A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Mango overload! Mango overload! Help! I have no idea what to do with the four ripe mangoes that have been sitting in my kitchen since Easter, all delicious-looking and filled with juice. Salsa? Marinade? A smoothie, perhaps?
Around this time every year, I get a craving for two things: 1) mangoes and 2) shimmery, sheer glosses like Pensée (a shimmery coral) and Pink Peony (a shimmer pink). And what do they all have in common? One word: juice.
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What I wouldn’t give to learn the story behind the name of today’s MAC Unsung Hero, Naked Lunch ($14.50).
Was there really a lunch in which the attendees were naked (eww!)? If so, I wonder what was on the menu… I assume that soups and other hot foods were absent, as well as beans and cheeses that encourage, um, bloat.
I’m all for culinary adventures, but when it comes to my lunches, I think I’ll stick to wearing clothes and this powder shadow from MAC’s permanent line. 🙂
When I need something foolproof to wear with my favorite browns, I often reach for Naked Lunch. It casts a candlelit glow on my skin that ignores my fine lines, and it blends like a makeup dream.
On me, it’s a champagne peachy pink with a subtle sheen — a demure, slightly warmer, less glittery version of Stila Kitten, perhaps, and its flexibility could rival Olympic gymnasts! I wear it as a lid color (fab for a wide-eyed look), as a highlighter along my brow bone, at the inner corners, and sometimes even as a face highlighter.
Swatch of Naked Lunch with the flash
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Lately, I’ve been super obsessed with the idea of the South of France and the Cannes Film Festival taking place there next month. Plus, you know how much I like surfing, and apparently, Cannes has some really great surf spots, too. Who knew?
Chanel’s new Soleil Tan de Chanel Moisturizing Bronzing Powder in Bronze Rose ($50) is fueling this obsession. It launched a couple weeks ago with the new Chanel Les Fleurs D’Ete Summer Collection.
Do you do MAC Twig Lipstick ($14.50)? It’s a pinkish brown shade in the permanent line.
I am, but only when it comes to MAC Spice Lip Pencil ($13). 🙂
Do you love this pencil too? I wore it every day for years!
When I was a kid, every slumber party I went to started with 16 Candles, progressed to crank calling cute boys from class, and ended with us playing light as a feather, stiff as a board.
For the game, one of us would lie down on the floor. Then, a bunch of us girls would lift her, using just two fingers on each hand, while chanting, “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” over and over again. I have no idea why this was considered fun, but we got the biggest kick out of it and did it all the time.
Ah, to be young and easily amused… 🙂
MAC’s new Studio Fix Boldblack Lash mascara ($14) reminds me of that old game. Launching April 28 on counters with the new Fashion Flower Collection (NOTE: it’s available now online), Boldblack will join the MAC permanent line.
MAC describes it as a dramatic, blacker-than-black mascara with a long-lasting formula lighter than a flower petal.
I’ve been batting two coats on my fringe for the past few days, and while I like how long my lashes look and how feather light they feel with it on, Boldblack also leaves them stiff and crunchy — hence the whole “light as feather, stiff as a board” thing.
A few things I like about Boldblack…
Before
After two coats
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There are few things I adore more than random acts of beauty like…
Most mornings I’m awakened by a chubby tabby cat set to go off about a minute before the regular alarm on my phone. It’s a very unusual alarm in that I’m actually the source of the sound, which is like a painful yelp. It works like this: Tabs, who usually sleeps in his kitty bed on the floor, climbs up onto my bladder and launches from it into the air, “Whee!”
And it even has something like a snooze button because after he does it the first time, I usually drift back to sleep, so he does it again about 10 minutes later. This repeats over and over until I finally get out of bed.
But this morning the tabby alarm clock malfunctioned in a glorious way! Instead of using my bladder as a springboard, Tabs climbed up onto the bed and gently snuggled his way into my arms like a present. 🙂 Of course, I soaked it up as long as I could (cat ladies, you know what I’m talking about), listening to him purr and feeling the curve of his warm kitty body against mine as rays of sunlight filtered in through the windows onto his fur. It was so peaceful and calm that I almost couldn’t get out of bed!
When I finally did sit up, the first word out of my mouth was “Hallelujah!” Today’s was the first morning in — I can’t even remember how long — that I’ve gotten up without pain. I’ve been PMS-ing for what feels like an eternity, and “the girls” have been uncomfortable and sore, so much so that even lying in bed hurts. Does that ever happen to you?
Sleeping in my regular bras hasn’t helped because the hooks and wires dig into my skin, and the sports bra I tried was way too binding. But last Saturday at Macy’s I stumbled upon a line of stretchy one-piece bras from Barely There and decided to give them a try.
I got the one called the ComfortFlex Fit Bandini (comes 2 for $26). It’s basically a super soft, non-binding sports bra without any hooks or wires, and it fits snugly to keep everything in place, but yet isn’t so tight that it cuts off the circulation while I’m sleeping.
Two words: sweet relief!
After making my way downstairs this morning and fueling up on caffeine and peanut butter toast, I took a generic Zyrtec and put on Tabs’ harness to take him outside for a quick walk.
For some, taking allergy meds may not qualify as a random act of beauty, but JEEZ! — it’s so nice to be able to enjoy spring without sniffling or sneezing from allergies, or feeling sleepy or foggy-headed from meds. Back in the day, the over-the-counter stuff hardly helped at all, and I always had dreadful seasonal allergies. It may not be makeup, but Zyrtec is still beautiful to me.
While Tabs explored the great outdoors from the safety of his kitty harness, I snapped a bunch of pics, like this one of a blooming bush.
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Before sniffing H2O+’s new Sweet Berry shower gel and body balm, I would have thought it absurd that a candy company would ever collaborate on a bath/beauty product. Now, I’m not so sure.
Since I know that LifeSavers didn’t partner with H2O+ this year, there must be another explanation for why H2O+’s new Sweet Berry Moisturizing Body Balm ($11.50) and Shower & Bath Gel ($9) smell so much like LifeSavers Gummies, incidentally one of my favorite candies in the world.
Maybe there was an accident one day in the H2O+ labs… What if a technician who was working on the new products had an open bag of gummies in his shirt pocket? If he had leaned forward a little too far and let one plop down into his beaker, that could explain the remarkably similar scents.
Yeah, probably not. But still — it would be kinda cool if that’s how it happened. 🙂
When it comes to bath and body products, I usually prefer citrus and floral scents, so I was surprised to like H2O+’s new Sweet Berry Moisturizing Body Balm and Shower & Bath Gel so much.
While sweet, they don’t overwhelm my sensitive nose. I find them light and fresh, and not anywhere near as cloying as the berry-themed body products I’ve tried from Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.
Of course, scent is a matter of personal preference, but that’s the beauty of beauty products like these. We can sniff sample them before choosing to bring them home.
