A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Woo hoo, congrats to my girl SJP! On Tuesday she and hubby Matthew Broderick welcomed twin girls Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge Broderick to the family.
I wonder if the lil’ ones will grow up to be as fashionable as their mom. 🙂
Loading ...Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Heya, homeskillets. How was your Wednesday? I really wanted to get a lot done today, but productivity just wasn’t in the cards. I went off course somewhere between the time I took a look at the new Clinique Bamboo Pink Collection and the moment I opened a box of chocolate Pocky.
After I came down from the Pocky, I took these pictures and swatches of the Urban Decay Ammo Palette ($36).
A friend gave me Ammo for my birthday…
I know it’s been out for a while, but now I can totally see why so many people love it.
The palette’s 10 shimmery, highly pigmented shadows range from work-friendly colors to party-like-a-rock-star shades, resulting in enough variety to create zillions of different looks.
LOVE the black packaging, too, and the white and purple swirls. It’s girly but fierce, like OG Joan Jett or Miss J from America’s Next Top Model.
I wish I knew why I had such a hard time concentrating today…
One of those rare moments of absolute peace…
A few items from the new Clinique Bamboo Pink makeup collection ($14-30). I love the softness of the pinks! What do you think?
G’morning, ladies. Last night on my evening run I got to thinking about things I just can’t get enough of, like…
…friends who *really* listen, good sports bras, well-written books, and, well, mascara. 🙂
Mascara may have been on my mind because earlier yesterday I received this email from Lindsay:
Maybe you’ve done this at some point, but I was wondering if you could do a post about your favorite mascaras. I have really oily eyelids so I have a hard time finding mascaras that stay put.
I don’t want to just go in blind and end up losing $20 on a tube I’ll never use. That happens too often than I care to mention! …Though my friends seem to love it because they get all the barely-used hand-me-downs for free. Maybe I should find some new friends? Help! (With the mascara dilemma, not the friends.)
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay,
Here are some of my favorite mascaras. I’m partial to ones able to handle hot days, workouts and oily eyelids without melting away, and many of them are classified as either waterproof or water-resistant.
I go through mascara phases, sometimes preferring waterproof varieties (my current phase), sometimes tinted, and sometimes I just want uber-dramatic, long and full!
Ladies, what’s your favorite mascara? Are you partial to basic black and waterproof, or do you yearn for something more? 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
The beauty gods blessed each of my big toes with seven long and wiry toe hairs.
Why? To test hair removal products, of course. 🙂
Nair may have had lips, chins and faces in mind when they developed their Precision Face and Upper Lip Kit ($6), but how about furry toes?
I followed the directions to a tee (except for the toe part), and a few minutes after applying the cream directly from the tube, which dispenses like a tube of Carmex/lip gloss, my toe hairs simply wiped away with a damp wash cloth. No elbow grease required.
The process was fast, totally painless, and the hairs came off at the base, which I’m hoping means my toes will stay hair free for a while.
If you’re thinking about using the kit for other kinds of hair removal…
Most importantly, the product works as advertised but has a surprisingly strong scent, kinda like hair perm, and I’m not sure I could tolerate it on my upper lip.
That, and the tube is quite small. The dispenser at the tip does allow for precise application, though, making it ideal for small hairy patches on the lips or, say, the tops of the toes (where it’s not intended to be used), but it also means that this definitely isn’t the right product for large scale hair removal projects.
Price: $6
Use: A hair remover cream for lips, cheeks, chins and hella hairy sasquatch toes!
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B
Do any of you remember Vanity 6? They were a girl group Prince put together back in the early-1980s.
They had a song back then called Nasty Girls with a sick beat that always gets stuck in my head for hours whenever I hear it.
I tried to find it on iTunes today but could only find it on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s Girl 6.
I’ve been singing it to Tabs for about an hour straight, and I don’t think he’s amused, ha!
