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

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

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy: A Smokey Plum Face of the Day

by 35 Comments

Yesterday I did a look with smokey plum eyes, rose cheeks and dark lips using a few products from the Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy line.

Carmindy, makeup artist and author of Get Positively Beautiful: The Ultimate Guide to Looking and Feeling Gorgeous, helped develop the line for drugstores nationwide.

With natural-looking eye, lip and cheek products to subtly enhance your favorite features, you won’t find anything too blinged out or find any high fashion crazy colors here.

So far, I really like what I’ve seen, particularly the eye and lip products.

The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy (say that five times fast!) makeup products used in this look include…

(Note: I couldn’t decide which lip shade to wear with the eyes, so I tried the look with three different lipsticks, LOL).

Smokey Plum Eyes

I start by priming my lids to prevent creasing and to help the eye makeup last longer, dotting and blending Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Wheat with a finger.

Time to add some shadow!

I apply the lid color (shimmery plum) from The Amethyst Eye Palette onto my lids and crease with a MAC 252 Large Shader Brush, and then use the same brush to sweep the highlight color (shimmery light pink) underneath my eyebrow.

For a smokey effect, I use a Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Crease Brush to apply the contour color (shimmery dark purple) to the crease and the outer v.

To finish, I grab a MAC 224 Tapered Blending Brush and sweep it gently along the edges of the colors to remove any harsh lines.

To better define the eyes I line both the upper and lower lash lines with Always Perfect Liquid Eye Liner in Pure Plum using the brush applicator that comes with the product.
[Continue reading…]

Filling in Your Eyebrows

by 25 Comments

Heya, ladies! Just another quickie video, this one on filling in eyebrows. I’m going to try and do a new video every few days. I think in this one I start off by saying “Having well defrined eyebrows…” Defrined… I invented a new word, LOL!

Do you have you any plans tonight? Right now I’m foolin’ around with some Eco Tools cruelty free brushes. My GAWD the brush heads are soft!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Chanel Rouge Double Intensite Ultra Wear Lip Colour: 5 Application Tips

by 15 Comments


While nude lipsticks and lipglosses rule Chanel’s Spring 2009 Bohemian Fantasy Makeup Collection, Coco and company did include a few rich, colorful lip shades for good measure.

Like the new Rouge Double Intensite Ultra Wear Lip Colour lipsticks ($34 each) — both of them deliver long-lasting lip drama.

  • Alexandrite: shimmery brick red
  • Opal Rose: shimmery rose gold

The double-sided wands come with a separate lipstick (base coat) and a clear gloss (top coat) designed to be worn together.

Coco wasn’t kidding about the “long wearing” part

These babies are the Terminators of long wear lipsticks. They last all day and don’t stop for nothin’! One morning I applied a layer of Alexandrite, and six hours and several cups of coffee later, my lips were still a rich brick red.

There’s always a catch…

These have mad pigmenation and staying power, but there’s a catch, or at least there was one for me. They aren’t the easiest lipsticks to apply. My first attempts left me with blotchy, streaky lips. Totally gross.

After a few dreadful attempts, I found a few application techniques that seemed to work.

1. Start with smooth lips

When my lips weren’t completely smooth, these lipsticks settled into the cracked and peeling areas, resulting in uneven color. Applying a lip conditioner or lip balm overnight helped a ton. I slicked on a layer of Philosophy Kiss Me before I went to bed and in the morning my lips looked smooth and felt soft.
[Continue reading…]

Why Aren’t You Buying Organic Beauty Products?

by 45 Comments

A new study seems to say that we Americans haven’t bought into the hype over organic beauty products.

Despite the attention from the media and manufacturers, organic beauty care items still haven’t caught on, according to the TABS Group (no joke; that’s really the name), a leading marketing research and consulting firm. “There is a significant gap between the hype and reality of consumer purchase behavior with regards to Organic products,” states TABS Group President and Founder, Dr. Kurt Jetta.

In the study, only 5% of respondents claimed to have purchased at least one organic skin care product within the past six months. Only 4% claimed to have purchased organic hair care, and just 3% purchased organic cosmetics.

By contrast, well over 70% of respondents claimed to have purchased non-organic beauty care products over the same period.

Are you buying organic beauty on a regular basis? If not, what’s holding you back?

Are you buying organic beauty products on a regular basis?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Chanel Fandango Joues Contraste Powder Blush: A Pink Brown Flush for Spring

by 30 Comments

Chanel Fandago blush ($42) temporarily helped me forget that it’s cold enough outside to freeze my butt bones.

