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

Saturday Surfing and Scarab Beetles

October 23rd, 2010 by Karen 10 Comments

Good morning, girl. Can I run something by you? I’m working on a new song called Water Makes the Cats Go Cray-Cray, and it goes a little something like this (HIT IT!):

Rain been fallin’ all week long
Been stuck inside ever so long
Yearnin’ for a change

Turkeys walkin’ past my window
My assistant doesn’t get my lingo
It’s time for me to bust a move
And break out of this funky groove

Cats like me don’t like the rain
But not because it’s such a pain
We just need more to entertain
Our minds before we go insane
Sing it with me now!

Meow, meow, meow, meow
Meow, meow, meow
Meow, meow, meow, meow
Meow, meow, meow

No kidding, Tabs has gone full-on crazy! The rain’s turned my sweet tabby into a 15-pound terror. He runs around the condo like he’s being chased by invisible dogs and chirps at the windows incessantly as if he’s talking to the clouds.

I know he wants outside, but when we have gone out, he won’t walk because everything’s so wet. He’s caught in a kitty catch-22.

Speaking of things bugging Tabs, I was sure he’d like the creepy crawly scarab beetle decorating these products from Illamasqua’s new 15-piece Art of Darkness collection, but I was wrong. I think the packaging totally works, but Tabs disagrees. What do you think?

illamasqua art of darkness

illamasqua art of darkness
Clockwise from bottom left: Pure Pigment in Ore, Pure Pigment in Alluvium, Intense Lipgloss in Hermetic, False Lashes No. 23, Lipstick in Disciple, Liquid Metal in Resolute

illamasqua art of darkness
Lipstick in Disciple

illamasqua art of darkness
Swatches from left: Pure Pigment in Ore, Pure Pigment in Alluvium, Liquid Metal in Resolute

illamasqua art of darkness
Liquid Metal in Resolute, Intense Lipgloss in Hermetic, Lipstick in Disciple

I’m not sure what to make of the blue lipstick… Would you wear it? Wait — before you answer, there’s a break in the storm! Care to catch some e-waves with me? I gotta get my cardio while I can. 😉

Saturday Surfing: Sites I Surfed Today

Add this to the list of things that make you go, “What the frak!?” (right after man Spanx): a hair salon where the stylists are all topless. Um, yikes!
Man, I was really hoping I’d never see these Freddy Krueger nails again, but I guess that was too much to hope for.
When I worked at a literary agency (let me tell you — A LOT goes into those book covers), I got to see how books are made from start to finish. Here’s a historical look at the evolution of book covers for classic kids novels like Sweet Valley High. Neat to see how styles, colors, fonts and illustrations have/haven’t changed…
Cat eyes are having a major moment right now. Here’s how to get the look in two easy steps!

Have a great day today! Hope you find some time to just relax. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Can You Guess the NARS Lipgloss?

October 23rd, 2010 by Karen 2 Comments

I believe in you, boo!

NYX Special Effects Lashes: Crazy False Lashes at a Crazy Good Price

October 22nd, 2010 by Karen 35 Comments

karen from makeup and beauty blog wearing nyx special effects lashes in leopard

Wow, how fun are these NYX Special Effects Lashes ($10; available in 40 styles)? I’m building up the courage to wear the brown spotted Leopard ones out in public, and I’m almost there. I’m thinking mall date, perhaps?

Electric blue Midnight Walts is another story… I’m reserving that one for private, in-home displays of cray-cray. I feel trÃ¨s Looney Tunes with ’em on, not gonna lie.

I love how many there are to choose from (40 in all), and at $10, they’re $5 cheaper than the freakiest $15 Urban Decay Urban Lashes and half the cost of falsies from Shu Uemura (which are great, I might add).

NYX Special Effects Lashes Review

NYX Special Effects Lashes Review leopard

NYX Special Effects Lashes Review leopard midnight walts
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Benefit Instant Brow: I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost…Brows

October 22nd, 2010 by Karen 34 Comments

Benefit Instant Brow Pencil

ghost brows |gohst brouz|
noun
1 A phrase which has come to mean “sparse brows,” but in my particular case describes brows that start dense above my nose but fade away as they taper toward my ears : ooh, that girl’s got some ghost brows!

Chock it up to Halloween and/or my overactive imagination, but I’m convinced I’m being haunted by a kleptomaniac makeup ghost — one with a weird brow fetish! For real, though!

