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

The It Cosmetics Holiday 2016 Collection

October 25th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

it cosmetics holiday 2016 city chic top — The It Cosmetics Holiday 2016 Collection

I’m wearing the It Cosmetics Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette this afternoon, and when I opened the palette earlier today, I thought, “Ooh! Look at all the warm tones…”

I got super excited. Then I got even MORE excited when I saw that one of the pans, the warm-looking bronzer, is called Sunshine in a Compact.

Ah… I was all mentally prepared for a warm-toned experience, like the makeup equivalent of a week on Kauai — you know, coconut in one hand, camera in the other, because, seriously, who goes to the beach lugging around a massive camera?

This girl. 🙂

Anywho, when I actually put on the bronzer, I quickly realized that it isn’t as warm as I thought. It’s actually pretty cool-toned and sheer, so I think that lighter lasses who are cool-toned will appreciate it more.

I mean, I know that I talk about wearing cool-toned colors all the time, like the other day, when I was talking about cool-toned red lipsticks and how I like to wear them even though I’m warm-toned. I do like the contrast of a cool-toned lip on warm skin, and sometimes I like wearing cool-toned eyeshadows for the same reason. I think that because of the contrast, my lips look more…structured, and the colors don’t get lost as easily on my skin.

But I feel like some cool-toned blushes and highlighters look jarring on my skin tone, especially on large patches of skin, like my cheeks and upper cheekbones.

Something about it doesn’t look quite right to my eye.

There are some other things in the collection as well, like a couple of ornaments and two cute brush kits.

(Side note: How cool would that be? A Christmas tree covered in makeup ornaments?)

One of the brush sets has elegant rosy gold handles, while the other one’s handles are sparkly silver. All of the brushes in both sets are full size.

If I were a Mariah Carey drag queen, I would totally want the sparkly brushes on my makeup vanité.

Yes, I just said “vanité.”

By the way, the glitter on the handles doesn’t come off, which is nice to know, because if it did that would be a bummer.

City Chic 5-Piece Ultra Luxe Skin-Loving Brush Set + Exclusive Case ($68) — New, limited edition

All That Glitters 5-Piece Brush Set + Exclusive Shimmering Case ($58) — New, limited edition (Ulta exclusive)

Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette ($42) — New, permanent

Confidence in a Cream Transforming Moisturizing Super Cream Ornament ($16) — New, limited edition

Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara Ornament ($12) — New, limited edition

it cosmetics holiday 2016 je ne sais quoi complexion perfection — Je Ne Sais Quoi Complexion Perfection Palette

[Continue reading…]

5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately

October 25th, 2016 by Karen 28 Comments

victoria beckham estee lauder eye palette — Love, love, LOVE!

1. The Victoria Beckham X Estée Lauder Eye Palette

I love this palette so hard!

So hawd.

Like, when I close my eyes, I can see it and feel myself clutching it in my palm. I want to sleep with it under my pillow so I can dream about it…

I talked about it a little last week. It’s the Victoria Beckham X Estée Lauder Eye Palette, and it’s $95 (!). But oh! — the blending is off the chain.

The beautiful jewel-tone colors are perfect for fall. All I really need to do with it is rim my lash and water lines with black eyeliner, put a layer of any one of the colors on my lids, buff it out, apply mascara, and my eyes are done.

Love it, love, love it, love it!

Don’t love the $95 price, though…

2. Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea

OK, confession — I may or may not have bought this box of tea in August.

August.

Which is so far from anything having to do with sugar cookie or sleigh rides, but I saw it at Target on the shelf and couldn’t resist.

I’ve been sort of parsing out the bags very slowly, but now that we’re getting closer to the appropriate time and we can start talking about Christmas stuff, I’ve been going through it like crazy.

Oh, my gosh, it’s so good. It really does taste like a sugar cookie in a cup, and it satisfies any sort of sweet tooth urges that I have. Whenever I want a piece of candy or whatever, I have a cup of this instead.

3. Black Mirror Season 3

Black Mirror! I binge-watched the new season last weekend, and I’m about to binge-watch it again.

It’s such a good show! OK, it’s sci-fi, but please don’t let that turn you off. It’s sci-fi like The Twilight Zone.

In one of the episodes, in a not-so-distant future, people are super obsessed with their social media rankings. It basically takes over their life, and they wear these contacts so they can instantly connect with other people, be they friends, family members or strangers. They can instantly rate every interaction from one to five stars.

It’s freaky.

One of the other episodes, San Junipero, is my favorite one. I’m probably gonna watch it a third time this week. It’s about… I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to ruin it for you, but there’s this idea of living forever in specific eras through technology, and I’ll just leave that there.

