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The Chanel Ombres Perlees de Chanel Eyeshadow Palette, Kitty Tron and Chai Tea

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chanel ombres perlees de chanel on karen

Christmas came early this year! Granted it’s only a couple of hours away, but it really did come early, in the form of these three very cool things.

1. Big Train Spiced Chai

Reader Bunny Masseuse recommended this powdered chai mix in the comments a couple weeks ago, and HOT DAYUM! I actually raised the roof in my kitchen this morning when I made a cup (to quote El Hub from the other room: “What the hell are you doing?”). If you like chai, you gotta give it a try (ha! I made a rhyme!).

2. This kitty Tron outfit

I don’t have the words to convey how totally awesome this is. Someone tweeted it today, and the first thing I thought was, does it come in kitty XXL?? Um…Tabby got a big ol’ booty.


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A Holiday Makeup Look from Tori and Rupert

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Written by Tori (and Rupert)

Dynamic beauty duo Tori and Rupert scour drugstore aisles and cosmetics counters looking for share-worthy beauty booty. Here’s Tori’s holiday look.

Happy Holidays from Tori and Rupert

Brrr… Baby it’s cold outside! It’s that time of year again, a time for gift-giving, parties and family get-togethers, which also means holiday makeup. Generally, I’m a sucker for sparkle and glitz, but over the holidays I have MULTIPLE excuses to sparkle even more often.

Here’s a holiday makeup look to get you in the mood. That is, if the spiked eggnog hasn’t done it yet. 🙂

My Holiday Makeup Look: Products I Used

  • MAC Eye Shadow in Honey Lust
  • NYX Eye Shadow in Rust
  • MAC Shadestick in Beige-ing
  • Kat Von d Liquid Liner in Romantico
  • MAC Lip Gelee in Resort Life
  • NARS The Multiple in Copacabana

How To Get the Look

Happy Holidays from Tori and Rupert: Eye Closeup

Eyes — Start by applying a shimmery primer. For this look, I used MAC Shadestick in Beige-ing because I like its gold undertones. Then, pat Honey Lust all over your eyelids, blending (slightly outward) Rust into the crease. Next (this part is optional), highlight your brow bone with a lighter beige.

Now, take your liquid liner, and draw out from the center of your eyelid, flicking it upwards for a cat eye effect.
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Take Your Nails from Grinch to Gorgeous with This Holiday Nail Art How-To

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Kerry

Written by Kerry

Blogger Kerry wants to help us get our nails into the holiday spirit with a work of nail art in today’s guest post.

Happy holiday nail art

I love winter. Hot cocoa, scarves, fireplaces, snow, Christmas music and movies, and the opportunity to get away with crazy nail art. I love using glitter during the winter months — I think there’s just something special about the way it sparkles in the winter sun. Today, however, I want to show you a simple nail design that I love to rock the week before Christmas. This is an unexpected nail look that’s fun yet understated.

NOTE: The links in here are just to show you what products I used, and not to recommend the particular sites. I purchased everything shown here at Five Below, Ulta, and Walgreens.

The first step is to apply a base coat. I like using Sally Hansen’s Insta-Grip Fast Dry Base Coat, but use whatever you feel comfortable with.

Once that’s dry, apply two coats of red polish. I used ORLY’s Monroe’s Red because it’s a bright Christmas-y color. If you find that the color clashes with your skin tone, use any red that you like. For this design, though, I think it’s better to stick to creams than shimmers. Monroe’s Red does have the subtlest of subtle red shimmer, but you really can’t see it unless you get millimeters away from my nails in the sunlight.
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I Would Shake My Bon Bons for this Lush Lip Scrub

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Lush Bon Bon Lip Scrub

Hell yeah, that was me in the bathroom last night eating Lush Bon Bon Lip Scrub ($8.95) at midnight.

Yes, eating it. 🙂 Even though I’m pretty sure it’s raison d’être is to buff peeling, dry lips back into shape, it tastes exactly like yummy lemon drops.

Hold up — let me eat a scoop exfoliate my lips right now.

