Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

ELIE SAAB Le Parfum: New For Fall 2011

August 18th, 2011 by Karen 6 Comments

Next month, designer Elie Saab debuts his first scent, ELIE SAAB Le Parfum ($42-120).

The official fragrance notes of this woody floral include: orange blossom, “Mediterranean petals” (hmm), jasmine, patchouli, white flowers, cedar wood and rose honey.

I sprayed it on my wrist first thing this morning and have been sniffing it all day. It’s fresh, graceful and feminine, like a long, flowing maxi dress in a watercolor print. I’m entranced!

The ELIE SAAB Le Parfum fragrance collection

Eau de Parfum, $60-120
Body Lotion, $50
Shower Creme, $42
Body Creme, $85

Look for it next month at Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

We’re Taking a Highway to the Neutral Zone with the Becca Lost Weekend Collection

August 18th, 2011 by Karen 41 Comments

Becca fans, this fall we’re shifting into neutrals with the new Becca Lost Weekend Collection (products $23-49 each), and that means one thing…

Road trip! 🙂

Where are we headed? Nobody knows, but do we really care? Nope! Not with Becca’s new eight-piece release of earthy tan, caramel, chocolate, peach and pink shades to keep us company on the open road.

I briefly looked at three of the products from the collection this afternoon; I plan to test drive these and more of the products from the release over the next week, but for now I thought I’d share some pics…

Lost Weekend Palette, $49
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Be a Blushing Beauty with Sula Beauty Lip & Cheek Tint

August 18th, 2011 by Karen 16 Comments

sula beauty lip and cheek tint

You know that light flush that sometimes reddens your cheeks after a quick sprint, an embarrassing introduction or, um, a particularly bootylicious make-out session with a certain strapping viking vampire stricken with amnesia? That’s how my cheeks and lips look when I’m wearing Sula Beauty’s Lip & Cheek Tint in It’s Not Me, It’s You ($8).

I’ve been waiting for a reason to upgrade my opinion of the cruelty free Sula Beauty line, and these chubby cheek and lip creams just might be it. I thought that the last couple of products I tried from the line skirted the border between hit/miss, but with their adorable packaging and natural ingredients, they were products I really wanted to like.

The four Sula Beauty Lip & Cheek Tints ($8) up the ante, doubling as both cream blushes and lipsticks. I’ve been wearing coral It’s Not Me, It’s You (great name!) since Tuesday, and so far I’m impressed! 🙂

Worn as a blush on my cheeks, it stays put from dawn till dusk (or, for the undead/night owls among us, the other way around), and it lasts about three hours when I wear it as a lip tint.

sula beauty lip and cheek tint

sula beauty lip and cheek tint swatch
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NARS Larger Than Life Eyeliner Doesn’t Stop for Breakdowns

August 18th, 2011 by Karen 49 Comments

nars larger than life eyeliner

Heavy traffic makes my inner crazy come out. I know it’s not helpful to get worked up over traffic jams, but it happens just the same.

Like last week, I had a mini-nervous breakdown in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Lombard Street in San Francisco. It had taken me 45 minutes to drive four blocks in the city, and all I wanted to do was get home. At one point I looked outside my window at a boy walking past my car on the sidewalk, and I just lost it. Tears, sobbing — the whole shebang.

It wasn’t just the traffic, though. I was also wearing uncomfortably tight skinny jeans and having a really, really rough writing day.

While driving over the Golden Gate Bridge on my way out of the city, I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror. The purple liner I’d applied earlier in the day, NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Bourbon Street ($23; also available in eight other shades), still looked great, despite my outburst and tears.

I figured, heck, if this creamy pencil liner can tough it out, so can I, so I wiped away my tears, put on my metaphorical big girl pants and focused on the road.

nars larger than life eyeliner pencil

nars larger than life eyeliner
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LORAC Close Up: Real Life to Red Carpet Natural to Dramatic Face Tutorial

August 18th, 2011 by Karen 6 Comments

LORAC’s latest five-piece kit comes with makeup for eyes, cheeks and lips in wearable shades of peach, beige, plum and black.

My favorite liquid liner, Front of the Line Pro, is in there too. WOOT! 🙂

Side note: if you haven’t tried Front of the Line Pro yet, you better get on it, boo! It’s one of those change your life products.

The $39 kit’s a Sephora exclusive, and it’s available now in stores and also online.

Final Wardrobe Approval

August 17th, 2011 by Karen 8 Comments

These shoes did not pass, as you can see from Tabs’expression.

In Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. IV, Technology Meets Makeup

August 17th, 2011 by Karen 61 Comments

Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV

The gorgeous gadgeteers at Urban Decay headquarters know that technology plus makeup equals fun, so they engineered a little something special for us with their latest limited edition Book of Shadows: Volume IV ($64).

This installment in the storied line comes with plenty of makeup, as well as five QR (Quick Response) codes that you can plug into your iPhone or Android phone to access five online video tutorials featuring products from the palette.

The Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. IV ($64) comes with…

16 eyeshadows (10 new and exclusive to the palette)
One full-size 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Perversion
One travel-size Supercurl Curling Mascara
One travel-size Eyeshadow Primer Potion
One small external speaker that can be used in place of your phone’s internal speaker
Card with the five QR codes and instructions on how to use them to access the five tutorial vids from your smartphone (I watched part of the “Naked” one featuring the palette’s neutral shades)
Cables to connect the small speaker to your phone by its headphone jack

urban decay book of shadows iv

The palette’s a holiday release, so it won’t be available for a while (I’m trying to pin down the exact date), but here are a few pictures and swatches to wet your whistle.

urban decay book of shadows iv iphone

urban decay book of shadows iv swatches iphone 2

urban decay book of shadows iv butterfly
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August 17th, 2011 by Karen 37 Comments

A sensuous rouge? Is that like Zorro or Robin Hood?

Wait — oh, rooozh. I thought I read something else. 🙂 I pictured a handsome roguish blush pan whispering into my ear (it had an accent like Antonio Banderas), “Hello, seÃ±orita. May I come over tonight, so I can make sweet love to your cheeks?”

Okay…chances are that’s not what EstÃ©e Lauder was going for when they developed this new line of 12 moisturizing lipsticks ($28 each). It doesn’t arrive on makeup counters till fall, but the colors are available for pre-sale online now.

See the dot in the middle of these two bullets? That’s what makes these lipsticks special. At the center of each tube, surrounded by lipstick, is a core of EL’s hydrating “lip elixir.”

Orchid Surrender (left) and Wistful Wisteria (right)

The idea with these, and I’ve been wearing two of the shades this week — rosy brown Orchid Surrender and pinkish berry Wistful Wisteria — is that you’re not just getting a lip color, but you’re also getting the benefits of a balm.
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