Who’s up for a trip to Fangtasia? Anybody?
The limited edition Tarte for True Blood Palette ($52), available now at Sephora stores and also online.
Open After Dark
Essence Multi-Colour Blush Is Wearing Stripes To the Party But Can’t Stay for Long
If something has stripes, I’m usually totally into it…
But when it comes to these $2.49 Essence Multi-Colour Blushes, well, let’s just say that their cute stripes and great price are just about the best things they have going for ’em.
I give the two available shades, pale pink Fashionista and pale peach How Cute Is That, major points for looking cute on a budget, but their knees buckle beside the performance of rock stars from the Essence line, like the fantastic Gel Eyeliners.
Fashionista (left) and How Cute Is That (right)
MAC Colourizations Pro Palette Eye Shadow X 2: You Can’t Easily Pop In and Out of This Double Feature
The very first time I walked up to a MAC eyeshadow display case, my eyes rolled back in my head. Not because of eyeshadow ecstasy, mind you; this was years ago, and at the time I didn’t know Soft Brown from chocolate delight. No, looking down at those rows of sleek, little pots, as beads of perspiration formed on my brow, I was utterly and completely overwhelmed.
What I could have used back then was something like the new MAC Pro Palette Eye Shadows X 2 ($25 each US; $30 in Canada). Designed to take the guesswork out of choosing which eyeshadows to pair by teaming two coordinating colors together in a cute lil’ palette (and eliminating what was a major source of makeup stress for me way back when), these eight duos dance onto MAC counters with the new Colourizations Collection August 4 in North America, and internationally, some time next month.
MAC calls them, “daring pairings,” and from the six palettes I’ve seen so far, some of the couplings, like the orange and navy in Double Feature 8, appear more adventurous than others (even if it isn’t that risky, I still really like Double Feature 5’s pairing of that frosty peach and the duochrome brown with green pearl).
Double Feature 1
Double Feature 3
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TIGI Catwalk Session Series Salt Spray Delivers Beachy Waves from a Bottle
I must have been born a water baby because I could spend all day at the beach. I’m serious, get me in the ocean, and I’m a happy girl.
Rather, get me in a warm ocean, and I’m a happy girl. 🙂
I vividly remember the last time I was in the water at a warm beach because it was also the day I saw some of the best beachy waves I’ve ever seen. It was the day after Thanksgiving last November, and we were visiting El Hub’s parents in Hawaii. We spent quite a chunk of that trip chasing sea turtles, so to speak, flapping in our flippers and snorkels.
We’d just climbed out of the water to take a short break, which meant people watching and nomming on local snacks (coconut balls and Pass-o-Guava juice, anyone?). I was watching a group of kids build a giant sand castle on the shore, and one of the girls involved in its construction had a perfectly tousled, messy mop of pure, casual awesomeness on her head. She must’ve only been about seven or eight, but I remember thinking, “Hot damn! I wish my hair looked like that!”
Ever since that day I’ve been trying to reproduce the very same look; I’ve tried a bunch of different sprays specifically made to maximize beachy waves, but not even the famous $23 Bumble & Bumble Salt Spray has risen to the task.
Instead of that purposefully messy mane that looks like the best bed head I’ve ever had, I usually end up looking like I just walked through a wind tunnel, slowly, with my thick, wavy hair turning into a frizzy, dirty-looking mess (picture Doc from Back to the Future, or Kesha the morning after a long night of Long Island Iced Teas).
Then, a friend suggested I try TIGI’s Catwalk Sessions Series Salt Spray ($18.95 for a 9.13-oz. bottle), which I did.
Now, all I have to say is “HOLLA!” I think I’ve finally found great beachy hair in a bottle. 🙂
On the catwalk!
Launched earlier this summer, Salt Spray is like a combination of a light hold volumizing gel, a hair texturizer and a curl/wave enhancer. It’s designed to add texture to hair. In my case, it lifts my layers and encouraging my existing waves to play. I also think the tobacco flower scent smells divine (woodsy, with a hint of citrus).
I think the mess is what sets it apart from the flotilla of beachy wave-building and enhancing sprays on the market. It makes waves with just enough texture to look purposefully disheveled, but not so much that I look like I forgot to condition and comb (or like I fell off a truck).
MAC Colourizations: The Great Orange Eyeshadow Debacle!
My entire desk is covered with orange eyeshadow right now.
Sigh.
More on this in just a few.
MAC Colourizations Collection: Just a Bite!
Coming up later this afternoon — six of the eight soon-to-be released MAC Colourzations Pro Palette Eye Shadows X 2 ($25 each US/$30 CDN).
The MAC Colourizations collection arrives in North America August 4 and internationally some time the same month. For full collection details, see MAC Colourizations: I’m Seeing Double.
For the Price, These $3.49 Essence Gel Eyeliners Have MAC Fluidline Whipped
Essence continues to rock me like a hurricane (and take the drugstore makeup world by storm). What fab, little steals these pigmented, long-wearing Gel Eyeliners are! They come in three shades — matte black Midnight in Paris, shimmery taupe London Baby and shimmery purple Berlin Rocks — and cost a mere $3.49 each.
The fluffy texture of this shoestring wedding of whipped mousse and $15 MAC Fluidline doesn’t hold these back at all. In fact, with the Sonia Kashuk bent brush, I find them surprisingly easy to apply, and since they’re also quick drying — like, in less than a minute — I finish lining with them in less time than it takes to say, “Ben McKenzie is hot!”
Well, ya know. 🙂
And even without the help of my trusty NARS Pro Prime Smudge Eyeshadow Base, they stay put all day long without creasing or fading.
Midnight in Paris on the left; London Baby on the right
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Summer Project Update, July 5
My summer project to depot my MAC eyeshadows = NOT GOING WELL.