Mmm…exfoliate…

Bon Bon’s list of ingredients reads like a dessert recipe, with two kinds of sugar, almond oil, cranberry oil and lemon… No wonder it tastes so good. And I don’t feel weird about eating it either. Not like I did that time I bit off the tip of my Tarte FRXtion lip exfoliator (yes, I really did that). In my defense, that one tastes just like brown sugar.

The grains in Lush’s lip scrub are just rough enough to easily slough away any and all flakey bits on my lips without being so rough that they hurt. Lips are sensitive, after all, and using this has been much more pleasant (and tastier) than my usual approach to lip exfoliation — brushing my lips with an old toothbrush.

Lush Bon Bon Lip Scrub directions

Lush Bon Bon Lip Scrub ingredients
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Would You Say the New Chanel Black Pearl, Pearl Drop and Peche Nacree Nail Polishes Live Up to the Hype?

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Chanel Black Pearl Peche Nacree Pearl Drop

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve! Christmas came early! I braved the mall today to peep the new Les Perles de Chanel spring collection up close and personal. Yup, to say “the mall was crowded” would be like saying “I like Chanel.” Duh.

I think the last time I was at a mall two days before Christmas was when my friend Jen and I both worked together at The Limited in 1994 (I hawked a lot of ugly purse wallets, yo). Ah, memories…

I couldn’t wait to see the three new limited edition Le Vernis Nail Colours — Black Pearl, Pearl Drop and Peche Nacree ($23 each). There’s been some serious brouhaha about ’em, especially Black Pearl (is that Jack Sparrow?!), which has been hyped as Chanel’s next big thing.

Take a look, and let me know if you think they’re worthy of the buzz. 🙂

Chanel Black Pearl
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Quick-Change Artists, Do You Plan to Make MAC Stylishly Yours?

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MAC Neon Orange on Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog

You don’t have to be a crazy cat lady (or a rotund tabby cat with a low-hanging belly) to appreciate a strong cat eye liner look with bold lips. It’s an enduring, timeless combination that looks great on almost everyone.

The new 19-piece MAC Stylishly Yours collection, a limited edition release for eyes, lips and face (pieces $14-22 each), embodies this tried-and-true classic in a modernized, 21st century way.

The collection purrs onto MAC counters, stores and maccosmetics.com on December 26 and stays put through January 11, 2011. Tabs, being the ho for brights that he is, can’t wait.

mac stylishly yours product shot
A few MAC Stylishly Yours products clockwise from the mascara wand at the lower left: Zoom Lash Mascara in New Hue, Cream Colour Base in Virgin Isle, Lipstick in Neon Orange, Cream Colour Base in Movie Star Red and Fluidline in Dark Diversion

With Stylishly Yours, MAC offers fans fun, fast ways to give makeup looks a shot of dramatic color (without having to think too hard). Eyes in the look are kept simple, clean, and simultaneously dramatic with matte black and burgundy gel liner and mascara. Bright coral, pink, magenta, red and violet leap onto lips and cheeks in lipsticks, cream blushes (they double as lip colors, too!) and loose pigments with creamy and shimmery finishes. But that’s not all — two pink pressed highlighting powders imbue faces with a lovely soft sheen.

What I really like about the release are how the brights are both sophisticated and easy to use.

When you know you want to wear something bold but don’t want to invest the time into a super complex drag queen eye with teal, gold and purple, you could slip into one of these lipsticks instead, top it off with a layer of Clear Lipglass, and strut out the door.

Or, you could quickly do a swipe of thick burgundy cat eye liner with the blackened plum Fluidline in Dark Diversion, add a few layers of the burgundy New Hue Zoom Lash Mascara to your lashes, and blend one of the Cream Colour Bases (Virgin Isle’s my fave!) on your cheeks and lips.

MAC Stylishy Yours: Swatches on NC35 Skin

MAC Stylishly Yours swatches cream colour base
Cream Colour Bases from left: Virgin Isle, Tickle Me Pink, Movie Star Red, Madly Magenta

MAC Stylishly Yours swatches lipstick
Lipsticks: Neon Orange, Something New, Cockney and Style Curve
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