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

New Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potions! UD Fix, Freebase, Caffeine and Sin

May 15th, 2017 by Karen 14 Comments

urban decay fix — New New eye primers from Urban Decay! From the top: Fix, Freebase, Caffeine and Sin

I do this thing, and I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but whatevs, but whenever I think of the word “base,” like eyeshadow base, as in Urban Decay’s new Eyeshadow Primer Potion eyeshadow base, I think of Ace of Base from the ’90s, ya know? I saw the sign? I can hear the first few bars in my head. Clearly TMI. Whatever, I know you secretly love that song and know all the words. 🙂

Yeah, Urban Decay released a bunch of new eyeshadow bases, a.k.a eye primers. There are four, and they’re $20 each.

How do you feel about eyeshadow bases? Are they a must have? Or a waste of time? I’m a fan. The one I use daily is NARS Pro-Prime, and it’s my fave, but I like UD’s a lot, too.

I like how it intensifies and holds on to color, but I think the NARS one is slightly easier to do more complicated blending with, which is why I tend to use it (not that I’ve been doing a ton of complicated blending lately, but hey).

But Urban Decay’s works great, too, and it’s a good option if you’re into cruelty-free. Shadows that I wear on top last just as long as they do with NARS Pro-Prime.

urban decay fix swatch — Swatches from the top: UD Fix, Freebase, Caffeine and Sin

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Neat and New to Me: The IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette

May 15th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

it cosmetics naturally pretty palette — IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette ($42 and available meow)

I feel the same way about matte palettes as a I feel about mascara.

Both are flat-out necessities, and any makeup lover worth her weight in cotton balls should have at least one or two in her (or his) bag.

Well…I don’t know how you feel about that, but that’s my take on it.

There are so many great ones out there, too, and I’m always finding new ones to love, like my latest, the $42 IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Vol 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette, which has been available for a while, but it’s new to me, and I’m totally into it. I wore it a bunch of times last week.

Do you like matte shadows? Because I sure do. I mean, mattes are your friends. They really are. They’re just so useful. I wear at least one matte shadow a day, usually in the crease to sort of contour my eyes to make my sockets look deeper (mine are slightly hooded and seem to be getting more hooded as I get up there in years).

Sometimes I do a single sweep of matte shadow all over the lid (often a matte brown or taupe) for a little definition, and, contrary to the vast majority of YouTube makeup tutorials, you *can* use just one or two shadows if you want. You don’t need to use 12. You will be OK!

And if I’m still feeling extra sassafras after that, I’ll add a colorful liner — maybe a purple, green or teal — along my lash lines.

Yup, I love shimmer and glitter, for sure, but mattes are always there for me, ya know?

The Naturally Pretty Palette has 14 useful, wearable matte powder shadows and an extra pan of “transforming pearl,” which you can tap on top of the matte shades to give them a pearly shimmer.

The mattes are a mix of warm and cool shades that I know I can wear over and over in lots of different looks — like matte beiges, matte browns and matte taupes. There are also some deeper shades in the palette, too, like a couple of dark purples, a navy and an off-black, that you can use as liners or in smoky looks.

Basically, this is a workhorse palette (also cruelty free) for elegant, easy everyday looks, and you won’t have to fight fallout or blend until your wrist falls off.

it cosmetics naturally pretty palette k — Wearing Sunset from the palette on my lids and lower lash lines along with the BECCA Sunchaser Palette, and Hourglass Creator Girl Lip Stylo on my lips

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 475

May 15th, 2017 by Karen 39 Comments

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 10 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.?

1. What’s on your nails?

I’ve got a fresh coat of Chanel Coquillage (from the summer collection) on my fingers, but the Smith & Cult Bitter Buddhist on my toes is two weeks old.

I have a bad habit of wearing my pedicure polish longer than I should… I swear, my toenails look like vampire talons right now, and it’s NOT cute.

Too much info?? Maybe? Like that’s ever stopped me before. 🙂

2. A recent beauty-related find worth mentioning?

The IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette, which has some great easy-to-blend matte shadows (review coming this afternoon!), and since my time management skills have been less than nonexistent lately and were totally WHACK last week, I need all the help I can get. I’ve been using this palette for single shadow lids, then adding a colorful liner.

3. A recent non-beauty-related find worth mentioning?

GIRL, you get in your hoopty right now, and drive to TJ’s to grab yourself a bag of Heavenly Villagio Marzano Tomatoes.

They are SO good. They’re like tomatoes that graduated summa cum laude. They’re about the size and shape of Brazil nuts and flavorful like homegrown tomatoes.

Mmm…

I had to stop myself from finishing the whole bag like grapes in one sitting. Even the Coywolf is obsessed.

4. What was the last beauty or skin care product you got at a drugstore (or at Target or Walmart)?

It was some Burt’s Bees lotion I got for baby girl.

5. Write a nice note to yourself about this week.

Karen, I know you’re a little tired today (I got the Monday blues), but you’re doing great. Be patient with yourself, hang in there, and remember that many tasks seem daunting at the very beginning, but they usually get easier as you go along.

May the force be with you, and may your mani stay shiny and your liner stay smudgy. I hope the universe sends ya some good news this week. Or, en lieu of good news, I hope it sends you chocolate.

Have a good one, friend! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 449

May 14th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

The time goes by so fast… That’s such a cliché , but it’s a cliché because it’s true. It really does seem like yesterday Tabs was this bouncy kitten with bright green eyes and a crooked tail who would pounce in and out of my apartment. Now he’s like the crabby old man who begrudgingly lets me hug him him and hold him and pet him.

He’s still all sweetness at heart, though, and being his pet mom has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. He’s been my constant companion, dance partner and sounding board for 10 years.

Thinking back, the first time I really felt bonded to him was the first time we took him to the vet. He was still more or less a neighborhood stray at the time, and we think he was about a year old. He would come around our old apartment building, but he always left on his nightly adventures at night.

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Saturday Surfing: May 13th, 2017

May 13th, 2017 by Karen 2 Comments

Oh, my gawd, is that The Rock on a package of nail polish?

Yeah, I think it is!

How random is this? Maybe I’m late to the party, but I had no idea they were remaking the old-school Baywatch show as a movie (quick question, though: why??), and the nail brand Artistic (they do gel polishes that require curing with an LED or UV lamp) is coming out with a Baywatch movie-themed collab this month.

Some of these shades look like colors I’d wear, like Resting Beach Face. Haha! Cheeky name. 🙂

Happy Saturday and happy Mother’s Day weekend!!!

How are you today, friend? This might sound weird, but I’m REALLY excited about going for a run on the treadmill in a little while. I fell out of the habit when I caught a cold last month, and I feel it. My back aches, and I get tired more easily. I’m back to going to my HIIT high intensity interval training classes two days a week, but it’s amazing how quickly I start getting out of shape if I cut back on exercising even a little.

So I’m looking forward to logging some miles today. A little sweat is good for the soul.

Speaking of that, you know what else is good for the soul? Concealer. And lipstick. And mascara. And maybe some brow gel, too. 🙂

On that note, here are some beauty stories that caught my eye this week…

Back in the day, getting your roots done was hella sketchy!
Beautiful pans and gorgeous warm shades await you in the new Clarins Sunkissed Summer Collection.
The new creamy, dreamy Dolce & Gabbana Miss Sicily Colour Balms.
Sometimes I forget that beauty products (with the exception of color additives) don’t require FDA approval before going to market. Now Senators Dianne Feinstein and Susan Collins are proposing a bill that would give the FDA the authority to regulate the safety of beauty products.
This new trend is a mother… A mother of pearl, that is!
Erin of The Hauteblogger shares her most loved BECCA products on her podcast.
How cute is the packaging for the MAC Steve J. & Yoni P. collection?
We could see more “friendly” bacteria in skin care soon.
These Bay Area makeup thieves were crazy organized! — I’ll give ’em that. Look at all those bins!
Um…this isn’t helping with my current state of Charlotte Tilbury makeup lust!
Because I’m a voyeur like that — these 19 people share the five products they use daily.
According to a makeup artist, these are the seven products you should never spend more than $10 on.

This is blowing my mind! You can get big waves without using a heat styler? Who knew!

This updo is chic and easy. Gonna try it this weekend.

OK, I’m heading to Costco in a few. Wish me luck. I need to get industrial-sized bags of spinach and kale to make some healthy juices next week.

To all the moms out there, including my fellow pet moms, happy early Mother’s Day. Talk to you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

#FragranceFriday: Scents From Urban Decay, Malin + Goetz and Kiss by Rihanna

May 12th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

fragrance friday rihanna — It’s #FragranceFriday!

Let’s not even go there about how hard it is to *not* look like your hands are actually T. rex claws in pics.

(It’s hard.)

Tried a few different fragrances this week, two of which are new, and all of which are new to me. Two of them really took me back. Like, waaay back…

Urban Decay Go Naked Perfume Oil ($24 for 0.16 oz)

I had this on my wrists for about two hours before I was able to place where I’d smelled something similar before, but first, a UD fragrance?! I know! They’ve been chock full of surprises these days.

Go Naked is their new perfume oil, and it’s limited-edition and $24. It arrives June 3rd at Sephora and sephora.com (for VIB Rouge members only), then June 7th to the Urban Decay website, June 30th at Urban Decay free-standing stores and July 13th at Sephora and sephora.com.

It’s definitely a long-lasting fragrance. I put it on early Wednesday morning and caught a whiff while I was blotting away a waterfall of sweat in HIIT class that night. So that’s like 12 hours.

Man, the scent takes me back too! It smells exactly like Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Cologne, and if you were a Filipino child growing up in the ’80s, you probably know what I’m talking about. It was a light citrus, musky scent in a little blue plastic bottle, and you could find it in almost every Filipino house back in the day.

It wasn’t really a perfume that got widespread use among infants, though, because the only people I knew who wore it were adults. Ha! The first time I remember smelling it was on my Lola Em-Em (“Lola” is Tagalog for “grandma,” and Em-Em was my nickname for my grandma’s sister) when she came to visit us from the Philippines. We always had a bottle in our bathroom, usually a gift from a visiting relative.

Official fragrance notes
Italian Bergamot, Petitgrain, Mandarin, Lemon, Orange Blossom, Neroli, Lavender, Jasmine and Musk.

Unofficial fragrance notes
Hugs from my Lola Em-Em, balikbayan boxes and the summer of third grade.

Malin + Goetz Dark Rum Eau de Parfum ($165 for 3.4 oz)

A post shared by Space NK USA (@spacenkusa) on May 10, 2017 at 12:48pm PDT

I got a small sample vial of Malin + Goetz Dark Rum Eau de Parfum at the SpaceNK meetup last Saturday, and the first thing I thought before I tried it was, “I don’t want to smell like a tropical booze cruise.”

But there’s no danger of that! With this you will not smell like you’ve had one too many piña coladas, because it smells like freshly washed laundry instead.

That’s right! — LAUNDRY. It’s gloriously clean and fresh.

Official fragrance notes
Bergamot, Plum, Rum, Leather, Amber, Patchouli and Milk.

Unofficial fragrance notes
The most comfortable bed ever with the world’s softest sheets!

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Kevyn Aucoin Neo-Setting Powder Is Pretty Darned Innovative!

May 12th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

kevyn-aucoin neo setting powder top — Kevyn Aucoin Neo-Setting Powder ($58)

Ooh! Sparkly. ? And dare I say it, borderline unicorn?

This new powder by Kevyn Aucoin looks like a highlighter, right?

Nope! It’s supposed to be a face setting powder, but it has a gradient of different finishes.

I know! Kind of crazy.

On the left side of the pan where the letter “K” is, the finish is more matte, but it gets progressively pearly as you move right. The idea is that you can pick your powder finish poison. Matte or dewy, or anywhere in between, it’s up to you.

It’s pretty darned innovative! — which is something I hardly ever find myself saying anymore about beauty products. I mean, let’s get real — a lot of things get recycled from season to season, but this idea seems pretty fresh for a face powder.

It also feels fab. I’ve never worn a Kevyn Aucoin face powder before, but this one feels like heaven in a pan, or what I imagine it must feel like to take a cat nap on fluffy clouds in heaven. It’s almost creamy soft, and I really wanted to fall in love with it just for that.

Unfortunately…it’s not workin’ well on my skin.

Drat.

First of all, the matte side isn’t very matte, at least not to my eye, and the shimmery side is a super shiny overspray with a slightly less shiny powder underneath.

Little bit strange.

On the matte side, I still see lots of golden pink pearl, and it intensifies as you move toward the shinier right side of the pan. I dunno… It just doesn’t look natural at all on my face.

I was thinking that I might be able to wear it as a golden pink highlighter, but even then it doesn’t work well for me because the powder has white undertones that don’t get along with my tan.

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NARS Liquid Blush: I Have Buckets and Barrels of Love for This Line!

May 11th, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

nars liquid blushes 1 — The new NARS Liquid Blushes

Here, let me get in there and give you a quick shoulder rub for a second, because I really wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle doing the snake as you celebrate when I tell you that the new NARS Liquid Blushes are permanent. YAY!

They’re also going to be on counters sooner than I thought. They’ll be available starting May 12th at Sephora stores, NARS boutiques and online. Again, YAY! 🙂

OK, remember the NARS Orgasm Liquid Blush I talked about from the Orgasm Collection earlier today? It’s actually one of the four Liquid Blushes coming out May 12th.

That’s, like, one sleep away!

They’re $30 each, completely new to the NARS fam (as in they’ve never been seen before), and you get a 0.5 oz. glass bottle with a pump.

What’s it like to use one?

Slippery like a silicone primer, these super concentrated liquid blushes have a consistency comparable to a runny lotion. You can wear them under or on top of powder blushes.

You’ll only need one or two drops for your cheeks, and I just use my fingers to blend them in. The liquid spreads and stretches out evenly over the skin.

They’re sooo easy to use and kinda fun, too.

Four shades based on NARS powder blushes in the permanent line

Coincidentally, all of them are shades I happen to love and have been obsessed with for years. Weird! It’s like NARS had a direct conduit into my brain or something…

Anyway, other than golden peachy pink Orgasm, there’s golden apricot Luster, golden coral Torrid and dusty rose Dolce Vita.

Dolce Vita is the closest one to its counterpart color

It’s also the darkest of the four. I think it’s the closest one to its powder counterpart. It looks like someone took the back of a spoon to a pan, crushed the powder, mixed in some liquid, and poured that into a bottle.

nars dolce vita liquid blush swatch — Dolce Vita

Less shimmer, more satin with Orgasm, Luster and Torrid

As for the Liquid Blush versions of Orgasm, Luster and Torrid, they’re much less shimmery than their powder blush versions, making them more like satins that occasionally glimmer with micro-glitter here and there. Like a base color with very little pearl.

nars lustre liquid blush swatch — Luster

I think all three look lovely when worn by themselves. They create a natural, dewy cheek effect with colors that last a full day on my dry cheeks.

nars torrid liquid blush swatch — Torrid

But the REAL fun starts when you layer these three shades with their counterpart powder blushes. It amplifies the base colors a bit more, so you see more of the coral, peach, apricot or rose.

nars dolce vita liquid blush k — Dolce Vita

The verdict

Buckets and barrels of love ? for this line! My hope is that NARS releases more shades in the future. The lovely colors layer well and don’t fade. Oh, and don’t worry — the bottle seems bigger than it looks because a little goes a long, looong way. I’m pretty sure you’ll like these, and you may even love them. Highly recommended!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen