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A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict

Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!

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  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is mkdallas! Congratulations, mkdallas! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

Win a $50 Sephora eGift card from Makeup and Beauty Blog
Guess who’s upset about not being able to exercise yesterday? Wait — there are two correct answers to that question, but the one I had in mind when I wrote it was Tabs. I meant to take him for a walk in the afternoon, but time got away from me. Now I think he’s fussy because he’s pacing around the house from open window to window, occasionally grumbling under his breath. It would be cute if he wasn’t also my boss. 🙂

Yes, sir, I’ll take you for a walk in a few minutes just as soon as I get your dry cleaning and prepare your gravy.

In other news, good morning, young lady. As the Hawaiian’s say, “howzit?” Are you having a good weekend so far? Except for some Tabs maintenance, I plan to take it slow and easy today. No, not because of the rapture. I’m just not in the mood to do anything anyone could potentially misconstrue as work, haha!

I’m a little giddy right now, ironically because I haven’t had a sip of coffee or tea yet this morning. I’m giddy because it means I’m about to have one now, and I can tell it’s going to be glorious. GLORIOUS!!!

Whoa! — would you look at that? It’s…

A Makeup and Beauty Blog Giveaway!

Win a $50 eGift card from Sephora

  • One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (or $50 sent by PayPal instead).

  • There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, what’s your favorite material possession (the one thing you would grab in the event of a disaster)? What’s your favorite soft drink? Have you ever given a television interview? Do you believe in alien life? Who makes your favorite lip gloss? — you get the idea.
  • Second, you can enter by following me on twitter Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
    • Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/ituOjQ

  • The deadline to enter is Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
  • Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
  • A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
  • Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
  • Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. The winner may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal.
  • Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
  • The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
  • Void where prohibited by law.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is mkdallas! Congratulations, mkdallas! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

The New Buxom Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains Want to Wow You in 4 Different Ways

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buxom lip tarnish review

I don’t remember much from my brief stint in community theater as Misc. Shark Girl #3 in West Side Story, but I do remember how during auditions people would whisper about the “triple threats,” and how it was, like, a big deal to be one.

Sounds thuggish, right? — a triple threat! In theater parlance, it’s what they call someone who can sing, dance and act. Of course, I was barely able to do one of the three (I could dance a little)…but I also had long black hair that from far away helped me pass for Puerto Rican. Score! 🙂

Like multi-talented stage stars, Buxom’s new Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains ($18) want to do it all. Blackmail (a blackberry truffle), Busted (a cherry red), Caught on Tape (a hot pink) and Wardrobe Malfunction (a candy pink) go on sale exclusively at Sephora this August, and they hope to lavish lips in not three but FOUR different ways, tinting like a lip stain, shining like a gloss, hydrating like a lip balm and plumping like…something that plumps.

buxom lip tarnish review closeup
From the left: Caught on Tape, Blackmail, Wardrobe Malfunction and Busted

buxom lip tarnish review swatches
Swatches from the left: Wardrobe Malfunction, Caught on Tape, Busted and Blackmail
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Lancome Kissed By Gold: Should You Have Designs on this Summer Shadow & Liner Palette?

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I wonder how peacocks feel about Lancome’s shimmery Color Design Shadow & Liner Palette in Kissed By Gold ($48). Perhaps I should ask the one that cruises the walkways where my in-laws live near verdant Haiku Gardens. He’s such a show-off, that bird, always flaunting his glossy feathers for all the world to see (sometimes from the back of pickup trucks!). I guess I can’t blame him, really. I’d probably do the same thing if my feathers shined like that. 🙂

I bet he’d still be a little jealous, though, of Kissed By Gold’s approach to these classic, summery shades because something tells me these shimmery bronzes, golds, pinks and browns would look lovely on tail feathers (and tanned skin).

The palette is one of the latest additions to Lancome’s line of Color Design Shadow & Liner Palettes, a family of color-coordinated eye palettes released earlier this year, and it’s one of the shiniest high-pigment palettes this particular bird has seen in a while.

Even though there’s also a matte here, it’s the shimmery shadows that steal the show. On skin they glow like peacock feathers (in a more neutral palette) and polished chrome, and I’m reminded of the mirror finish of an Urban Decay shadow sprinkled with a dash of elegant Dior.

The moment my brush met the first highly pigmented pan I called “DAY-UM!” out loud. Not only do they look great, but they also blend in the blink of an eye! Seriously, if basic eyeshadow colors are like day-old coffee, then these are like espresso brewed by gold medal baristas — intense, rich and opaque.