[Continue reading…]

ConnorClaire.com Product Spotlight: All the Cats Tee

October 25th, 2016 by Karen 3 Comments

Fellow cat ladies and feline fanatics, when you walk into a pet food store and see the adoptable rescue kitties just sitting there with their big, bright eyes blinking slowly and their awkward, fluffy paws padding around, it’s hard not to say, “I want them meow. Please give them to me. I’ll take all the cats.”

Sigh… I can’t do it right now because of Tabs. He’s an only child, so to speak (basically, he’s territorial). He wouldn’t tolerate another cat in his house, but if I had my way, and I know that if you had yours, you’d take all of them. All the cats.

This formfitting tee feels softer than a tabby’s tum, and I love the scooped neck. It’s made from a super soft 50% polyester, 37% ring-spun cotton, 13% rayon blend. Normally with shirts I wear a small or a medium (I’m 5 feet 1 inches tall), and I’m wearing a medium here.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Cost Plus ❤ Cat Ladies

October 24th, 2016 by Karen 13 Comments

cost plus world market tabby cat cookie jar

cost plus tabby cat jar — Cookie storage or cat treat storage?

In case you were wondering how Cost Plus feels about felines, FYI, they appear to love them…and the ladies who love said felines. I spotted these there the other day, and I thought, “Would it be too crazy cat lady of me to buy all of them??”

It probably would, right?

Cat Ceramic Cookie Jar ($14.99)

Black Lucky Cat Ceramic Cookie Jar ($14.99)

Cat Ceramic Measuring Cups ($12.99)

cost plus world market cat measuring cups — When kitties help you with cooking…

[Continue reading…]

MAC Spellbinder Shadow: This Shine Has Powerful Pull

October 24th, 2016 by Karen 10 Comments

mac spellbinder collection — The MAC Spellbinder Shadows. On the left from top to bottom: Aphrodisiatic, Blue Karma, Cosmic Clash and Mysterious Influence; on the right: Retrograde, Gravity’s Pull, Higher Power and Dynamically Charged

This is probably as close as I’m going to get to sci-fi makeup this week. They’re the new MAC Spellbinder Shadows, and they have magnetized particles — which is weird and freaky and cool.

I held a paper clip above one of the pots, and you can see the particles cling to it…

Ooh, science. 🙂

These eight new $22 limited edition loose powder shadows look kind of like cream shadows in their pots, but they aren’t. They’re loose, but they’re ionized and bound together by a magnetic charge.

The shades are all on the darker end of the spectrum, like dark blue, brown and plum — so they’re very moody and very fall. They’re also very bling-worthy and shiny.

MAC Spellbinder Shadow
$22 each, available now online in eight shades
Available in-store October 20 through December 1, 2016
#MACSpellbinder

I gotta say, though…I expected these to be easier to work with than MAC’s other loose pigments because of the whole magnetic action, but they aren’t. When I did this look, I got shadow all over the place — all over my desk, all over my hands, all over my face.

I should not have done my foundation first; it took a while to clean everything up…

But you do get high-wattage, super dramatic, super frosty drama with these, and incredibly enough, they don’t highlight my fine lines. If you want your eyes to sparkle from a mile away, these are great for that.

“A shadow made of ionized, magnetically charged pigments that cling to lids like velvet. Black, ionized pigments are magnetically charged, fusing the loose powder together so it magically maintains its form and dimension. Features eight shades in a metallic finish.

“Apply using fingers, brush or sponge. Works best after application of Prep + Prime 24-Hour Extend Eye Base.”

—maccosmetics.com

mac spellbinder jar — The MAC Spellbinder jar packaging

mac spellbinder closeup — I’m wearing Aphrodisiatic (outer lid), Blue Karma (inner lid, applied wet), Mysterious Influence (lower lash line) and Dynamically Charged (crease)

[Continue reading…]

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 446

October 24th, 2016 by Karen 30 Comments

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 NINE (!) 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. Which do you prefer: cool-toned red lipsticks or warm-toned red lipsticks? And do you have a particular favorite one?

Girl, don’t make me choose! It’s too hard!!!

OK, um…I’ll go with warm-toned red lipsticks, because my skin tone is warm, even though I also like wearing cool-toned colors.

As for a favorite one, that would be none other than MAC Lady Danger. It’s warm with an orangey undertone — a little sassy, a little vintage.

Add winged liner, and you could be kickin’ it with a pack of ’50s greasers, hangin’ with Audrey Hepburn’s party crowd in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or jammin’ with a present-day rockabilly girl gang. Everything goes.

I will say this, though, about cool-toned reds: MWAHH! I love them, especially on warm-toned skin. There’s just something about the contrast of, like, a bluish red on warm skin that makes it look more…3D and dramatic. Sometimes warm reds can kind of blend into warm-toned skin, ya know?