Do you have any plans tonight? I’m thinking about pasta for dinner…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in Lestat
After several years dominating makeup counters, shimmery eyeshadows are letting mattes (viva MAC Matte2!) have the limelight for a while.
UK freshman Illamasqua has even gone so far as to make most of their Powder Eyeshadow singles ($23 USD before shipping) mattes.
I bet that pleases a lot of professional makeup artists who do work for photography; that’s somewhere I see mattes getting lots of use.
Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in Goddess
I think Illamasqua’s decision to make mattes their priority is a bold decision on the consumer end. Seriously, ladies love their shimmer shadows, so I can’t help but wonder: will Illamasqua’s gamble pay off?
Last weekend I sank my teeth into two of their matte shadows, Lestat (a chocolaty black) and Goddess (a turquoise blue).
Both were full of surprises. 🙂
Lestat pays homage to his namesake, Anne Rice’s character from Interview with a Vampire. It’s a dark black with a pinch of warm, chocolate brown, and with all the talk about Twilight and Edward Cullen, it comforts my vampire-lurvin’ heart to know that the folks at Illamasqua have an appreciation for old school fang fiction. 🙂
Surprise: Lestat applies semi-sheer, which I didn’t expect at all. The other Illamasqua products I’ve tried applied with soooo much pigment, so I expected Lestat would, too.
My bad.
At first it put me off, but after playing with the shadow for a few minutes, I changed my tune.
For me, heavily pigmented deep black mattes can be tough to use. All it takes is one wrong swipe with an overloaded brush and that subtle smokey eye turns into an epic fail, so I love Lestat’s sheer color.
It allows me to build color slowly, maintaining control the entire time. Plus, because it is so sheer, I don’t feel like I’m wasting a lot of eyeshadow diluting it before application.
In terms of texture, Lestat feels soft and fine to me, like MAC Matte2 eyeshadows.
All that, and it’s super easy to blend, layers quickly and doesn’t irritate my eyes. Love this! Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A
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Hola, muchachas bonitas. I barely speak a lick of Spanish, but I’ve decided it would be REALLY FRICKIN’ COOL to teach Señor Tabs (aka El Gato) some Español.
So far he only seems to understand two phrases — “Friskies, muy bien!” and “Dónde está Fancy Feast?” — but he’s been a fast learner for a cat.
After our Spanish lessons this morning, Tabs and I went through some e-mail. Here’s a note from Christine, who asked about a makeup ish I’m guessing many of us have had to deal with at one time or another.
Help…I have redness on my cheeks and nose. I’m able to cover my cheeks pretty well, I use Laura Mercier’s Secret Camoflauge mixed with a little bit of moisturizer (my skin is dry) and then pat on Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals on top…I do this to my nose as well but by the time I arrive at work in the morning, I look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! What can I do to keep my nose red-free? Is my application of the makeup wrong?
Hi Christine,
Girl, when my nose is pulling a Rudolph I try to remember two things: 1) that Rudolph is awesome (he leads the sleigh!) and 2) that there are quite a few products out there designed to help red-nosed ladies like us.
I’ll often start by incorporating a makeup primer with a green tint (to offset the redness on my nose) into my routine; if you’ve never used a makeup primer before, then you’re in for a treat. Makeup primers provide a surface upon which foundation or concealer adhere, extending the wear time of many products and creating a smoother appearance. When used to conceal redness, I’ll apply it only where the redness occurs.
A new one I’ve heard good things about is Make Up For Ever HD Microperfecting Primer ($32) in Green. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m a fan of the Make Up For Ever line, and I think the product looks really promising for fellow members of Club Rudolph.
Other green primers to consider:
If you’re not sure which one to try, a Sephora sales associate may be able to provide you with a few samples to help you decide (sometimes this doesn’t work, but if you live near a Sephora it could be worth a try).
My fellow rosy-nosed girls, do you have any tips/tricks/product suggestions to help hide a red nose? Let’s give Christine a helping hand.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