After playing with the Kissed By Gold yesterday morning, I decided to collect EVERY SINGLE PALETTE from the line…


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Go Drag or Go Home: A Mascara Combo for Dramatically Longer, Thicker Lashes

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Well look at you, eagle eye cutie pie. 🙂 You discovered my latest lash secret. I’ve been asked a few times over the past couple of days about what I’m wearing on my lashes, and yes, I’ve been trying something new.

When it comes to lashes, for me it’s GO DRAG OR GO HOME! I’m flat-out wild about that dramatic false lash look, ya know? — the longer and more voluminous, the better. That’s why I’m so stoked about my current combo, which adds mad crazy length and lots of thickness at the base. And the best part? I discovered it by accident!

One day last week I had on two layers of Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara ($20) on my top lashes, and one on the bottom. Even though Cannonball smudges a tad, it stretches my lashes to their lengthening limits and cures the curl from my lash curler (Shu know the one), so I readily accepted the tradeoff.
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Flowerchild, You’ll Look Like a Fly Damsel in the New Becca Halcyon Days Mineral Blush

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The more time I spend with the Becca Halcyon Days collection, the more I fall in love love. It’s fast becoming one of my favorite summer releases so far and OOH! — do you hear that? It sings sonnets — no, more like an epic volumes! — to my peach/coral/pink/gold-lovin’ heart.

If your skin turns a toasty brown over summer, or you’re just fond of the way you look in warm pinks, peaches and corals, don’t be surprised if you catch yourself making grabby motions in the air the first time you see the Halcyon Days Mineral Blushes ($32 each) up close, or when you open the sturdy compacts, with, what is that on the outside? A rubberized texture? How cool is that!? It keeps them from slipping out of my grubby little hands.

Flowerchild (a golden peachy pink) and Damselfly (a golden coral) deliver serious, hard-to-ignore pigmentation. One swirl around the pan from my powder blush brush grabs just enough color for one cheek — no layering necessary, unless I want a brighter look.

And talk about flawless application! The powder grains are so tiny that they even make grains of sand seem huge. They might even be finer than the powders at T. LeClerc, an uber-luxury line that some consider one of the best in the beauty biz.

The finely milled powder might be the reason why it spreads like sunlight with nary a streak. And blending? Forget about it. I barely have to flick a wrist to smooth out the edges, which are hardly even there.

The resulting luminous, flushed cheek look is pure Becca all the way — fresh-faced, beachy, feminine, effortless and true to the line.

I’m thinking it would also make a fantastic starter blush for beginners, too, because of how easy it is to use and how natural it looks. If you’re curious about blush but worried about looking like a circus clown, I think either of these would be a great place to start.

becca halcyon days damselfly
Damselfly

Becca Halcyon Days Collection Flowerchild Mineral Blush
Flowerchild


Swatches of Damselfly (left) and Flowerchild (right)
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Radiant Summer Skin for Just $12.99: Sonia Kashuk Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 15

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Sonia Kashuk just reminded me why I have to get my air conditioner fixed. You see, with the mercury rising indoors and out, her Radiant Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15 ($12.99) means I won’t have to wear a heavy mask of makeup in the heat. 🙂

I never thought I’d see the day when anything would come between me and my trusty tube of Laura Mercier Oil-Free Tinted Moisturizer, especially a drugstore product, but here we are. For years, Laura’s sheer-to-medium coverage has evened out my skin tone and kept my combination dry/oil skin happily hydrated and (nearly) breakout-free, but in hot and/or humid weather, it has at times looked and felt heavy on my skin.

With summer quickly approaching, I decided to keep my options open. Last week I started testing Sonia’s Radiant Tinted Moisturizer, and so far, so good.

It’s not the first drugstore tinted moisturizer I’ve tried over the years, but it is the first, in my opinion, able to hold its own against Laura’s in more ways than one. Like Laura’s entry, buildable, pigmented Radiant Tinted in Tan covers up red patches and pimples, evens out my skin tone, and helps to hide any scratches left by Edward Scissorpaws, who, by the way, is still on my sh*t list (NOTE TO SELF: work on forgiving and forgetting). And this it does with a single layer that feels lighter and more comfy than Laura’s to me.

I swear it looks like real skin, too, and isn’t heavy, thick or fake-looking at all. A touch of barely-there shimmer gives it dimension and further helps diffuse my fine lines and wrinkles.

If you have very oily skin, you could probably wear it all by itself, but if you have shiny patches on your forehead or cheeks (like I do), you might set it with a blotting powder (I like MAC Blot). That’ll take care of those oily areas. Or, for even more/better coverage, you could use a sheer powder like the MAC Studio Careblends, which I’m using in these pics.

sonia kashuk radiant tinted moisturizer spf 15 review

sonia kashuk radiant tinted moisturizer spf 15 review
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