I dunno… It really depends on my mood, I guess.

2. How readily do you blush?

Not readily, ’cause I’m a cool customer (haha, in my mind), but I’ve been told by friends that I blush easily.

3. If you could live forever in a particular decade, which decade would you choose and why?

I definitely wouldn’t pick the ‘80s, because even though I love ‘80s music…the big hair was just too problematic.

And no to the ‘70s, as well, because I can’t remember them.

And the early 2000s? Hello, super low-rise jeans! No, never again.

So, I’ll go with the ’90s, partially because I’ve been feeling nostalgic for them lately. I did a lot of growing up in that era. Things seemed simpler then…

Gosh, that sounded so cliché, haha! But things were simpler for me back then, and I like the music and the fashion, although I’m not crazy about the makeup… There was A LOT of brown and matte. It bores me to tears, but I grew up wearing it.

They weren’t my favorite makeup decade, to be honest.

4. (FILL IN THE BLANK) changes everything.

A good cat.
Money (to quote Cyndi Lauper!).
Your attitude.
A comfortable bra.

5. Wearing sequins during the day: a do or a don’t?

Definitely a do. Hell, go for head-to-toe sequins! Why the hell not? I love sparkles.

If I had my way, everybody would be wearing sequins every day, all day long. I think it would make the world a happier place. If Blanche Devereux can work it, why can’t you?!

But seriously, I think for most people, the key for daytime wear is to go with just one sequined piece at a time, like sequined skinny jeans with a plain white shirt. I’d totally rock that right now.

Note to self: look for a sequined jacket.

About that pic at the top…

Somebody at Cost Plus World Market gets my sense of humor because the kitchen towel in the top pic made me crack up SO hard. I must have looked like a crazy person standing there laughing in the store in front of the towels.

Hey, a good laugh is a great way to start the day, right? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste…

1. Which do you prefer: cool-toned red lipsticks or warm-toned red lipsticks? And do you have a particular favorite one?
2. How readily do you blush?
3. If you could live forever in a particular decade, which decade would you choose and why?
4. (FILL IN THE BLANK) changes everything.
5. Wearing sequins during the day: a do or a don’t?

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 420

October 23rd, 2016 by Karen 10 Comments

It’s almost Halloween! — which means that all of the (adult) humans in this household are thinking about costumes, horror movies or candy. Or a combination thereof.

Tabs, however, probably isn’t thinking about his costume (I think it’s safe to say), but I’m sure he likes our impromptu cat costume kitty modeling shoots, because they afford him many of his favorite things, including lurvies, attention and treats.

I cleaned the upstairs bathroom today while Tabs lounged around in his new tuxedo.

As far as fancy feline attire goes, this outfit checks all the right boxes for Tabs. It’s loose-fitting because it uses snaps, and we can undo the top one. It’s black and white, so it goes with his tabby fur. And it has a snazzy bow. 🙂

[Continue reading…]

She Woke Up Like This

October 22nd, 2016 by Karen 27 Comments

What exactly is going on here?

Is it creative baby fashion? I don’t know. I think it might be Connor’s version of sleeping with one leg outside the covers.

I walked in her room the other morning and found her awake like this in her Pack ‘n’ Play, bright-eyed and ready to go. It was equal parts weird and hilarious at the same time.

Connor is 7 1/2 months old now, which makes me a little emo, because pretty soon she will have been in the outside world longer than she was in my tummy.

I know, I’m a sap…

A lot has happened in the “Learning the Ropes” department lately. She said her first word not long ago: “mama.”

Wha!? I know. I high-fived a million little angles. Both of us thought she was going to say “dada” first because of how obsessed she is with him.

Oh, and she can crawl now, sit up by herself, and she does this coy over-the-shoulder pose (I think she learned it from Tabs).

She is SO obsessed with Tabs, too. I think that she thinks she’s a cat, because whenever she hears Tabs meow, she meows right back at him. Mind you, it’s not a full-on, throaty meow (due to her limited baby vocab, obvs). It’s more of a high-pitched, exploratory kitten meow (“Mmmmmmah!”), but she tries, though!

She’s always reaching out to pet and grab him, and Tabs plays along. He’s the most patient cat in the world, you guys, because sometimes she plays a little rough (she is a baby, after all). He lets her rub his haunches, touch his cheeks and scratch his head between his ears. Of course, I’m always supervising just in case.

Happy Caturday, my friend! How are you? What are you up to? I’m heading to the salon in a little while to get a quick bang trim. Do you have any beauty errands you have to run or anything like that? I mean, I have to do some regular errands, too, like grocery shopping, and I want to go to Cost Plus to get these stackable bowls for my mom and dad that look like oversized mugs. Let me know if you’re doing anything fun. I hope you’re doing something more exciting than I am.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen