, because if you blend them a little too much, you buff away most of the pigment.

The Body Shop Down to Earth Eye Palettes
$24 each and available now in five color combinations at The Body Shop stores and online.

“The individual shades all click in and out of the palette casing, so you can switch shades between palettes and quads. Shades come in three different finishes: true mattes, iridescent shimmers and eye-catching sparkles. All the shades can be used dry for easy blending or wet for more intense, vibrant color.”

— thebodyshop-usa.com

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A Busy Morning With The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquids

November 8th, 2016 by Karen 14 Comments

I haven’t had a coconut Lifesaver in years, but these $10 Matte Lip Liquids from The Body Shop smell and taste exactly like them.

Coconut Lifesavers were/are my favorite, favorite, favorite Lifesavers of them all. When I was just a little Karen and went grocery shopping with my mom, she would let me pick one piece of candy every week when we got up to the cashier, and I would always get the Tropical roll.

I’d rip it open and pick out all the coconut ones. Then I’d eat them all at the same time…but only after I finished all of the other ones.

Anyway, I just started testing these Body Shop Lip Liquid lipsticks today, and I’m loving them so far.

Like a lot of people today in the U.S., I had kind of a crazy morning because I woke up super early to vote, and Connor Claire came with me.

She was all bundled up in her baby carrier, and I’m pretty sure she was the youngest voter there. She even got a sticker. 🙂

When I got back home, I only had a few minutes before my early morning exercise class, but I still wanted to swatch and test these.

So…that’s why I’m not wearing any other makeup in these pics.

body shop windsor rose after class — Here’s the shade Windsor Rose after voting, working out (and sweating like a mofo!), watching Connor, eating a persimmon and some cottage cheese, and drinking about half a gallon of water…

The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquids

New to The Body Shop permanent line and available now at The Body Shop stores and online

$10 each and available in 12 shades

Cruelty-free and 100% vegetarian

#TheBodyShopUSA, #TheBodyShop

The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquid in Sydney Amaryllis 014

body shop tapei orchid 020 — The Body Shop Matte Lip Liquid in Tapei Orchid 020

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These Shade Adjusting Drops From The Body Shop Are Kind of…Awesome!

May 24th, 2016 by Adia Goss 19 Comments

the body shop shade adjusting drops — Feeling like a cosmetic chemist with The Body Shop’s Shade Adjusting Drops ($20 each, available in two shades)!

And they work very, very well, but I almost didn’t give them a try at all, because I think they’re something you probably don’t really “need.” Once you’ve got them, though, you find yourself reaching for them over and over again.

I’ve been seeing pictures and reviews of them floating around online, and I thought, “Neat,” but I wasn’t moved to rush out and buy them immediately.

Sure, I was intrigued. They’re supposed to transform an almost right face makeup shade into something perfect, but I wondered if they’d also affect the performance of my foundations. And I also thought it would just be easier to go get the right foundation shade in the first place (amiright?).

After playing around with them for a couple of weeks, I’m convinced now that they really are a cool product.

body shop shade adjusting drops — The Shade Adjusting Drops from The Body Shop ($20 each, available in Lightening Shade 41523 and Darkening Shade 41524)

The Lightening ones are meant to be used if your foundation shade looks too dark or orange, and they have a mix of white and pink pigments to neutralize yellowness and also lighten your foundation. One drop will lighten your foundation by about 1/2 a shade.

The Darkening ones work for when your foundation looks too light or ashy, and they have a mix of black and red pigments. And one drop will darken your foundation by about 1/2 a shade.

When I first heard about these, I assumed I’d be using the Darkening drops, because I tan super easily, and each of my six or so foundations are slightly different colors because of this. When I lived in New York, my skin tone differed pretty dramatically due to the long stretches without any sunlight whatsoever (you know, winter). Even within a single brand like NARS, my three foundations are in different shades, just because I was a slightly different color each day I happened to walk into the store to buy them (here are swatches in this post).

But it turns out that I’ve actually been reaching for the Lightening drops more often, and I use them to make one of my favorite summertime foundations wearable for me right now.

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3 of My Favorite Affordable Unsung Makeup Heroes

April 19th, 2016 by Jen Clark 34 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

When I was looking through all of my makeup, trying to decide what I should write about for a Makeup Unsung Heroes post, I realized that most of what I have are things that everyone else loves, and that’s probably why I bought them. Rarely do I just go out and buy a product because I think it looks good. But sometimes those are the best ones!

Here are three products that I sort of took a chance on and ended up loving, and I think you might like them, too. 🙂

Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder

When I heard about Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder, it was only about $7 bucks, and I was using a super expensive Makeup Forever powder at the time. I wanted to find something cheaper, and I was really loving how loose powders worked, especially for baking under the eyes.

The first time I tried it, I used my beautyblender and pressed it into my concealer under my eyes. The soft formula made my under-eye area feel like silk, ’cause it kind of absorbed the concealer. It made everything look perfect under my eyes, and that’s mostly why I love it.

I also use it to set the rest of my face, and here’s a trick. If you put a little bit more than you normally would where you’re going to be putting your contour, that helps your contour not go all patchy, like mine tends to do sometimes. It just helps everything blend so much better on top.

If you’re really sensitive to scented makeup, this is probably the strongest smelling makeup item I have. It literally smells like the strongest synthetic floral scent in the word, and it reminds me of how my mom’s makeup used to smell in the ’90s. Good thing I can only smell it when I’m applying it, and I don’t smell it on my face the rest of the day.

But just a fair warning if you’re super sensitive to fragrances.

unsung makeup heroes coty airspun powder — Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder ($7)

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The Easiest Eye Look That Complements Even the Craziest Lip Colors

April 12th, 2016 by Jen Clark 36 Comments

OCC Lip Tar in "Hoochie" — OCC Lip Tar in “Hoochie”

This is probably really weird, but as I’m laying in bed at night, I’ll close my eyes and think about what makeup I want to wear the next day. I’ll think about the specific colors, products, and techniques I want to use…

Does anyone else do this? Just me? Dang it!

Sometimes, I’ll have a really fun lip color that I’m dying to wear, but I’ll have a hard time thinking of what to wear on my eyes that won’t clash with it. Lucky for me — and maybe you — I’ve come up with the easiest eye look out there that goes with any color you can think of, like bright purple!

The other awesome thing about this trick is that you can find colors for it almost anywhere. I bet you $50 (you can email me for my Venmo name ☺ ) that you already have two colors just like these in your collection.

I used the Morphe 35O palette just because I think the mattes in the palette are the best! A mid-toned matte neutral brown and a darker matte neutral brown are all you need, and what I mean by neutral is that neither one is too warm or cool toned, so it’ll go with any shade you wear on your lips.

To start out, using a Mac 217 blending brush or something similar (almost every brand makes something similar), blend the lighter brown shade all over your lid and through the crease.

I like to pull the color outward beyond the corner of my eye to make my eye look more elongated, but feel free to create any shape that suits you.

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