To fill my brows I usually reach for two things: MAC Concrete Eyeshadow and the 266 Small Angle Brush. But then my pan of Concrete went missing a few weeks ago, and now I can’t find my 266!

Something wicked this way comes…

But whatever malevolent force is at work, it motivated me to try the Benefit Instant Brow Pencil ($20).

karen from makeup and beauty blog reviews benefit instant brow pencil
I ain’t afraid of no ghost…brows!

This dual-tipped brow saver’s been a member of the Benefit fam for quite some time. On one side, a soft pencil to fill sparse brows; on the other, a spoolie brush for brow blending. It comes in three shades — Light, Medium and Deep. The one I use is Medium, a creamy dark brown.
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Do Philosophy Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleansing Cloths Live Up to Great Expectations?

October 22nd, 2010 by Karen 24 Comments

Great Expectations isn’t just the story of an orphan named Pip. It’s also what I had for these facial cleansing cloths from Philosophy.

But can you blame me? Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleansing Cloths are named after one of my favorite products of all time, Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple liquid cleanser.

Yep, PMS and I go waaaay back… 🙂

I couldn’t even venture a guess at how many bottles of it I’ve used over the years, but it’s been a lot.

Like the liquid version, the cloths, which have been out on shelves for a while now, are supposed to remove dirt, oil and makeup, except they do it without the need to rinse.
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Sleepy Tabby

October 22nd, 2010 by Karen 13 Comments

Guess who was NOT in the mood to have his picture taken?

Can You Guess the NARS Lipgloss?

October 22nd, 2010 by Karen 18 Comments

C’mon, I know you wanna try!

MAC A Tartan Tale: Are Those Swatches Eye See?

October 21st, 2010 by Karen 42 Comments

mac a tartan tale

nce upon a Tartan’s Tale, I peeped eye colors I would regale, but not so many, I’m sad to say, as I had hoped earlier today.

The Pearlglides are, without a doubt, my favorites from the tale no doubt, but I await, so patiently, the final act, let’s call it three. 🙂

From what I’ve seen of the collection’s eye products so far, and I’ve only seen about a quarter of it, nothing’s completely stolen my heart (but the Pearlglides have it on layaway).

A lot of what I’ve seen has been surprisingly sheer, which I guess would be cool if we were talking about Clinique, but this is MAC. In other words, where’s the ~~beef~~ pigment?

But this tale’s far from over, and there’s much more to swatch and see. I guess only time will tale, haha! For now, I won’t rule out falling in love.

For the single product eye shadow pics that follow, I applied one layer using a dry brush head.

MAC A Tartan Tale: The Eyes Have It

Eye Shadows in Golden Crown and Enviably Fun: Both are pretty to look at (I’m a sucker for plaid), but performance-wise, they let me down. Shimmery Golden Crown lives up to its name but falls way short on pigment. That, and it leaves a lot of fallout beneath the lash line, bluh. Shimmery greenish gold Enviably Fun packs more pigmentation into a smoother texture that suffers from less fallout, too. To bring out more of the color in the look down below, I applied both colors with a wet brush head. $19.50 for a 0.10-oz. pan.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B-
Pearlglide Intense Liners in Undercurrent and Black Swan: LOVE these liners. Undercurrent’s an intense dark green with golden shimmer, and Black Swan’s a deep black with silver glitter. Both of them skate along skin with loads of pigment and stay put for hours. They should make great bases for the shadows, too. $14.50 for a 0.04-oz. liner.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
5 Cool Thrillseekers Pigments/Glitters: Yargh! Applied alone with a dry brush, these shades are all but invisible on my NC35 skin. Applied with a wet brush, however, the colors come out of their shells, but then the shadows end up looking thick and heavy. Lighter lovelies applying them dry might have better luck. Oh, and I’m not a fan of the little jars; I find them hard to work with, and I keep spilling the products by accident. $32.50 for five small 0.09-oz. jars.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B-
Pigment in Moonlight Night: Here’s a promising development. 🙂 Wouldn’t this sheer black with green shimmer look pretty layered over a black liner? It’s an interesting color that I can see using to add a fun twist to standard smokey eyes. $19.50 for a 0.15-oz. jar.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+
6 Dashing Lassies Eye Shadows: I like the design on the compact, but I could probably live without the colors inside. When applied with a dry brush, the three lighter shades were disappointingly sheer, and the darker colors were only a bit more pigmented. Yet again, I ended up using a wet brush to coax out the colors. Unless your shadow collection’s missing a bronze, dark brown and a beige, I’d probably pass. $36 for 0.19-oz.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B-