After two layers I felt like winter had ended. There was a flush to my cheeks that I hadn’t seen in months, and I felt like I’d spent the afternoon twirling through sun dappled fields o’ flowers.

As the only blush released with Chanel’s Spring 2009 Bohemian Fantasy Collection, Fandango, a shimmery pink and brown, applies with intense color that really brings out the brown in my skin. To avoid dark, muddy cheeks, I layered it slowly with a MAC 187 skunk brush, trying to use a light touch.
[Continue reading…]

Chanel Vendetta Nail Polish: Midnight Purple Fantasy

by 33 Comments

Girl, I don’t care how you do it — walk, run, rollerskate or hitch a ride on a three-legged donkey — but find some way to see the new limited edition Vendetta nail polish ($23) in person before it’s too late.

One of two new nail polish shades released for spring 2009, Vendetta’s shimmery midnight purple shines with flecks of red and blue micro-gltter. Imagine the darkest purple — nay, almost black calligraphy ink — and that’s Vendetta. I. LOVE. IT.

Vendetta selling out fast

I’m not the only girl fawning over it. A Chanel artist friend told me the color has been selling out super uber-fast. So fast, in fact, that in less than a week her counter had sold more than half their supply! Some women were buying multiple bottles, LOL! Seriously, I can see why. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+

Love Chanel Vendetta but looking to save a few bucks? Consider Essie Sexy Divide ($8).

Django, Chanel’s second spring polish shade

Vendetta (aka the spring nail superstar) joins another Chanel polish shade this spring. Django, a shimmery, peachy beige with pink touches, looks just like the inside of a seashell.
[Continue reading…]

9 Things: Your Career and Focusing on Your Strengths in 2009

by 22 Comments


Last week I watched a really interesting episode of Oprah featuring career coach and author Marcus Buckingham. The show followed Marcus as he led a group of women who were dissatisfied with their jobs through an extensive “career intervention” seminar.

Strength training

One of the big lessons of the show was identifying your strengths, defined as the things that make you feel your best — organizing things, teaching, caring for others, being creative, doing detailed paperwork, crunching numbers, etc. — and finding a job in which you’re able to focus on your strengths as much as possible.

Business expert and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham has helped millions of people reach new levels of success and happiness at work — including employees at Coca-Cola, Gap and Microsoft — with his radical “strengths training” approach. His key to success is simple: Stop spending so much time trying to fix your weaknesses. Instead, focus on what makes you special and unique. “A strength is an activity that makes you feel strong,” he says. “If you want to know what your strength is, you’ve got to pay attention to how you feel. It feels like focus. It feels like concentration. You feel invigorated. Energized.”

Career transitions…

The episode hit me hard because like the women on the show I’ve been going through a transitional period with my career.

I haven’t felt good about my job at the literary agency for many months, so I’ve decided to find a new path.

Starting later this month, I’m going back to school for the first time in 10 years, yikes! I’ll be taking journalism classes and focusing on freelance writing. Like most people, I’m a little freaked out (aka scared) about the economy, but I couldn’t see myself being happy in 5-10 years if I didn’t try to move myself forward at work.

A list to get the career ball rolling…

Even if you’re happy and satisfied at work, it might be fun to make a list (you know I love lists!) of your strengths. It might help you identify new projects at your current job, find a new hobby or figure out ways to make some extra money.

Activities that make me feel strong, focused and energized…

  1. Making lists 🙂
  2. Organizing and executing detailed projects
  3. Talking to people and being able to retain the information they share about their lives — the names and ages of their children, their favorite hobbies, etc. I’ve always liked chatting with people.
  4. Writing
  5. Brainstorming creative/odd/weird ideas
  6. Learning about and trying new activities
  7. Visual art stuff: photography, Photoshop, collage, makeup 🙂
  8. Cleaning, LOL! I dunno if it counts as a strength, but when I have a clean and organized workspace all is right with the world.
  9. Teaching and helping others

Are you thinking about making a career change or perhaps reevaluating the course of your current job? Writing a list might be a good way to get some ideas flowing.

Your turn

If you’d like to share your list of strengths, please post them in the comments. Oh — I listed 9 things because 9 is my favorite number, but you can make your list as long or as short as you want! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy New Year!

Copyright © 2025 Makeup and Beauty Blog. Get in touch.